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Or, as phrased on my other half's Facebook wall: "Go go Dalek Rangers!" 
Posted: 12:39 Apr 18 2010
Doctor Who: Victory of the Daleks Review
After all the excitement around the debut of the new Doctor two weeks ago, and all the subtext of last weeks episode, this weeks story was always going to be interesting.
The first outing for Smith's Doctor that wasnt penned by Moffat has a provocative concept, Daleks working for the Allies in WWII.
Sadly these weeks outing disappointed me on virtually every level. Not actually bad, but just... lacking. The first few minutes were fun enough, seeing a Dalek serve tea is worthy of sketch comedy, but then it was downhill.
What we have is a breakneck episode that seems to just tick of a lot of boxes to be 'cool', rather than delivering a strong story. Spitfires in Space? Check. New style Daleks, check. Mark Gatiss delivered a script that felt very low calorie, and not a patch on his first Season effort The Unquiet Dead.
I was particularly sowered on the episode by the verging on embarassing bomb defusing scene. Completely unjustified in concept, it smacks of a throwback to something Russel T Davies would do. Emotional impact overriding any sense of storytelling logic.
The new Daleks were introduced with much bombast, but was I the only one who failed to see much effort to show why we should be more worried about the new breed than the last? Apparently they are larger and more imposing. Curious then they completely failed to show them next to each other at any point. Its hard to argue against the detractors that this was anything more than a marketing motivated attempt to sell a whole range of new Dalek toys.
Smith seemed less enjoyable in the role too, perhaps due to the lack of sparkling Moffat dialogue. Maybe its unrealistic to expect any writer other than the creator of the 11th Doctor to have his character down at this early stage, but it plants some seeds of doubt that Smith will ever be as entertaining as we have seen him when written by anyone else.
Those tracking the season arc will probably have noticed that the crack in the wall wasnt there when the Tardis appeared, but was when it left. The number of possible causes seems to be narrowing to three...
Fortunately, next week we are back in Moffat territory. Can he possibly live up to his finest hour, when the Weeping Angels return from Blink...
(Edited by Wobag 18/04/2010 12:30)
The first outing for Smith's Doctor that wasnt penned by Moffat has a provocative concept, Daleks working for the Allies in WWII.
Sadly these weeks outing disappointed me on virtually every level. Not actually bad, but just... lacking. The first few minutes were fun enough, seeing a Dalek serve tea is worthy of sketch comedy, but then it was downhill.
What we have is a breakneck episode that seems to just tick of a lot of boxes to be 'cool', rather than delivering a strong story. Spitfires in Space? Check. New style Daleks, check. Mark Gatiss delivered a script that felt very low calorie, and not a patch on his first Season effort The Unquiet Dead.
I was particularly sowered on the episode by the verging on embarassing bomb defusing scene. Completely unjustified in concept, it smacks of a throwback to something Russel T Davies would do. Emotional impact overriding any sense of storytelling logic.
The new Daleks were introduced with much bombast, but was I the only one who failed to see much effort to show why we should be more worried about the new breed than the last? Apparently they are larger and more imposing. Curious then they completely failed to show them next to each other at any point. Its hard to argue against the detractors that this was anything more than a marketing motivated attempt to sell a whole range of new Dalek toys.
Smith seemed less enjoyable in the role too, perhaps due to the lack of sparkling Moffat dialogue. Maybe its unrealistic to expect any writer other than the creator of the 11th Doctor to have his character down at this early stage, but it plants some seeds of doubt that Smith will ever be as entertaining as we have seen him when written by anyone else.
Those tracking the season arc will probably have noticed that the crack in the wall wasnt there when the Tardis appeared, but was when it left. The number of possible causes seems to be narrowing to three...
Fortunately, next week we are back in Moffat territory. Can he possibly live up to his finest hour, when the Weeping Angels return from Blink...
(Edited by Wobag 18/04/2010 12:30)
2 Replies and 10948 Views in Total.
Posted: 12:39 Apr 18 2010 
"Victory of the Daleks", or, "Pimp my Daleks".
And while I don't hate the new Dalek design as much as some, replacing the natty blinged-up gold Daleks from 2005 with Technicolor bloaters is not an improvement.
In short, a waste of a potentially great episode, and a reminder to the production team that monsters are there to serve the plot, not vice versa. Hopefully it's a blip, we'll be right back on track with the River Song and Weeping Angels number next week. If not, RTD help us!
Who's the pink Dalek?
by Alan
Or, as phrased on my other half's Facebook wall: "Go go Dalek Rangers!"
On the money. A plot shouldn't serve product placement. No idea if the show was created to shift new Dalek toys, but the episode was clearly a vehicle to introduce a new type of Dalek, and was a shambles as a result. A shame, as the first ten minutes were great. The second the Daleks' plan was announced, it all fell apart, and by the time we got to the daft ticking android scene, it was in self-parody territory. (And as many reviewers pointed out, the Doc has a TARDIS and a devastating bomb: drop the guy off on the Dalek ship already!) Some scenes, like the Spitfires in space, were barmy Who fun, but the whole was not equal to the parts.
by Wobag
Its hard to argue against the detractors that this was anything more than a marketing motivated attempt to sell a whole range of new Dalek toys.
And while I don't hate the new Dalek design as much as some, replacing the natty blinged-up gold Daleks from 2005 with Technicolor bloaters is not an improvement.
In short, a waste of a potentially great episode, and a reminder to the production team that monsters are there to serve the plot, not vice versa. Hopefully it's a blip, we'll be right back on track with the River Song and Weeping Angels number next week. If not, RTD help us!
Posted: 00:44 Apr 20 2010