#episodereviews

[peterstanslizzie]

Hi everybody! 🤗 My review of episode 11, ‘Bad Girl Mcguire’ of Lizzie Mcguire has just been posted to my Tumblr! ♡

Please note that this review is split into Part 1 and Part 2, which are both out now.

If you’re interested, please click on the link in my bio to gain access to all my episode reviews. I’ve done episodes 1 to 11 so far. ♡

Episode 11 wasn’t particularly my favorite because there wasn’t much I could takeaway and learn from its plot. And I felt that they could have done something to redeem the character of Angel Lieberman. But that’s just my opinion 🙂 ♡

#lizziemcguire #lizziemcguirerevival #disneyshow #disneyseries #tvseries #badgirlmcguire #hilaryduff #lalaine #terriminsky #angellieberman #episodereviews #adamlamberg #lizziemcguireepisodes #childrenshows #teenshows #disneychannel #disneynostalgia #classbully #badgirls https://www.instagram.com/p/B3GksBGHUQ7/?igshid=xdj53z10exi3

[skarouk]

Deep Breath : Doctor Who Episode Review

WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the 2014 Doctor Who episode "Deep Breath". If you want to share your own opinions on this or any of the Doctor Who episodes, please email us at [email protected] Thank you.

As the days drew closer to the airing of Deep Breath and more promotional material came out I felt a little worried. Not because it looked bad, but because it looked good: The trailers, the teasers, the week long video countdown. I was scared because I started to expect the new season to be GOOD. A dangerous situation with Doctor Who nowadays, with it's constant disappointments.

So on Saturday night, my family and I sat down and turned on BBC 1 which was showing the end of the new gymnastics programme “Tumble”.

"Don't go anywhere” smiled the presenter “Because next up, is Doctor Who!”. The studio audience whooped and applauded...

The normal BBC One channel card came up on screen with an aerial view of hundreds of cyclists going round a roundabout. An unexpected Dalek lazer fired across the screen and Capaldi's stern face flickered into view for a few seconds, glaring at me through the screen as if to say “I'm Peter Fuckin Capaldi. I've won BAFTAs and now I'm playing the lead in the oldest Sci-Fi show on telly. Put your doubts to one side kid, this can't possibly go wrong.”

Reluctantly, I began to feel excitement... Who knows, maybe it'll be better this time round?

HA! No.

“When the Doctor arrives in Victorian London he finds a dinosaur rampant in the Thames and a spate of deadly spontaneous combustions.” That's the episode description on iPlayer. It sounds like an epic plot line but there are issues with this. There is brief dialogue mentioning of various cases of individuals burning but we never see it. The T-Rex has barely five minutes of screen time within the first eighteen minutes, by which time the poor creature itself explodes without any explanation of how the episode's villain managed to achieve this. The strange thing is, apart from being mentioned briefly afterwards the T-Rex really didn't have any impact on the episode. Heck, it would have saved an awful lot of time and money if they'd removed the VFX shots of this creature from the script.

The plot mainly revolves around the newly regenerated Doctor struggling to understand both the situation in London and why his face seems so familiar. Clara naturally feels scared and rather distrustful of this new man as Vastra and Jenny work to rebuild the friendship between the Human and Timelord. During this process they run into a crew of clockwork droids from a crashed ship named the SS Marie Antoinette which has been burried beneath the surface since the age of the dinosaurs. This is sister ship to the SS Madame de Pompadour, a reference to the 2006 episode “The Girl in the Fireplace”, also written by Steven Moffat and a personal favourite of mine.

This time the droids weren’t just repairing the ship, but also themselves with human parts. Stealing eyes, skin and other organs to keep themselves functioning over the ages. The concept is very interesting. If you replaced a robot parts with human parts, would that robot then start to become human?

It was the characters that interested me most. I personally felt Capaldi's first few scenes were a bit shaky acting wise, although that might have been because of the script. As the episode went on though, he began to grow into the role. The scene of him shouting at the tramp in the ally honestly made me scared of the madman with a box, and the scenes of The Doctor and Clara talking in the restaurant/larder were honestly the highlights of the episode for me.

We're starting to understand the relationship between Vastra and Jenny a lot more clearly. Each episode we see them in, the more we get to know what a working detective lesbian relationship between a human and a lizard from the dawn of time is like in Victorian London #onlyindoctorwho ! I hope these characters continue to be developed in future.

I'm starting to feel concerned however about Strax. His scenes are funny, obviously, but they just feel rather out of place in the episode. I would have really liked to see a more “human” (if that's the right word for a Sontaran) side to Strax, showing a bit more concern for Clara in the situation. This would have made a brilliant change from his usual slapstick and it would let us warm to him like we have with the other characters in this episode. This being a new incarnation for the Doctor would have been the perfect time to do such a thing with Strax... but they haven't. I really hope they add some depth to him soon, otherwise he's very quickly going to become the Jar Jar Binks of the Whoniverse.

Overall, the episode was... alright. There were some good (if jumbled) ideas in play but the strong acting talent and chemistry between characters is really what kept me watching. I was just annoyed that I let myself get hyped as the show certainly didn't live up to my hopes and expectations and I went away feeling rather disappointed. Watching it through a second time though it has it's merits and I'm able to enjoy it, although it pails in comparison to the first episodes of Chris, David and Matt who all had excellent writing for their first time on screen.

On a final note. I'd like to mention the new title sequence and what I think the story behind it says about the state of the show.

The new intro was heavily “inspired” by a concept sequence created by motion graphics designer and long time Doctor Who fan Billy Hanshaw which was uploaded to his YouTube channel last September. I use the quotation marks around “inspired” as it's pretty much the exact same sequence despite some small changes. Steven Moffat chose Billy's sequence saying “It was the only new title idea I'd seen since 1963”.

Don't get me wrong, working with the fans is fine. I'm all for it normally and I'm really happy that Billy's work has got the attention it deserves, but the situation of Who is different. Fans normally think they know best (here I am as a prime example) but here we have a talented person creating something way better than the BBC has done in years, and the producers admitting to this fact. Should we be excited that fans are making stuff this good, or concerned that a crew of paid professionals can't live up to the standards they are setting? I'll guess time will answer that question. If only I had a TARDIS...

Next episode is “Into the Dalek”! Sounds like a promising title. I'll be reviewing this whole season here on SKARO so please make sure to check back here next week. Thanks for reading!

If you are interested in writing news, review or speculation articles about Doctor Who for www.skaro.co.uk, feel free to email us at [email protected]. We love hearing from you and we may even ask you to be part of our writers team!

[skarouk]

Episode Review : Nightmare in Silver

WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the 2013 Doctor Who episode 'Nightmare in Silver'.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do so, and then come straight back here to read our thoughts on it. If you want to share your own opinions on this or any of the Doctor Who episodes, please email us at [email protected] Thank you.

Last time Neil Gaiman wrote a Doctor Who episode, it was in my opinion one of the best since Steven Moffat's take over of the show, if not the best. Everything about the story in The Doctor's Wife, the relationship between The Doctor and the TARDIS was unrivalled with it's brilliance and was way better than any of the fans expected it to be. So when it was confirmed that Neil would be working on a Cyberman episode for series 7, people were naturally very excited. But did Gaiman's magic rub off on this episode? Let's find out...

The story takes place in the distant future, on the largest theme park that has or will ever exist. At least it was, it was abandoned after the end of the Cyberwar and it is now home to Webley, Porridge and a punishment platoon who are all incompetent fighters sent there by the empire to stay out of trouble.

“Webley's World of Wonders” I felt was a very interesting way of introducing the Cybermen to the episode and it was a nice way of quickly scanning over their recent history so that the audience would have a better idea of what's going on. My only disappointment about this exhibition was that not many of the other items in there were explained or familiar the the audience. There might be the odd thing here and there but I would have liked it to be more like Van Statten's museum from the 2005 episode “Dalek” where some exhibits you recognised. and some you did not. In both cases the Doctor, Rose and the Audience managed to get a little look at some of the objects. I liked this way of doing things because it helps enforce that the Whoniverse is vast and alive. If this touch would have been added to the episode, I would have appreciated the reintroduction to the Cybermen a lot more.

I approve the decision to introduce the 2006 design for the Cybermen initially, and then the transition between that design in the museum, to the new 2013 designs. It just helped confirm with viewers that the Cybermen we've grown to love are outdated and this is the next step in their evolution, instead of simply throwing the new Cybermen at us and expecting us to like them.

Speaking of the new Cybermen, I initially did not like the design of them. The 2006 Cybermen are how I imagine the species. Metalic, bulky, stomping, slow moving, not perfect yet strong soldiers. Yet this new design is far from that, with their sleek smooth moving bodies, their ability to upgrade their abilities on the stop and with them being able to travel at incredibly fast. It all felt a little... not right at first. However, I have actually come to like the new look now as it provides a great contrast to how technology has progressed over the years. I still prefer the look of the 2006 Cybermen, but that doesn't mean this isn't a good design.

I'm not a fan of their ability to travel super fast though. That feels like a step too far in my books and if they are able to do this, why weren’t they wizzing all over the place throughout the episode? It didn't add anything to the story in my opinion and all it did was slap me round the face and doubt my view on what a Cyberman is. The upgrading on the spot did make sense, but it felt very much like the borg from Star Trek and not very original. Overall, while the new Cybermen were very cool monsters in this episode, I didn't think they felt very original or in keeping with the established enemy but hopefully this will change once we've seen a couple more Cybermen stories in the upcoming few years (and I hope there will be).

The most interesting part of this episode was The Doctor's internal battle with Mr Clever (The Cyber Planner). There isn't really much to say about this really, as it is very straight forward for anyone who watched the episode so I won't go around explaining it, but I loved Matt Smith's acting in these scenes and it just shows how much of a capable actor he is, and how brilliant Neil's character writing can be. It's also worth mentioning that I was overjoyed when The Doctor neutralised Mr Clever using the golden ticket. That was just a nice little reminder of the classic incarnations of the Cybermen that I really enjoyed seeing.

Finally, I'd just like to mention Clara for a second because this episode has made Clara into a strong, capable yet not annoying character for the first time in this series. She showed her intelligence, strength and character in ways that we haven't seen previous in this series when she was leading the platoon. I always felt that when Amy's character was given a strong position, she was very bossy, rather annoying and was always simply trying to prove herself to the Doctor. Neil's writing for Clara paints a very different character in this story and is probably the best I have seen any of The Doctor's companions since Moffat took the reigns of the show and Jenna's acting really pulled it off, proving that any doubts you have about the character are simply script based and are nothing to do with her acting abilities.

So finally! The conclusion. This episode was good. Not great, if I had to give a score I'd say 8/10 but it had a lot of strong points and there was nothing really wrong with it in my opinion, it just wasn't as good as it could be when you take into account who's writing it. That said, it was a brilliant introduction to the new Cybermen that built up stories and history previous to this episode and I feel that these cyberwars would certainly be something the Doctor should experience at some point. I thing Neil could have done a much better job, but this was still a very strong episode and I hope he contributes to the show again in the future as I'll be very interested to see what he does next.

Have your own thoughts and opinions on this episode? Have we missed anything? Email us at [email protected]. We always love to hear from you and if your opinions are interesting and well written we may even post it on here and invite you to join our writing team! Thank you.

[skarouk]

Episode Review: HIDE

WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the 2013 Doctor Who episode HIDE.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do so, and then come straight back here to read our thoughts on it. Thank you.

Following the trend of changing the overall genre/feel of Doctor Who every week, Hide by Neil Cross takes a rather light hearted approach to the horror genre, and while it takes many cinematic cues from stories from this genre. The Doctor initially arrives in the hope for some fun, and treats the genre as being a tourist attraction for The Doctor to take Clara to for a bit of a laugh, hoping discovering the source of the ghost would be a bit of fun. Unfortunately for his plans though, the events that take place are far from fun, and sadly they don't make for a very conjoint episode either.

At first glance, the story of this episode seems somewhat well put together, and (I hate having to make this contrast but it's true) it's much better than all the attempts from 2012, but it doesn't scream “WATCH ME AGAIN” to me like Rings of Akhaten and Cold War did. It felt like a very bland experience with very little emotion. Sure, the episode tried to interject the Doctor's fear, Clara's sadness and Emma/Palmer and the two creatures love... but never did any of those feeling hit home or make me feel what they were feeling. This isn't a fault on the part of the actors or the direction either, as both of those I felt were top notch from everyone involved. This is very much a writing issue.

The motives of the creature seem very messed up throughout the story and he only seems to become a reasonable creature at the end when the episode turns into a love story, and for the previous 40 minutes it was just an aggressive beast. Why the creature within the pocket universe scares and attacks The Doctor and Hila Tukurian when all he wants is to be able to travel to our universe? The concept of having a creature like this having it's motives misjudged is totally fine and is a great story idea but it just felt thrown together in this episode without being thought through before putting pen to paper and some aspects of the story weren’t clearly explained and it takes two viewings of the episode before understanding them. The whole aspect of the TARDIS being unable to travel into the pocket universe and then suddenly being able to do so and return safely made no sense the first time round, and when I watched it again I realised that Emma's opening of the wormhole must have had something to do with the fact that she could return, although that was never explained to the audience.

The circular spinning dish before the wormhole appears was never explained, and neither was Hila's ability to write “Help Me” on the walls of the house. I still don't understand what the knocking was, why the temperature dropped just before The Doctor and Clara saw Hila for the first time, nor what was meant by “the well” and why there was a cold patch, which managed to evaporate the Doctor's chalk is something that leaves me lost even after watching it through three times. Maybe there are reasons why all these things are as they are, and maybe some are explained somewhere in the story, but I'm normally very good at picking up story details like this and understanding them yet this episode has left me clueless in many areas. The only theory I have about any of these points is that the well is the cold patch, but everything else is still left unexplained, which is surprising as there is normally some kind of reason for everything in Doctor Who. I feel that aspects like the temperature dropping were just the writers attempt at mimicking established ghost stories, but Who would normally find a very clever reason for such temperature changes, yet this episode has none.

The best aspect of this episode was the interaction between The Doctor, Clara and The TARDIS. The little squabbles, personification of the interior and the hologram of Clara all made for some very entertaining scenes and for the first time since The Doctor's Wife, I felt like the TARDIS was a conscious creature capable of creating opinions and acting upon those, as well as being able to interact with her inhabitants. Why the TARDIS doesn't like Clara is still unexplained though. Maybe it's similar to The TARDIS' reaction to Captain Jack in the 2007 episode Utopia, where it flew to the end of the universe just to shake him off. Maybe the fact that Clara is “...the girl twice dead...” makes the TARDIS react harshly, which is possible but still open to debate.

One final point I really wish to bring up is the mention of the coat stand. The TARDIS always used to have one by the door back in Tom Baker's reign and between 2005 and 2010 it was a permanent feature that was never used to my memory, so the joke about it and the fact that The Doctor can get disorientated by the regenerating interior of the TARDIS really amused me and was the highlight of the episode from my point of view.

So, the conclusion... I hate to say it but, on inspection this episode is pretty poor due to unexplained aspects of the plot and the out of place ending. In fact, there are so many imperfections within this episode, it IS almost as bad as many of 2012's offerings, which is a difficult statement to make but at least from a writing point of view non (apart from The Angles Take Manhattan) were written poorly. Sure, bad choices were made and pacing was terrible in some cases, but they at least explained all of the aspects of the story clearly to the viewer, while also giving enough room for them to work some stuff out for themselves. If an episode is written in such a way that the information to understand aspects of the plot is not shared even in the suttle way, then the story is in my mind greatly compromised.

I did enjoy the story, the characters and the concept and the homages to ghost stories were really exciting but as a Doctor Who story these homages need to be explained in a wibberly wobberly way and them just being there without an explanation is a huge disappointment. Overall, I found the episode entertaining, even if it doesn't live up to the other episodes from this series. It's not a classic, but it's one of those episodes that all who fans should watch simply because of the dialogue and concepts.

If you have any theories or understanding of some of the aspects outlined from the episode HIDE, don't hesitate to email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.

[skarouk]

Episode Review: Cold War

WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the 2013 Doctor Who episode Cold War.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do so, and then come straight back here to read our thoughts on it. Thank you.

So far this series, each story and episode has been a huge adventure with Dinosaurs, an entire planet of insane Daleks, Staircases leading into the clouds and a soul absorbing parasite planet! So much so that, while these concepts are often very entertaining it can get tiresome, to the point where you end up craving something a little bit more down to Earth... thankfully, Mark Gatisis is at hand with his very down to Earth plotline.

The episode Cold War entirely takes place on a Soviet submarine sailing under the Northern Polar ice sheets in 1983, a time which was filled with testosterone and fear between Russia and America, as they both feared that either side could start a nuclear war, which would inevitably end planet Earth as we know it. This is a very interesting period of history which has never been explored by the Doctor on any of his adventures, yet he is obviously fully aware of the danger that faces the world at this time. The piece of dialogue from the Doctor saying that this point in time is in flux is also a very interesting choice, and one that very much suits the time suggesting that this time is so completely unpredictable not even the laws of time have authority. This really hits home historically how lucky we were that the Cold War never thawed.

Something that did thaw though, was the Professor's “Mammoth”. A creature trapped underneath the ice for around five thousand years. This of course, is the war hero Skaldak, an Ice Warrior from the planet Mars. He initially doesn't pose much of a threat until provoked, although it it never fully explained why the Soviet sub began sinking during the first scene with The Doctor and Clara. We can only presume that Skaldak had already taken aggressive action, which is a thought that slightly ruins the honour of his character, but considering how confused someone would be after five thousand years of dormancy, this can be overlooked. Especially when we don't know what circumstances lead to him being trapped in the first place.

The design of the Ice Warrior was pleasingly close to the original. I was scared when I heard that they would be returning that they would have a redesign as the Daleks have... or the Cybermen/mats... The TARDIS... the Silurians... simply put, if something returns from the classic series, then it tends to get changed. Therefor, the fact that the Ice Warriors are now simply a more HD friendly version of their original designs is rather satisfactory. It allows us and the Doctor to instantly recognise who Skaldak is and what he is capable of. This familiarity though, is what made this episode stand out to me, because just as soon as you familiarise yourself with the butch metallic beast that is the Ice Warrior Skaldak, he does something you never expect him to do. He climbs out of his suit.

This completely changes the pace of the episode, and the threat that The Doctor and Clara are facing. The Ice Warrior in it's suit is a formidable force, and while it is very scary, it's not like we haven't seen the Doctor face an enemy like this before. Something we haven't seen him face is a strategic, intelligent and agile organic life form such as this. My biggest problem with the last episode (read the review here) was that it felt too much of a fantasy adventure rather than a Science Fiction programme. Cold War rectifies this problem and brings the show back to very typical science fiction territory, using this new interpretation of the Ice Warriors. Nearly every scene including the naked Ice Warrior reminded me of the gripping Science Fiction classics that are Alien and Aliens. The way it moved through the walls, plucking of the soldiers one by one. This was something I very much enjoyed to see as the first two Alien films are home to some of my favourite moments in cinematic history, and the way this episode pays homage to their gritty atmosphere, without making the episode unsuitable for young ages, was incredibly well done.

The only real issue I had with this episode was how, after everything that happened, Skaldak's race came to save the day. This feels like a very quick fix way of concluding the episode when watching the episode the first time round, but when watching it for a second time it really doesn't bother me that much, but I still don't understand why they didn't respond to Skaldak's distress call.

Overall though, I feel this episode is a huge step in the right direction for the show. It reintroduces a classic monster, gives it's own twist on that established formula allowing for a very old school sc-fi adventure with some great historic tension which provides such a simple story with a real threat that could jeopardise the entire human race. The final 10 minutes could have been better, but from beginning to end I was thrilled, intrigued, concerned and moved by the actions of the Ice Warrior and the soviet soldiers. This is one of those few episodes that will be considered a classic for many years to come.

[skarouk]

Episode Review: The Rings of Akhaten

WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the 2013 Doctor Who episode The Rings of Akhaten  If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do so, and then come straight back here to read our thoughts on it. Thank you.

The Rings of Akhaten is one of those Doctor Who episodes that seems to have caused a bit of a crack in Whovian society. On one hand, there are many people who really like this episode, and on the other, there are many who view this as bit of a let down. I personally think The Rings of Akhaten was one of the best Doctor Who episodes for a good few years! But that doesn't mean it doesn't have problems...

The biggest problem with this episode though is how little attention it pays to very basic scientific laws. What makes sci-fi such a great genre is it allows for magical moments like time travel, worlds of ice and fire and horrific or marvellous creatures to exist without straying (or at least not straying far from) what is physically possible within the rules of reality that we know and understand. That's what sets such a clear line between it and it's close friend fantasy. Unfortunately in this episode, it is impossible to view The Rings of Akhaten as a plausible environment. The most basic aspect of this is how gravity works in the rings. You wouldn't need to do anything more than jump on a rock the size of these small worlds in order to get thrown out of orbit! Gravity works in all directions pulling in towards the centre of mass, yet all the buildings seem to have been built on top of the rocks, and this concept of up and down seems to be universal throughout the Rings, as when looking from one, you can see the buildings all sharing the same concept of which direction is up! And don't get me started on how it is impossible for life to adapt and evolve into all these various intelligent races on all these completely separate rocks and how a rock with such small size wouldn't be able to sustain an atmosphere... or heat... OR LIFE! GAHHH!

So this episode is a really bad example of science fiction, but for me it shines when viewed as a fantasy adventure. Steven Moffat came up with a wonderfully conceptualised world(s) when he thought of the rings and it would be perfectly at home with some of my favourite fantasy books. The cultures were very rich and vibrant with very interesting species and beliefs. The world felt so real I didn't even think this episode scratched the surface of the rings. I really hope the Doctor makes a future return trip to this system so we can see more of what it has to offer. Maybe not any time soon, but certainly in the long distant future when the Doctor and the TARDIS have both regenerated another five or so times and the show is in the hands of a completely new production team. Revising these worlds with a new companion, with a new Doctor and a new way of writing and producing television would be something I would love to see!

Speaking of returning to The Rings, the quick mention of “my grand daughter” turned me into a complete squirming fan. For those of you who don't know, the Doctor's grand daughter (Susan) was the Doctor's first companion in the show, and is the reason why the first story was called “An Unearthly Child” as The Doctor had taken her to planet Earth so she could study and get and education. She travelled with The Doctor for two seasons and he then left her behind so she could live out the rest of her life in peace on Earth with her partner. A timelord... on Earth... forgotten for over all this time. Still alive. Maybe a plotline that could be resurrected some day? Uhh? Moffat?. But anyway, she hasn't been mentioned in the show for the past 50 odd years, which is why on the 50th Anniversary series, it's so nice to have the companion who started it all acknowledged, even if it is in such a very small way.

The production value for this episode was very high, and all the environments and creatures, computer generated or otherwise, were perfectly well done. The only gripe I'd have with the production is the inconsistent and sometimes confusing lighting. In certain scenes the sources of light appeared to be changing, and in all the scenes the dominant source of light was the planet and NOT the star which it orbits. It just didn't feel right at certain points, and I was lead to believe that that the rings orbited a star and not a planet. This isn't any flaw on the writer's point of view, it's a production/post production issue. But it's something that needs to be noted as for me it affected the story telling significantly.

One of the biggest attractions to watching Doctor Who is the sense of adventure, finding new and magical places, situations, creatures and people. This episode had all of those things. Not only did the episode build an amazing environment, but also an awe-inspiring culture with legends, stories, religions and traditions. This episode nails that right on the head, and while it isn't the best sci-fi ever, it's certainly a pretty darn good adventure. Not only that, but it gets Doctor Who back on track after the series got off to such a poor start with “The Bells of St. John” (click here to read the review).

But overall, this is one of my favourite episodes from the past two, or maybe even three years. A vibrant world, the story didn't feel rushed, the acting in the speeches from The Doctor and Clara were terrific! I truly love this episode. I'd hate to see Doctor Who keep breaking the laws of physics, biology and chemistry in this way... but all the same. I enjoyed it!

[skarouk]

Episode Review : Asylum of the Daleks

WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the 2012 Doctor Who episode Asylum of the Daleks. If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do so, and then come straight back here to read my thoughts on it. Thank you.

During the Russell T. Davies era the Daleks made an attempt to destroy the world every single series. The first series included two Dalek stories, then the next contained them in the finale. Series 3 had them appear in the middle, and then they attempted to destroy the universe in series 4. It got tiresome, and viewers were no longer pondering about when the next Dalek invasion would happen. So since Steven Moffat took over the show the Daleks have taken a backseat, simply having one dedicated episode in the past two years and making the odd appearance here and there. I appreciate this, as we’ve been a little thirsty for more from these giant pepper pots! I for one wanted to see them again, in full force! And boy, Steven didn’t let me down.

It was great to see all the Daleks back to their old tricks again. It was also splendid to see the NSDs (New Series Daleks) from Russell T. Davies’ era return. I for one was never really keen on Steven’s design introduced in Victory of the Daleks. He once said in Doctor Who Confidential that him and the design team had tried many different designs, but most of them were very un-Dalek like. This makes me think that Steven Moffat was trying to change the Daleks into something that didn’t look very Dalek like, where as Russell T. Davies’ design was simply the Dalek we had all come to know and love, with a little added bling. I understand that Steven Moffat wanted to bring in the “Dalek Invasion of Earth” style by having all the pretty colours! But for me, the Daleks in that film (and the film itself) weren’t really all that scary and I view the film as being more of a comedic approach to the franchise. Steven himself said that the Daleks have become something of an “adorable” British icon rather than a terrifying force to be reckoned with, which surprises me when you take into account the design. So his choice to bring back the NSDs was a good move I feel, even if it did contradict tremendously with the events of Victory of the Daleks.

The Daleks did feel more brutal in this episode as well. The one thing I didn’t really like about Russell T. Davies’ Daleks is the fact that they talked so much. Previous to the 2005 reboot, the Daleks would kill you as soon as they saw you, but in the past few years there’s been so much conversation between the Doctor and the Daleks they didn’t give me the shivers they once did.

This time the Doctor can’t talk his way out of it, the Daleks are back, insane and brutal! The only reason they’re talking to the Doctor is because the Daleks in the Asylum give them the shivers!

I didn’t really like Rory and Amy’s relationship in this. I considered it to be a bit unnatural. Amy takes great care of Rory and wants him to have the best out of life, and therefore would like him to fulfil his lifelong dream of bringing up a child, but she knows all too well that Rory really loves her. As mentioned in the episode, Rory waited outside the Pandorica for Amy for 2000 years! Amy is a very smart person, so I felt she would have understood that her and Rory’s relationship was the most important thing in the universe to him. But obviously not…

This breakup story also seem very pointless, it didn’t really add to the episode all that much and I don’t think it will affect their relationship in future. It just all seemed a bit silly.

I appreciated the ending, mainly because it reminded me a lot of the Dalek from the 2005 episode “Dalek” (I have a soft spot for sympathetic Daleks). I had predicted that Oswin would either be one of the human converted Dalek zombie drone people things, or a Dalek who had been driven so insane that it believed itself to be human. I didn’t consider her to be a human converted Dalek, mainly because I didn’t comprehend that these creatures with no opposable thumbs, who are totally insane versions of an already insane species who were locked away in an underground jail could possibly have the capability of encasing a human mind in a Dalek shell! But maybe my application of logic to Doctor Who is going a bit far.

But I must say, the character of Oswin has rather excited me for the future of Doctor Who. If you didn’t know, Oswin (played by ex-Emmerdale actress Jenna-Louise Coleman) will be the Doctor’s companion after this year’s Christmas special. I personally don’t know how Oswin, the person who was turned into a Dalek and was then destroyed alongside thousands of other Daleks could possibly come back and go travelling with the Doctor. The only possibility in my mind is that we’re going to have a repeat of the River Song storyline, where what we’ve just seen is the end of Oswin’s life, and the Doctor, and us as viewers, will see her past in our future. Although I doubt this as I think Stephen Moffat has a few tricks up his sleeve, and isn’t about to recycle old ideas.

Overall I think Asylum of the Daleks was a very good start to a new series, not to mention the incredible cinema quality production value which really surprised me after all the poor effects in the Christmas special. This is probably the best series opener for quite a while, I don’t think it was perfect but it is by far one of my favorite episodes from Matt’s era, and is certainly worthy to be a part of the “of the Daleks” series of stories.