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“You are my enemy, and I am yours! You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I’ve defeated you, time and time again, I’ve defeated you. I sent you back into the void. I saved the whole of reality from you! I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks!”
‘Victory of the Daleks’ had so much promise: a script by long time Whovian and all-round talented guy and general good egg Mark Gatiss; Winston Churchill; Bill Paterson, one of my favourite British actors; and, well, the Daleks. Like last week, this episode wasn’t really what I expected, and this time it wasn’t in an entirely good way.
Since I’m generally a positive person, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. All of the supporting characters were totally underdeveloped, which was a real shame in an episode that ran at considerably less than the typical 45 minutes. The random subplot of the air raid warden felt really unnecessary and out of place. Considering how meticulous Moffat clearly is in his plotting, it seems strange to have placed another “choice between this or that” moral dilemma straight after last week's. And, worst of all, there’s a scene in which a character diffuses a bomb by feeling. That’s it, just feeling. Not only does it not make sense, it’s just utterly sentimental in a way that even I balked at. And that’s saying something – I loved the last 20 minutes of ‘The End of Time: Part Two’.
To be fair, it really wasn’t all bad. Ian McNeice has lovely chemistry with Matt Smith and strikes a nice balance between playing Churchill the icon and Churchill the man. It was interesting to see Amy’s complete lack of fear in tackling the Daleks, and Karen Gillan continues to impress – of all the companions so far, Amy feels slightly less idealised, slightly more real. Matt Smith is as wonderful as I’ve come to expect, playing the Doctor’s disgust at being confronted with his mortal enemies beautifully. There are plenty of close-ups and lingering shots on his magnificent face, which is most certainly a good thing in my books.
And what about the Daleks themselves? In a patchy episode, they worked consistently well. It was fun having the Daleks act as servants, in particular offering people tea, which was up there with that time that Malcolm Tucker wore a fleece in the list of “TV moments where characters behave out of character and it’s really scary”. I’m not sure about the re-design, but we didn’t really see it in action for long enough to make a proper judgement. It was good to have the Daleks finally re-established as a credible threat for the Doctor.
That’s what this episode was about – re-introducing the Daleks and setting them up for future episodes. It had to be done and, while it could have been done a lot better, ‘Victory of the Daleks’ still had some nice moments, including one of the best lines of the new series yet. “All right, it’s a jammy dodger, but I was promised tea!”
Next week: The Weeping Angels are back, so if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do, it’s blink.
I'll deffo agree with that best line!
Love that quote, not quite my favourite though. That would have to be Smith's brilliantly spat line as he stares down the barrel of a Dalek's eye-stalk: "Occupational hazard." Either that or the line most people missed, by the Dalek he's hitting with the wrench when it's still in subservient-mode. Paraphrased, "So you do not require tea?"
Great quotes, they were the highlights of the episode for me. I have to say the new Dalek makeover made me cringe. Although, as you say, Matt Smith certainly makes up for Crayola coloured Daleks!
I thought the episode was as good as the others. Matt Smith was still average and the colourful daleks were horrible but it was funny at times and occasionally unexpected. Just a shame that it has to always be the daleks!
"With every bone in your body *to self* you have no bones in your body."
Thought it was good. I like to see how Dell seemed to have moved into making Daleks as well now!
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