Victory of the Daleks

[redfiona99]

See, announcing their presence was not spoilers, it's in the episode titles.



1) The Doctor once again cautions Amy against adult expectations, with regards to growing up (a bad idea) and running away (a perfectly good idea on occasion). I <3 the Doctor. Possibly because I agree with him on both accounts.

2) The following quote:

Amy: So there other Time Lords, yeah?
Doctor: No. There were. But there aren't. Just me now. Long story. It was a bad day, bad stuff happened.

Business as usual has returned, the Doctor is no longer wangsty about anything, even the things he legitimately could be crying over. I approve.





I have a horrid feeling I can tell you exactly what scene this episode was built around - Spitfires v Daleks. If the idea of that doesn't fill you with glee, I fear this may not be the episode for you.

I've heard various complaints that Churchill was either too nice or too nasty, which I think moves him into the bracket of characters where no matter what you do, someone is going to disapprove of it. Me, I thought they straddled the line nicely, because he obviously wasn't a nice man but he wasn't evil either. Also, they gave Ian McNiece something to do, so I am happy.

I loved that Churchill's first action was to try and steal the TARDIS and that this is a regular occurance. Can't say I blame him either.

I'm also in the minority that quite liked the scene with the Doctor going absolutely ape, even if it went on too long. I liked it for two reasons. Firstly, if my greatest enemy, who had caused me to kill my people and, before I did that, turn them into monsters in a way that I meant I had to kill them again, I don't think I'd be very calm. And I'm not even a manic Timelord whose been having one heck of a day/week.

Secondly, I liked how the framed it. When 9 when ape in Dalek, we knew he was right, because the only people against him were van Stratten who we knew to be an unpleasent piece of work, and Rose who didn't know any better, and it was filmed entirely from a, if not pro-Doctor view-point, then at least a 'he knows what he's doing' viewpoint. This wasn't. This was entirely from Amy's viewpoint, who knows nothing of the Daleks, but was probably taught at school that Churchill won the war, which makes the Doctor seem like a raving looney.

I don't care about the new Dalek design.

I do like the Doctor trying to save the world with a jammy dodger.

I too would prefer no romance, but I live in hope they're going to do something revolutionary for nu-Who, point out that unrequited love is not a terrible thing, in fact, it has a 99% survival rate. I'd like for Amy, when she eventually leaves, to kiss the Doctor on the cheek, marry probably Rory and live the life of Riley. That'd really be different.

Also, interesting, when trying to get an emotional response out of a robot (about which, more later), the Doctor goes for sad and the companion goes for happy, and unfulfilled love is the happy.

I <3 the Doctor because knowing that his companion desires him, he doesn't stop touching her, he's just a bit more delicate about it (while still flailing away like a flaily thing). Sensible man, that.




Okay, so in Victory of the Daleks, we have a Dalek made robot who was apparently programmed with some memories in order to blend in better (don't look at me, it's not my fault Dalek plans are stupid). He also has a big bomb inside him. The Daleks set it off. Big dramatic scene where they try and get the robot to switch the bomb off with his feelings (the bot doesn't want to be a bomb).

They succeed, and, instead of deactivating the robot at the end, as he expects them to, they send him out to seek his own life.

Now various people have various absolutely reasonable objects to this, starting with 'robots don't have feelings' and ending with 'bomb on the loose'.

Now the robot has a positronic brain which, while it might be a call back to 'reverse the positronic flow', reminds me more of Data and his positronic brain than anything else. TNG had an episode where Starfleet tried to take Data apart in order to see what made him tick and make an army of him, which Data didn't want to happen because he was scared that if they turned him off and took him apart he would lose his essential 'Data'ness.

As it turns out Trek did something interesting with this, with the Judge not declaring him sentient, but saying that since they couldn't prove it one way or the other, Data had to right to live his life and find out if what he believed was true or not, which is what I think the Doctor is giving to Bannatyne.

Also, if people will insist on saying robots don't have any feelings, I wish to yell 'Data, K9, Orac,' and several gazillion more that I have forgotten.


In short, while I watched this in full flow of 'I <3 the new Doctor', I'm willing to accept it's enjoyable rather than good, but I did like it, possibly because Mark Gatiss appeals to my inner 8 year old.

I hope this leads to a long break from the pepperpots because having them appearing so often brings the truth of the following statement - "the bloody Daleks, who couldn't exterminate their way out of a tomato!" (Bernice Summerfield, quote passed on by nwhyte.

nwhyte also said something very interesting, that I think covers why I'm enjoying the new series but with a strange feeling of disconnect - "This season's shows seem less heavily laden, less emotionally charged, which overall is a relief but sometimes leaves me feeling that the result could have been mroe substantial."

Very true, and exactly what I couldn't quite put my finger on.