Every year I get excited for new episodes of Doctor Who. I look forward to new adventures, compelling characters, and intricate stories. And because the show is what it is, with so much is history and material, I'm willing to forgive minor plot holes and problems. To a point. Overall, I liked "Asylum of the Daleks," but I can't ignore the missing links in the episode.
Spoilers below for "Asylum of the Daleks" (season 7, episode 1).
For starters, the Daleks. How did the human-puppet-Daleks find the Doctor, Amy, and Rory and teleport them to a whole spaceship full of Daleks? Most of the Daleks are supposed to be time-locked or dead, and the remaining few are scattered throughout the universe. So...are the Doctor, Amy, and Rory on a time-locked spaceship? Are these Daleks connected to any of the others we've seen in past seasons? We don't know, and as long as we don't have an explanation, these Daleks came out of nowhere and somehow had the resources to trap the Doctor. Doesn't make sense.
Moving on to the asylum. I thought a whole planet for insane Daleks was an interesting idea. We know Daleks are dangerous and scary because they have no emotions or conscience and they want to kill everything that isn't Dalek. And here's a whole planet of Daleks that are worse than that. Imagine trapping the Doctor there. Or forcing him to go there for a really good reason. But what's his reason in the episode? The Daleks picked up on a signal, on the music Oswin was playing, and said the Doctor had to go down to the planet to help the Daleks "cleanse" it. But by the end of the episode, we find out that Oswin was dreaming. Her crashed cockpit and souffles were in her imagination. That means the music was in her imagination too, so how did the Daleks hear it on their spaceship? They wouldn't have heard the music through their console, and then they wouldn't have a reason for the Doctor to go down to the asylum planet. Another thing that doesn't make sense.
The story had missing pieces, but then the characters gave away too much. Rory's and Amy's distressed relationship threw me. Where did this come from? Last season, they were happy to start a life on their own, even if they had to say goodbye to the Doctor. The "Pond Life" shorts showed them having awkward moments with the Doctor popping in and an Ood that thought he was their butler, but overall, they seemed happy. And now they're getting divorced? Amy tells us why—because she can't have children—and it's an emotionally charged scene. But nothing led up to it. We just had this information dumped on us. Good moment, but poorly handled.
Maybe this is just the show throwing a lot of stuff at the audience at the beginning and then it will take things slower in the coming episodes. We got a lot of glimpses and maybe those moments will be explored throughout the season. I hope that's the case. Because otherwise, this season started off with inconsistent storytelling and a gaping plot hole (maybe two).
Spoilers below for "Asylum of the Daleks" (season 7, episode 1).
For starters, the Daleks. How did the human-puppet-Daleks find the Doctor, Amy, and Rory and teleport them to a whole spaceship full of Daleks? Most of the Daleks are supposed to be time-locked or dead, and the remaining few are scattered throughout the universe. So...are the Doctor, Amy, and Rory on a time-locked spaceship? Are these Daleks connected to any of the others we've seen in past seasons? We don't know, and as long as we don't have an explanation, these Daleks came out of nowhere and somehow had the resources to trap the Doctor. Doesn't make sense.
Moving on to the asylum. I thought a whole planet for insane Daleks was an interesting idea. We know Daleks are dangerous and scary because they have no emotions or conscience and they want to kill everything that isn't Dalek. And here's a whole planet of Daleks that are worse than that. Imagine trapping the Doctor there. Or forcing him to go there for a really good reason. But what's his reason in the episode? The Daleks picked up on a signal, on the music Oswin was playing, and said the Doctor had to go down to the planet to help the Daleks "cleanse" it. But by the end of the episode, we find out that Oswin was dreaming. Her crashed cockpit and souffles were in her imagination. That means the music was in her imagination too, so how did the Daleks hear it on their spaceship? They wouldn't have heard the music through their console, and then they wouldn't have a reason for the Doctor to go down to the asylum planet. Another thing that doesn't make sense.
The story had missing pieces, but then the characters gave away too much. Rory's and Amy's distressed relationship threw me. Where did this come from? Last season, they were happy to start a life on their own, even if they had to say goodbye to the Doctor. The "Pond Life" shorts showed them having awkward moments with the Doctor popping in and an Ood that thought he was their butler, but overall, they seemed happy. And now they're getting divorced? Amy tells us why—because she can't have children—and it's an emotionally charged scene. But nothing led up to it. We just had this information dumped on us. Good moment, but poorly handled.
Maybe this is just the show throwing a lot of stuff at the audience at the beginning and then it will take things slower in the coming episodes. We got a lot of glimpses and maybe those moments will be explored throughout the season. I hope that's the case. Because otherwise, this season started off with inconsistent storytelling and a gaping plot hole (maybe two).
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