"The Daleks have no conscience. No mercy. No pity. They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You can not trust them."
Writer: Mark Gatiss
Format: TV
Broadcast: 17th April 2010
Series: 5.03
Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy
Synopsis
After receiving a phone call from Winston Churchill, the Doctor and Amy arrive in London 1941 where the British have acquired a brand new type of soldier in their war effort attempts. The Daleks.
Verdict
Victory of the Daleks is an outstanding episode for the early days of Matt Smith as the Doctor! Watching the episode back from a stand alone point of view it's really tremendous seeing how far Smith's incarnation developed over his three series at the helm. Here, he seems extremely young and still getting to grips with the new body. Amy, too, seems well out of her depth at first but I guess that's the loveliness of the early days of a new Doctor and companion at the same time. The setting is actually my favourite part about the story and I guess that just shows my love for History and explains why it's the subject I'm applying to do a degree in. We saw the secret underground cabinets, London during the Nazi bombings and even Winston Churchill himself! The Doctor's relationship with Winston was fabulous right the way through the episode with some great wit regarding the TARDIS and its key. I like how after the lead in of The Beast Below, the Doctor arrived a month late of which the 'Ironside' had been created. A wartime Dalek really is a frightening thought but I loved how reminiscent the Daleks were of how they planned and connived in The Power of the Daleks. There they were servants and now they were soldiers. The Doctor's utter hatred for them was outstanding and just majestically portrayed by Matt. Already he'd done a stellar job. The way he described how hate looked like a Dalek was ironically beautiful. I loved the pride he had when stating how many times he'd defeated his most fearsome enemies. The follow on from the events of The Stolen Earth/Journeys End was excellent with the Dalek ship being so deadly damaged that its Skaro inhabitants weren't even recognised as Dalek anymore. They were inferior. The idea behind the progenitor was very intriguing and once the testimony was brilliantly given, a new breed of Daleks would arrive on our screens in the form of the Paradigm. Now, the idea I absolutely love but the design of the new Daleks are somewhat questionable. The size isn't too much of an issue to me it's just the paint job that I dislike. It's too bright and ebullient and is exactly what a Dalek isn't. Had they been a more common colour, with just the Supreme standing out, I think this story's rating would have been higher. I think the design is partly why we didn't see a full Dalek story again until the start of series seven. The voices of the Paradigm though were superb. The way the survivors of the Doctor-Donna welcomed extermination was a bit of a shock but that left the Doctor with a massive dilemma. Save the Earth or wipe out the Daleks. Bracewell would be key, a fantastic concept of a character. A creation of the Daleks who actually thought he was the creator of them. Well, he's no Davros now is he?! But the emotion he brought to the climax was terrific. Good old Doorabella proving that Bracewell was truly human. Love is the greatest of our emotions and it seemed he had it an abundance. The walking bomb, who humorously wasn't deactivated, was prevented from destroying the planet but the Daleks had gotten away, stronger than ever and ready for future adventures. Amy was lovely in this with her getting along well with the underground battalion as Danny boy wiped out the Dalek light source, and also in retrieving the TARDIS key from Winston as the pair said their goodbyes. The Doomsday reference was brilliant, the plot was fantastic and the setting was outstanding! A real gem from Mr Gatiss.
Rating: 9/10
Grand one.
ReplyDeleteNice homage to Power of the Daleks. Yep.
Grand reminder the 11th Doctor's the same man. He remembers Daleks though he wishes to forget after all the torment .
The scene when the new Daleks appear with fitting music. I'd put the Victory of the Daleks tune to the entrance of high-ranking Daleks such as Supremes.
I took the Supreme more seriously. His entrance and how it focus more on him;l the leader. And his deep vocie similar to the Supreme on the Crucible and the Emperors help us take him more seriously, such as when he declare the older Dalek's death for being genetically impure. When he got tick on the human resistance and shout 'Ekplain' mroe than once. And when he blackmail the Docotr through his affection for humasn and mocking compassion as weakness, proving a big jerk ad old Davros.
Amy Pond look very hot and grand in her outfit. And she rock, the way she chose to get invovle. And how she saw through Winstone. And how she got to the robo-doctor, seeing the soul under the body.
This got me ideas:
ReplyDelete1. Some would trust the humanised Dalek Rose met. But Ian, Jamie, Ben, Harry, the Brig, Amy, Micky, Graham, Tegan, Turlough, Lucie, and Jack Harkenss would refuse to do so, suspicious.
2. Amy's decision to trust the Daleks and to refuse to support the Doctor's claims they be monsters would lead to many seeing her as a betrayer. Some would accuse ehr of lying; someone says 'Stop lying to me..... you were 20 years old when the Daleks invade on 2009'. Along with other wrongs such as prejurdycing the Ganger Doctor, freeing the Entity she mistook for aftershave, betraying Rory which eventually cause his fall to Restac, mocking the Doctor's fashion, and torturing Korvain to death. Some would even call her a Dalek-spy and an agent of Davros, their Emperor.
3. Mickey would free some Time Lord ship only to find he free some Daleks.
4. The humanise Dalek would sometimes do the tea thing. So would some mroe humansie Daleks forge base on him. One funny scne be he asks a newly-regenerade Romana if she cares for tea and she freaks, causign him to think she prefers something else before she reveals she's reliving the Time-War on seeing him.