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A Trick with the Memory

Review of Asylum of the Daleks
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Well. It looks like it’s time to revise Confession #23. In truth, though, there’s still much to be seen about where that particular plot twist takes us as we head into the second half of the series. More on that later, though.

My initial reaction was generally positive. Having managed to avoid any spoilers, I was suitably surprised by all the key revelations, and had no qualms allowing myself to be swept up in the narrative as it galumphed rapidly toward its conclusion. (Can galumphing ever be rapid? I’m going with “yes.”) The Doctor’s questions niggled at the back of my mind, too, but I was content to let them percolate until the denouement made it all clear. I might have been able to puzzle it out on my own given time, but of course the script never gives you that luxury.

One thing that the pacing made unpleasant for me was that the mass of Daleks wasn’t… errr… massive enough. I know it’s weird to say I didn’t think there were enough Daleks (especially given my recent Confession about my feelings towards Daleks), but all the pre-show hype about “every Dalek ever” made it seem like it would be more obvious to non-experts like myself. I did love the list of survivors of various wars in the Intensive Care ward of the asylum, though (and even recognized many of them before looking them up): Spiridon, Kembel, Aridius, VulcanExxilon… So there was at least some verbal mention of diversity. I’ll still have to go back to the cover of my Doctor Who Magazine #447 and review the physical differences so I know for whom to look. Even with my eyes peeled, I was barely able to find the Special Weapons Dalek.

I have to say, though, that the twist at the end – the one where now the Daleks have no idea who the Doctor is – was a nice way to satisfy my gripe about the Daleks showing up too often, too conveniently.  This should allow for a decent hiatus (at least until the whiz bang stuff bound to show up for the 50th), and gives a great opportunity for new story hooks when we do meet up with them again. I gotcher reboot right here.

Which actually brings me to the pure speculation portion of our broadcast. With the Daleks, we’ve got a sort of reboot, and a loss of memory. The previous two series have both been about memory (or loss thereof), and I don’t expect that to stop now. Especially since we still don’t have an explanation about the biggest reboot of them all, at the end of S5/S31 (The Big Bang). I fully expect not only the end of this episode to come back to haunt us – and here I include not only the Daleks’ memory loss, but Oswin’s charge to the Doctor to “remember me. … Run, you clever boy. And remember” (before breaking the fourth wall – just in case we’re all too dull to catch that the writer’s talking to us) – but the beginning. When the TARDIS crew stands in the middle of the Parliament of the Daleks and Amy asks the Doctor, “what do we do?”, he replies, “make them remember you.”

I’d put money on it that’s not just a toss-away line.

So what about all the other stuff in the episode? Well, there are some good comedy lines, some self-references back to Moffat’s previous stories (in particular, the nanogenes from S1/S27), and a creepy new enemy in the “Dalek puppets.” I saw someone point out on their Tumblr that the idea wasn’t entirely new, as The Dalek Invasion of Earth gave us the robomen back in 1964 and we got Dalek-eyestalk-headgear in 1984’s Resurrection of the Daleks. However, there are certainly new twists here: the way individuality/sense of self/memory is stripped away until it’s recalled for purposes of deception, the apparently normal physiology until an attack is initiated, and the incorporation of Dalek tech into the very biomass of the puppet. All of these put this new threat in the same camp as Gangers and the Tesselecta – they mess with perceptions of self, and it could be anyone.

And on that note, let’s come back to Oswin. Now there’s a woman with a strong sense of self. I saw someone from The Oodcast podcast comment on Twitter about her being written like a 12-yr-old’s fantasy of the perfect woman because of being a pretty, smart hacker girl in a bright red dress. I can see that point, and to a certain degree, I can agree with it. After further reflection, though, I’m inclined to say, “get over it” because – let’s be perfectly clear here – geek girls actually exist.

Further, sometimes geek girls are actually girly. Some of us like to be perfectly coiffed and to dress to show off our physical assets as well as to demonstrate our more cerebral skills. Occasionally we want to be appreciated both for the “masculine” (and I use that term with extreme irony) characteristics of intelligence, wits, and an ability to work under pressure and the more “feminine” ones of making souffles, listening to classical music and lookin’ good doing it. (For the record, I’d like to point out here that in my own family, it’s the male who’s the chef, and the female who’s the mathematician/scientist.) In other words, that may be what a 12-year-old thinks of when he thinks of a “perfect woman,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean such people don’t exist.

Besides, what does it say about Oswin that when she retreats into the depths of her own mind, escaping from the reality that’s too horrific to face, she envisions herself in that red dress? What about the way she boards up the circular entrance to her “mind palace” (to borrow and pervert a lovely phrase from Moffat’s Sherlock), or uses Bizet’s Carmen to drown out Dalek chants of “we will enter”? And think about that for a bit – those Daleks are clearly not trying to enter her little escape pod from the Alaska, which doesn’t even exist; they’re trying to enter her mind and take advantage of her brilliance to add to the Path Web, making her fully Dalek. And she held them off.

There’s a lot to be said for a woman strong enough to deny Daleks entry to her mind for a whole year despite a full conversion, while she blocks them out and maintains her humanity. My cautious optimism about the new Companion just got a little bit more reckless.

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8 Comments

  1. Jess

    THIS!!!
    It’s like you were in my mind!! 🙂 Any guesses on how Oswin is going to be related (or not) to the new companion? The sister of a friend of mine did bring up a good point in that the Doctor never saw Oswin. He only saw the Dalek, so there is plenty of lookalike wiggle room with characters for Jenna.

    Anywho, another great review! Can’t wait for the next one 🙂

    • mrfranklin

      Along for the ride
      Thanks Jess! 🙂 At this point, I’m not willing to make any predictions about how this gets twisted around to a new Companion, because Moffat’s got too many tricks up his sleeve (some more palatable than others). But I’m pretty certain there’s going to be plenty of memory-twisting, mind-fucking (pardon the language, kids) plot points before we’re done with the series.

      For the moment, I’m willing to go along for the ride, and see where he takes us.

  2. PaulGreaves

    I’ll keep it brief, but I could go on…
    My initial reaction was positive too. However on a second view certain things niggled with me. After all the hype about every Dalek ever being on screen, what we actually got was, frankly, pathetic. A miserable fan-hype ploy that failed to deliver.

    I also have an issue with the way that the Doctor has been wiped from the Dalek’s memory. They’re an organic species but since when do they have a hive mind that can have entire memories deleted?

    As for Oswin… Jenna Louise Coleman looks fabulous, can obviously act and, I suspect, will have terrific chemistry with Matt Smith. But the character we met left a lot to be desired for me. She’s all sassy, cheeky, clever-clever, full of slightly rude personal observations about the Doctor and a teeny-weeny bit patronising. In other words, a standard Moffat “woman”. In fact, on this initial appearance she came across very much as a cross between Amy and River with a bit of Captain Jack thrown in. But not a normal person. Where’s Donna or Ian and Barbara, Ben and Polly or Sarah? A nice, honest, down-to-Earth companion? Still, we’ll have to wait and see…

    And while we’re on the subject, can Amy and Rory (Amy in particular) please just **** ***!! I am so tired of them. She has no fear of anything, has a relentlessly selfish It’s All About Me complex and Rory, although sweet enough, would be far better off as a solo companion. And what’s with all this dropping them off home after each adventure? The Doctor apparently can’t be bothered to revisit any of his companions unless it’s by accident, so what makes these two so special. Grrr.

    On the plus side, I love the Dalek-duplicates/whateveryou want to call them. That adds a creepy dimension meaning that we could get a brilliant surprise in a future story that we all have no idea contains Daleks. I like that a lot.

    I also thought Nick Hurran’s direction was excellent, the Dalek POV as it self-destructed was fun, Oswin’s story was a nice idea although flawed (why didn’t they hear a Dalek voice?) and some of the special effects were excellent.

    I’m not sure this was the stupendous reinvention of the Daleks that I’ve read about but it had it’s moments.

    3/5

    • mrfranklin

      Valid points

      I agree with many of your points, but my review was already getting long enough that I didn't want to draw it out any further. So I'll take this opportunity to go into more detail. 🙂

      • Totally with you on the "every Dalek ever" thing – didn't deliver.
         
      • ~sigh~ Yes. A bit of retcon, that hive mind…
         
      • Oswin was a mixed bag for me. Yes, she's standard Moffat in one sense, but at least she doesn't appear to be from 20th C. Earth – which would be a nice change from every other post-Hiatus Companion (Jack and River don't count in this argument for me; they didn't have their names in the opening credits every week). On the other hand, if they could recreate a Barbara vibe, I'd be all over that.
         
      • I didn't want to go into the Amy/Rory thing, not least because it's been said better elsewhere already (like this post by s.e.smith on Moffat's mother issues). As for dropping them home, yeah – that's weird. However, they are also the first married couple to have traveled with him, and we all saw how well that whole "time head" thing worked out when they tried to do the married couple thing in the TARDIS…
         
      • Love the potential of the new Dalek puppets (to use the term the Doctor tossed off). Much easier to surprise the audience with them than a standard Dalek.
         
      • I wondered about the voice, too. WTF?
         
      • I wouldn't call it a "reinvention," but I do think it gives the Daleks the possibility to be a much fresher adversary than they've been for decades. We'll see what they're actually able to do with it.

      As always, Paul, thanks so much for your comments! I love being able to discuss this stuff with you here! 😀

  3. PaulGreaves

    Me too!
    It’s practically the only place on the web where I can have an intelligent discussion about the highs/lows of the new stuff without being told I’m a reactionary Classic fan! And you have a lot of interesting things to say 🙂

    Here is a review by a fan who lives in the same town as me (who, incidentally, I’m meeting up with tonight for the first time). Although I don’t agree with everything he says, he certainly hits the nail on the head in a more articulate fashion than I do! http://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/series-seven.html

    • mrfranklin

      Another thoughtful perspective
      Yeah, there are several good points there, too. And I’m also in an “agree to disagree” place with a couple of those points. But that’s why I love reading different (carefully considered) reviews – sometimes I find myself saying, “yeah; me, too!” and other times, “hmmm… hadn’t thought of it that way.” It makes it all more fun!

  4. Wholahoop

    Watch it once only
    I liked the story when I watched it on ABC’s iView last Sunday morning, but repeated viewings with my son later on in the week lessened the enjoyment. This was not because of the twist at the end, I had unfortunately already seen a spoiler outlining that particular goodie (memo to self, try to avoid spoilers) but to me the fact that the lighting made it nigh on impossible to fully detect the classic series Daleks was an even bigger disappointment that I had not time to dwell on as a result of the breakneck pace of the first viewing. Even the Special Weapons Dalek was a “blink and you will miss it moment”. Like other commentators I wonder if there will be some relation between Oswin and the new companion, although knowing the Moff she will actually appear in every episode apart from the Christmas special!!! Or is this another Eve Myles/Freema Agyeman event where the actor so impressed that they were invited back?
    But, for me the biggest flaw, that one day may be explained is why Oswin was heard as human by all and sundry until the denouement? I look forward to seeing that one explained. First score viewing a solid 8/10, subsequent viewings a wishy washy 4/10. Cheers

    • mrfranklin

      Eve/Freema/Jenna?
      I don’t think this is that kind of toss-off appearance. It was kept heavily under wraps, and you’ll note that none of her stuff was filmed with the rest of the cast, meaning that everything but Oswin could’ve been in the can for months before Jenna went to work. Frankly, I’ll be utterly shocked if there’s no connection between Oswin and the “Clara” we’ve been hearing about for Christmas.

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