It’s the third episode of the new season of Doctor Who. In the first two episodes (reviews to follow), Matt Smith has proven himself to be the Doctor, and no one can dispute this taking the role. Karen Gillian, his new companion of Amy Pond, proved herself a worthy companion in the second episode. This episode hits it’s marks and follows the pattern first set up by Russell T. Davies with the revival of the series. And I guess I’m alright with it. Some consistency is good, but at the same time I’d hate for the series to get into a rut.
Just like every season before it, this season is following the patter of first taking the new companion to the future, and then they taking them to the past to meet some historical figure. In this episode, it’s to meet Winston Churchill, during the blitz of London. Now, I wasn’t bother with the Doctor already knowing Churchill. It was a nice change to see him know a historical figure instead of always seeing him meeting them for the first time. He’s traveled throughout Earth’s history for a good amount of 900 years. You’d think he’d know some of the people of important.
Like most Doctor Who episode with the past, there is a bit of the fantastical. This time it’s in the form of an old enemy that just won’t stay down. The Daleks. While I knew it was inevitable that the Daleks would be back, they are in the promo wallpaper the BBC released for the new season, I have to say I wasn’t really looking forward to it. The Daleks have gotten rather tedious, as they have been the big bads for 3 of the last five seasons. You can see them be destroyed only to come back again only so many times before you start rolling your eyes. This episode was a lot like that for me. The whole point of the episode was just bring the daleks back.
And not only do they come back, they are back bigger, badder, and in fashion colors! As I watched them roll out, I thought, “It’s a rainbow of fruity flavors! The iDalek!” I can’t say I blame Steven Moffatt for wanting to bring the Daleks back. They are popular in Britain, and it is a British show. And with all the other reboots, the Daleks were sure to get theirs. What I do hope is that this is all we see of the Daleks for the rest of the season. Let them go wherever in time, and start to rebuild their fleets. There seems to already be an overarching story arc going, as the end of the episode showed. Just please, don’t let it involve the Daleks. Moffatt comes up with such great baddies on this own. Every episode he wrote in the 9th-10th Doctor seasons were the best and always had original monsters. The Weeping Angels, the Vashta Nerada, the Clockwork Men, all Moffatt’s creations and all fantastic. Even this season with the Smilers. Keep adding more great monsters to the Doctor Who pantheon, and let sleeping Daleks lie.
