Asylum of the Daleks
New episode; new series. Half-digested mental notes.
Distinctly not for me. I liked the basic premise of Oswin being in the dalek, though I… kind of figured it was something along those lines from the moment the first eyestalk popped up through the snow. Otherwise… um.
The Dalek humans were a bad idea, very poorly executed. To borrow some parlance, the image of the eyestalks and guns emerging from foreheads and palms, where there was no space to emerge from — nope. Doesn’t work. Oh, wait. I meant to say it was daft.
Amy and Rory’s problems were sold poorly, and I’m tired of the whole facile “love will save the day” trope — even if it was sort of undermined here in that she didn’t need the saving.
I was looking, and I don’t recall even seeing a classic Dalek. Not a big deal, except — well, I was looking. And their presence was well advertised.
The new typeface and logo look like they were knocked together in half an hour. The intro is otherwise the same, with a bad color filter laid over the top.
The thing moved too quickly, was of little to no substance, and then just ended. One of my least favorites in an era that I don’t like too much!
So. Whee.
EDIT:
This episode is a summary of everything that bothers me about Moffat’s stewardship. I’m trying to think of something that I liked about it. The slow build-up with Rory and the deactivated Daleks — that was nice. Anything involving Rory was at least watchable. The one recurring character with a touch of realism, and he’s on his way out.
In his place is… Oswin. I thought that Amy got on my nerves; this is worse. Somehow she’s even more flippant and removed from comprehensible human response. Moffat doesn’t do characters, or dialog. All he does is puzzle boxes with several missing pieces.
The almost universal response I’m seeing is that Asylum is one of the best Dalek stories ever. Er. Well. Let me put it this way. Given a choice between Moffat and Helen Raynor, I’ll take Helen Raynor. Never thought I’d long for that mess; now I’m starting to appreciate it. Her story has some of the same basic ideas; it’s clumsier; yet there I can feel a few twinkles of insight or humanity. There’s nothing to Moffat anymore except empty surprises and fan service.
EDIT 2:
To me, here’s how the Oswin thing looks:
Official press has already been suggested that the “correct” Oswin (which is to say, the ongoing companion) is a computer expert; that’s enough for me. This is the same character.
We’ve seen her “death” already, or the after-effects thereof. It’s basically a recycled River Song situation, reinforced by the well-signaled element that the transformation destroys a person’s memories, starting with the most recent.
This Christmas we’re going to meet her earlier on. Then she’s going to travel with the Doctor, he all the while knowing her fate.
Having seen her performance I’m tempted to believe the extra convolution about Weeping Angels, too. To wit: rumors have it that she is from the modern day, and in all of the nonsense around the Ponds’ departure she is sent back to the Victorian era as well.
It’s living and traveling with the Doctor that strengthens her modern-day “computer skills” (and oy to that TV trope; what does this even mean?) to the level that allows her to hack into the Dalek hive mind and all of that nonsense.
I’ll be surprised if this turns out much differently.