Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks

[solarbird]

Anna posted a reaction post over here. I agree with everything she says. I could type it all up again, but, well, no need. Go read hers first.

And on top of that, the whole subplot made absolutely no sense. No setup in the show proper at all, and months have gone by of what's presented as absolute developed hatred and signed divorce papers, which is then betrayed almost instantly on the Dalek ship, then one idiotically frustrating revelation and suddenly they're back together and Rory's all happy about it and everything?

In what emotional world do you live, Mr. Moffat? Where the hell does anyone react like this? Honestly, this wouldn't pass muster on an episode of Superfriends. Not without a robot double being involved.

And, finally, to reiterate what Anna said at her post and I said on twitter: we are both sick of Mr. Moffat defining Amy Pond by her womb. Sick to death of it.

I haven't been this unhappy with a Doctor Who launch since Colin Baker. At at least with Most Hated Doctor, I could appreciate what they were trying to do. Here, I'm not even getting that.

Comments

[jarandhel]

Agreed with both you and Anna on all points. Additionally, the entire main plot of the episode was telegraphed. The relevation that Amy couldn't get pregnant was the ONLY surprise in the whole thing for me. I saw it coming as soon as the Doctor asked "where do you get the milk?" the first time, and the ENDLESS belaboring of the fact that she was doing things no human in a crashed starship could possibly do made it worse and worse. There was even the scene with Rory when the Daleks were waking up where HE thought they were saying "eggs" and it was the first syllable of Exterminate. Heavy handed foreshadowing much?

[jarandhel]

Also, I didn't like the plot point of the Daleks forgetting the Doctor, even if they were forced to by having their files on him deleted. For such a long-standing enemy just to forget him feels cheap and as if something was lost.

[solarbird]

I'd had a tipoff about that (THANKS, TUMBLR) in advance, so I didn't know whether it was Moffat being heavy-handed or my spoiler encounters. (It wasn't specific: just "I'm a human" popping up in a bunch of GIFs, and, well, yeah.)

[jarandhel]

I didn't encounter any spoilers (I'm involved in different parts of tumblr, it seems. I didn't even know you were on there.) But I'm also the guy who figures out mystery shows when they're a quarter through at least half the time. I've studied enough about how to write that I tend to see where writers are going before they get there. But this was just painfully heavy-handed about telegraphing where they were going with it all. And the overcoming being a Dalek to save the Doctor thing is just quintessentially the new Doctor Who, so no surprise there either.