Saturday, September 1, 2012

#DoctorWho Series 7 finally arrived and we met Soufflé Girl

Jenna Louise Coleman as Oswin in "Asylum of the Daleks"
As usual, we can pretty much rely on Mo, Alan, and the AV Club for quality reviews, so I'll just provide those links and leave it at this: I don't think we're going to miss Amy Pond for all that long. (As for Rory, well, we'll be inconsolable.) Ms. Coleman was outstanding as Oswin, out-acting the rest of the cast and none of them exactly slouches, though I'm picking on Amy a bit because Ms. Gillan is clearly the least accomplished of the mains.

I'm very curious as to how she will be brought back. Internet consensus seems to be Oswin will be picked up from earlier in her timeline. I wouldn't put it past Moffatt though to simply recast Ms. Coleman; there's precedence for it what with Freema Agyeman having played Martha's identical cousin, or some such silly explanation, at Torchwood first.

As for the overall episode, it was pretty strong. Not the greatest.  Like many, I just didn't buy the last minisode of Pond Life nor the continuing and escalated strife depicted at the beginning of this episode. It felt forced. Rory was the freaking Centurion for crying out loud! There was also some internal contradiction about the nature of the Daleks vis-à-vis fear: the Doctor shames them for being afraid of the Asylum planet, then later tells Amy her fear of being converted is good because Daleks don't fear. Which is it, y'know?

And, hey, Daleks, when you kidnap the Doctor to force him into a mission for you, don't feel obliged to bring the TARDIS aboard your ship and park it in the middle of your parliament. Which strategic genius thought that was a good idea? Hiring from the Romney campaign group in charge of selecting which speakers get network coverage during the RNC?

Also, there's a Dalek parliament?! WTF.

So, yeah, don't pick the dangling threads, let the deuses ex machinate and all that ... just focus on the brilliant performances, witty repartee, and ZOMBIE DALEKS (!) -- a welcome change from the brightly colored iDaleks -- and this was a load of fun.

Can't wait 'til next week ...


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