Doctor Who - "Into the Dalek" - Review

Intro

A little bit later than usual this week due to working for most of the day and then being up all night reading Paper Towns by John Green. But here it is, my review for Doctor Who: "Into the Dalek."

SPOILER WARNING

The following review contains spoilers for Doctor Who, Series/Season 8, Episode 2, "Into the Dalek." If you have not seen it, go away. Come back after you've seen the episode. It will do you some good.

Doctor Who - "Into the Dalek" - Review

I will be the first to outright say that I really don't like Daleks. After Series/Season 2 of the new series, Daleks just got annoying and boring. That said, it's probably no surprise I wasn't looking forward to "Into the Dalek." I was sort of wrong in my assumption that it wouldn't be a good episode. In fact, I mostly enjoyed it.

I'll just throw out the bad stuff first. The space battle at the beginning. Yeah, I have a thing about space battles. Don't like them. Get bored during them. The Dalek invasion party bit was definitely a thing that happened. Much exploding and exterminating and unnecessary slow-mo dying. While it was kind of realistic from a battle standpoint, it was where I disengaged from the episode. On second watch, I think I even paused it to go get snacks at the point...

Now on to the better and good stuff of the episode. Let's start with Mr. Danny Pink. At first I thought Danny was a PE teacher. I clearly got the wrong. Not quite sure where they're going to take his character beyond being adorkable with Clara. He reminded me of Mickey Smith a few times there.

Jumping over to Ms. Journey Blue and the disposable babysitters now. Journey was interesting, I suppose. She managed to cover being both sensitive and soldier-y. I'm glad she didn't die or get to go with the Doctor. Of course, due to no casting information about adding her as a companion, we all knew that was going to happen. Also, she just didn't strike me as companion material. Disposable babysitter dude was disposable. I liked the last bit with slightly less disposable Gretchen Allison Carlyle. Not sure what her significance is to Missy, but then we know nothing about either of them so... there's that.

Rusty was alright for a Dalek. He reminded me both of Dalek Caan and the Dalek from "Dalek." Somewhat crazy but able to see the beauty in the universe. I was not at all surprised when Rusty called up The Doctor's hatred for the Daleks. Saw it coming from the moment The Doctor revealed his plan. Of course the creature who hates is going to zero in on the hatred. Not only that, but he's going to find the stuff about his race. Also, Rusty is at least the second Dalek to tell The Doctor he's be a good Dalek.

So while The Doctor is good at hating, I completely agree with Clara's assessment. The Doctor tries as hard as he can to be a good man. Whether or not he succeeds is another matter entirely and sometimes not his fault. No one is perfect.

Overall, I quite enjoyed "Into the Dalek." I've watched it twice before writing this and I have to reiterate that the commercials added in by BBC America throw off the flow of the episodes. Doctor Who wasn't built for commercial breaks. They work much better when not being constantly interrupted.

Favorite Moments

• Clara slapping The Doctor and the entire lead-up to the plan.
• Danny's recollection of his conversation with Clara. Gotta enjoy a good head-desk.
• The Doctor saving Journey in the beginning.
• The fake-out with Missy saving Gretchen.

Quotes!

"An anticlimax once in a while is good for my hearts." - The Doctor

"You asked me if you were a good man and the answer is: 'I don't know.' I think you try to be and I think that's probably the point." - Clara

"Do I pay you? I should give you a raise." - The Doctor

"I am a school teacher." - Clara

"I don't need armed babysitters." - The Doctor

"Don't be lasagna." - The Doctor

Love ya, Jessie

Rememberance of the Daleks

Intro/Overview

After my last review, I essentially spent a lot of time watching The Justice League and puttering about on the interwebs. Tonight, however, I watched Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks for the first time. So this evening, I have a sort of mish-mash of initial reaction and review for that.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks please leave the blog and return later. I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews. However, I'm not too worried about it this time because this particular story was originally shown in the eighties.

Doctor Who - Remembrance of the Daleks - Review

First off, I'm not a fan of the Daleks. Consequently, I didn't really pay all that much attention to them while they were on screen. That said, most of what they did on screen was shoot at various humans and at each other. Also, as a fan of "New Who" I was unimpressed by the Daleks being able to float up the stairs. I know that this was the first story in which they did so, but after seeing lots of Daleks floating around menacingly it gets rather old.

I was also unimpressed by Davros. Mind you, I knew he was going to be in this story so I spent most of the time waiting for him to show up. I originally thought that the seated figure hanging out with Ratcliffe was Davros, but that was debunked when the little blond girl turned out to be the one in the chair. I was floored by that particular moment, by the way. However, the fact that Davros actually turned out to be the "Emperor Dalek" was odd. I hadn't been expecting it, but I also wasn't particularly surprised. Like I said, it was odd.

I did not find any of the military people interesting or particularly competent. I didn't at all like Sgt. Mike. He felt to me like a rather wet blanket and then like a desperate man who wasn't very good at being desperate. I did, however, quite enjoy the female cast members. Ace was awesome, as usual. Her smarts coupled with her brashness made me grin a lot. I liked Professor Rachel. She reminded me a bit of Liz Shaw. I thought Allison was just there to be window dressing, but at least she didn't scream obnoxiously.

I quite enjoyed The Doctor tricking everyone left right and center. I'm not sure exactly what he did to Ace's bat, but I enjoyed the aftermath of him leading the Hand of Omega out of the funeral parlor. I thought his deception of Davros was particularly clever. Of course he'd go ahead and blow up Skaro this time around. That Davros actually thought The Doctor was just going to let him get away with such a powerful weapon was amusing, to say the least.

Overall, I found Remembrance of the Daleks to be incredibly long and drawn out. Maybe that's just my "New Who" sensibilities speaking, but by the end of the second episode I was glancing at the clock above my TV. There was just a lot of running around almost aimlessly at times. Even the Daleks seemed to have nowhere to go. There just wasn't the kind of expediency I would have expected from an "action movie" as Stephen Moffat likened it to in the intro. 

Housekeeping

I've added a countdown to the page. It's for the beginning of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Season 4. Interestingly enough, the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special is on the same day. I'm excited.

I would like to tell anyone who's just now found the blog that I'm on a sort of semi-hiatus until September when the actual TV shows start up again. I'm going for quality posts over quantity here so... yeah. You'll hear from me when you hear from me.

Love ya, Jessie.

Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks - Review

Let me just start out saying that I'm posting this early because my evening is going to be filled with Alphas, Warehouse 13, and Grimm. I also should have posted this yesterday, but I was spending time with my family. Also, my mom is awesome. We were eating out on Saturday and it was 8:45 PM as we were driving down our street. This meant I was gonna miss Asylum of the Daleks. Without me asking, she found BBC America's repeat at 11PM and let me watch it (she's queen of the TV in our house so she usually just watches what she wants). Anyway... from this point on there will be SPOILERS for Asylum of the Daleks. You've been warned.

As I Was Watching Reactions

• Why do the Daleks have prison camps?
• Dalek/human robots? WTF? Daleks is sneaky.
• Amy has Karen's job... and is divorced, or getting that way... interesting
• Only 11 out of 10 in trouble? Not so much, then.
• Daleks have a Parliament? Daleks? Seriously?
• Don't like the new time tunnel...
• Ah, Rory... what color indeed?
• I hate commercials. Except that one with Chris Hardwick. That can stay.
• Companions need to stop touching Daleks.
• These human/Dalek hybrids are not cool.
• Seriously, stop touching Daleks!
• Rory is a badass, even when sliding under doors.
• Oh... snap. The Doctor is all trapped + scared.
• She's a Dalek... snap. That's very Cyberman of the Daleks.
• Marriage -- fixed!

Actual Review

     I thought the episode was good, really thought-provoking. However, I didn't really feel the whole "mini-movie" vibe everyone's been talking about. Might possibly have been commercials breaking up the pacing but... Meh. Also, Daleks. I hate Daleks. Not in a "I'm The Doctor and I hate Daleks" kind of way, but in a "I wish Daleks hed never been created and would just go away" kind of a way. Needless to say, I wasn't really as excited for Asylum of the Daleks as I could have been.

     I quite liked Amy in this episode. Glad she has a respectable job now. Not quite sold on the reason she "let Rory go." But Rory was a badass all the same. He didn't freak out like he usually does, not even once. Although seriously, what is it with Companions and being unable to resist touching Daleks or things Daleks have? Rose, Mickey, and now Rory have all touched Daleks/Dalek stuff and almost died over it. Stop touching stuff! God!

     Also, Daleks make crap chains. Which brings me to... *drum-roll* Oswin! Oswin is an incredibly interesting character. When I first saw her and her dream-world, I thought it was a commercial. Her environment was so starkly different from the rest. As the episode went on, I realized she couldn't possibly be normal (and not just because of the souffles). No one goes through a crash and comes out on the other side looking that good. I did not, even for a second, think she might be a Dalek. And for a Dalek, she was pretty awesome. Rest in peace, Oswin Owswald.

     That being said, if I never see another Dalek/Human hybrid it will be too soon. They seriously creeped me out. I wonder if Amy and Rory being infected with Dalek nanobots is going to matter or if it's gonna be a dangling plot thread... Speaking of dangling plot threads, what're Amy and Rory gonna do, just throw away the divorce papers? I guess that's not dangling, but... ya know... a little weird to me.

     Last random thought to wrap up: I enjoy how Amy can read The Doctor like a book. It's interesting.

Housekeeping

So... I think I'm just gonna go ahead and take Saturdays off instead of the entire weekend. This is for two reasons: I need a day off from blogging, at least one. And I'm flying to Iowa on the 15th of this month, which is a Saturday, so I don't think I'll be in much of a mood to blog that day. So, you can expect future Doctor Who reviews and reactions to come on Sunday.

That's it from me for now. See you tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

PS: The egg-person is in no way related to Asylum of the Daleks.