Pond Season – Daleks, Dinosaurs, Cowboys, Cubes and Angels It’s rare I get to review anything from Matt Smith’s era of `Doctor Who’. But for this occasion, I’ve decided to review on the latest series of episodes from the new series. Here is `Series 7 Part 1′, a collection of five episodes chronicling the final adventures of Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) with the Doctor (Matt Smith) before they depart leaving travelling the TARDIS behind them forever. These episodes were transmitted during the Autumn of 2012 from August to September. This is a 2 disc collection, with the first three episodes on Disc 1 and the last two on Disc 2.DISC 1`ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS’NB: Watch `Pond Life’ and `Asylum of the Daleks Prequel’ on Disc 2 before this.The first episode of this series, features the return of the Doctor’s old foes – the Daleks. And they come back in their dignified glory, and in proper design compared to how they looked horrible in their previous outing (though some of the new paradigm Daleks appear in this episode). Also apparently in this episode, there is return of classic Daleks from the classic days of `Doctor Who’ such as the Special Weapons Dalek in `Remembrance’ and some Dalek designs from the first Dalek story; `Planet’; `Genesis’ and `Remembrance’. Sadly for me, there was little time and little light to see these Daleks properly in full view. But some references to the Doctor’s previous encounters such as `Kembel’, `Spiridon’ and `Vulcan’ are mentioned.In this story, the Doctor responds to a summons to Skaro – the now dead planet of the Daleks. The summons is from a woman called Karla who needs the Doctor’s help in rescuing her daughter. But it all turns out to be a trap, as the Doctor gets kidnapped by Karla (who’s a converted walking-talking Dalek automaton) and the Daleks. And it’s not just the Doctor but also Amy and Rory, as the three of them find themselves on the Dalek ship containing the Parliament of the Daleks. They send the Doctor with Amy and Rory on a mission to the Dalek Asylum where all the deranged and abandoned battle-scarred Daleks from foiled missions are kept. They send them there to shut the asylum down and destroy it, as they want the Doctor (now called their Predator) since they can’t do it themselves.This episode features a surprise guest appearance from Jenna-Louise Coleman who’s to appear as the new Doctor Who companion in the new series for the following year in 2013. Here she makes a guest appearance as Oswin Oswald, and I was delighted to see her for the first time in `Doctor Who’ since watching her in `Emmerdale’. Oswin Oswald is a junior manager aboard the spaceship Alaska that crashed-landed on the Dalek Asylum planet. She makes contact with the Doctor and guides him, Amy and Rory to find the power source and shut down the asylum. Oswin is a genius and enjoys making soufflés to which the Doctor calls her `Souffle Girl’. But once the Doctor finds her, it transpires that she’s a human converted into a Dalek and that she’s been living a dream of making soufflés and believing to be human. She eventually lets the Doctor go and allows him and his companions to escape before blowing up the Dalek Asylum. Her last words are `Run you clever boy, and remember me!’Amy and Rory are facing a personal crisis in their lives as they’re on their way to getting divorced. This rather shocked me when I saw it and made me wonder what caused this to happen since it was rather unprecedented. It turns out Amy can’t have children with Rory because of what happened to her on Demons’ Run in . Because of that she `gave Rory up’ or as Rory said `kicked him out’. But eventually through this adventure they make up and their married life is restored, which was reassuring especially for me.The end of this episode for me is rather rushed and a bit weak since the Daleks in the Dalek Parliament don’t know who the Doctor is anymore and keep asking `Doctor Who?’ all the time. It’s something Oswin did to make all the Daleks forget, but it seems rather strange and made me feel cheated at the end. What was going to happen in future stories with Daleks I wonder, and how will this puzzling contradiction will get resolved.This is not a bad episode of `Doctor Who’ written by Steven Moffatt. It’s not the best Dalek story I’ve seen, but it’s certainly an improvement on `Victory’. And it’s lovely to see Jenna Coleman for the first time in the series, and makes me look forward to when she appears next time and what her appearance in this episode actually means.`DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP’The second episode of this series is a lovely written piece by Chris Chibnall, and literally features dinosaurs on a…
Still crazy after all these years 0
Pond Season – Daleks, Dinosaurs, Cowboys, Cubes and Angels It’s rare I get to review anything from Matt Smith’s era of `Doctor Who’. But for this occasion, I’ve decided to review on the latest series of episodes from the new series. Here is `Series 7 Part 1′, a collection of five episodes chronicling the final adventures of Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) with the Doctor (Matt Smith) before they depart leaving travelling the TARDIS behind them forever. These episodes were transmitted during the Autumn of 2012 from August to September. This is a 2 disc collection, with the first three episodes on Disc 1 and the last two on Disc 2.DISC 1`ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS’NB: Watch `Pond Life’ and `Asylum of the Daleks Prequel’ on Disc 2 before this.The first episode of this series, features the return of the Doctor’s old foes – the Daleks. And they come back in their dignified glory, and in proper design compared to how they looked horrible in their previous outing (though some of the new paradigm Daleks appear in this episode). Also apparently in this episode, there is return of classic Daleks from the classic days of `Doctor Who’ such as the Special Weapons Dalek in `Remembrance’ and some Dalek designs from the first Dalek story; `Planet’; `Genesis’ and `Remembrance’. Sadly for me, there was little time and little light to see these Daleks properly in full view. But some references to the Doctor’s previous encounters such as `Kembel’, `Spiridon’ and `Vulcan’ are mentioned.In this story, the Doctor responds to a summons to Skaro – the now dead planet of the Daleks. The summons is from a woman called Karla who needs the Doctor’s help in rescuing her daughter. But it all turns out to be a trap, as the Doctor gets kidnapped by Karla (who’s a converted walking-talking Dalek automaton) and the Daleks. And it’s not just the Doctor but also Amy and Rory, as the three of them find themselves on the Dalek ship containing the Parliament of the Daleks. They send the Doctor with Amy and Rory on a mission to the Dalek Asylum where all the deranged and abandoned battle-scarred Daleks from foiled missions are kept. They send them there to shut the asylum down and destroy it, as they want the Doctor (now called their Predator) since they can’t do it themselves.This episode features a surprise guest appearance from Jenna-Louise Coleman who’s to appear as the new Doctor Who companion in the new series for the following year in 2013. Here she makes a guest appearance as Oswin Oswald, and I was delighted to see her for the first time in `Doctor Who’ since watching her in `Emmerdale’. Oswin Oswald is a junior manager aboard the spaceship Alaska that crashed-landed on the Dalek Asylum planet. She makes contact with the Doctor and guides him, Amy and Rory to find the power source and shut down the asylum. Oswin is a genius and enjoys making soufflés to which the Doctor calls her `Souffle Girl’. But once the Doctor finds her, it transpires that she’s a human converted into a Dalek and that she’s been living a dream of making soufflés and believing to be human. She eventually lets the Doctor go and allows him and his companions to escape before blowing up the Dalek Asylum. Her last words are `Run you clever boy, and remember me!’Amy and Rory are facing a personal crisis in their lives as they’re on their way to getting divorced. This rather shocked me when I saw it and made me wonder what caused this to happen since it was rather unprecedented. It turns out Amy can’t have children with Rory because of what happened to her on Demons’ Run in . Because of that she `gave Rory up’ or as Rory said `kicked him out’. But eventually through this adventure they make up and their married life is restored, which was reassuring especially for me.The end of this episode for me is rather rushed and a bit weak since the Daleks in the Dalek Parliament don’t know who the Doctor is anymore and keep asking `Doctor Who?’ all the time. It’s something Oswin did to make all the Daleks forget, but it seems rather strange and made me feel cheated at the end. What was going to happen in future stories with Daleks I wonder, and how will this puzzling contradiction will get resolved.This is not a bad episode of `Doctor Who’ written by Steven Moffatt. It’s not the best Dalek story I’ve seen, but it’s certainly an improvement on `Victory’. And it’s lovely to see Jenna Coleman for the first time in the series, and makes me look forward to when she appears next time and what her appearance in this episode actually means.`DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP’The second episode of this series is a lovely written piece by Chris Chibnall, and literally features dinosaurs on a…
Great fun 0