Story #205 - Victory of the Daleks (2010)

 

Harry -

Well here we are, arrived at perhaps the first truly divisive story of the Moffat era. Let's get the big debate out of the way. Dorabella: is it a funny name or not?

Sarah -

It’s unexpectedly funny, considering that it was a memory planted by the Daleks. Where do you come down on this pressing issue?

Harry -

It's the kind of name that gets shortened immediately, so the child would probably grow up as either a Dora or a Bella, which is not so bad. But it would not be on my top 10 baby names list.

Apparently there was a bit of fuss over the Daleks in this story too, particularly the New Paradigm Daleks.

Sarah -

A fuss in Doctor Who fandom? Say it isn’t so!

Harry -

Big and brassy, these New Paradigms are a throwback to the colourful Daleks of the Peter Cushing movies. I imagine Steven Moffat had fond memories of those films and gave writer Mark Gatiss the green light to create a version for the New Who era. Watching them emerge from the progenitor chamber was like something at an auto show -- here's the new model for Season Five, in five spectacular colours! I know some people associated with this blog rushed out to buy the entire set.

Sarah -

I’m shocked, shocked! Nah, just kidding, I remember quite well your obsession with the New Paradigm Daleks. They certainly are shiny and festive, which feels a bit surplus to requirements when it comes to taking over the universe, or whatnot.

Harry -

The BBC marketing department must have loved these Daleks, but apparently fanhood at large did not.

Sarah -

I’m a bit of an agnostic when it comes to the NPDs in general, but I’m not a big fan of them in this story. It’s a promising story that gets waylaid by the big reveal of the NPDs. There are way too many long and lingering shots of the Daleks as they emerge from the chamber and assemble to face the Doctor.

Harry -

But the colours. There's a red one!

Sarah -

As much as I love shiny red things, It’s a whole lot of fanwanking, even if much of the fanbase was too busy being angry to notice.

Harry -

Fair enough. There's a strong throwback vibe to the story that goes beyond the paint jobs of the Daleks. For this story, Gatiss also adapted the premise of "The Power of the Daleks" -- where a small group of Daleks insinuate themselves among a group of humans and pretend to be willing servitors, while scheming to regroup and mass produce themselves anew. The "I am your soldier" line is an almost identical quote from the 1960s story.

Sarah -

I love the throwback to Power of the Daleks, which has been gloriously animated since this episode first aired. Victory of the Daleks is about as Mark Gatiss as Doctor Who can be; he does love the celebrity historial. The Eleventh Doctor’s reaction to the Daleks is exactly the same as the Second and Ninth Doctors when everyone else thinks they’re harmless -- and I’m totally here for that. I love the look of Ironside Daleks and the To Victory propaganda poster, which I was so excited to buy at Chicago TARDIS in 2010. It still hangs in my kitchen.

Harry -

Another win for the BBC marketing department!

Sarah -

Take all my money!

Harry -

Setting aside all the Dalek hooplah, there is indeed a huge celebrity involved in this story, and it's Winston Churchill -- or rather the idealized Winston Churchill to whom British pop culture and favourable historians have given enduring life. While the actual Churchill has become a problematic hero in modern times, here he is portrayed in almost comic book terms. Big, bombastic and heroic. The Winston Churchill we'd love to embrace I think.

Sarah -

In the end all humans are problematic, why should historical figures be any different? He was the big, bombastic, heroic figure that led Britain through the war, with all the biases of his gender, race, and class that we now abhor. Ian McNeice’s performance certainly plays to the wartime hero angle of his persona.

Harry -

Who couldn't relate to Amy's excitement at meeting the hero of World War Two? He's got a war to win and he will seize every advantage, including Bracewell's Ironsides much to the Doctor's dismay. Which is where the Doctor's fantastic, Troughtonesque and Ecclestonesque tirades come into play.

Sarah -

One of my favorite aspects of the story was the Ironside Daleks using Churchill to get the Doctor to London so they could get the Doctor to testify that they were, in fact, Daleks. Even if they were inferior to the NPDs. Now, that’s what I call playing the long game.

Harry -

The story skips along at such a pace that the conflict between the Doctor and Churchill is barely given any space. I wonder if this story might have been better off as a two-parter. Back in the day, "The Power of the Daleks" was an all-out six parter which allowed for the Doctor's suspicions to be more fully fleshed out.

Sarah -

I can’t help but think it would be a stronger story if it were a two-parter or if some of the NPD screen time was given to the Doctor-Churchill conflict. Even the inter-Dalek conflict and extermination of the “inferior” Daleks feels rushed after all the time spent showing us the shiny new Daleks.

Harry -

At least we got that one great scene where the Doctor goes apeshit on one Dalek before everything kicks into gear. Cue the space-bubble spitfires for a rousing outer space dogfight!

Sarah -

I did roll my eyes a bit, but it made as much sense as anything else and how else were they going to get rid of the Daleks?

Harry -

Gatiss must have loved scripting all that RAF banter. After the Dalek ship is given a proper thrashing (hurrah!), we arrive at the final crisis. The Daleks reveal that Bracewell is a bomb. As in "The Beast Below" the Doctor tries and fails to save the day. It falls upon Amy to talk Bracewell into deactivating himself, convincing the machine that it is human and incapable of mass murder.

Pond 2

Doctor 0

Sarah - 

Good decision to keep Pond around!

Harry - 

The one thing that really didn't make sense was that once Bracewell's trigger was deactivated, the Doctor and Amy let the robot pack up and leave the Cabinet War Rooms, presumably to head to a life undercover, or perhaps to Scotland to seek out the mythical Dorabella. Presumably that means an inactive Dalek robot is still out there wandering the British Isles. Certainly a better fate than blowing one's self up. Maybe he got into Morris dancing, or Scottish independence. Who knows, eh!

Sarah - 

Bill Paterson is so lovely as Bracewell that I don’t even mind the Doctor and Amy giving him another chance at life. What does worry me is Amy not remembering the Daleks and that crack in the wall. 

As an aside, If you’ve not been, I recommend a visit to the Cabinet War Rooms next time you’re in London. The way things are going pandemic-wise, that will probably sometime around 2030. 

Harry - 

Best Line: after the Daleks call the Doctor's jammy dodger bluff: "I was promised tea!"

Favourite Moment: the New Paradigm Daleks reveal.

Lasting Image: those colourful Daleks!  I'm looking at one as I type this.

7/10

Sarah - 

Best Line:

Amy: "What, so you mean I've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the London Blitz?"

Doctor: "Safe as it gets around me."

Favorite Moment: the Doctor in the elevator with Churchill, waving the cigar smoke away.

Lasting Image: the poster! I’m looking at it as I type this. 

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #206: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone...

Story #204 - The Beast Below (2010)

Harry -

I think, Sarah, when we started our marathon rewatch of Doctor Who in its televised entirety, we aimed all our focus on the classic era and left the Matt Smith era alone for these past ten years.

Having watched his first two stories, I wish we hadn't done that. They have both been so good!

Sarah -

I like that we have a bit of distance on the Matt Smith era, it's helping me bring a fresh perspective. But I have to disagree on "The Beast Below". It didn't hold up for me and I have a feeling it could end of being the low point of the series. Turns out Steven Moffat agrees with me. In an interview for the 50th anniversary he was asked for his favorite and least favorite episodes so far:"The Beast Below…it was quite a mess…it was all over the place…” 

I have to agree.

Harry -

You came armed with a link! Feeling outgunned here, but I will say what I liked about the story. Amy wastes no time showing she's got the chops to be a great companion. She successfully investigates on her own, she shows empathy where the Doctor is prepared to give none, and she follows his earlier advice to keep her eyes open for details, which leads her to resolve the story's main mystery.

Sarah -

Sorry, I didn't mean to get all librarian. I remembered Moffat's comment from 2013 and was almost surprised to find the reference.

Harry -

Moffat's Scottish roots provided for some lighter moments of dialogue between Amy and the Doctor.

The Orwellian society aboard Starship UK offered an irresistible dilemma for the Doctor to wade into, despite all his high and mighty talk of never interfering. The entire story was dripping with allegory. The smilers were very unsettling, and downright horrifying when they stood up to attack; a good example of Moffat turning something unexpected into an object of terror.

Where did it go south for you, Sarah?

Sarah -

Almost from the beginning. The story feels very thin, but maybe that's ok. Amy gets to have her first adventure in the future, where she's more than 1,000 years old, and does all the resourceful things a companion gets to do. The Doctor is ready to send her home, but realizes that she sees the things he misses, so Amy gets to stay in the TARDIS.

Harry -

Moffat's look at a future UK society was a bit uneven. He predicts, and this one is a surer bet with each passing year, that the Scots will choose their own course and strike out on their own. He's bang-on about the impulse that most people have to look away and pretend they see nothing when someone is in distress.

Sarah - 

It does feel prescient, doesn’ it? Brexit in Space!

Harry - 

I wasn't sure about Liz 10 though. Not the character herself, because she was well performed by Sophie Okonedo. It's the notion that even a thousand years from now, the English will still be clinging to their monarchy, and an increasingly impotent one at that. The shadowy figures behind the scenes (future bureaucrats?) are the ones who know all the secrets and keep things running.

Sarah - 

I wish Okonedo was given more to do, but one doesn’t expect much from the monarchy, so it might be appropriate.

Harry - 

So we get to the big moral horror of the story. The Doctor has been teasing it by playing around with glasses of water, then we get a big clue when he and Amy get shot down a conduit into a stinking, slime-filled chamber. Once the requisite characters are assembled down below, the beast upon whose back the UK is travelling is acknowledged. The great secret of Starship UK is revealed and it's not pleasant. A starwhale, the last of its kind, has been harnessed and for some stupid reason is being tortured as it conveys the UK through space. The Doctor wants to lobotomize the beast so it will continue on while brain-dead. It's up to Amy to observe that the creature has only friendly intentions and there's no need to torture or destroy its mind.

Pond 1

Doctor 0

Funny that Moffat would pan this story, after spending a lifetime dreaming what he would do and the stories he would tell as Doctor Who's showrunner.

Sarah - 

Imagine finally getting the job you wanted since you were eight-year-old -- I wouldn’t know what to do with myself!

Harry -

Very true.

Sarah -

Maybe I should have given this another watch, but I didn’t and I don’t feel like I have much more to say. I’m ready to find out what’s up with Winston Churchill. Shall we? 

Harry - 

Our first Matt Smith historical, let us go forward together!

Sarah -

Best Line: 

"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish."

Favorite Moment: Amy discovering she’s 1306 years old. 

Lasting Image: The Smilers are so creepy.

6/10

Harry -

Best Line:

"You look human."

"You look Time Lord."

Favourite Moment: Amy out-thinking the Doctor and saving the starwhale.

Lasting Image: Smilers for sure.

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #205: Victory of the Daleks...