Doctor Who Review: Victory of the Daleks

Daleks in London during the Second World War. You know it can’t be good, even though they’ve got little union flags under their eyestalks.

Cast and Crew

Matt Smith as the Doctor
Karen Gillan as Amy Pond
Ian McNeice as Churchill
Bill Paterson as Bracewell
Nina De Cosimo as Blanche
Tim Wallers as Childers
Nicholas Pegg as Dalek 1
Barnaby Edwards as Dalek 2
Nicholas Briggs as Dalek Voice
Susanah Fielding as Lilian
James Albrecht as Todd
Colin Prockter as Air Raid Warden

Written by Mark Gatiss

Produced by Peter Bennett

Directed by Andrew Gunn

Originally aired on the 17th of April 2010 on BBC One/BBC HD in the United Kingdom.

Premise

Winston Churchill telephones the Doctor from the middle of the London Blitz, inviting him to come and take a look at something. The Doctor finds the ‘something’ to be rather worringly Dalek-shaped.

High Points

  • “But I was promised tea!”

Low Points

  • The attack on the Dalek saucer was horribly, horribly overstereotyped.
  • Every scene with the air raid warden in. Totally, utterly superfluous.

The Scores

Originality: A bit ho hum, nothing surprising, but it’s not like you can write out the dialogue before it’s said. Three out of six.

Effects: If you ignore the dialogue during the bits of space battle, it’s extremely pretty. Also, I really love the Dalek teleport effect. Five out of six.

Story: A decent story, but kind of throwaway. I think it might have been better to go with something deeper over two episodes. Four out of six.

Acting: Ian McNeice played a stereotypical, propaganda-heavy Churchill which I found rather unconvincing. Matt Smith had a few moments looking very young, which seemed out of character for this Doctor, as although he looks young he’s not really looked like it before. Four out of six.

Emotional response: Oh no, more Dalek escapees. Three out of six.

Production: It looks more or less like the Cabinet War Rooms, but with higher ceilings. I happen to have visited them (they’re still there, and in pretty close to the original condition), so perhaps I’m not the best audience for that. I do know it would be difficult to film there as it’s quite cramped. I did like the interior of the Dalek ship, which I think has a lot to do with camera angle choices as well as the set design. Four out of six.

Overall: Overall, it was disappointing compared to last week’s episode. Four out of six.

Victory of the Daleks receives a grand total of twenty-five out of forty-two.

14 replies on “Doctor Who Review: Victory of the Daleks”

  1. Confidential had a trip round the original Cabinet War Rooms, and they did admit they’d used a bigger space in an actual WW2 bunker in South Wales. They also pointed out the Daleks they’ve used since Christopher Eccleston were designed so their eye stalk was at Billie Pipers eye level, Karen Gillan is a lot taller!

    The Khaki Daleks with Union Flags looked so right though…

  2. Well that was rubbish.

    At least she was in a short skirt (though the stockings were missing!)

  3. And new, colorful Daleks! It’s like from the movie.

    I was annoyed that the Daleks need to get more fearsome each time. ‘These aren’t the partially human Daleks, these are the ones Davros made.’ ‘These are pure Daleks.’ If they aren’t frightening enough on their own, take an episode to scare the crap out of us with them.

    I did enjoy it, though.

  4. Okay, so we’ve gotten the obligatory Daleks episode out of the way for the season, so we have the ObCybermen episode, then maybe we can have some good original stuff? Don’t get me wrong, I think both are powerful villains, but they keep getting trotted out so often they lose their menace.

  5. I think it was a good Dr. Who episode, and agree that its the obligatory Dalek episode for this year. I did like however that it ends in the escape of the Daleks, instead of them being eliminated again, only to have to contrive another return.

    My son and I looked at each other after the reveal of the mulitcolored Daleks and said “the new iDaleks!!”

    While its definitely an average episode, its still got the solid Dr. Who feel. I think the scores were still a bit low, like last week, but last weeks episode was definitely better.

    I am very anxious to see next weeks episode, however. Its time to see if Moffat can elevate the weeping angles into a core Who villian….. Plus River Song’s back!!

  6. Two things:
    – Spitfires in Space!!!! Yahooooooo! :-)
    – Is there going to be another back story re the young woman who lost her beau in the Channel? As background it’d be mentioned once or maybe twice, but she got a lot of camera time and dialogue.

  7. My low point:I know the Doctor’s modus operandi is to talk the villain to death, but to diffuse a bomb by talking it out of exploding? That’s just dumb.

    • Two words: “Dark Star“.

      Not only do they try talking the bomb out of detonating, but the bomb has a serious God complex… “Let there be light!” :)

  8. Well, I’m afraid the source of the cracks in space-time is the Doctor.

    His violent regeneration blew the TARDIS right across a dimensional boundary, into a reality that never experienced the Torchwood/Voidsphere or Dalek/Earth kidnap events which is why Amelia Pond doesn’t remember anything.

    Notice we never see the cracks before the TARDIS appears, but always after. I think that is deliberate.

    • Amelia was worried about the crack in her wall before the TARDIS turned up. That of course doesn’t mean the Doctor isn’t causing them, the cracks could emanate backwards through time :-) Stranger things can and do happen on this show.

      • After the ending of Flesh and Stone, I think you’re closer to being right, but I suspect it’s either the Tardis or Amy herself that’s causing the cracks.

    • That wouldn’t surprise me too much, or another void ship, this time with the new Daleks.

      My guess is the cracks are going to have some sort of effect that will be used to explain the Doctor’s frequent lack of punctuality. A month since the phone call to land at Winston’s door? Five minutes is really years? That’s because the t-Axis is all off, due to the same thing causing those cracks.

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