7x01 Asylum of the Daleks discussion post

[_thirty2flavors]

When we restarted this comm most people voted for us to have discussion posts for new episodes as they aired. Since we do rewatch posts on Saturday, we figure we'll do the discussion posts for the new episodes on Sunday, after you've hopefully had a bit of time to digest.

Comments

[fauxkaren]

1. The idea of the Daleks not killing the insane/imperfect Daleks because their hatred is "beautiful" was pretty stupid, imo. I mean, it just doesn't really make sense to me that the Daleks would hesitate to kill anything that didn't live up to their standards of perfection. But whatever. I'm not all THAT attached to Dalek mythology, so meh. Did earlier episodes specifically say that Skaro was destroyed/time locked? I am really bad at remembering this stuff. But since I'm bad at remembering stuff like this, it didn't bother me that Skaro was there. LOL. Like idk. The Daleks are never an enemy that interests me for their Dalek-ness. Like genocidal robots are not an especially brilliant villain. It's more about their history with the Doctor that is interesting. More on that late.

2. BAD. BAD BAD BAD AND MOFFAT SHOULD FEEL BAD. Omg. Like if they had discussed having kids at any point in series 5 or 6, this story would have made more sense (LOL AMY AND RORY NEVER EVEN REALLY TALKED ABOUT BABY MELODY). Or if we had had more lead up to troubles in their marriage. Or if it wasn't already at the SIGNING DIVORCE PAPERS stage. Because like WOW ok. You've made it to the signing divorce papers stage without even talking about why you're divorcing? YIKES. And then it was resolved in like 20 seconds. WOW.

It was really manufactured drama at its worst. There was no believable build up and then it was resolved too easily.

3. Well it suits her as much as any other job, I guess. Amy wasn't really given enough background or context so why not be a model? But it does bother me a lot that the decision to make her a model basically seems to be based on "Karen Gillan is hot" and not like "When we met Amy in The Eleventh Hour she was an aspiring/struggling model working as a kissogram to pay the bills".

The episode ends with the Daleks having forgotten everything they knew about their "predator", the Doctor, and then chanting "DOCTOR WHO?" in case you forgot what show you were watching. Is this a good way to put a new spin of the Daleks, or an embarrassment to 50 years of canon?

4. I was NOT amused. For me the reason that the Daleks are interesting is that they do have this history with the Doctor. And to throw it all away for the "Doctor Who" joke? NOPE NO NO NO. I mean, idk. Moffat keeps touching on the idea of memory and remembering but he never really fully explored, so maybe it'll come back with this storyline??? Or maybe it'll just be forgotten. idk.

5. Lol I can't answer as to whether anything was surprising because I spoiled myself to high heaven before I watched it. I did feel for her though JLC did a fantastic job of selling what was written. And she was just a really fun presence on the screen. I enjoyed her a lot as Oswin and I hope I feel the same about Clara.

As for how Oswin and Clara are related? DAMNED IF I KNOW. IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS. AND NOT IN A FUN WAY. UUUUGH.

Currently my favorite theory is that it was all a red herring and there is no connection between Clara and Oswin and since the Doctor doesn't know what Oswin looked liked, he won't noticed anything and no one on the show will ever comment on it. LOL.