Why it's beloved? There hasn't been a good Dalek story for a while and this might be considered as one of the best Dalek stories out there. It's a celebration of the Doctor and Dalek history, as if it is its own 50th anniversary. A Hugo award nominated episode. An asylum that houses Daleks that are left crazy because of their encounters with the Doctor, and the Doctor is trapped in it? That's a great idea. And who could forget the crazy plot twist? Why it's overrated? Asylum of the Daleks is not an episode that deserves to go all the way to the top of everyone's watch list. At best, it's just something that can go slightly below the middle. There are good stuff - like the amazing cinematography and the creepy atmosphere of the asylum, for example, but this is not the Dalek return to form that everyone was hoping it would be. There are some good parts, though. The twist that Oswin Oswald is a Dalek who thinks she is human is very disturbing but there is still a major plot hole there, too. Every time she talks it's actually a voice of a Dalek, right? So why didn't the Doctor and Rory ever notice this whilst she had been flirting with them through the speakers for the entire episode? But the biggest insult to the fans that no one seems to noticed is when Clara Oswin erased all knowledge of the Doctor from the memories of all the Daleks using some sort of universal Dalek mental link. Even for Doctor Who that is a new low in its "get out of jail free card" history. The biggest thing the episode has going for it is the interesting dissection of the Dalek and Doctor relationship but the memory loss made the dissection null and void. Why did they do this? It's not like it shakes things up. The Daleks are still going to try and kill the Doctor anyways, regardless if they know him or not. It's like taking away the Joker's memories of Batman - everything is still the same only this time, the Joker has no interest in Batman. It would make the the interrogation scene in The Dark Knight far less interesting wouldn't it?