You were expecting Death to the Daleks here, weren't you? Don't worry, it's still coming. It just so happens that Death to the Daleks is a worse story than Asylum of the Daleks - but Asylum is still pretty awful. 'What?!' you shout at us. 'How dare you? This is the only story in Doctor Who history that showed us every single Dalek type ever to appear on the programme!' Well, that was the promise, anyway, but as it turned out we only got to see the Special Weapons Dalek and maybe a few first season casings in the background, and the rest of the Daleks we saw were all from 2005 onward. You'd expect we'd see a few more of those given that the Doctor at that point is passing through the ICU where the Daleks from previous adventures who have had encounters with him are all kept because they've been driven mad... Wait, hang on. The Daleks lock up any Daleks that have failed in their missions? Even the insane one? They don't just, you know, exterminate them? When a Dalek is willing to blow itself up when it fails at a minor task - yes, that's coming up - it makes very little sense that any of them would go out of their way to rescue other failures and then put them up in an asylum. Those Daleks rescued, by the way, are from Vulcan, Exxilon, Spiridon, Aridius... Wait, wait, wait. Not only do the Daleks rescue the survivors of encounters with the Doctor, who are somehow driven mad by their brushes with the Predator, they put them all in new casings, and then lock them away? Whatever for?! None of the Daleks in the ICU is in a casing from any of those stories, so why...? Just why?! And while we're at it, why have a Dalek Parliament at all? Isn't it all about blind obedience to authority, not sitting around and making laws? Why is Skaro back after being destroyed in Remembrance? Why would Amy and Rory break up over such a thing and then get all rancorous about it? Why do the duplicates now have those silly eye stalks sticking out of their heads - wouldn't that be a dead giveaway, so to speak? Great. Now we need to go into an asylum ourselves. Thanks, Doctor.
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
