Doctor Who – Asylum of the Daleks – Season 7 Episode 1
*SPOILER ALERT*
The season 7 premier of Doctor Who gives us a ton of Daleks, romantic drama, a new friend and best of all – zombies! This exciting episode is one of the most exciting and delivers an almost cinematic experience.
The program opens on the planet Skaro, which is of course the home world of the Doctor’s most infamous foes, the Daleks. He has been summoned there by a woman and realizes too late that this mission is a trap as Dalek eyes burst from her face.
While this is going on super model Amy Pond is being interrupted in one of her photo shoots by her assistant, who tried to inform her that her husband has arrived. She briskly responds that she doesn’t have a husband just as Rory walks in with divorce papers. Amy signs them as fast as she can and Rory storms away leaving the audience to wonder what happened!
In the wake of this heart breaking encounter the previously unassuming makeup artist suddenly transforms into a Dalek just as with the Doctor. In the next shot the same thing is happening with Rory’s driver; the two then wakeup on a ship in space with the Doctor also present. With them is the prime minister of the Daleks who insists that the trio head to the Dalek asylum to lower the world’s force field. The problem for the Doctor and his companions is that the asylum holds the most dangerous and hateful Daleks.
In the next scene the audience is introduced to Oswin Oswald, an attractive female who happened to crash land near the Dalek parliament the year before. She has spent the past year hacking into the Dalek’s various systems (as well as baking soufflés and listening to classical music).She explains that she is being held captive and it’s their job to free her. Just as the Doctor asks her where she found the milk for the soufflés, she teleports then to the asylum where our adventure begins.
Right off Amy and the Doctor become separated from Rory, which gives them a few moments to catch up as they fight off Dalek 
zombies. The Doctor tries to give Amy advice and she retorts that he cannot fix her marriage like he fixes his bowties!
After the two escape Amy realizes that she has lost the only thing keeping her from becoming a Dalek zombie herself; a wristband. After a while she begins to lose her memory which could turn out to be a huge problem as they are trying to find their way.During all of this the bold Oswin is helping both Rory and the Doctor find their way around over the intercom, all the while flirting with both men. One the threesome are reunited they find themselves inundated with zombies. They fight them off until the Doctor cleverly finds a way to make one of them self-destruct with miraculously destroys all the rest. Now the Doctor goes off to find Oswin while the former Mrs. And Mr. Pond are left alone.
Rory argues with Amy, telling her to take his anti-zombie band because the zombie conversion, at least when it comes to Daleks, works by eradicating love and it won’t work on him since he loves her more than she loves him. She argues back telling him that he’s wrong and it’sher that loves him more. He reminds her that he waited two thousand years for her and she reminds him that she only left so he could have a chance to have kids (she is infertile).
As they are arguing they realize that both of them are in fact wearing the wristbands. The Doctor gave Amy his! In the next shot we see the Doctor fixing his tie as he walks away with a determined and satisfied look on his face. In the next scene he enters the ICU where the more fearsome and hate filled Daleks are kept. They obviously react violently, cornering him until Oswin hacks into their system and deletes any knowledge of the Doctor. He then quickly finds where Oswin is being kept as she is packing. As he strides in, mid-sentence (about to ask again about the milk) he stops and stares; he was expecting a pretty woman but is instead left facing an imprisoned Dalek!
We soon discover that when Oswin crashed the year before she had been converted into a Dalek. Thankfully she was clever enough to build an elaborate fantasy world which enabled her to fight the dreaded Dalek programming during her year of captivity. She then lets the Doctor continue with his mission.
When the Doctor returns to Rory and Amy he finds the two of them kissing. Oswin removes the planet’s shields allowing the Doctor to teleport the team back to the ship they were originally on.Just before the planet explodes into nothing Oswin turns to her camera and tells team Tardis that they will be seeing her again.
*Side Note – Oswin is played by the actress Jenna Louise Coleman who we all know is taking over for Rory and Amy as the Doctors new traveling companion during the next holiday special in December of this year so perhaps we already know how Oswin Oswald’s story ends, but time will tell*
Once the team is back on the ship and the asylum planet is no more, the three realize that the Dalek’s are confused. They chant “Doctor Who?” over and over and the team realizes that not only was the memory of Doctor Who removed from the Asylum Daleks, but it was removed from all Daleks!
At the end of the episode the Doctor drops Rory and Amy off at their home in London, England. The three of them share an awkward moment and with a sigh Amy turns and enters her house. Rory smiles triumphantly and follows her in.
Meanwhile Doctor Who takes the Tardis away, spinning and singing the phrase “Doctor Who?” to himself with a giddy laugh.
What were your thoughts on this episode and what are your feelings about a new traveling companion for the Doctor? Will you be sad to see Amy and Rory go? Let us know in the comments!
[...] Who fans were blown away by this season’s premier episode ‘Asylum of the Daleks‘ with its cinematic air and action filled adventure. We were perhaps a bit less than [...]