Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 3 - Victory Of The Daleks - Review

Starring: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Ian McNiece & Bill Patterson

Written By: Mark Gatiss

Directed By: Andrew Gunn

 

When Terry Nation created the Daleks, his thinking behind them was for the Daleks to essentially be Nazis from space. Since then, almost all of the Daleks' appearances in the show have proved this, with the metal pepper-pots consistently trying to racially cleanse the universe, and kill anything that isn't like them. But despite the Daleks being Nazis from space, they have oddly enough, never appeared in an episode set in WWII. Well, thanks to Mark Gatiss, all this is about to change, and the Daleks are about to cause havoc in 1941.

 

Carrying straight on from where the muddled mess, The Beast Below, finished off, the Doctor and Amy are summoned to the cabinet war rooms, at the height of the London Blitz, by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill claims ownership of a weapon that will allow him to win the war, but the Doctor is shocked to discover that this weapon is none other than the Daleks. The Daleks appear to be helping Churchill to end the Nazi threat, but the Doctor knows them all too well, and sets out to discover the Daleks' true intentions. 

 

Victory Of The Daleks is an episode I was looking forward to, mostly because Mark Gatiss, who wrote the superb episode The Unquiet Dead, is back in the writer's chair. I also loved the idea of a Dalek story being set during WWII, and couldn't believe it had never been thought of before. From the opening scenes, the WWII feel is brilliant and this episode really looks fantastic. The claustrophobic and tightly-packed cabinet war rooms look amazing, accompanied with some great direction from Andrew Gunn. The great backdrop and appearance of the episode make it all too sad that the inclusion of the WWII theme wasn’t incorporated more into the story, as it does become less prominent after the opening fifteen minutes. 

 

This episode also features an appearance from one of the Doctor’s old friends - Winston Churchill. If you’re going to include such a well-loved historical figure in your episode, you need to make sure that you have a great actor to play him. Thankfully, the wonderful Ian McNiece is in the role and he's fantastic. His arguments with the Doctor about the “Ironsides”, and Churchill’s worrying about how long he will be a beacon of hope for … just makes for excellent viewing. Ian McNiece makes his interpretation of Churchill fun to watch, with a great screen presence and good comedic timing. Alongside Ian McNiece as Churchill, we also have Professor Bracewell played by Bill Patterson. Bill Patterson has another brilliant character to play in this episode, and his scenes feel entirely natural. As for Bracewell himself, his character goes on something of a rollercoaster ride: Going from great pride, to manic depression, to somebody full of hope. However, his last scene of the episode is utterly charming and will definitely leave you smiling.

 

Once again, the Daleks are back and their role in the first fifteen minutes of this episode is fantastic. I really liked the "Ironside" design, and it fit in really well with the WWII setting. Seeing the Daleks going round offering cups of tea … you couldn't get more stereotypically British, but it's done in a fun way. Towards the end of the episode, you even see a slow-motion shot of the Union Flag being raised. Anyway, as for seeing the Daleks going round offering cups of tea, it makes for a nice change of pace. The last time we saw the Daleks in The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, they had a vast Armageddon of battle-ships, exterminating left, right and centre and preparing to destroy all of reality. To see them in an underground bunker serving cups of tea, truly shows how far they fell after their last defeat. But like the WWII setting, this aspect isn’t used enough. We only see the Daleks in this state for the first fifteen minutes, and it makes me think that this episode should have been a two-parter. The cliff-hanger could have even been the reveal of the new Progenitor Daleks.

 

While the Daleks are making people cups of tea in the war rooms, it’s interesting to see how both the Doctor and Amy react to their behaviour, in particular, the Doctor. We can see clearly from Mark Gatiss’s writing and Matt Smith’s performance, that the Doctor is terrified that the Daleks are going to reveal their true colours any minute. He starts off by snapping at people, even at Amy, but soon ends up fully assaulting a Dalek. The Doctor’s assault on the Dalek is also Matt Smith's best scene yet as the Doctor. Amy’s reaction to the Daleks also makes a nice change. Most companions’ first encounters with Daleks aren’t happy ones, but Amy is more sceptical of what the Doctor tells her. By now, have you noticed that most of the things I’m praising are in the first fifteen minutes of the episode? This is why the episode needed to be a two-parter, because these elements just weren’t built upon enough. The Daleks were back to their old selves all too soon.

 

Despite a lot of things to like in this episode, it'll unfortunately be remembered for the controversy it cooked up by introducing the new Progenitor Daleks. With the exception of younger audiences, almost everyone had something bad to say about the new Dalek design. Whether it be that they looked like they're made of plastic, that they're too colourful, they're too big and clunky or if it's the strange bumper part on the back, it seemed there was something to complain about. Here, I'm in the minority ... as I don't actually mind the new Daleks. Whilst I definitely prefer the old, bronze Dalek design, wasn’t everyone complaining that the bronze design was starting to get old? Hmm? In seriousness, I do prefer the old Dalek design but I don’t hate the new ones. The new ones are much taller, so they’re more physically imposing, the new colourful design will be more appealing to younger audiences, and the colour-coding for each Dalek is a nice throwback to the Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies. I also like the idea of each new Dalek having a different job: White (Supreme), Red (Drone), Blue (Strategist), Orange (Scientist) and the Yellow (Eternal). However, the big problem with these new Daleks, isn't anything to do with their physical appearance, it's the number of people they kill. For five Daleks, I counted a grand total of two humans killed. Cast your minds back to the 2005 story Dalek, and one single Dalek managed to kill 200 people. This episode could've cast the viewer's mind off such a re-design if they'd done more to prove themselves. They might try and destroy the Earth with an Oblivion Continuum bomb, but it never actually happens. That being said, the Daleks fighting with the Spitfires was such a fantastic and fun sequence.

 

The title of this episode is later revealed to be accurate, as for the first time, the writers have decided to let the Daleks actually defeat the Doctor. (Spoiler Warning!) Although the Doctor saves the Earth from being destroyed, the Daleks escape, where they can re-build their race (AT LAST!). Whilst I love the fact the Daleks actually got to win for once, the Doctor’s reaction to their victory was underwhelming. The Doctor is suddenly told that the Daleks have escaped, they’ll rebuild their race and become stronger than ever. Rather than hopelessly go looking for them through space, he just shouts a couple of times, and ... doesn't really do anything else. Oh well ...

 

To round up, this episode seems to have received very mixed reviews from a lot of people. Some people have said it’s brilliant, others think its dreadful. In my opinion, there is a good episode here, but if it had been a two-parter and showed the new Daleks actually being more like Daleks, it would have been brilliant! However, the episode we do have has a great supporting cast, superb lead performances from Karen Gillan and Matt Smith, and the Daleks have a refreshingly different method of conquering and achieving victory. Despite its problems, this is still a solid story that’s enjoyable to watch.

Victory Of The Daleks



7/10