There’s nothing quite like to opening to a new season of Doctor Who for fans is there? And now with the third season under Steven Moffat’s (and to a certain extent RTD’s) stewardship, he’s also trained us as fans to expect a little something extra in the form of a puzzlebox to unwind over the course of a season.
This was especially the case in Season 6 which felt the weight of an ongoing arc from The Impossible Astronaut right through to The Wedding of River Song. In actual fact Moffat was using our (fans) own expectations as fodder to add to the mystery, as the Season 6 arc almost completely disappeared in the Autumn 2011 stories.
So now 8+ months after the last story, the Moff has already unfurled, and answered, another mystery. How in the heck was he able to keep Jenna-Louise Coleman’s part in Asylum of the Daleks a secret? Billie Piper’s part in Partners in Crime was a mere cameo compared to this. And since we know JL-C is coming back for a ‘proper’ introduction at Christmas, will she be a stealth Dalek then as well? Going into the anniversary year to have the Doctor actually traveling with a Dalek in some form would be irony indeed. Well played Mr. Moffat.
As for Asylum of the Daleks itself, it was a sumptuous story, chock-a-block with great images (deftly handled by director Nick Curran). After 2010’s Victory of the Daleks, which only felt tangentially like a Dalek story, Asylum of the Daleks was positively steeping in Dalekness in all of it’s design touches (windows, corridors, etc). That’s what should have given the game away on Oswin early enough, but it’s only on repeat viewing that this becomes obvious.
Moffat, Smith et.al are now 3 for 3 in season openers. Well done all around. As for images related to Asylum of the Daleks it’s a little more confused. THT Worldwide has been sitting on some images for months that we were sure would be part of the story, only to find out they weren’t and in fact might be a better fit for Pond Life. So we’ll hold onto them a little longer until this becomes clear. You might even see some Asylum images moving over there eventually.
Images and caps for Asylum of the Daleks are now online. And although slightly belated, caps for Pond Life are also online.
