Doctor Who Review - Victory of the Daleks

Warning - The following contains spoilers for Doctor Who S5 Ep3, "Victory of the Daleks". It will air in America on May 1st. If you have not seen it, and do not wish to be spoiled, do not read the following.








Did I miss something? Did I forget to take my weekly trip to England last week, and miss part one of this clearly two-part episode? I mean, I don't remember any of that stuff setting up the episode from the previously on.

What's that? That WAS the setup for the episode? There WAS no part one? You're kidding right?

So... This episode was good. Don't get me wrong, it was a good episode. It's just... It felt like the second half of a two-parter. I mean it had enough content for two episodes. The result of squeezing it all into one episode just made it feel... Sloppy. It made it feel rushed. That's actually something I've noticed about all 3 episodes of the season so far. Matt Smith is so happy to do his impression of David Tennant talking very fast, that he forgets the other part where he speaks at reasonable speeds.

I know it sounds like I'm hating on Matt Smith, but that's not true. I don't hate him, he was really good in episode one! In episode one, it made sense he was still channeling David Tennant, because he had just changed. Heck, in "The Christmas Invasion", the first Tenth Doctor episode, Tennant was channeling some Eccleston. But he doesn't seem to be stopping.

I don't know, I felt a little let down by this episode. Maybe my expectations were a bit too high, but it just felt rushed! If it had been a two-parter, it should have had a setup like this:

Episode 1:

Doctor arrives, meets Churchill.

Churchill shows doctor the Ironsides. Doctor freaks out.

Doctor spends half an episode trying to convince Churchill that the Ironsides are actually aliens, and suspects the guy who made them to be working with the Daleks.

Subplot where Amy meets that one lady who was crying at the end, and they talk about how her boyfriend is flying over London. Amy goes through that "What am I doing here" moment every companion goes through. (Rose went through it in S1 Ep2 "The End of the World", Martha went through it in S3 Ep3 "Gridlock", Donna went through it in S4 Ep2 "The Fires of Pompeii")

The Doctor gives his "I AM THE DOCTOR, YOU ARE THE DALEKS" speech, they port up to spaceship, the guy who made them is revealed to be a robot. End of episode one.

Episode 2:
Pretty much exactly how the real episode is set up, with a few minutes of filler content to make up for the first ten minutes which are now the whole first episode.

If the episode had been set up like that, it just would have been more enjoyable overall! It's a shame too, because it was a good episode. But it could have been a great two-parter.

Ah well, at least the next episode is a two-parter about the WEEPING ANGELS. I really hope to see the Weeping Angels become a recurring villain on the show.