[Spoiler alert – don’t read if you haven’t seen the episode]

I’m going to ask the question right now, no not that one, the other one: who was expecting Jenna-Louise Coleman, the new companion, to turn up 5 episodes early? I, for one, was certainly not, and can remember trying to franticly work out what was going on. Luckily though, my mind soon settled enough for me to actually engage in the episode.

Series 7 of revived Who kicks off in a spectacular fashion, entertainment wise. The Doctor, Amy and Rory have been kidnapped by the daleks and are sentto the Asylum, a dumping ground for mentally unstable daleks. There, they encounter Soufflé Girl, otherwise known as Oswin Oswald, a genius who survived a spaceshipcrash a year ago, and has been surviving on soufflés. But where did she get the milk?

The premise itself is fantastic, and the episode never ceases to entertain. However, when one delves a bit, the episode does start to fall apart.

Take Amy and Rory’s situation, for example. Since we last saw them, their marriage has fallen apart to the point where divorce is imminent. The cause: Amy’s infertility. This is apparently a side-effect of her stay at Demon’s Run, and is an interesting twist to her character. However, the entire sub-plot is handled incredibly poorly. For one thing, it is extremely unlikely that this couple would split over such a reason. Over the past two series, the audience has been shown time and time again how much Amy and Rory love each other –  Amy’s Choice, Cold Blood, The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang, The Doctor’s Wife and The Girl Who Waited are all good examples. Yet we are meant to believe that their relationship is over because of that fact. I know that infertility can cause real couples to split, but here it just doesn’t make sense – they already havea daughter! On top of this, all it takes for them to get back together is an adventure with the Doctor, and the chance to talk things over – something they should’ve done long before filing for divorce in the first place. Mind you, I did love Rory’s victory dance at the end!

I now turn to continuity errors. These aren’t that important to the episode overall, as several reasonable assumptions can be madeto explain them.

1)     Skaro was destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks,back in 1988. The Doctor (then played by Sylvester McCoy), reprogrammed the Hand of Omega to fly into Skaro’s sun, causing it to supernova, destroying the planet in the process. However, Skaro was seen briefly in the TV Movie (1996), with no explanation as to how it appeared. To top it all off, it was stated in Daleks in Manhattan (2007) that the planet was destroyed in a Great War (presumably the Time War). So how was it featured in this episode? The answer: the Skaro scene took place before it was destroyed. Simple, really.

2)     Back in Victory of the Daleks (2010), a new, ‘pure breed’ of daleks was created by using a progenitor device. The new, multicoloured daleks (which, incidentally, I like) proceeded to destroy the old, gold, ‘impure’ ones. So how are the gold daleks back in this episode? The answer:  the new daleks created more ‘pure’ ones, but for reasons best known tothemselves, placed them in the old dalek casings.

3)     This episode was publicised as featuring every dalek from every era of the show. Long time fans were looking forward to seeing 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and the Special Weapons Daleks in action. Sadly, this was not the case, as the classic daleks were only allowed brief cameos in the background. I only spotted around 5 or 6 in three viewings. This raises a question: When the Doctor enters the ‘Intensive Care Area’, which  houses daleks from previous encounters with the Doctor (Spiridon – Planet of the Daleks, Kembel – The Daleks’ Masterplan, Aridius – The Chase, Vulcan – The Power of the Daleks, and Exxilon – Death to the Daleks), why do all the daleks appear to be of the new series design? The answer: the daleks have given newe rcasings before they were put in the asylum, or were upgraded while in the asylum itself.

Let’s move now to the main twist of the episode – Oswin Oswald was a dalek. I don’t think anyone saw this spectacular twist coming, and it was a great way to round the episode off. There were tiny visual clues, such as the design of Oswin’s view screen, and of course, the Doctor’s question – where’d she get the milk? Jenna-Louise Coleman portrayed the part perfectly, and as Jenna will be playing the new companion, I can’t help wonder if we’ve just been treated to a 50 minute preview of her... Just one question though. Why did theDoctor, Amy and Rory hear Oswin’s human voice over the speakers, yet she spoke like a dalek when the Doctor met ‘her’ in person?

The regular cast continue to impress, with Karen Gillan giving one of her strongest performances. Matt Smith was amazing as usual, and Arthur Darvill gave a great performance throughout, particularly when delivering the comedy lines.

As for the daleks themselves, I must say that while I didn’t think that they were that scary in this episode, they were a lot more sinister and cunning than they have been in recent years. I also liked the dalek ‘puppets’; organic matter (living or dead) converted, via nanogenes, into a sort of human/dalek robot. While they didn’t really serve any purpose in the plot (apart from kidnapping the regulars and chasing them down a ladder), they were great in showing another level of dalek technology. The addition of the ‘Path Web’ (the dalek’s main source of information) was also welcomed. While I liked the daleks in this episode, one of my main problems with it is that it felt more like a regular episode with daleks tacked on, rather than a dalek episode. The daleks don’t really feature prominently; they’re more of a background menace, similar to the stone dalek in The Big Bang. I also had a problem with the ending of the episode.

One scene had the Doctor cornered in a doorway, waiting franticly for Oswin the not-yet-revealed Dalek to open the door while several daleks approached, waving their sink plungers menacingly. To buy the Doctor time, Oswin wipes the Doctor from the Asylum's Daleks' Path Web, causing them to forget him and retreat. However, it turns out that she actually caused all daleks to forget him. I don’t agree with this; the daleks are his greatest enemy, they can’t just forget him! What the producers have done is erase 49 years worth of Doctor/Dalek conflict in a single episode, making the daleks lose a lot of their character development in the process. It was even stated in the episode that “We [the daleks] have grown stronger in fear of you [the Doctor].”  That’s all I’ll say on the subject for now, but I must admit that the daleks forgetting the Doctor does tie in nicely with the universe believing that the Doctor is dead.

In conclusion, Asylum is a very entertaining episode, packed with thrills, humour and creepiness. However, the episode does have several continuity errors, meaningless drama, a less-than-appeasing resolution and a disappointing lack of classic daleks.

Overall, I rate Asylum of the Daleks:

 7 out of 10.

What do you think? Let me know in your comments below.