For the first time in more than half a dozen episodes, a “Doctor Who” script comes to audiences that doesn’t have the name “Russell T. Davies” or “Steven Moffat” flash up on a screen as one of the principle writers for the story. Mark Gatiss returns to the show with a solid script that leans heavily on the long history of the show in such a way as to pay homage to the obsessive long-time fans like myself while still being accessible to fans who may have only joined the party since the show came back five years ago.
“Victory” takes us back to the days of the Patrick Troughton era where we saw a different kind of Dalek script. The two installments from the Troughton years gave us Daleks that were cunning, manipulative and had an agenda for things beyond just universal domination and exterminating all the lesser races. The first ten or so minutes of “Victory” calls on the two stories from that era with ease as we see the Daleks serving humanity in an attempt to help the British win the second World War. After being summoned by Winston Churchill, the Doctor suspects there is something more to the Daleks than just wanting to help win the war and serve tea, a thread notably highlighted by several scenes with Daleks in the background where they seem to be paying far too much attention to what the Doctor is saying.
However, no one will believe the Doctor that the Daleks aren’t humanity’s new found ally, not even Amy who has no memory of the Daleks. (She should in the universe of new “Who” given the events of “Journey’s End.”)
The Doctor is finally able to push the Daleks into revealing their true agenda and sets their end-game in motion.
If that sounds like a lot is happening in the episode, it is. And that’s all before we reach the 15 minute mark of the story. “Victory” is a story that moves along at a frentic pace, rarely slowing to catch its breath. After a year of extra-long specials and padded out stories, I found myself wishing for a moment we had a bit longer for the Doctor to suspect the Daleks and possibly begin to doubt himself in his questioning of their motives or to have some time for things to sink in. Instead, we get a story that moves from big moment to big moment in the first half hour before settling down with a quiet finale that still left some huge plot threads hanging (and I’m not just talking about the crack in the wall that is following the TARDIS crew).
But even given the high-pace and energy of the show, “Victory of the Daleks” is still the best use of the Doctor’s longest-running enemies since “Dalek” in 2005. The story captures the old-school nuances of the Daleks with the new-school sensibility we’ve seen and makes the Daleks scary and worthy adversaries for the Doctor again. The script shows that there are still new, interesting things that can be done with the Daleks and Gatiss shows that the series can include the pepperpot monsters each year without it feeling like they’ve shoe-horned in an obligatory Dalek episode so the new series won’t have to re-negotiate the rights to use the monsters.
It will make you wish you could see “Power of the Daleks” and “Evil of the Daleks” again just to see the manipulative nature of the Daleks in the old-series. However, both stories are lost to the ravages of time. Until then, I guess we’ll have to make do with re-watching “Victory.”
It was on OK episode IMHO. Not great, not bad, but OK. My biggest beef with it really was the whole Mighty Morph’n Daleks that were revealed. I am not big on their redesign with the bright colors and larger bases, it really makes them look less menacing, though I did like the new domes. Amy’s not knowing about the Dalek’s was interesting as well, and makes we wonder if she is another Donna “never looking up at the right time” Noble, or if those cracks in the universe allowed the doctor to slip into another one. Should be interesting to see where this leads, but the new Daleks just look very cheap to me.
Wasn’t a redesign, the colour daleks come from the old 1960’s movies staring Peter Cushing. Very cool reference!.
David, it was a redesign. Not the colors, but the shape itself is new.
The episode was definitely a step down from the previous two; for one thing, I reckon it was filmed before “Eleventh Hour” and “Beast Below”, because Smith and Gillan seemed like they were still settling into their roles. You’re right that Churchill never felt important, and initially I had very critical of the Daleks, who were just not scary. But then I rewatched, and I realised that even though they’re not scary, this is the most *dangerous* they’ve been in years and years. Michael is absolutely right in that they’re sneaky, and they have a plan, and they take a leaf out of the Doctor’s book by taking what they know about him and turning it against him. Mighty Morhpin’ Dalek Ranger costumes aside, this is the beginning of a new era for them. I just wish it had been a more auspicious episode.
I’ve not liked a Dalek episode since the series was rebooted, but among their number it was the least annoying so there is always that. No pig people either. That deserves a cheer. And there was a jammy dodger (because the Doctor was promised tea). It had it’s moments, but the best thing about it was definitely the trailer for next week. The thing to remember about the Moff era is that we still got the same B Team writers to get through. Can’t have a “best episode ever!” every episode.
Oh, come on. Spitfires flying around in space? Ugh.
Sneaky, manipulative Daleks are nothing new….if we could see Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks, you’d see that.
There are two ways the Daleks were written in the old series….as exterminating machines bent on universal domination and as the sneaky, plotting Daleks we saw in Power and Evil. As an obsessive fan, I’ve listened to the audio releases of both stories and read the novelizations. (I’ve also seen the fan reconstructions). I weep that both stories are gone from the archives and we don’t have a chance for modern fans to see them.
I realize that I’m in the minority on loving this episode, every last second of it. To me, it’s the best of the three so far.
I liked it. My problem with the Spitfires in space wasn’t them being in space but the time to prep them. Though the concept is very cool. I hope next weeks Angels episode doesn’t have a choice that needs to be made and Amy inputs the opposite emotional response of the Doctor’s as the resolution.
I think that the reason the episode felt a bit off was because, and this is only a rumour, it was a script from the RTD/Tennant series. Gatiss wanted a ww2 ep with the daleks but there wasn’t time so he rewrote some of it to fit to the new series.
Yes! Exactly! @mymatedave, you hit the nail on the head: this script felt like something written for Tennant rather than Smith. Especially in some of the Doctor’s lines on the ship, he was saying things that Ten would normally say.
Daleks are easily the weakest part of New Who.
I can’t stand the fact that they’re shouting all the time.
It was okay, but I’ve noticed (and been bothered by) Dr. 11 doesn’t introduce Amy to anyone. That skirt should have at least raised an eyebrow during the blitz.
Dr. 11 seems to be having a hard time adjusting. He can’t keep the TARDIS in the right time, he jumps to bad conclusions without thinking, and he hasn’t clicked with Amy yet. Sure, there are moments, but I still think there’s a rift. I wonder if they know how to write a companion that isn’t a love interest.
I found this to be the weakest episode so far (even though we’re only 3 episodes into the season).
The dramatic elements in the story just never grabbed me. I also somewhat didn’t like how Winston Churchill knew the Doctor, let alone the fact that he could call the Doctor on a special phone in the TARDIS. That sort of stinks of “bat phone.” What’s next? A special beacon that they can flash into the sky and the image will carry throughout the space/time continuum? Bleh!
The dogfight in space was dreadful. All it did was further turn me away from the overall episode. In short, we were given a story which really did nothing more than to serve as a vehicle to bring the Daleks back permanently. While I like the idea of them being back instead of using clever plot devices to bring them back, and subsequently destroy them time and again, I felt that the episode just didn’t have enough emotional weight to make their return give any sense of doom. By the time the new Daleks had appeared all I could say was… “meh!”
I kept expecting to hear a guard say “Hey, isn’t that a blond girl wearing a Union Jack T-shirt hanging from one of the Dirigibles over there, next to the guy standing in mid-air?”