Never Mind the Half-Empty Boxes All Over the Place...

'cause Doctor Who's back, y'all!!  Spoilers and review for "Asylum of the Daleks" below the trailer

A Personal Note: To say the past week has been crazy would be like calling Sheldon Cooper's a little bit smarter than average.  I've had the flu, I've had to pack up and move (more or less on my own, I might add) and I'm still not quite settled in to my new place.  Happily, I have tomorrow off, so I can take care of that some more as needed.  But I was more than ready for a new season of Doctor Who.  And "Asylum of the Daleks" did not disappoint.

As with any brand new Who, it takes some getting used to the fact that "Wow - this is really new stuff."  And even though it is a Dalek story, it's very different than traditional Dalek stories.  First of all, the Daleks are asking for help from the Doctor.  Which is just plain weird.  Also, this story reminded me in some ways of last year's "Let's Kill Hitler," in that the Daleks seemed secondary to the story even though they're in the title. It's more like Oswin (which, Jenna-Louise Coleman - WHAT?? I thought she wasn't going to be around until Christmas??? *insert "MOFFAT!!!" fist-shaking gif here*) was the main focus of the story.  The fact that she turned out to be a human-converted-Dalek was just... yeah it was there.

I got the feeling that they used the Daleks because they could use the old, dusty, cob-webbed models from Whovian Days of Yore that had been in storage and make it look like they were old, dusty, cob-webbed Daleks in the Asylum.  Hey, it worked.  I'm not complaining.  Way to come in under budget, guys and gals! *applause*

Amy and Rory - now I get why "Pond Life" was needed.  Beyond the whole "Hey, let's countdown to the premiere of new Doctor Who with these awesome little short episodes!" we did need to have a sense of all not being well in la casa de Pond.  This being Doctor Who rather than Days of Our Lives, I'm glad that they didn't dwell too much on the Ponds' marriage.  They spent just enough time on it to convey, yes there have been some issues off-screen and here they are and "HOSHIIII... THERE'S ANOTHER PSYCHO CRAZY DALEK, FOR THE LOVE OF RASSILON, RUN!!!!" Of course, I'm super-relieved that things turned out okay in the end and Amy and Rory get dropped back off at their cute little house-with-the-TARDIS-Blue-door at the end.  All is well in Pond-land.

(Maybe it's because I rewatched the pilot episode of Firefly last night, but do Amy and Rory remind anyone else of Zoe and Wash?  Even just a little?  They do me for some reason.  Just throwing that out there).

So... I have a question (no pun intended).  Was the Daleks screaming "Doctor...Who?" at the end just a nod to the end of last season, or is this going to be a running thing through this season?  I know Moffat said no more story arcs, but he also said that JLC wouldn't be around until Christmas and we all know that Moffat lies and I'm not putting anything past that cheeky old bugger.

And I'm being paged to come visit with my new roommates.  Plus, I think I've said everything I want to say.  I will now leave it to the wise and learned (and the podcasters) to continue the prognostication.

(damn, it feels good to be talking Who again.)