It is the year 1941, at the height of the London Blitz during World War II. The Germans invade England with a constant barrage of bombs and other means of warfare, while England remains in the dark, waiting out the invasions. England’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, seeing no other alternative, decides to wheel out the deadliest weapon that could either win them the war or wreak even more havoc...
After receiving a call from Churchill himself requesting aid in the war effort, the Doctor and Amy Pond career off in the TARDIS, back into the past. For Amy, it’s been increasingly overwhelming, first from jumping into the distant future in the previous episode, The Beast Below, to heading into events long past. For the Doctor, it appears that meeting Churchill is a reunion, after apparently meeting him several times before. As the title of this episode suggests, the Doctor, accidentally arriving one month after Churchill rang, realises that Churchill’s deadly weapon to take down the Germans is the exact same force that the Doctor utterly despises.
The first ten to fifteen minutes are spectacular – there is perfect pacing in the way the Daleks are revealed, how the Doctor reacts, and how the battle is taken up into space. In the beginning, the story has potential to be a two-parter, but then there are several tiny plots that unfold afterwards that come all jumbled together as the story must hastily draw to a close in a forty-some minute slot. As the story progresses, the pacing becomes erratic: slow at first, then ridiculously fast, then varying between the two, until eventually the dust settles, revealing the conclusion, and even that holds some mystery.
The role of the companion at first is very quiet: Amy simply just stands back and watches the Doctor in awe as he, oh how should I put this, shows off. He wants Amy to be his companion, and what better way to convince her to stay than to take her back to England’s past so she can experience it herself? Of course, Amy steps back into the limelight for a moment when the Doctor asks her to tell Churchill that the Daleks are bad news, and she just looks daftly confused. Surely Amy was alive when the Daleks invaded Earth multiple times during the Russell T Davies era, so she should have experienced the full might of the Daleks when they took over the Earth and moved the planet across the universe and all that. But no, something’s happened to Amy that makes her forget the existence of the Daleks. This in itself has the essence of another hidden plot that won’t be revealed until several episodes later.
Also, on the return of the Daleks: HOW?! I mean, yes, you can’t have Doctor Who without the Daleks, but the Doctor destroyed them all the last time they were involved. The excuses for each time the Daleks return are getting even more ridiculous. Although, their next excuse won’t be quite so frivolous, as they actually have a reason to return other than just “Oh, we need to have Daleks in every series.”
There are some very brilliant parts in this episode that make up for the jumbled storyline. Amy eventually plays a key part by helping sending Spitfires into space to aid the Doctor, and she plays a vital role in saving the Earth from a catastrophic demise constructed by the Daleks. The dogfight in space (also advertised in the series trailer) is quite literally awesome, because of the hint of a Star Wars reference and, come on, how many times will we see a space fight on Doctor Who? However, I’m not sure yet if I like the new Daleks. I suppose it will take some getting used to...
As for the mysterious crack in time, well, that’ll be for another day...
No comments:
Post a Comment