The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe & Asylum of the Daleks

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Bill Baily guest stars, albeit briefly.

Awesome spaceship at the start, it's downhill from there.

You know, Christmas specials. They are kinda Christmassy, right? And sometimes, not much else. This story was very average in my opinion. In fact, after a brilliant opening with the Doctor jumping off a space ship and some humorous back and forths between the Doctor and Madge Arwell,(played by Claire Skinner who does do a fantastic job) it teeters out into some sort of Christmas kids’s film. ‘A Christmas Carol’ was heading that way, but was still solid and I liked it. This time I have to admit to be very bored.

The highlight is Bill Bailey’s guest appearance. Pity it was so short and he did so little. It was Narnia-inspired and that’s pretty much what we got. Maybe for the youngest viewers it hit accord. But even the mention of ‘Androzani Major’ didn’t gain my interest. Crawling through boxes to get to other worlds because basically the Doctor is a magician. and yes, sure sometimes he is. And

the ending where they have saved the father, well that was rather emotional and well played. But the rest is an hour of kids and boredom. Sorry. Fail.

2/10

Asylum of the Daleks

Jenna Louise Coleman in a surprise appearance.

That's a lot of Daleks!

The seventh (new) series of Doctor Who begins with a major BANG! with ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, an

action-packed, Dalek-packed adventure which sees the Doctor, Amy and Rory sent down to a planet where the Daleks keep all the crazy Daleks in an asylum underground. It is also where nanobots are programmed to reconfigure people into ‘sort-of’ Daleks – where little eyestalks appear in their foreheads.

It’s very enjoyable and lots of fun, and also features Jenna Louise

A Dalek shaped building on Skaro.

Coleman as Oswin Oswald, trapped as a Dalek, the future companion of the Doctor in the biggest surprise that Moffat has manufactured yet, and kept spoiler-free somehow which was a major coup. Jenna is fantastic as Oswin, snappy, funny and looks to have the makings of a great companion, whilst Rory and Amy start the story by signing divorce papers as Amy is in the middle of a fashion shoot, which is frankly odd. Of course, love saves the day and

Wasn't so sure about this special effect.

they are back together by the end. And that works nicely, but the stuff at the start, it just doesn’t seem like Amy and Rory at all and when I saw it I thought it must be either a dream sequence or an alternative world to be honest.

Nevertheless. The story is really wonderful, exciting, and features a hell of a lot of Daleks. It’s a pity that most of the classic Daleks, especially the Special Weapons Dalek, don’t do anything. But Series 7 – or Series 7A is off to a cracking start and it looks very expensive. Which is always nice.

8.5/10