Asylum of the Daleks (TV story)

 was the first episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It was the first television story to prominently feature the Daleks since 2010's Victory of the Daleks.

Synopsis
Kidnapped by his oldest enemies, more powerful than ever, The Doctor is forced on a mission - to a place even the Daleks are scared of... the Asylum. A planetary prison confining the most terrifying and insane of their kind - The Doctor and ex-companions Amy and Rory must find a way to escape. But with Amy and Rory's marriage in meltdown, it is up to the Doctor to save his oldest enemies... and his friends' marriage.

Plot
On Skaro, a woman called Darla meets the Doctor in a huge Dalek statue. She asks the Doctor to save her daughter from a Dalek prison camp, and she says she escaped before. However, the Doctor realizes that this is all a trap: unbeknownst to Darla, she has actually been converted into a sleeper agent of the Daleks. Right as he says this, her programming becomes active, and she stuns the Doctor, and a Dalek saucer arrives.

On Earth, Amy Pond is posing for the camera when her secretary tells her that her husband wants to see her. She remarks that she doesn't have a husband anymore. She walks in to a makeup room, where Rory asks her to sign the divorce papers, joking that Amy was just "pouting at a camera". Once she has signed the papers, he leaves as Amy's make-up artist, Cassandra, enters. Unfortunately, it turns out she is also a Dalek puppet, and she teleports Amy away. Meanwhile, Rory gets on a bus, but the bus driver turns out to be yet another puppet, who in turn teleports Rory to the Daleks.

He wakes up in a cell with Amy, and looks through a small window to see they are in space, with an armada of Dalek saucers accompanying them, wondering how much trouble they are in. The Doctor then enters, escorted by a pair of Daleks, saying "Out of 10? 11." They are then taken to the Parliament of the Daleks, where the Doctor says it's finally Christmas for the Daleks because they managed to capture their greatest enemy. Much to the Time Lord's surprise, the assembled Daleks don't try exterminating him. Wondering for what other reason they could have captured him, the Doctor is met with a surprise; the Daleks want the Doctor to save them. "Okay, this is new."

The Daleks bring them to a planet they call the Asylum, a place that the Doctor has heard of only in legend; it's a place where the Daleks dispose of those of their kind who go wrong: the insane, the battle-scarred and the uncontrollable. The Doctor learns, to his disgust, that the Daleks didn't destroy their insane brethren because they find "Divine Hatred" to be beautiful. The whole planet is automated and surrounded by an impenetrable shield, but the Daleks have detected a signal of unknown origin on the planet: The Doctor traces the signal to a woman called Oswin Oswald, who has been hiding out on the remains of the crashed starliner Alaska for a year. The Doctor realises that when the Alaska crashed, it ruptured the planet's shield, leading to the risk of the inmates escaping. A planet's worth of insane Daleks roaming free is something that scares even the Daleks, who captured the Doctor to deal with the threat. The Daleks explain they kidnapped the Doctor's in-laws because their records show he is always accompanied by companions (though why THEM is left to question). Because the shield is still strong enough to resist an assault from orbit, the Doctor and his companions will be sent down to the planet to deactivate the shield so the planet can be "cleansed". The three are given protective bracelets so they will not be affected by the "Nanocloud" that surrounds the planet, and are unceremoniously sent down.

Amy is the first to come to after landing... And sees a man named Harvey in a white coat approaching her. Panicking, she runs away, with him chasing after her. The Doctor is next to come to, finding a Dalek eye watching him; Oswin has discovered visitors. Speaking to her via the radio, the Doctor decides to look for Amy and Rory first. Eventually, he and Amy run into each other, and the man, Harvey, reveals that he was a crew member of the Alaska. They decide to find Rory first, but the Doctor tracks the reading coming Rory to hole in the ground; Rory is below them, in the actual facility. Because they cannot get to Rory at the minute, the Doctor and Amy decide to help Harvey Reaching the ship, they discover the rest of Harvey's crew are dead, having decomposed into skeletons; the Doctor reveals to the confused man, who claims they were alive and well not two hours ago, that they have been this way for a long time (a year at least). However, matters get much worse when Harvey remembers he died as well; the cold preserved his body, but the nanocloud turned him into one of the Dalek puppets charged with keeping the Asylum running. With his programming activating, Harvey tries attacking the Doctor and Amy, but they quickly shut him into the storage unit of the ship.

While the Doctor rambles on about how the nanocloud will transform anything living or dead not protected by one of the Dalek bracelets will become one of the "staff", Amy points out the second part of his explanation; even the DEAD are converted... including the dead crew members surrounding them. As the decayed husks of the crew suddenly come to life, the Doctor and Amy flee to another part of the ship. However, the undead attackers grab Amy for a minute before the Doctor pulls her free and locks them out. They then notice, on the monitor, that the zombies have a bracelet; Amy's is missing, meaning she's in danger of becoming one of them. Oswin contacts the Doctor and Amy, informing them of a rope ladder leading down from the ship; it's the only way out now. Elsewhere, Rory awakes to find himself underground. Oswin contacts him and leads Rory through the facility, where several deactivated Daleks from many battles with the Doctors past incarnations litter the halls. Rory accidentally trips on a piece of metal, making a loud noise that awakens one of the Daleks. Oddly, it repeats "Eggs..." over and over again, making Rory think it wants the orbs that have fallen out of its casing; Rory offers one of the orbs to the Dalek in confusion. However, the Dalek's voice finally manages to unscramble; it's been trying to say "Exterminate." Rory runs through the room and locks himself in the teleport room on the other side. After Oswin makes flirty jokes, she tells Rory that she'll guide the Doctor and Amy to him. In the tunnels below the ship, Amy questions the Doctor about what will happen to her. The Doctor explains the Nanocloud will erase her memories, "replace her love with hate", and transform her into a Dalek puppet. Memory is the first thing to be affected, and worse, it's already begun; he's explained four times already. The Doctor encourages Amy to embrace fear to keep herself human; Daleks don't fear. They head for the exit, but upon hearing the Daleks outside the teleport room yelling "Exterminate", they're forced back. The Doctor asks Oswin how many Daleks ahead of them as Amy walks off; she sees people in the room ahead. However, the Doctor, having noticed her, informs Amy her perception is now being affected; she's looking at Daleks. A Dalek advances on them, identifying the Doctor. However, once the Doctor taunts the Dalek for having a damaged death ray beyond use, it simply activates its self-destruct program in the hopes of taking him with it. Instead, the Doctor sends it flying in reverse, straight into the other Daleks as it explodes.

Rory hears the explosion and leaves the teleport room to find several charred Dalek casings. Wondering who killed all the Daleks, Rory sees the Doctor carrying an unconscious Amy. With a smile, the Doctor rhetorically asks Rory, "Who do you think?" Once in the teleport room, the Doctor explains the situation to Rory, and discovers the teleport has enough power to get them back to the Dalek ship in orbit once the force field is down. Oswin points out that hostility, something Amy displayed by slapping Rory, is the first sign the conversion is becoming permanent. Amy jokes "Someone's obviously never been to Scotland," implying she's normally hostile. Accepting this, Oswin asks to be taken along, but the Doctor questions her about how she keeps getting the ingredients for her soufflés. His companions tell him to put the matter aside; they need to leave the planet before they lose Amy for good.

The Doctor then wonders how Oswin is not being affected by the Nanocloud, and learns that she used her genius to create shield to block it. Leaving Amy and Rory behind, the Doctor sets out to find Oswin, as she refuses to turn off the shield until they come to rescue her. Rory offers to give Amy his bracelet to keep her human longer; he claims it would take longer for the Nanocloud to transform him into a puppet. He reasons since it transforms love into hate, he would last longer because he always loved her more than she loved him, referencing the 2000 years he spent protecting her inside the Pandorica as an Auton. As they argue, it's revealed Amy has become sterile because of something the Silence did to her at Demons Run; while Rory thought Amy suddenly left him, in truth, she knew he had always wanted children, so Amy "gave him up" so he had a better chance at having them with someone else, saying her sacrifice in doing so was far greater than his two-thousand year vigil. They then realize the Doctor put his bracelet on Amy while she was out cold; being immune to the Nanocloud to begin with, he'd tricked them into working out their relationship problems. In the meantime, the Doctor reaches "Intensive Care"; it houses Daleks defeated in battles with his first, second, and third incarnations. Once the Doctor mentions they "survived" him, the Daleks (missing their guns) come back to life and corner him against the door leading to Oswin, intending to enact revenge. Luckily, Oswin hacks into Pathweb (the Daleks' shared information center), and erases all data on him, effectively making them forget the Doctor, and making the deranged Daleks quietly go back to their cells and go back to "sleep". The Doctor says it's impossible to hack the Pathweb; even he couldn't. Oswin invites him to meet the person who did. However, once the Doctor enters her room, he discovers, to his infinite sadness, Oswin is also a Dalek; the room she thought she was in only exists in her imagination. The Doctor explains the rope ladder he used to get into the facility was originally used by her when she was human; Owsin had been captured by the Daleks, and because of her genius, had been fully converted into a Dalek instead of simply made into a puppet. When Oswin refuses to believe him, the Doctor points out that she wouldn't have been able to get eggs and milk for her soufflés for an entire year because there'd be a limited supply. The shocking truth causes Oswin to remember her exploration of the facility, her capture by the Daleks, and her conversion. Repeating "Eggs", she reverts to a Dalek personality, yelling "Exterminate!" The Doctor yells for Oswin to regain control of herself, seemingly working as she is next heard crying. Content with her fate, Oswin tells the Doctor to remember her, explaining that the shield around the Asylum has been dropped. The Doctor thanks her, and - on her order - runs for his life.

In the teleport room, Rory wonders how long they can wait for the Doctor. Amy says for the rest of their lives and they kiss. The Doctor arrives and, despite being annoyed that Amy and Rory pick the worst times to kiss, activates the teleport.

On the Dalek Parliament ship, the Supreme Dalek reports that the destruction of the Asylum has been successful. However, the alarm goes off; a teleport from the Asylum has occurred, possibly meaning they are under attack. The Doctor's voice is heard over the loudspeaker, saying that he is very good with teleports before popping his head out of the TARDIS, calling the Daleks "suckers". They demand that the Doctor identify himself, shocking him; he tells them who he is, only to be met with confusion. The Daleks all then starts asking "Doctor Who?" Realizing that Oswin erased all data on him, not just for the Daleks in intensive care, but for every last one, everywhere, the Doctor laughs "You're never going to stop asking." With the Dalek race no longer remembering who he is, the Doctor leaves, dropping Amy and Rory off in Leadworth; Amy has taken Rory back.

In the TARDIS control room, the Doctor is laughing to himself about how the Daleks will never stopping asking "Doctor Who?", repeating the question himself several times, with joy, as he sets the TARDIS on course for his next adventure.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Oswin Oswald - Jenna-Louise Coleman
 * Darla von Karlsen - Anamaria Marinca
 * Cassandra - Naomi Ryan
 * Harvey - David Gyasi
 * Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
 * Dalek 1 - Barnaby Edwards
 * Dalek 2 - Nicholas Pegg

Daleks

 * The Daleks have a Prime Minister.
 * The Daleks refer to the Doctor as the "Predator of the Daleks".
 * The Daleks have the ability to turn people into their puppets, via the use of nanogenes. Time Lords are immune to this technology.
 * After Oswin hacks into the Pathweb, the Daleks forget who the Doctor is, shouting "Doctor Who?" in unison. This ties into the story arc, The Question, which the Doctor must answer at the Fields of Trenzalore. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)

The Doctor

 * The Doctor described himself as "the Oncoming Storm". He first referred to this title in DW: The Parting of the Ways.

Individuals

 * Amy is now physically unable to have children due to the events on Demons Run.

Foods and beverages

 * Oswin says she's been surviving in her crashed ship by baking soufflés; this troubles the Doctor, as she has no access to milk or eggs.

Music

 * The music played by Oswin Oswald is from the opera Carmen.
 * The Doctor claims to have played the triangle for the recording of "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" that is heard in the Parliament of the Daleks.
 * The music playing during Amy's photo-shoot at the beginning of the episode is Feel the Love by Rudimental ft. John Newman.

Planets

 * Skaro is the original planet of the Daleks, it still exists with the remains of a large Dalek-shaped building.

Transport technology

 * The Doctor brags that he has exceptional aim with teleports after he teleports himself and the Ponds into his TARDIS.

Story notes

 * The presence of Jenna-Louise Coleman in this episode was successfully kept secret, despite the episode having several preview showings prior to broadcast. After broadcast, Coleman and Moffat both issued statements thanking fans and the media for keeping Coleman's debut - months before her official first episode, the 2012 Christmas special - a secret.
 * This story premiered in Australia on the 's on-demand and catch-up service at 5.10am AEST; immediately following the UK broadcast. This was the first time Doctor Who had debuted on Australian TV in this way. A traditional free-to-air screening on ABC1 was followed on the 8 September.
 * This story marks the first appearance of a new title sequence. It contains the same music and time vortex animation as the sequence used for the two previous seasons, but the font of the opening credits and the style of the logo have changed. The sequence appears to have some colour adjustments as well - the vortex has hints of green, while the TARDIS itself is a slightly darker blue with vibrant yellow lighting emanating from the TARDIS windows. The footage also has less-sharp focus, casting a more dream-like atmosphere to the sequence.
 * The production team have confirmed that the title sequence for every episode in series 7 will have slightly different opening titles, including stylized versions of the Doctor Who logo. For this episode the logo appeared to have a bumpy texture, like that of the Dalek hemispheres.
 * A prequel was released on iTunes shortly before the release of the episode.
 * This episode was shown at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August, just as Let's Kill Hitler was last year.

Ratings

 * This story was initially seen by 6.4 million people in the UK.
 * It was watched by 1.555 million people in America, and became the most watched item on BBC America.
 * In Canada, a total of 620,000 people watched the episode on Space, and was the second most watched item on the cable.
 * On the ABC iView TV service, 75,900 people in Australia were recorded to have watched the episode.

Filming locations

 * The scenes on the Asylum surface were filmed during production of episode three, A Town Called Mercy in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain.

Production errors

 * The first Dalek Rory approaches inside the asylum has indicators on both sides from his perspective, but when the camera is behind the Dalek the light on the right hand side is missing.
 * The Doctor has a plaster on his finger that keeps disappearing and reappearing.
 * In the ending scene where The Doctor is in the TARDIS, you can see the overhead camera reflected in the glass floor next to the console.
 * When the Doctor, Amy and Rory are in the Dalek Holding Cell, the circular platform they are standing on lifts. on one shot, it shows them and the Daleks looking all around them - the Doctor is looking towards 'us' - but in the next shot, the Doctor is looking upwards into the Dalek Parliament.
 * When the Doctor says "It's Christmas!" in the Dalek Parliament, the shot shows bronze RTD era Daleks and a few Paradigm Daleks. Except the shot has been "mirrored", as indicated by the flipped positioning of the manipulator arms and gunsticks.
 * The wide shots of the Dalek Parliament do not match the close-up shots.
 * When Rory is being sent to the Asylum, upside down, he yells "Wrong way up!" twice. His mouth only moves to him saying "wrong way!"
 * At 10:52, all of the Daleks' eye-stalks follow the Doctor's movements. However, one of the bronze Daleks on the left side of the shot is shown simply looking up at the sky.
 * When Rory escapes the awakening Daleks, the position the Special Weapons Dalek is facing changes then in the next shot it is back to it's original position.
 * When Oswin makes her "you'll put someone's eye out" joke re: the Doctor's chin, there's a close-up of Amy stifling a laugh. Then it cuts to a wide shot with Amy out of focus in the background, and she's seen repeating the act of stifling the laugh.

Continuity

 * The Asylum is stylistically similar to the city in DW: The Daleks.
 * The Doctor's death is public knowledge across the Universe. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Rory mentions waiting outside a box for two thousand years. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * On the Dalek Asylum, Nanogenes turn people both living and dead into Daleks. The Doctor has come across nanogenes which altered humans into hostile creatures before. (DW: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances)
 * Various models of the Daleks from different points in the series are visible in the Asylum. These include many of the bronze, post-Time War Daleks, (DW: Dalek onwards) one Strategist Dalek and one or more Supreme Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm, (DW: Victory of the Daleks onwards) a Special Weapons Dalek, (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) several Renegade Daleks, (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) several of the earlier silver Daleks, (DW: The Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks) the grey wooden-looking Dalek models, (DW: Day of the Daleks to DW: The Five Doctors) and a black Dalek identical to Dalek Sec. (DW: Doomsday, Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks)
 * The Daleks in the intensive care section of the Asylum are survivors of encounters with the Doctor on planets such as Spiridon (DW: Planet of the Daleks), Kembel (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan), Aridius (DW: The Chase), Vulcan (DW: The Power of the Daleks), and Exxilon. (DW: Death to the Daleks)
 * The Doctor is seen on Skaro. The planet was last seen on-screen in Doctor Who (despite its destruction in DW: Remembrance of the Daleks). It has also appeared more recently in the Adventure Game City of the Daleks, in which it looks the same as it does in this episode, complete with acid rain.
 * The Doctor says that when the force field is taken down, the entire planet will get "explodey-wodey." (DW: Blink, The Doctor's Wife, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
 * The Doctor brags that he has exceptional aim with teleports after he teleports himself and the Ponds into the TARDIS. Rose Tyler had previously remarked that the Doctor was "good with teleports." (DW: Boom Town)
 * The chair Oswin sits in appears to be identical to the chair in Jenny's spaceship. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter)
 * The closing scene mirrors that of DW: The Wedding of River Song.
 * Dalek prison camps are mentioned, and the Doctor expresses some familiarity with them.
 * The Doctor's taunt to the Dalek about it being useless without a gun echos a similar line said by the Ninth Doctor in DW: Dalek.
 * This is not the first time that the Daleks request help from their most bitter enemy. (BFA: The Juggernauts)
 * This is not the first time the Doctor's chin has been the subject of amusement (DW: The Doctor's Wife).

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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