Asylum of the Daleks (TV story)

Asylum of the Daleks 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, following their deliberate side-lining.

	[[doctor::Eleventh Doctor]]
	Amy, Rory
	Daleks
	The Dalek Asylum
	Steven Moffat
	Nick Hurran
	Marcus Wilson
	225
	1 September 2012
	50 minutes
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	Pond Life

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 the devastated planet of Skaro, a mysterious female talks of a man who would be capable of stopping the Daleks, but he has supposedly died. She has recently contacted him, but no word has returned.

A silhouette of a man is seen approaching her and is recognised as the Doctor. He is surprised that she was able to make contact with him. She announces herself to be Darla and that she's looking for her daughter, Hannah, who was callously taken from her and kept hostage. Darla explains that she was able to escape the Daleks grasp, which the Doctor is unable to understand. He soon realises that she is not who she appears to be. A Dalek Eyestalk appears from her forehead and she extends her hand towards him, which appears to be a Dalek gun. She shoots the Doctor who is sent flying back and hits the ground.

On Earth, Amy Pond is interrupted during her modelling shoot by a man. He claims that her "husband" is waiting for her. Amy angrily complies to seeing him and finds Rory Williams sitting in one of the make-up seats. He requests that she sign divorce papers. Reluctantly, she does so and Rory leaves without another word. Amy's make-up artist arrives, but turns stiff as a Dalek Eyestalk protrudes from her forehead and kidnaps Amy.

Rory embarks a bus outside. The bus driver looks at Rory from his mirror and an Eyestalk appears from his forehead and takes Rory too.

Rory wakes up in a circular room with Amy and when looking out of a thin window, finds Dalek saucers. He believes that they are in trouble. The Doctor enters the room escorted by a golden Dalek, and the platform they are standing on begins to rise. When it finally stops, they find themselves in the centre of a huge auditorium of some kind, with a large number of Daleks watching them. The Doctor announces that they are present within the Parliament of the Daleks.

Inside a spaceship cock-pit, a female human is playing music in order to ignore the sound of the Daleks trying to enter.

The stunned Doctor, Amy and Rory await the Daleks' battle chant, but are greeted with a puny 'Save Us', which is then repeated by every Dalek in the giant space. The Dalek Prime Minister requests the Doctor's presence to consult something. The Doctor is told by Darla to step forward. The Dalek Prime Minister explains the Daleks' predicament. They wish to destroy the Dalek Asylum, which the Doctor recognises as being the dumping ground for trouble-making Daleks who have malfunctioned or become insane. The Prime Minister is hopeful that the Doctor will turn off the Force field, which is surrounding the planet in order for them to complete their task.

Suddenly, music starts to blare through the Parliament and the Daleks become scared by it. The Doctor acknowledges a woman's voice and finds that she is stranded on the planet. Her name is Oswin. The Doctor tries to explain that he would be going down to the planet.

The Doctor feels forced to oblige as Darla places a wrist-band around his wrist, which is supposedly protection from the Hive Mind of the Daleks. When Amy and Rory are equipped with one, they realise that they are to join the Doctor to complete the mission. They are pushed into a Gravity beam and sent rushing down to the planet's surface.

A stranded human on the Alaska watches from his position as the gravity beams land nearby. He finds Amy in the snow, who is slightly dazed. Finally waking up, she begins to search for the Doctor.

Rory, meanwhile, has fallen underground in to the asylum itself. He finds himself in a room full of Daleks, seemingly unresponsive Daleks. He accidentally awakens some of its inhabitants, but is saved and guided to a safe room by Oswin, who has accessed the computers. Meanwhile Harvey is revealed to be a Dalek puppet, converted by the nanogene field. A similar fate has befallen the corpses of other Alaska survivors, who re-animate and attack the Doctor and Amy, stealing her nano-field bracelet just before the pair are saved by Oswin and guided to Rory. Now unprotected from the nanogenes, Amy begins to be converted into a Dalek puppet and begins experiencing memory loss and hallucinations.

The Doctor realises that the Daleks will destroy the planet as soon as he deactivates the force-field, before they can escape. However, he realises that Rory's hideout is a telepad via which they can teleport onto the Dalek Parliament ship. Oswin agrees to deactivate the force-field in return for the Doctor coming to save her. While the Doctor is gone, Rory reveals that he still loves Amy - trying to trump her by reminding her of his 2,000 year wait during "The Pandorica Opens", she sadly replies that she still loves him but "let him go", since she is infertile as a result of the events of "A Good Man Goes to War" and thus unable to bear the children he desired. At the end of the argument, they realise that the Doctor has given Amy his nano-field bracelet.

The Doctor finds to get through Oswin he has to go through the intensive care section, containing Daleks who survived him. They begin to re-activate, but he is saved from them by Oswin, who deletes the Doctor from the Daleks' collective, telepathically shared knowledge, leaving them with no memory of him. The Doctor enters Oswin's chamber only to discover to his horror that she has been fully converted into a Dalek. Unprotected from the nanogenes and the insane Daleks for nearly a year, she could not prevent herself from being converted in order to preserve her genius-level intellect for Dalek use. Unable to cope with her conversion, her mind retreated into an illusion of survival as a human which was picked up as the Carmen transmission. But Oswin still possesses human loyalties and fulfils her promise of deactivating the force-field.

The Doctor returns to Amy and Rory and teleports them back to inside his TARDIS on board the Parliament ship as the planet is destroyed, where the Daleks on board fail to recognise him due to his removal from their hive intelligence. He leaves the ship and drops the reconciled Amy and Rory back home. He then departs alone, as he revels in the Dalek Parliament's question to him - "Doctor who?".

Cast

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

Crew

Executive Producers   Caroline Skinner and Steven Moffat

Written by Steven Moffat	Produced by Marcus Wilson	Directed by Nick Hurran	Director of Photography Neville Kidd	Production Designer Michael Pickwoad	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Barbara Southcott	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Howard Burden	Edited by Jamie Pearson	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales  •  Conducted and orchestrated by Ben Foster  •  Recorded and mixed by Jake Jackson   Daleks created by Terry Nation

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Script Producer - Denise Paul Line Producer - Diana Barton Production Manager - Phillipa Cole Location Manager - Nicky James Unit Manager - Geraint Williams Production Co-ordinator - Claire Hildred Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Gabriella Ricci Production Assistants - Rachel Vipond, Samantha Price Production Secretary - Sandra Cosfeld Production Accountant - Jeff Dunn A/Production Accountants - Rhys Evans, Justine Wooff Script department Assistant Script Editor - John Phillips Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Fay Selby 2nd Assistant Director - James DeHaviland 3rd Assistant Director - Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch Assistant Director - Danielle Richards Script Supervisor - Steve Walker Camera Operator - Joe Russell Focus Pullers - James Scott, Julius Ogden Grip - Gary Norman Assistant Grip - Owen Charnley Camera Assistants - Meg De Koning, Sam Smithard, Cai Thompson Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Stephen Slocombe Electricians - Bob Milton, Gareth Sheldon, Matt Wilson	Art department Supervising Art Director - Paul Spriggs Art Director - Lucienne Suren Assistant Art Director - Richard Hardy Art Department Co-ordinator - Donna Shakesheff Production Buyers - Charlie Lynam, Adrian Greenwood Petty Cash Buyer - Helen O'Leary Set Decorator - Adrian Anscombe Set Dresser - Jayne Davies Graphic Artist - Christina Tom Graphic Designer - Chris Lees Standby Props - Phill Shellard, Helen Atherton Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Standby Rigger - Bryan Griffiths Props Master - Paul Smith Props Chargehand - Bernie Davies Dressing Props - Mike Elkins, Ian Griffin Props Driver - Gareth Fox Props Makers - Penny Howarth, Alan Hardy, Jamie Thomas, Tom Belton Construction Manager - Terry Horle Construction Chargehand - Dean Tucker Graphics - Peter Anderson Studio Costume department Costume Supervisor - Carly Griffith Assistant Costume Designer - Fraser Purfit Costume Assistants - Katarina Cappellazzi, Gemma Evans	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Artists - Sara Angharad, Vivienne Simpson, Allison Sing Prosthetics - Millennium FX Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Crispin Layfield, Gordon Seed Casting Casting Associate - Alice Purser General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies Assistant Editor - Becky Trotman On-line Conform - Mark Bright On-line Editor - Jeremy Lott Special and visual effects VFX Editor - Joel Skinner Colourist - Mick Vincent Sound Sound Recordist - Deian Llŷr Humphreys Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Sound Maintenance Engineers - Ross Adams, Chris Goding Dialogue Editor - Darran Clement ADR Editor - Matthew Cox Sound Effects Editor - Paul Jefferies Foley Editor - Jamie Talbutt

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

Biology

• Amy says that because of what was done to her at Demons Run she can't have any other children.

Daleks

• The Daleks have a Prime Minister.
• The Daleks refer to the Doctor as the "Predator of the Daleks".

Individuals

• Amy can no longer have children due to what happened on Demons Run.

Music

• The music played by Oswin Oswald is from the Opera Carmen.

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

• This story premiered in Australia on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's on-demand and catch-up service iView 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 followed on the 8 September.

Ratings

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Filming locations

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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.
• Watch out for the Doctor's finger in a plaster as he grabs Amy's wrist when saving her from the zombie Daleks.

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)

A special weapons Dalek.

• Various models of the Daleks from different points in the series are visible in the Asylum, mostly in the background. These include many of the gold, post-Time War Daleks, (DW: Dalek onwards) a Supreme Dalek of the New Dalek Paradigm, (DW: Victory of the Daleks onwards) a Special Weapons Dalek, (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) a Renegade Dalek, (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks) several of the earlier silver Daleks, (DW: The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks) one of 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 (1996) (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 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)

Home video releases

DVD releases

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Blu-ray releases

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External links

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Footnotes