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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Victory of the Daleks”

That Winston Churchill was a bastard. A bastard, I say. First there was that foolishness at Gallipoli, then he tried to steal something from the Doctor. In addition to that, he authorized the use of a special secret weapon which will help Great Britain hold out against the Nazis, if not win the war. The weapon in question: Daleks.

Granted, this is an alternative history version of Churchill -- which might explain why the actor who plays him looks so little like the traditional image of Churchill nearly all American schoolchildren grew up seeing in our history books.

And this, of course, is an alternative history version of Doctor Who, whose writer dares to ponder the question: if use of the Daleks had been offered to Churchill during World War II, would he had accepted it? (Of course, I cannot help wondering what would have happened had the Daleks been offered to Stalin or Roosevelt instead, but then that is just me.)

Okay, I must confess at this point that I have gotten pretty sick of the Daleks. Yes, they were a memorable enemy in the first series, but they tend to be most effective when they are underused. The Daleks are supposed to be the Doctor's worst enemy -- so bringing them up every time one of the second series' writers is stuck for a story idea diminishes their impact.

Thus, while I found it neat to see Moffat and company stumbling across an alt history idea that has yet to be used by Harry Turtledove, it is hard for me to pretend that a whole lot happens in this episode beyond the opening sequence that was not predictable.

Will the Doctor confront the Allied Daleks? Yes, he will.

Will trouble come of said confrontation? Yes, it will.

Will the Daleks prove to have a secret plan? Are you kidding? The Daleks would not be Daleks if they did not have a secret plan.

Will the Doctor's assistant, Amy Pond, play a key role in defeating the plans of the Daleks? Of course.

I did think it was a neat touch that one of the characters in Churchill's military headquarters had a lady friend named Dorabelle. Is that Dorabelle as in Adora Belle Dearheart, the golem expert in Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series? Not necessarily but it would be a nice touch if it was. So let's pretend it is until we find out otherwise.

Edited to add: No, wait, the lady friend's name is Dorabella. Still close enough for government work, though.