The Promise vs the Reality 6

Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks

This isn't a "Next Time" Trailer, strictly speaking. As the first episode of season 33, it wasn't yet made by the time it's preceding episode (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe) was shown. So the next best thing is the trailer that the BBC showed to remind viewers that Doctor Who would be coming back soon, and to encourage them to stay tuned so that they could see it.

Here's the trailer in question:



It starts with the Doctor, Rory and Amy in a room with two Daleks.
"Where are we?" asks Amy. "Spaceship, right?" Then they're in a room with lots and lots* of Daleks.
"Not just any spaceship - the Parliament of the Daleks," says the Doctor. I bet Dalek elections are more exciting than manny elections.

"THE ASYLUM MUST BE CLEANSED. THE PREDATOR OF THE DALEKS WILL BE DEPLOYED" says a Dalek (maybe the leader of the Daleks?) and I wonder what the "Predator of the Daleks" is, given that the Daleks don't acknowledge any species as being superior to them. Like cats.

In the next clip, Rory gets shot at by some Daleks. The Doctor says "I'm not a predator, just a man with a plan," so it sounds as if he is ruling himself out of being the "Predator of the Daleks." This is probably for the best as the Dalek mythologising of the Doctor has been taken far too far, with the result of diminishing the Daleks as a credible threat in the series. This is not a good thing.

"DOCTOR."
"DOCTOR."
Two Daleks are about to tell a joke, but the trailer is rightly saving the rest of the joke for the episode. I expect it's going to be a really funny joke.

There are explosions and shots of more Daleks, typical fare for a trailer to give an impression of exciting things happening. Something explodes in space - maybe a spaceship, maybe a planet, we don't know.

It cuts back to Rory. "Who killed all the Daleks?" he asks.
The Doctor is carrying Amy, who is having sleeps despite all the explosions. The Doctor, seemingly in reply to Rory's question, says:
"Who do you think?"

So, what did Asylum of the Daleks end up being like after all that?

Well, while the episode is shit because of its endless mythologising of the Doctor and diminution of the Daleks as a credible threat (yes, that is exactly what the "Predator of the Daleks" referred to), and while the episode keeps a bit more up its sleeve than the trailer reveals (the whole subplot with Oswin isn't featured in the trailer at all), the trailer is a pretty good indication of what to expect from the episode it is trailing.

Here's Duncan's review of the episode, if you're interested. Meanwhile, I have thought of a much better "Predator of the Daleks" than the Doctor. It's my friend Scary Cat.

* It is worth pointing out that most of the Daleks are the proper-looking Daleks, and not the shit new Daleks from Victory of the Daleks. Whatever happened to the claim made there that the new Daleks were the only 'true' Daleks? It's almost as though they realised what a terrible mistake they had made...