ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
This is a story that promises so much in its first half and
somehow seems to throw it all away in the second. The camouflage Daleks working
for Churchill during World War II are super, Ian McNiece is excellent as
Churchill and the idea of the Daleks slowly working behind the scenes is also
good. Then we get big fat silly M&M Daleks who are supposed to be super
powerful but don’t do anything and ridiculous Spitfires flying through space.
It’s quite annoying in many ways.
The Doctor and Amy are recalled to Earth during World War II
by Winston Churchill. The Doctor, though, arrives late and so Churchill uses
the inventions of Professor Bracewell (Bill Paterson) – so called ‘ironsides’,
tank-like creatures equipped to win the War. The Doctor immediately recognises
the Daleks and his presence on Earth is transmitted to a Dalek ship in orbit
which contains a device known as a Progenitor which somehow the Doctor has
activated by telling the Daleks of his presence.
Bracewell is revealed to be a robot and the Doctor, leaving
Amy on Earth, travels to the Dalek ship where he threatens to destroy the
Daleks. However, the new Paradigm Daleks emerge from the Progenitor – bigger,
brighter and more powerful than the existing Daleks. They destroy the old style
Daleks and threaten to destroy London.
Using stolen Dalek technology, Churchill and Bracewell who
is rebelling against his programming, create space-worthy Spitfires with laser
weapons which begin to attack the Dalek ship. However, the Daleks have placed a
bomb inside Bracewell and they force the Doctor to abandon the attack. The
Daleks leave and Amy manages to persuade Bracewell not to explode and the time
travellers remove all the alien technology so that Churchill cannot use it.
Much of the issues with this story come in the second half,
the new super Daleks look cheap and although they shout a lot and tell us they
are all powerful, they don’t actually do much and then they disappear never to
be seen again. The Spitfires in Space sound like a great idea but actually they
come across as silly, essentially a nice idea that doesn’t quite work out.
All the bits with Churchill and his ironsides is great,
echoing Troughton Dalek stories where the metal meanies are more cunning than
typical but at the end of the day the whole storyline here gets forgotten a bit
when you reach the Dalek ship which is a pity.
Acting wise, the main characters are all great; Matt Smith
continues to impress – love the bit where he threatens the Daleks with a jammie
dodger! Ian McNiece is super a Churchill, pitching it just right between
cliched Churchill and spinning his own version of such a well known figure. The
relationship between Bracewell and Amy is well done and does end up being a
strong plot point.
So, all in all this story has a lot to recommend it, but
ends up squandering it with a throwaway things at the end that are supposed to
be a big climax but work in exactly the opposite way.
NEXT UP: THE TIME OF ANGELS / FLESH AND STONE
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