It's the third episode of the new season of Doctor Who. In the first two episodes, Matt Smith has proven himself to be the Doctor, and no one can dispute this taking the role. Karen Gillian, his new companion of Amy Pond, proved herself a worthy companion in the second episode. This episode, "Victory of the Daleks", hits it's marks and follows the pattern first set up by Russell T. Davies with the revival of the series. And I guess I'm alright with it. Some consistency is good, but at the same time I'd hate for the series to get into a rut.

Just like every season before it, this season is following the patter of first taking the new companion to the future, and then they taking them to the past to meet some historical figure. In this episode, it's to meet Winston Churchill, during the blitz of London. Now, I wasn't bothered with the Doctor already knowing Churchill. It was a nice change to see him know a historical figure instead of always seeing him meeting them for the first time. He's traveled throughout Earth's history for a good amount of 900 years. You'd think he'd know some of the people of important. Though, the direct line to the TARDIS was a bit much.

In a fashion he's been showing all season, the Doctor shows up 2 months late, and is confronted with an old enemy; the Daleks. Dr. Bracewell claims to have created the Dalek, which he calls an Ironside, but the Doctor know better. He immediately tries to expose the Daleks for what they are, and in the process, falls into the Daleks trap. Two interesting things to note here. First, it's odd that Amy doesn't know what the Dalek is. After having the Earth dragged away, and then invaded by them in "Jouney's End", she should know exactly who they are. But she claims no memory of them. Is this related to the crack in her wall that's seems to be following them? The other is the anger and rage the Doctor shows once again. Just before he falls for the Dalek's trap, he takes a spanner and starts hitting the Dalek. It seems he's trying to provoke it, but just as much, he's really angry that this enemy he keeps defeating time and time again, that provoked the Time War that destroyed Gallifrey, that is responsible for billions of lives lost over the eons, just keeps coming back.

And I have to say, it's not something I was really looking forward to it. I knew it was inevitable that the Daleks would be back, they are in the promo wallpaper the BBC released for the new season. But, the Daleks have gotten rather tedious, as they have been the big bads for 3 of the last five seasons. You can see them be destroyed only to come back again only so many times before you start rolling your eyes. This episode was a lot like that for me. The whole point of the episode was just bring the Daleks back.

And not only do they come back, they are back bigger, badder, and in fashion colors! As I watched them roll out, I thought, "It's a rainbow of fruity flavors! The iDalek!" They are taller as well, but I don't my the belief that their larger size is so that they are the same height as companion Amy. Supposedly, when the Daleks were brought back by Davies, they were sized so that Billie Piper could look them in the eye (stock, so to speak). But the Daleks have always been the smaller size. I can't believe they would be made bigger just so Amy could as well. And do take a close look at the eyestock. It's got an actual eye now, and not just a light.

I can't say I blame Steven Moffatt for wanting to bring the Daleks back. They are popular in Britain, and it is a British show. With all the other reboots, the Daleks were sure to get theirs. What I do hope is that this is all we see of the Daleks for the rest of the season. Let them go wherever in time, and start to rebuild their fleets. There's already an overarching story arc going on, as the end of the episode showed. Just please, don't let it involve the Daleks. Moffatt comes up with such great baddies on this own. Every episode he wrote in the 9th-10th Doctor seasons were the best and always had original monsters. The Weeping Angels, the Vashta Nerada, the Clockwork Men, all Moffatt's creations and all fantastic. Even this season with the Smilers. Keep adding more great monsters to the Doctor Who pantheon, and let sleeping Daleks lie.

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