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"If there&amp;#039;s a buzzword for the long-awaited seventh series of Doctor Who, it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;blockbuster&amp;quot; - showrunner Steven Moffat has made it clear that he wants each of the show&amp;#039;s five 2012 episodes to resemble an epic feature film. That intention is made clear from the opening seconds of &amp;#039;Asylum of the Daleks&amp;#039;, which opens with a wonderful sweeping shot of a mammoth Dalek effigy, firmly establishing a cinematic feel from the get-go. The episode&amp;#039;s opening sequence as a whole is brilliantly moody and affords Matt Smith the opportunity to explore the darker side of his Time Lord role - this sullen, almost bitter Doctor perhaps providing us with a glimpse of how the character might be were he permanently bereft of companions. All that, a fan-pleasing name-drop (Skaro!) and the sudden jolt of Amy and Rory&amp;#039;s divorce - it&amp;#039;s a hell of a reintroduction to the UK&amp;#039;s favourite sci-fi drama, but &amp;#039;Asylum&amp;#039; doesn&amp;#039;t slow down or scale back in the 40-odd minutes that follow. Instead, the episode just gets even bigger and better. But since we&amp;#039;ve mentioned the Amy and Rory sub-plot, we&amp;#039;ll get one of our (few) criticisms out of the way now - the dissolution of the Ponds&amp;#039; marriage is, if we&amp;#039;re being honest, a little difficult to buy.   The problem is that there&amp;#039;s simply not enough time to do the idea justice in a single episode. We only hear about - rather than witness - the actual break-up and the whole affair is (seemingly) resolved entirely within this single instalment. That said, the resolution itself is impressive - throwing an issue like Amy&amp;#039;s inability to have children into the middle of a fun action-adventure could have backfired, but this rather dark topic is sensitively handled by Moffat and the resulting scenes are deftly performed by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. But back to the episode&amp;#039;s opening and specifically that shocking post-titles sequence. Hats off to all involved in producing and promoting Doctor Who - they did a remarkable job in concealing Jenna-Louise Coleman&amp;#039;s appearance in &amp;#039;Asylum of the Daleks&amp;#039;. We imagine fan jaws dropped across the country as the companion-to-be appeared on screen almost four months before her expected Christmas debut.  Here, Coleman isn&amp;#039;t playing &amp;#039;Clara&amp;#039; as speculated but flirty genius Oswin, who - to blow our minds still further - doesn&amp;#039;t even make it out of the episode alive. Moffat has us hook, line and sinker - we can&amp;#039;t wait to see what timey-wimey twist will be employed to explain Coleman&amp;#039;s return on December 25. Regardless of who she&amp;#039;s playing, it&amp;#039;s clear from her first scene that the 26-year-old Titanic actress is a fine addition to the Doctor Who cast - her debut performance runs the gamut from funny to incredibly moving to - cool it, fanboys - sexy. We love her already. The big Oswin twist (&amp;quot;Where d&amp;#039;you get the milk?) is again pure Moffat - a seemingly throwaway gag that turns out to have huge dramatic importance is a trick that he&amp;#039;s used before, but it&amp;#039;s so damn effective each time, and the revelation of her tragic fate is a wonderful moment. Credit of course to Moffat and Coleman, but also to one of this show&amp;#039;s unsung heroes - Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs - for his powerful work here. Jenna&amp;#039;s shock appearance does lead us onto another quibble though - it may have been a mistake to place Oswin&amp;#039;s introduction immediately before a crucial info-dump scene, in which we learn what the asylum of the Daleks is and precisely what the Doctor has to do there. This writer was still reeling from the Coleman twist at this point and missed crucial plot details on first viewing.  Once the Doctor and his companions do actually land on the frosty plains of the Asylum planet, what we&amp;#039;re treated to is a tense, action-packed and emotional re-imagining of 1982&amp;#039;s The Thing, albeit with the milder horror of Dalek eye-stalks replacing the gruesome body horror of John Carpenter&amp;#039;s film thriller. What follows is Moffat at his best, and so Doctor Who at its best - expertly blending comedy and drama, often in the same scene. A fine example of this is Rory&amp;#039;s experience in the Dalek tomb - the &amp;quot;Eggs&amp;quot; sequence manages to be both funny and creepy at the same time. Despite essentially being a standalone episode, in its closing moments &amp;#039;Asylum of the Daleks&amp;#039; reminds us of Moffat&amp;#039;s overall arc for the show with a reinforcement of themes introduced in last year&amp;#039;s finale &amp;#039;The Wedding of River Song&amp;#039; - not only does the entire universe believe that the Doctor is dead, now even his greatest enemies have no clue who he is... In short, &amp;#039;Asylum of the Daleks&amp;#039; is an absolute blinder of a Doctor Who episode, erasing all memories of our last encounter with the Time Lord - the rather disappointing &amp;#039;The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe&amp;#039;. After this, it&amp;#039;s not Who that&amp;#039;s chasing the movies, it&amp;#039;s Hollywood that&amp;#039;s trailing our favourite Time Lord.  Do you agree with our verdict on &amp;#039;Asylum of the Daleks&amp;#039;? Share your thoughts below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/review/a402788/doctor-who-asylum-of-the-daleks-review/>