Victory of the Daleks
Encyclopedia
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series
of British
science fiction
television series Doctor Who
. It is written by Mark Gatiss
and first broadcast on BBC One
on 17 April 2010.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor
(Matt Smith) and his companion
Amy Pond
(Karen Gillan
) arrive in London during the Blitz
, where Winston Churchill
(Ian McNeice
) has employed "Ironsides", a scientific creation from Professor Bracewell (Bill Paterson) to be used as weapons in the war effort. However, the Doctor recognises the Ironsides as his arch-enemies the Dalek
s, who plan to destroy Earth by activating a device located inside Bracewell, an android.
Wishing to incorporate the popular Daleks into the series, showrunner Steven Moffat
instructed Gatiss to write an episode about Churchill and the Daleks. The episode introduces a new "Paradigm" of Daleks, which were designed by Gatiss to be bigger and more colourful than the previous variant. "Victory of the Daleks" was seen by 8.2 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD
, placing second for the night it aired. Critics were mixed to positive; both McNeice and Paterson's performances were praised, but some felt that the episode was too rushed and would have worked better if it was spread over two episodes.
and Amy
take the TARDIS
to the Cabinet War Rooms during The Blitz
of the Second World War, one month after Winston Churchill
requested the Doctor's help in the war effort. As the Doctor arrived late, Churchill turned to the scientific advances of Professor Edwin Bracewell, including robotic devices called "Ironsides", which are recognized immediately by the Doctor as his arch-enemies the Dalek
s. The Doctor tries to understand their purpose in being on Earth at this time, but they continue to act as Bracewell's inventions, ready to serve Britain's war efforts. Angrily, the Doctor attacks the devices, shouting, "I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!" Unbeknown to the Doctor and the humans, a Dalek ship is in orbit near the moon; upon hearing the Doctor's "testimony", the Dalek aboard uses it to activate a "Progenator Device" and alerts its comrades on Earth. The Daleks reveal their intent and turn hostile, killing several guards and exposing Bracewell as an android before transmatting to their ship. The Doctor follows in the TARDIS, leaving Amy behind for her protection.
The Doctor learns that the ship escaped destruction at the moment of the collapse of the Dalek flagship Crucible after it fell through Time by accident, leaving it nearly drained of power. The Daleks' objective is to restart the Progenator, which contains pure Dalek DNA, thus restoring their race; since these particular Daleks were created by Davros
, the Progenator could not properly accept them as "Daleks", and thus they required a testimony from their greatest enemy to activate it. The Doctor threatens to destroy the ship, including himself, before the Progenator completes, but the Daleks fire an energy beam at London that lights up the entire city minutes before an air raid, leaving the Doctor's allies vulnerable and creating a stalemate.
When the Progenator completes, five brand new, more powerful Daleks emerge from the Progenator Chamber. They disintegrate the older "inferior" models, who die willingly. At the same time, Amy convinces Churchill and Bracewell to use the technology know-how they have obtained from the Daleks to modify three Spitfires
so that they can fly in space. The pilots attack and destroy the dish on the underside of the Dalek ship that was firing the energy beam, saving London before it can be destroyed by German bombers.
The battle has claimed the lives of two of the pilots, and the Doctor orders the last Spitfire pilot to continue his attack and destroy the Dalek ship, hoping to rid the universe of them forever. The Daleks retaliate by triggering the "Oblivion Continuum", the power source inside Bracewell that contains an unstable wormhole that will consume the planet if released. The Doctor, torn over defeating the Daleks or saving Earth, orders the Spitfire to stop its attack and returns to Earth. With Amy's help, the Doctor is able to convince Bracewell that he is more human than machine, deactivating the device. The Daleks, having played on the Doctor's compassion for Earth, announce their victory and retreat into hyperspace. The Doctor and Amy remove all the advanced technology borrowed from the Daleks despite Churchill wanting to use it for the war, and convince Bracewell that he need not be deactivated because he helped save the world. As they leave, the Doctor ponders why Amy does not remember the Daleks from their previous invasions of the Earth. As the TARDIS dematerialises, another crack is revealed in the wall behind it.
expresses the hope that the Daleks have finally been destroyed for good.
The Doctor refers to the events of previous Dalek invasions of Earth (in "The Stolen Earth
" and "Journey's End
") when talking to Amy about the Daleks, becoming concerned when Amy does not remember these events. At the end of the episode, a crack is shown in the wall behind where the TARDIS had been parked. The crack, having first appeared in Amy's bedroom when she was a little girl, has been a recurring theme; in "Flesh and Stone
" the Doctor discovers it has the power to erase things from existence, the reason why Amy cannot remember the Daleks.
wished to bring back the Daleks, as they were popular among children and had become "one of the regulars". He stated in March 2010 that he and the production team had considered redesigning the Daleks. Mark Gatiss
, the writer of the episode, was instructed by Moffat to write an episode about "Churchill versus the Daleks". Gatiss was not sure what to do with the premise first, but then became excited about doing a war movie, of which he was fond, and his own Dalek story. For research, he visited the real Cabinet War Rooms and read diaries and first-hand accounts of the war. Gatiss's inspiration was the serial Power of the Daleks, though he had never seen it due to it being lost
, which depicted them as more sly and silent, an aspect he called "very scary, more than when they're just barking orders".
When Gatiss wrote the first draft of the episode Matt Smith had not been cast as the Doctor. Gatiss wrote this early draft for a generic Doctor, though Moffat commented it sounded like John Pertwee and Gatiss agreed. Once Smith had been cast, Gatiss watched Party Animals
, a television series Smith had previously starred in, as well as anything else Smith was in that he could find. Gatiss used these to "download [his] speech patterns" and examine his energy and phrasing.
Gatiss noted that the Daleks belonged in World War II, as their mission to destroy everything that was not a Dalek was a very Nazi concept. In fact, Terry Nation
, the creator of the Daleks who had grown up during World War II, conciously based the Daleks on the Nazis. Smith also drew a parallel between Churchill and the Doctor, as both of them were very intelligent and also had known each other for a long time. Gatiss included one of Churchill's favourite expressions "Keep buggering on" (abbreviated KBO) into the script, which he was "delighted" to do. Ian McNeice, who portrayed Churchill, previously played the villain Zeus in the Eighth Doctor
Big Finish
audio play Immortal Beloved in 2007.
Gatiss wrote in the script for the Daleks' redesign to be "big...bigger than we've seen them before". The eye stalk was designed to be level with Smith's eyeline. Moffat and Gatiss wanted the new Daleks to be very colourful, similar to the Daleks of films from the 60s
. Gatiss originally wanted there to be a green Dalek, but he decided that green "just doesn't seem to work somehow". Nick Briggs, who voiced that Daleks, planned to counter their bright colours with a more vicious voice. Moffat wanted to somehow incoporate "Spitfires in space". A replica of a World War Two Spitfire was used in front of a greenscreen to shoot the live action parts of the scene and the image of the Spitfire, while the rest of the scene was computer-generated. The sequence contained the line "Broadsword to Danny Boy", a reference to a similar line in the film Where Eagles Dare
. Gatiss provided the voice of the Spitfire pilot himself, doing one version clean and another with his hand over his mouth. In an interview in April 2010, Gatiss described how the cameo came about:
17 April 2010. Initial overnight figures showed that the episode was watched by 6.2 million viewers on BBC One and 231,000 watching a simulcast
on BBC HD
, making it the second most watched programme of the day. Final consolidated ratings for BBC One were 7.92 million and 381,000 for BBC HD, therefore making the total 8.2 million viewers. This made the programme the fourth most watched on BBC One for the week ending 18 April and the eleventh most watched across all UK TV Channels for the same week. It was second for Saturday 17 April, behind Britain's Got Talent
, which achieved 11.87 million viewers. It received an Appreciation Index
of 84.
On 7 June 2010, "Victory of the Daleks" was released in Region 2 on DVD and Blu-ray along with the previous episodes "The Eleventh Hour
" and "The Beast Below
". It was then re-released as part of the complete series five DVD on 8 November 2010.
. Martin called it "the best [Mark] Gatiss has written for the show", and praised the writer's investigation of "the idea of [the Daleks] as 'man-made' war machines" for not being "as heavy-handed as you might have expected". He also was positive towards the acting of McNeice and Paterson, the developing storyline between the Doctor and Amy, and positively compared the Daleks' menace to the first series
. Patrick Mulkern of the Radio Times
hailed the episode as "a victory for all", and praised Gatiss for the character of Professor Bracewell, commenting favourably on how the writer "turns him into an emotive robot like Star Trek
s Data
, and gives Bill Paterson material worthy of his status."
Jordan Farley of SFX magazine gave "Victory of the Daleks" three and a half out of five stars, praising the redesigned Daleks for being "equally intimidating" and the episode "rollicking good fun", though "a little undercooked". However, he thought that the second half was "a little rushed" and wondered if the episode would have been more successful if it were a two-parter. He also was disappointed with a "lack of quotable dialogue" and less of the Doctor's "playful banter and wacky mannerisms".
Matt Wales of IGN
, however, was less positive, and rated the episode 5 out of 10. He called it "a flimsy (if much-needed) excuse to reboot the series' long-time villains rather than an attempt to provide any real narrative meat" but praised the World War II period sets. Brian J. Robb of Total Sci-Fi Online praised McNeice's Churchill, but thought some of his dialogue was over-the-top due to the script which he believed had traces of "having been tampered with" by Moffat. Like Farley, he commented that the episode's pacing was off and would have been more successful as a two-parter. Robb was also critical of Smith's performances, negatively comparing the scenes when he was angry to Sylvester McCoy
, as well as the new Dalek design. He gave the episode a final score of 7 out of 10.
Doctor Who (series 5)
The fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 April 2010 with "The Eleventh Hour" and ended with "The Big Bang" on 26 June 2010. The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who took over after the departure of Russell T Davies. The...
of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. It is written by Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
and first broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 17 April 2010.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
(Matt Smith) and his companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
Amy Pond
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
(Karen Gillan
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
) arrive in London during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, where Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
(Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice is a prolific English screen, stage, and television character actor.-Early life:McNeice was born in Basingstoke in Hampshire. McNeice's acting training started at the Taunton School in Somerset, followed by two years at the Salisbury Playhouse...
) has employed "Ironsides", a scientific creation from Professor Bracewell (Bill Paterson) to be used as weapons in the war effort. However, the Doctor recognises the Ironsides as his arch-enemies the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s, who plan to destroy Earth by activating a device located inside Bracewell, an android.
Wishing to incorporate the popular Daleks into the series, showrunner Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
instructed Gatiss to write an episode about Churchill and the Daleks. The episode introduces a new "Paradigm" of Daleks, which were designed by Gatiss to be bigger and more colourful than the previous variant. "Victory of the Daleks" was seen by 8.2 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
, placing second for the night it aired. Critics were mixed to positive; both McNeice and Paterson's performances were praised, but some felt that the episode was too rushed and would have worked better if it was spread over two episodes.
Plot
The DoctorEleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
and Amy
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
take the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
to the Cabinet War Rooms during The Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
of the Second World War, one month after Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
requested the Doctor's help in the war effort. As the Doctor arrived late, Churchill turned to the scientific advances of Professor Edwin Bracewell, including robotic devices called "Ironsides", which are recognized immediately by the Doctor as his arch-enemies the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s. The Doctor tries to understand their purpose in being on Earth at this time, but they continue to act as Bracewell's inventions, ready to serve Britain's war efforts. Angrily, the Doctor attacks the devices, shouting, "I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!" Unbeknown to the Doctor and the humans, a Dalek ship is in orbit near the moon; upon hearing the Doctor's "testimony", the Dalek aboard uses it to activate a "Progenator Device" and alerts its comrades on Earth. The Daleks reveal their intent and turn hostile, killing several guards and exposing Bracewell as an android before transmatting to their ship. The Doctor follows in the TARDIS, leaving Amy behind for her protection.
The Doctor learns that the ship escaped destruction at the moment of the collapse of the Dalek flagship Crucible after it fell through Time by accident, leaving it nearly drained of power. The Daleks' objective is to restart the Progenator, which contains pure Dalek DNA, thus restoring their race; since these particular Daleks were created by Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
, the Progenator could not properly accept them as "Daleks", and thus they required a testimony from their greatest enemy to activate it. The Doctor threatens to destroy the ship, including himself, before the Progenator completes, but the Daleks fire an energy beam at London that lights up the entire city minutes before an air raid, leaving the Doctor's allies vulnerable and creating a stalemate.
When the Progenator completes, five brand new, more powerful Daleks emerge from the Progenator Chamber. They disintegrate the older "inferior" models, who die willingly. At the same time, Amy convinces Churchill and Bracewell to use the technology know-how they have obtained from the Daleks to modify three Spitfires
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
so that they can fly in space. The pilots attack and destroy the dish on the underside of the Dalek ship that was firing the energy beam, saving London before it can be destroyed by German bombers.
The battle has claimed the lives of two of the pilots, and the Doctor orders the last Spitfire pilot to continue his attack and destroy the Dalek ship, hoping to rid the universe of them forever. The Daleks retaliate by triggering the "Oblivion Continuum", the power source inside Bracewell that contains an unstable wormhole that will consume the planet if released. The Doctor, torn over defeating the Daleks or saving Earth, orders the Spitfire to stop its attack and returns to Earth. With Amy's help, the Doctor is able to convince Bracewell that he is more human than machine, deactivating the device. The Daleks, having played on the Doctor's compassion for Earth, announce their victory and retreat into hyperspace. The Doctor and Amy remove all the advanced technology borrowed from the Daleks despite Churchill wanting to use it for the war, and convince Bracewell that he need not be deactivated because he helped save the world. As they leave, the Doctor ponders why Amy does not remember the Daleks from their previous invasions of the Earth. As the TARDIS dematerialises, another crack is revealed in the wall behind it.
Continuity
Several allusions are made to previous Dalek adventures. In Power of the Daleks, a resuscitated Dalek declared "I am your servant!", similar to the line "I am your soldier" as used in this episode. The Doctor also expresses a desire to see "the final end" of the Daleks - a direct quotation from Evil of the Daleks, when his second incarnationSecond Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
expresses the hope that the Daleks have finally been destroyed for good.
The Doctor refers to the events of previous Dalek invasions of Earth (in "The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
" and "Journey's End
Journey's End (Doctor Who)
"Journey's End" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane...
") when talking to Amy about the Daleks, becoming concerned when Amy does not remember these events. At the end of the episode, a crack is shown in the wall behind where the TARDIS had been parked. The crack, having first appeared in Amy's bedroom when she was a little girl, has been a recurring theme; in "Flesh and Stone
Flesh and Stone
"Flesh and Stone" is the fifth episode of the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, the episode was first broadcast on 1 May 2010 on BBC One...
" the Doctor discovers it has the power to erase things from existence, the reason why Amy cannot remember the Daleks.
Production
Showrunner Steven MoffatSteven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
wished to bring back the Daleks, as they were popular among children and had become "one of the regulars". He stated in March 2010 that he and the production team had considered redesigning the Daleks. Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
, the writer of the episode, was instructed by Moffat to write an episode about "Churchill versus the Daleks". Gatiss was not sure what to do with the premise first, but then became excited about doing a war movie, of which he was fond, and his own Dalek story. For research, he visited the real Cabinet War Rooms and read diaries and first-hand accounts of the war. Gatiss's inspiration was the serial Power of the Daleks, though he had never seen it due to it being lost
Doctor Who missing episodes
The Doctor Who missing episodes are the instalments of the long-running British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who that have no known film or videotape copies. They were wiped by the BBC during the 1960s and 1970s for economic and space-saving reasons...
, which depicted them as more sly and silent, an aspect he called "very scary, more than when they're just barking orders".
When Gatiss wrote the first draft of the episode Matt Smith had not been cast as the Doctor. Gatiss wrote this early draft for a generic Doctor, though Moffat commented it sounded like John Pertwee and Gatiss agreed. Once Smith had been cast, Gatiss watched Party Animals
Party Animals (TV series)
Party Animals is a British television drama series screened on BBC Two in 2007. It was produced by World Productions, the makers of No Angels and This Life....
, a television series Smith had previously starred in, as well as anything else Smith was in that he could find. Gatiss used these to "download [his] speech patterns" and examine his energy and phrasing.
Gatiss noted that the Daleks belonged in World War II, as their mission to destroy everything that was not a Dalek was a very Nazi concept. In fact, Terry Nation
Terry Nation
Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, the creator of the Daleks who had grown up during World War II, conciously based the Daleks on the Nazis. Smith also drew a parallel between Churchill and the Doctor, as both of them were very intelligent and also had known each other for a long time. Gatiss included one of Churchill's favourite expressions "Keep buggering on" (abbreviated KBO) into the script, which he was "delighted" to do. Ian McNeice, who portrayed Churchill, previously played the villain Zeus in the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
Big Finish
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio play Immortal Beloved in 2007.
Gatiss wrote in the script for the Daleks' redesign to be "big...bigger than we've seen them before". The eye stalk was designed to be level with Smith's eyeline. Moffat and Gatiss wanted the new Daleks to be very colourful, similar to the Daleks of films from the 60s
Dr. Who and the Daleks
Dr. Who and the Daleks was the first of two Doctor Who films made in the 1960s. It was followed by Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D....
. Gatiss originally wanted there to be a green Dalek, but he decided that green "just doesn't seem to work somehow". Nick Briggs, who voiced that Daleks, planned to counter their bright colours with a more vicious voice. Moffat wanted to somehow incoporate "Spitfires in space". A replica of a World War Two Spitfire was used in front of a greenscreen to shoot the live action parts of the scene and the image of the Spitfire, while the rest of the scene was computer-generated. The sequence contained the line "Broadsword to Danny Boy", a reference to a similar line in the film Where Eagles Dare
Where Eagles Dare
Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 World War II action-adventure spy film starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It was directed by Brian G. Hutton and shot on location in Upper Austria and Bavaria....
. Gatiss provided the voice of the Spitfire pilot himself, doing one version clean and another with his hand over his mouth. In an interview in April 2010, Gatiss described how the cameo came about:
Broadcast and reception
"Victory of the Daleks" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
17 April 2010. Initial overnight figures showed that the episode was watched by 6.2 million viewers on BBC One and 231,000 watching a simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
on BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
, making it the second most watched programme of the day. Final consolidated ratings for BBC One were 7.92 million and 381,000 for BBC HD, therefore making the total 8.2 million viewers. This made the programme the fourth most watched on BBC One for the week ending 18 April and the eleventh most watched across all UK TV Channels for the same week. It was second for Saturday 17 April, behind Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
, which achieved 11.87 million viewers. It received an Appreciation Index
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
of 84.
On 7 June 2010, "Victory of the Daleks" was released in Region 2 on DVD and Blu-ray along with the previous episodes "The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
" and "The Beast Below
The Beast Below
"The Beast Below" is the second episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by showrunner Steven Moffat and broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 10 April 2010....
". It was then re-released as part of the complete series five DVD on 8 November 2010.
Critical reception
"Victory of the Daleks" received mixed to positive reviews. It received a positive review from Daniel Martin of The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Martin called it "the best [Mark] Gatiss has written for the show", and praised the writer's investigation of "the idea of [the Daleks] as 'man-made' war machines" for not being "as heavy-handed as you might have expected". He also was positive towards the acting of McNeice and Paterson, the developing storyline between the Doctor and Amy, and positively compared the Daleks' menace to the first series
Doctor Who (series 1)
The new first series of British science fiction series Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose", which marked the end of the programme's 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and aired its finale episode "The Parting of the Ways" on 18 June 2005...
. Patrick Mulkern of the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
hailed the episode as "a victory for all", and praised Gatiss for the character of Professor Bracewell, commenting favourably on how the writer "turns him into an emotive robot like Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
s Data
Data (Star Trek)
Lieutenant Commander Data is a character in the fictional Star Trek universe portrayed by actor Brent Spiner. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek...
, and gives Bill Paterson material worthy of his status."
Jordan Farley of SFX magazine gave "Victory of the Daleks" three and a half out of five stars, praising the redesigned Daleks for being "equally intimidating" and the episode "rollicking good fun", though "a little undercooked". However, he thought that the second half was "a little rushed" and wondered if the episode would have been more successful if it were a two-parter. He also was disappointed with a "lack of quotable dialogue" and less of the Doctor's "playful banter and wacky mannerisms".
Matt Wales of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, however, was less positive, and rated the episode 5 out of 10. He called it "a flimsy (if much-needed) excuse to reboot the series' long-time villains rather than an attempt to provide any real narrative meat" but praised the World War II period sets. Brian J. Robb of Total Sci-Fi Online praised McNeice's Churchill, but thought some of his dialogue was over-the-top due to the script which he believed had traces of "having been tampered with" by Moffat. Like Farley, he commented that the episode's pacing was off and would have been more successful as a two-parter. Robb was also critical of Smith's performances, negatively comparing the scenes when he was angry to Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
, as well as the new Dalek design. He gave the episode a final score of 7 out of 10.