Look Who's found a new star
- Publication: The Times
- Date: 2012-09-03
- Author: Ben Machell
- Page: 10
- Language: English
A few years ago, I reviewed the first episode of Doctor Who with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in it. Like most viewers at the time, I had pretty much zero idea who these people were, but like most viewers, I immediately liked what I saw, and not just because they achievably hot (looking at my old notes from that night, I scrawled "Amy Pond = smutty Blue Peter presenter").
Anyway, over the following two dozen episodes, Smith and Gillan as the Doctor and the Doctor's Companion forged a partnership that dovetailed like a pair of 1970s Ajax Amsterdam midfielders, which is to say, really quite well: Amy, the fiery enforcer, the Doctor, the mercurial playmaker. Yet deep down we all knew it couldn't last for ever— especially after Amy got married to that Rory—and Saturday signalled the beginning of the end, with the first episode of the new series in which a new Companion will eventually emerge.
In Asylum of the Daleks, the peril was inter-personal and inter-planetary in nature: Amy and Rory were on the brink of marital breakdown when they were abducted and. along with the Doctor, forced by the Daleks to invstigate signals from the planetoid where the universe's "most advanced warrior race" (yeah, I know) send their insane. Apparently every type of Dalek ever featured in Doctor Who was represented in the "Dalek Parliament" scenes, but sorry, political correctness be damned, they all look the same to me. The trio teleported to the surface of what was meant to be a foreboding icescape, although it could've been the Peak District in February. We found the signals were coming from a crashed spaceship, the sole survivor of which was a sassy girl called Clara Oswin (Jenna-Louise Coleman), able to flirt with the Doctor and make fun of his jawline from the safety of her ship via what seemed to be Skype. "Rescue me Chinboy and show me the stars," she gushed at one point. Most people who cared about this sort of thing already knew that Coleman will eventually be replacing Gillan long-term, but to have her crop up so soon was a teaser to send Whovian internet message boards into meltdown. Also, the BBC threatened to more or less "EXTERMINATE" anyone who, before the broadcast, gave away this episode's second Big Twist, which was that Clara's den only really existed within the warped mind of an insane Dalek. How she will get out is anyone's guess. Before we got to the twist, though, there were zombies to contend with, some "explodey-wodey" bits and a genuinely wrenching scene between Amy and Rory that included the brutal line, "The basic fact of our relationship is that I love you more than you love me". No prizes for guessing who said it. (Yes, it was Rory.)
So it was clever and silly and entertaining as usual. And it's probably quite smart to get us all used to the idea of Clara, a tech genius who likes listening to Carmen and baking souffles. I even see that the former Emmerdale actress was nominated for "Sexiest Female" in the 2009 British Soap Awards. You can't help but think that she'll do all right.
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- APA 6th ed.: Machell, Ben (2012-09-03). Look Who's found a new star. The Times p. 10.
- MLA 7th ed.: Machell, Ben. "Look Who's found a new star." The Times [add city] 2012-09-03, 10. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Machell, Ben. "Look Who's found a new star." The Times, edition, sec., 2012-09-03
- Turabian: Machell, Ben. "Look Who's found a new star." The Times, 2012-09-03, section, 10 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Look Who's found a new star | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Look_Who%27s_found_a_new_star | work=The Times | pages=10 | date=2012-09-03 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=1 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Look Who's found a new star | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Look_Who%27s_found_a_new_star | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=1 May 2025}}</ref>
