Victory of the Daleks
In the episode, 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 archenemies the Daleks, who plan to destroy Earth by activating a device located inside Bracewell, an android.
The episode introduces a new "Paradigm" of Daleks, which were designed by Gatiss to be bigger and more colourful than the previous variant.
The Doctor threatens to destroy the ship, including himself, before the Progenitor completes, as part of the Daleks' plot to restore their race, but the Daleks fire an energy beam at London that lights up the entire city minutes before an air raid by the Luftwaffe, leaving the Doctor's allies vulnerable and creating a stalemate.
At the same time, Amy convinces Churchill and Bracewell to use the technological know-how they have obtained from the Daleks to modify three Spitfires so that they can fly in space.
Before the last Spitfire pilot can destroy the ship, the Daleks trigger the power source inside Bracewell that contains an unstable wormhole that will consume Earth if released.
The Daleks, having played on the Doctor's compassion for Earth, announce their victory and their ship jumps in time.
[6] Gatiss's inspiration was the 1966 serial The 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".
[10] In an interview in April 2010, Gatiss described how the cameo came about: When we were filming last summer, someone came up to me and said, "Is it true you're going to play the voice of the Spitfire pilot?"
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".
[4] 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.
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.
[21] 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.
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.
[22] 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".
[25] This episode was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in issue 75, alongside "The Time of Angels" on 16 November 2011.
Pearson Education published a photo-novelisation of this episode by Peter Gutiérrez for school literacy programmes in May 2011.
