Inspirations: Asylum of the Daleks

"Die Hard on the planet of the Daleks", is how Steven Moffat sold this story to his fellow producers.

The Daleks had been rested following the controversial introduction of the New Paradigm design. After Victory of the Daleks in Series 5, they had only made a few cameo appearances in the programme.

The seventh series of the revived programme was going to be split in a similar fashion to the sixth but, instead of a relatively short summer break, the first batch of episodes would be broadcast in Spring 2012, with the remainder not screening until the Spring of the following year.

The season would also see the departure of Amy and Rory in the first half, with new companion Clara taking over for the second.

Their relationship would be developed prior to their departure, made more interesting by having them actually split up - seen in the last of the short Pond Life mini-episodes.

The new episodes would show that once you left the TARDIS, the Doctor didn't necessarily abandon his companions. He would still have an impact on their lives.

Moffat decided that each of the first batch of episodes should be cinematic in scope, and gave them movie-style posters.

He actually considered double episode stories, until told that these weren't necessarily cheaper to produce.

Bringing the Daleks back for their first full appearance for a while, and in keeping with his big scale plans, Moffat decided that viewers would see more Daleks than ever before - and the story would include some classic designs from the original series. The episode would also see the biggest ever set to date.

The other thing to remember is that up until now, Moffat had never written a Dalek story. He had been forced to drop out of the 1930's Manhattan story, and Mark Gatiss had written the Series 5 story.

Unfortunately, the way the episode was directed and edited, the inclusion of classic models of Dalek barely came across on screen. The bronze Time War Daleks are front and centre for much of the time - even in the "Intensive Care Unit" sequence which was supposed to actually feature the survivors of those earlier stories.

As it is, the classic Daleks - which include a grey 1970's replica owned by Russell T Davies - are stuck in the background. The only distinctive classic model, purely due to its unique shape, is the Special Weapons Dalek from Remembrance of the Daleks.

Specific stories mentioned for the ICU occupants, via their locations, are The Chase (Aridius), The Daleks' Master Plan (Kembel), Power of the Daleks (Vulcan), Planet of the Daleks (Spiridon) and Death to the Daleks (Exxilon).

A black-domed Imperial Dalek from Evil of the Daleks was photographed, with Smith and Gillan, but not properly seen on screen.

Of course, the odd thing about the ICU sequence is that there were no Dalek survivors in most of their stories - so how could they come to be here?

The Doctor briefly visits Skaro, which also features in the episode's mini-episode prologue, and the design of the Dalek city was based loosely on that seen in The Daleks and in the "City of the Daleks" computer game.

The Daleks have frequently used other beings as soldiers / slaves - such as Ogrons, Pig Slaves, human collaborators and Lytton's mercenaries. 

This led to them having disguised human servants here - with Dalek eye-stalks hidden in their foreheads and weapons in their hands.

As well as introducing the concept of the asylum, Moffat gave them a parliament, headed by a Prime Minister. This included some of the New Paradigm models, given new metallic red and blue paint-jobs. The white Supreme was also shown.

In an isolation area next to the ICU is one Dalek which has to be chained down, because it contains an occupant - previously a human from Earth - who they have been unable to mentally condition. She still retains her human memories and personality. This provided a surprise for the audience as the actress playing this role was to become the new companion for the second half of the series - Jenna Louise Coleman, as she was then known, who would be playing Clara. The press were asked not to spoil this appearance, and - for once - went along with it.

It turns out that this isn't the Clara, however, and we'll have to wait until the Christmas Special to find out that there is more to this character than meets the eye.

The Asylum planet is a frozen one, and this came about purely by chance. The series was filming in Spain for the following Western episode, and it was realised that they could make a brief trip to the nearby mountains to film a few shots. To minimise personnel, only Smith and Gillan attended, which is why Rory materialises inside the Asylum instead of on the surface.

Next time: Jurassic Ark...