Victory of the Daleks. The final word.

For the second week running it falls upon the shoulders of Gary Merchant to sign off for the blog on Victory of the Daleks. But just before that, am I allowed to say that I was disappointed by the episode? No?

Oh well, too late I guess. Right Gary.........

"OK, positives first. The story was one of Mark Gatiss' best, and all the cast put in a superb performance. The subservience of the Daleks was very reminiscent of Power of the Daleks and was carried off well without falling into parody.

Now, the negatives. The new Daleks. I'm sorry, but I cannot get excited about this major change in the Dalek design. The gun metal appearance of the Doctor's nemesis from Dalek onwards has now been replaced by something I can only describe as a full size Rolykins toy. And as for the colour schemes, please no...

They look fine from the top of their domes from the bottom of their mesh grills, but the widened skirt section and the now obviously looking plastic weaponry - in fact, the all over plastic appearance replacing the metallic design from 2005 - is a retrograde step back that for me does not work. Mark Gatiss said in the Confidential that he'd drawn inspiration for the new design from the Dalek films starring Peter Cushing. If that's the case, then why couldn't the final result have looked like the Daleks from those films?

I can only hope that this is part of a ploy to perhaps bring back Davros for the season finale and see his creations restored to their former glory, because right now they look like a joke - and that's something I never thought I'd say."