Doctor Who: Victory of the Daleks

As an interesting but irrelevant note, I have had to look up the name of every episode in order to write a review of it. How do I miss it in the opening sequence every time? It is there, right?

I will admit before I begin that I really do not like Churchill, much less hero-worship of Churchill (I mean, hero worship?! He is very quotable, but ruthless and imperialist and... just ugh), so the hero-worship vibes I got from this episode were immensely irritating. The Doctor is supposed to fight against ruthless leaders who use other countries and people as pawns in their wars. Churchill refused to let Australia defend itself against the Japanese army, for instance. When Curtin tried to bring our troops back home to defend us, Churchill countermanded him and redirected the troops to Burma (at least, I think it was Burma. That or Egypt). Who cares about Australia's independence, when Britain's colonial possessions are at stake?! Lucky for us that a) the Japanese didn't truly intend to invade Australia anyway; and b) Curtin was stubborn and countermanded Churchill's countermandation. I'm leaning towards a) as the biggest reason for us not being invaded. Anyway, the Doctor getting along chummily with historical figures I hate is nothing new, but it was still annoying.

So, I didn't like this episode as much as I liked the other two. In addition to the Churchill thing, the plot seemed weak and drifted into deus ex machina territory, especially at the end. The characterisation wasn't bad, though, except that I don't particularly like Churchill The Real Person and this extended to Churchill The Character, sorry to say.

( Spoilers start here! )