Their relationship in tatters, Amy and Rory find themselves kidnapped by the Daleks and reunited with the Doctor. They have been brought together by the Dalek Prime Minister, who requires them to infiltrate a prison planet called the Asylum which houses the insane outcasts of the Dalek race. A spaceship has crashed there, offering a means of escape for the millions of inmates. Now the Daleks wish to destroy the Asylum, and need the Doctor to deactivate its force field. Furthermore, one passenger survived the accident: a junior entertainment officer named Oswin, for whom the Doctor may be her only salvation.

Despite having written for Doctor Who over the course of six seasons -- including two as its executive producer -- Steven Moffat had never tackled a Dalek story. The closest he had come was their secondary involvement in the two most recent season finales, The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang and The Wedding Of River Song. Moffat's predecessor, Russell T Davies, had asked him to write a two-part Dalek adventure set in New York City for Season Twenty-Nine. However, other commitments had ultimately forced Moffat to decline the opportunity; instead, he developed Blink while Helen Raynor scripted Daleks In Manhattan / Evolution Of The Daleks.

For Season Thirty-Three, however, Moffat was determined to finally write a story which showcased Doctor Who's most famous monsters. Mindful of the mixed reaction which had greeted the redesigned Paradigm Daleks introduced in Season Thirty-One's Victory Of The Daleks, he wanted to draw upon the long history of variant Dalek designs which had appeared in Doctor Who dating back to 1963. Moffat now intended to portray the Paradigm Daleks as a sort of Dalek upper echelon, while the bronze design which had been used since 2005's Dalek would be brought back into service as the rank and file.

Steven Moffat briefly considered including the Daleks in Amy and Rory's last story

Moffat wanted the Dalek adventure to appear during the first part of Season Thirty-Three, which would be comprised of the final episodes to feature Amy Pond and Rory Williams. Much like Season Thirty-Two had been split across the summer of 2011, the next run would begin with a mini-season in the autumn of 2012. A new companion would then be introduced in that year's Christmas special, and would travel with the Doctor through the balance of the season in the spring of 2013. Moffat briefly considered including the Daleks in Amy and Rory's last story, but he soon decided to reserve this role for the Weeping Angels; the Daleks would instead be seen in the season premiere.

Moffat was keen to have each of the Fall 2012 episodes exhibit the ambition, scope and thrills of a feature film. For the story he dubbed Asylum Of The Daleks, he thought in terms of Die Hard, the 1988 Bruce Willis action movie about a police officer who was forced to navigate a skyscraper full of terrorists. Moffat also wanted to emphasise that the normal problems and challenges of marriage were now as pertinent to Amy and Rory as their occasional adventures with the Doctor; to emphasise this theme, Asylum Of The Daleks would depict them on the verge of divorce. Originally, this turn of events was to be signposted by Rory's choice to grow a beard -- despite Amy's loathing of facial hair -- which he would shave off at the story's conclusion. Between seasons, Arthur Darvill was appearing on stage as Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus, and Moffat planned to have him keep the beard he had grown for that role. However, this plan had to be abandoned when it was decided to make Asylum Of The Daleks as part of the season's second recording block alongside episode five, The Angels Take Manhattan.

Moffat was writing the script for Asylum Of The Daleks by November 2011. At the start of the story, Darla originally claimed that she wanted the Doctor to take her back in time to see her late daughter, and gave herself away by referring to the age she had been when she herself had died. Cassandra was initially a replacement for Amy's regular make-up artist, while Rory was able to flee the bus only to be surrounded by a mob of Dalek agents. Moffat identified the Dalek Prime Minister as being the same as the Dalek Prime, which had appeared in various spin-off media. The Dalek Parliament was first located on a planet dubbed “Skaro 2” rather than a spaceship. The business of the Doctor and Amy making their way from the Alaska's escape pod through the Asylum -- and Amy perceiving the Daleks as people -- replaced Oswin teleporting them directly to Rory.

Oswin was originally conceived as a fan of Elvis Presley, inspiring the nickname “Blue Suede Shoes”

A more significant change to the script came in early 2012, when Moffat realised that the Doctor would never actually see Oswin in her human form. This meant that the actress portraying Oswin and the actress cast as the new companion could be one and the same. As such, Moffat did away with a suggestion that Oswin might be a Dalek whose insanity had caused it to believe itself to be human. Oswin was originally conceived as a fan of Elvis Presley, whose music would play throughout the episode and inspire the Doctor to give her the nickname “Blue Suede Shoes”. However, when the rights to use these songs proved problematic to obtain, it was decided that the soundtrack to Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen would feature instead. The choice of alternative playlist came at the suggestion of Nick Hurran, who would be directing Block Two; he had recently made The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex for Season Thirty-Two.

Meanwhile, the search for Doctor Who's next lead actress was already under way, with a first round of auditions held in November. In early February, the finalists returned to read lines opposite Matt Smith. The role ultimately went to Jenna-Louise Coleman, who had previously been a candidate to play Mels in Season Thirty-Two's Let's Kill Hitler. She was announced as the new companion at a press conference on March 21st, although any details about her character -- as well as her involvement with Asylum Of The Daleks -- were kept firmly under wraps.

A substantial phalanx of Daleks was assembled for the production, including no fewer than thirteen new constructions. Five were revised versions of the Paradigm Daleks originally introduced in Season Thirty-One's Victory Of The Daleks. In part, the changes were intended to address concerns expressed by the operators, who found the Paradigm Daleks far more difficult to control than their predecessors. Most notably, the rear “hump” was removed to restore a more symmetrical appearance, and they were given a metallic sheen in contrast to the bright, plasticky look they had previously sported. Three were painted in red Drone livery, alongside a blue Strategist and a white Supreme. Eight new bronze Daleks were also built; two were given severely distressed characteristics to represent some of the more badly-damaged inmates of the Asylum. Furthermore, three bronze casings were still available from amongst those made and retained by the BBC during the previous decade. Likewise, the original white Paradigm Dalek -- last seen in The Wedding Of River Song -- was also to appear, retaining the heavily dilapidated state it had been given for that story.

Russell T Davies offered the use of his own Dalek prop, which resembled those from 1975's Genesis Of The Daleks

A number of additional Daleks were sourced from BBC Worldwide, the Corporation's commercial arm. They included two additional bronze Daleks, plus the Special Weapons Dalek from 1988's Remembrance Of The Daleks. This Planet Earth, a manufacturer of high-end screen-accurate Dalek props, provided a Dalek from 1974's Death To The Daleks in silver and black livery. A charity organiser which supplied Daleks for fundraising opportunities loaned a bronze Dalek, a black Dalek in the style of Dalek Sec from 2006's Army Of Ghosts / Doomsday, an Ironsides Dalek from Victory Of The Daleks, and a Renegade Dalek from Remembrance Of The Daleks. Two longtime fans also assisted the production team: an original casing from 1963's The Daleks and a Throne Room Dalek from 1967's The Evil Of The Daleks came from Andrew Beech, while Mark Barton Hill contributed a grey-and-black Dalek from 1984's Resurrection Of The Daleks. Finally, Russell T Davies offered the use of his own prop, which resembled those from 1975's Genesis Of The Daleks.

Unusually, the first filming for Asylum Of The Daleks was not the result of careful planning, but of last-minute happenstance. During Block One, most of the recording for episode three, A Town Called Mercy, took place in Almería, Spain. Producer Marcus Wilson realised that the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range was ideal to represent the surface of the Asylum planet. Hurran quickly devised plans to film the relevant footage, and a minimal crew travelled to Almería's Sierra Nevada National Park on March 15th, the last day of the Spanish location shoot. Smith and Karen Gillan were joined there by David Gyasi, playing Harvey.

The first domestic filming for Asylum Of The Daleks took place on March 23rd, with the light beam effect captured at Upper Boat Studios. These facilities had been Doctor Who's production home since the making of the 2006 Christmas special, The Runaway Bride, but a transition was now under way to the recently-opened Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff Bay. Indeed, the first filming for Doctor Who at Roath Lock took place on March 27th and 28th. Scenes in the junction room were recorded on both days, along with material in the Asylum corridors on the first day, and in the white room aboard the Dalek saucer on the second day. It was back to Upper Boat from March 29th to 31st, for more passageway sequences as well as those in the chamber where Amy hallucinated that the Daleks were humans. In some instances, these apparitions were played by the same operators actually manning the corresponding Dalek casings. Part of the 31st was also spent on the Doctor and Amy's descent via rope ladder.

The month of April began with a day off on the Sunday. More recording took place at Upper Boat on the 2nd, with Hurran's cameras capturing action in the Alaska escape pod, as well as some effects shots. Then it was back to Roath Lock on April 3rd and 4th, for scenes in the Intensive Care Unit and the Oswin Dalek's cell. The bronze Dalek which represented Oswin was the casing originally constructed to represent Dalek Caan in Doomsday. Work on the 5th began at a house on Bute Esplanade in Cardiff Bay, the most frequently utilised of the three residences which had represented Amy and Rory's home. The day concluded on the standing TARDIS set at Upper Boat. Rory's capture by the Daleks was filmed aboard a bus in Cardiff's Mount Stuart Square on April 6th. It was Amy's turn to be abducted on the 7th, as Royal Fort House -- part of Bristol University -- offered spaces appropriate for both the modelling studio and her dressing room.

For the next two weeks, Hurran focussed almost exclusively on The Angels Take Manhattan. Work on Asylum Of The Daleks would not resume until April 20th, with inserts of Amy's photoshoot taped at Upper Boat. Cast and crew next spent five days at Roath Lock. The Doctor's ill-fated meeting with Darla in the gigantic Dalek statue on Skaro was filmed on the 23rd, followed by pick-up shots on the 24th. Recording on April 25th and 26th took place on the enormous Dalek Parliament set, where no fewer than twenty-six Dalek casings were physically present. For the second time during the making of Season Thirty-Three, a record was established for the largest set ever used on Doctor Who, bettering the corridor of the titular space ark from episode two, Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. The last day of work before the weekend was April 27th, which saw various inserts completed. Finally, Coleman made her Doctor Who debut on April 30th and May 1st, when the scenes involving the human Oswin were filmed at Upper Boat.

Throughout 2011, several Doctor Who episodes had been promoted via specially-filmed preludes, which were released online. Based on the success of these short videos, it was decided that more such enhanced content would be created for Season Thirty-Three. For Asylum Of The Daleks, a prequel similar to those of the previous year would be released for sale via Apple's iTunes service, a platform on which Doctor Who was enjoying significant commercial success. Moffat developed a script which depicted the Doctor receiving a psychic communication regarding the purported plight of Darla Von Karlsen, and summoning him to Skaro.

Pond Life would establish how Amy and Rory's lives were continuing to intersect with the Doctor's

Meanwhile, viewers uninterested in paying for additional material would nonetheless have access to a more substantial project. Initially called “The Last Days Of The Ponds” and latterly dubbed Pond Life, this would be a series of five brief interludes which would help establish how Amy and Rory's lives were continuing to intersect with the Doctor's. Written by Chris Chibnall -- who was scripting both Dinosaurs On A Spaceship and the season's fourth episode, The Power Of Three -- Pond Life would also set the scene for the marital problems which were key to Asylum Of The Daleks. It was hoped that the extra publicity provided by these special recordings would help overcome the unusually extensive break in Doctor Who's transmission: the eight months which followed the broadcast of the 2011 Christmas special, The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe, represented the longest hiatus since the programme's return to television in 2005.

Both the Asylum of The Daleks prelude and Pond Life were directed by Saul Metzstein, who had recently completed work on Dinosaurs On A Spaceship and A Town Called Mercy. On June 6th, Pond Life scenes inside Amy and Rory's home were recorded at a dwelling on Church Road in Penarth, while exterior sequences were filmed on Bute Esplanade on the 7th; some footage that Hurran had taped there on April 5th also wound up in the programme. Other work on June 7th saw the Plan Cafe in Cardiff appear as the prequel's restaurant, while the Pond Life material in the TARDIS and involving Mata Hari was completed at Roath Lock. More TARDIS filming for both the prequel and Pond Life took place at Roath Lock on June 8th, alongside the sequences of the Doctor on a beach and being shown the Asylum (for the prequel) and those featuring the warlord and the Doctor in a mixing studio (for Pond Life). Finally, the Pond Life scene aboard the Sontaran ship was recorded at Roath Lock on July 25th, during work on The Crimson Horror for the second half of Season Thirty-Three.

The five episodes of Pond Life were released online on a daily basis, beginning on August 27th. By now, several preview screenings of Asylum Of The Daleks had taken place in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, prompting fears that the surprise of Coleman's involvement would be ruined ahead of the episode's broadcast premiere. Happily, however, fans and journalists largely complied with requests to preserve the secret.

Season Thirty-Three began transmission on September 1st. Airing at 7.20pm, between Total Wipeout and The National Lottery: Secret Fortune, Asylum Of The Daleks was granted a fifty-minute timeslot. For this episode, the Doctor Who logo in the opening titles was adorned with Dalek hemispheres; this would be the first of five themed designs intended to help make Amy and Rory's final adventures a special experience. The prequel, which ran to a hundred and fifty-five seconds, was then released on the British version of iTunes on September 4th, following its availability in other territories two days earlier.

• Dalek 63·88, edited by Jon Green and Gavin Rymill.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #33, Spring 2013, “Asylum Of The Daleks” by Andrew Pixley, Panini UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #70, 2018, “Story 226: Asylum of The Daleks”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.