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BBC Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks |
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| Story No. | 192-193 |  |
| Production Code | Series Three Episodes Four and Five | |
| Dates | April 21 and 28, 2007 |
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With David Tennant, Freema Agyeman
Written by Helen Raynor Directed by James Strong Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner. |
| Synopsis: To survive, the Daleks must consider options they've never considered before. |
Technobabble of the Daleks by John Nor 5/7/07
"Helen Raynor?"
"Yes?"
"Hi. I should point out YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY Helen Raynor. I have imagined you here to this review to ask you a few questions. I've already written a version of this somewhere else on the web. I usually just produce reviews here for the DWRG only, but this review is based on my lengthy comment to another review elsewhere. With apologies to Stu as I was inspired by the dialogue format of his original review. And with apologies to the actual real Helen Raynor. No offence is meant."
"Okay, but make it quick, I'm due to be imagined somewhere else this afternoon."
"Now, I've got to say, part one of this story, Daleks in Manhattan, was very good. Some people questioned the coherence of the plot, but the Pig-Humans, the Dalek blob, they seemed to me to clearly lead into the Human-Dalek (of which Dalek Sec was obviously not telling the full story about to the Bronze Daleks). It all made sense."
"Thanks."
"But Evolution of the Daleks - Helen, Helen, Helen. WHAT was that all about? Solar gamma-ray flares? Why the lightning?"
"NASA have associated gamma-rays with lightning and thunderstorms on their website."
"Okay - gamma-rays and lightning go together, but unless I wasn't paying attention I don't think that was made clear at all."
"Is that it?"
"No. The image of a Human-Dalek was a great one. The image of the serried ranks of mysterious body-bags was chilling. When one body-bag was unzipped - what a let down! A human looking slightly pale.
"Well, we have to work within budgets. Talcum powder is cheaper than prosthetics you know."
"Fair enough, but as well as being highly disappointing visually, what clarity there was to the Final Experiment was completely lost with all the talk of gene solutions. The Bronze Daleks who were repulsed over racial impurity now thought it was okay, so long as they upped the proportions of Dalek element over human element in the gene solution. Dalek Sec wanted, say, 50% Dalek DNA liquid - the Bronze Daleks wanted 100% Dalek DNA liquid. For such a triumphantly visual story to suddenly hinge on slightly different forms of liquid was frustrating!"
"Well... I'm not sure I agree. Anything else?"
"Yes. I have to say this. The slightly pale humans with the DNA liquid was one thing - any clarity to the Final Experiment had now gone. The icing on the cake was Time Lord DNA somehow being mixed in by the lightning."
"I thought that was quite good."
"No way! Any pathos generated by the Doctor being the Last of the Time Lords is undermined by the brief existence of Human-Daleks-Time-Lords the new race (Really! WTF?!). Also, that moment was the biggest pile of technobabble so far in an episode littered with it."
"Doctor Who always has technobabble."
"Not really. I would categorise things like the mega-MRI in Smith and Jones as a playful and understandable extension of existing science, but Evolution of the Daleks had nonsensical technobabble by the bucket-load."
"You shouldn't just be talking to me! You have to remember Russell had quite a lot of input. He did zhuzzh up the dialogue and there WAS an extensive shopping list that he gave me."
"I thought this Dalek two-parter was brilliant! Hooray!"
"Russell. This isn't Doctor Who Confidential. This is an imagined conversation in a review. I have to say to both of you that Nu-Who so far is a staggering triumph and I have immense respect for what you both have done. The four episodes of Season 2007 up until episode 5 were some of the best Doctor Who since March 2005. Evolution of the Daleks though was a real disappointment. Some people are saying the production team are running out of ideas. I think and hope that it was just a blip, like New Earth was. There have been two and a half years of freshly invigorated and radical Doctor Who, and I hope the rest of the 2007 season is as superb as it looks from the BBCi trailer."
"Hooray!"
Song and Dance by Mike Morris 4/9/07
I'm in a bit of a quandary about this.
A while back I published a review of The Runaway Bride - or rather, a single scene of The Runaway Bride, because I was in that kind of mood - in which I complained that Doctor Who was showing signs of turning into the sort of programme that does things because that's what Doctor Who is supposed to do. There's elements of this which remain true - witness the oh-look-Earth-gets-invaded-again finale to Season 3, which would have been annoying if it weren't so nicely done - but if anything showed me that this was still a fair way off the money, it was this two parter. It's brash, confident, and hugely unpredictable. Daleks meet Broadway, essentially, with a production that oscillates between Singin' in the Rain and Frankenstein, except with more colour. Half an hour in we have the Doctor discovering that a green squishy thing is from Skaro, and then we cut to a musical number. In spite of the Broadway show being uncomfortably minimalist, the sight of someone slinking between beautifully choreographed dancing girls dressed up to look like red peacocks, replete with shots from above, is as visually arresting and beautifully alien as anything seen in Doctor Who. It's obvious that the corniness of the production is deliberate, and so even the truly appalling American accents seem appropriate somehow.
In other words, it's rollickingly entertaining television. The first part is a long way ahead of the second, and it's obviously silly, but it would be churlish to claim otherwise. Even the slightly dodgy makeup of the pigmen doesn't damage the production, because all the stageplay-vaudeville stuff around us serves notice that we're operating in a world that's gone quite some way from naturalism, and besides which it doesn't look all that bad. There aren't really any points that you'd describe as really frightening, as opposed to something that looks like it should be frightening; however there's lots of sights that are beautifully grotesque, and that's also perfectly fine. The conclusion of the story is another matter, and we'll come to that later, but for three-quarters of its length the story is rollickingly entertaining. Oh, and don't Daleks look good when they fly?
Hey, look, I've mentioned Daleks.
And here's the thing; if this story featured the Ugwats or the Thretatrant or the Silliandstupids, I don't think I'd have such a problem. I don't want to be stuffy, but my reaction was simple; don't do this for a Dalek story.
To clarify; this is the first story in which the Daleks are rubbish, really really rubbish. They even look rubbish. I'm all for Doctor Who getting rid of all that let's-make-everything-frightening-by-never-turning-the-lights-on-and-if-we-do-let's-make-them-sort-of-blueish Battlestar-Galactica-inspired nonsense, and I ain't got nothing against colour schemes that actually feature colours. Having Daleks that are all coloured gold, rather than that old gunmetal-grey we all got used to, seemed a bit of a bonkers decision when I found out about it; however, put them in dark cellars and glitzy sci-fi surroundings, or even the gorgeously coloured alienness of a Dalek ship, and they look bloody fantastic. However, stick them in surroundings which are fake art-deco, and everything looks like a gaudy costume and they look like... gaudy costumes, or at best gaudy props. The Daleks in this story aren't believable, and nor are they menacing. In fact, it feels uncomfortably like they're being sent up.
Which ties into the second objection. There's been a lot of comment along the lines of how the Daleks are back to being menacing, scheming creatures. This is nonsense, and seems to me to be based on the fact that their plan's a bit like Evil of the Daleks (one of those 'classic' stories that doesn't actually exist anymore). The Daleks might have seemed menacing and scheming in 1966, but here they come across as being composed of B-movie cliches. Their squabbling doesn't help matters either, partially because it happens at unconvincing points (why on Earth would Caan object to Sec's Final Experiment just seconds before it starts, rather than when they first hatched the idea?) and mostly because seeing Daleks argue with each other is even less entertaining than seeing them argue with Cybermen. It just about works in Daleks in Manhattan, largely because the full enormity of their plan hasn't been revealed, but even then it's hard to feel anything but nonplussed when that Builder Bloke is eaten by a giant CGI tentacle that anyone should notice isn't big enough to actually accommodate a human being.
In Evolution of the Daleks, though, it's simply pathetic. There's something in the notion of a Dalek being humanised by being cross-bred with a human, but you immediately start to wonder why the other Daleks would put up with it for so long. After the obligatory action-extravaganza at the start, we're into Sec explaining what he's up to and... well it's bollocks, isn't it? It's one of those stories that throws the word "DNA" round as a magic cure-all, but doesn't actually know what DNA is. I'm never arsed by whether the science makes sense, only as to whether it's interesting or threatening, but here - well it isn't, and that's all there is to it. Essentially we've got a bunch of humans who have their personality removed, into which you can pour Dalek-ness. So why bother with the tentacle-headed thing at all? How witless do you have to be to talk about the Dalek/Human mix as if it's like the mixture between gin and vermouth? And that bit at the end is crap on two levels (and I'm shamelessly chanelling Lawrence Miles' comments here, but he put it best); the Doctor's lightning-strike intervention makes about as much sense as someone hacking a computer by rewiring its plug, and it also establishes him as some sort of demi-god who sorts everything out by touching it.
Oh yeah, and the line "Humans with Dalek DNA" really bothered me; my long-held, arse-to-the-science viewpoint can survive many things, but even I couldn't stop myself from shouting at Martha that humans with Dalek DNA would be, y'know, Daleks.
More annoyingly still, there isn't any real progression in the story; since all the Dalek developments are nullified by the story's conclusion, the Daleks are pretty much where we left them. Part of the new series' terrific use of the Daleks is tied up with the fact that they've always been there for a reason: in the story Dalek, we're give the last relic of the Time War, in Parting of the Ways they're presented as a quasi-religious gathering darkness, and their subsequent appearance serves as an effective shock-tactic as well as re-establishing them as a presence. This is the first story that smacks of "oh, we'd better do a Dalek story"... which is why I think I'd warm to the story more if it had used some other adversary.
And yet I don't, I can't dislike it. All the things that should be terribly wrong with it don't matter; the dodgy pig makeup seems to fit, Solomon's death-speech somehow works in spite of its cheesiness, and the general feel of the production comes through unscathed. There's a grittier, tougher story embedded in this - just as there's a nastier portrayal of Hooverille which doesn't make it to screen - and yet the version I've got doesn't bother me. The Doctor does rather too much sermonising for my taste, but I cheered at "Oh Tallulah with three l's and an h, just you watch me." Even Tallulah was a caricature that worked. Helen Raynor doesn't show much understanding of science fiction, but she does clearly understand how to make good television - and that's the right way round to have it. Along with James Strong's somewhat perverse interpretation of the script (it's light years from his previous work on the show) we're left with a unique slice of television. Just as I can't dislike it, though, I can't quite warm to it either. It's entertaining while it lasts, but as soon as it finishes all sorts of things start to bother me.
So what's there is... strange. I'm sure there'll be some people who get more out of this than I do, but ultimately I was rather nonplussed.
A Review by Joseph Gillis 30/10/07
After how good the previous Dalek appearances were, this kind of let it down a little bit. The Cult of Skaro themselves were fine, but everyone else apart from the main actors really weren't on scale.
This is more or less a follow-up to Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, but it doesn't live up to the high quality those episodes showed. It also gives a reference to the previous episode, Gridlock, which I felt really wasn't needed. One thing, though, it's nice to see the old, scheming Daleks back. They worked really well, and I personally like these Daleks instead of the new "kill anything in its path" route they've gone down.
The acting was good, but not as strong as the previous performances: David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are both brilliant in this episode and unlike Rose~Rs tenure in Season Two (who just got jealous of every woman the Doctor even looked at because of what he did in The Parting of Ways), she seems to have genuine feelings for our Time Lord. Ryan Carnes and Hugh Quarshie both do incredibly well as Lazlo and Solomon, respectively, so that when Carnes becomes a pig-mutant... thing (more on that below) and Solomon is shot after delivering his speech to the Dalek, you really do feel sorry for them. Eric Loren didn't really do a lot as Mr. Diogras, and when he merged with Sec, it didn't really have any impact, but you really did feel sorry for Sec when they killed him. I loved the Black Dalek armour since it looked really cool and sleek.
The biggest disappointment, out of everything in this two-parter, is Miranda Raison as Tallulah. Her voice was incredibly annoying, she never shut up about her pig-boyfriend... thing, and it just came to a point where you just wished that a Dalek came along and did something that would make her die. The other major disappointment was the pig slaves of the Daleks. There was no actual need for them, other than a need of mutant animals that would answer to the Cult of Skaro. It doesn't help that the make-up on them didn't make look realistic enough. Speaking of make-up, the Dalek-Human looked really cool and it must have been a pain for the actor to be in that helmet, but it really came across as cool.
Overall, a bit below average for the Daleks in the revived series, but it's still a good episode despite the bad points above.
A Review by Finn Clark 7/7/10
I've quite liked the Dumb Kiddie Two-Parters. They're not brilliant, but I'm baffled by phrases like "the Dalek disaster". This particular one is the most ambitious and least successful of Tennant's three examples, since the other two aren't aiming as high but as a result more or less hit their targets.
Daleks in Manhattan is ponderous, but straightforward. Nothing unusual there. No, it's the second half of the story that's completely done its brains with high tragedy with Manlick Sec and heatfelt pleas to try to make the Daleks become less evil. Eh? Somehow this works when it's the Doctor talking, because he must know he's beating his head against a brick wall and so the scene becomes about his characterisation. However, it's a joke from Solomon, since he's going to die. We know this within milliseconds. Predictability needn't necessarily be a problem with tragedy, but this is just daft. Will the Daleks become nice? Sure, after Dracula's turned vegetarian. Obviously, we all know the episode will end with all hybrids squashed like jellyfish and all the surviving Daleks still being evil, so we end up sitting there for 45 minutes just waiting for what we know is going to happen.
This poses two further problems. The first is that it requires you to care about what happens to Daleks. Personally, I think this is great. Completely bonkers and the attempt goes down in flames, but it's a glorious thing to have tried. Imagine a Dalek Hamlet, starring a Dalek Sec who enslaves Yorick and exterminates touring players. Me, I'm 100% behind the idea, but I'm mad. What about the poor viewers who watch to see the adventures of the Doctor?
Nonetheless, I still enjoy watching these Daleks. They have a plan! How cool is that? They haven't had a plan for years! I love the way even the other Daleks back away from the mutated Dalek Sec. This story may be a poor vehicle for them and thus a wasted opportunity, but I have a lot of time for what it does manage to achieve.
The other problem is that the plot is badly constructed. The tragedy fails because it's railroaded. It's nice to see that everyone gets a little speech or two, but look at the structure. Dalek Sec has his Damascus moment and even talks the Doctor into trying to help, only for his allies to betray him as we always knew was going to be inevitable. Sounds great so far, right? That's a good starting point for a story, but unfortunately Sec's only plot involvement from then on is to crawl about in chains and then die. Eh? Admittedly the sight of him is hilarious, but it's hardly dramatic.
So much for the Human Dalek. That's only half of the mutant equation, but the Dalek Humans are even more ill-served and in a way that doesn't even make sense. I like the way they turn on their masters, although this would have been stronger had Raynor managed to make it due to either their their Humanity or Dalekicity. You could have mined either of those for characterisation and theme. Admittedly, I also quite like her eventual choice, but that mostly because the science involved is so ludicrous as to become an art form. David Whitaker rides again. Lightning bolts can now go on the Magic List along with mirrors, mercury and static electricity. That's funny, but it's what happens next that's rubbish. Dalek Caan activates his Saward option to kill everyone before the plot can get interesting, but if he was capable of doing that, then why didn't he do something a few minutes earlier when they were blowing away his comrades and making him the last Dalek in existence? D'oh. I guess he'd been busy on his Playstation or something.
Admittedly, it's wise not to expect plotting in a New Who Dalek story. Parting of the Ways gives Eccleston nothing to do but die. Meanwhile, Journey's End runs around furiously, but in ever-decreasing circles. The Daleks are unstoppable. This makes them impressive, yes, but it doesn't make for very interesting stories. What happens when the irresistible force meets an all-too-movable object? G'wan, take a guess. Answer: almost nothing until almost the end, when Rusty pulls a magic lever from his backside. Nevertheless, there are two New Who stories in which the Daleks are underpowered and trapped on Earth. One is Dalek and the other is, yes, this one. This could have yielded a terrific ding-dong, especially since Raynor gives us machiavellian, scheming Daleks of a kind we haven't seen since David Whitaker.
This was a opportunity. It wasn't taken.
All that said, there's still stuff I like here. Tennant does wonders with his final plea to Dalek Caan, which is a scene that should have looked ridiculous. Similarly Bondage Sec in chains is funny. There's no reason for the Daleks to be getting so theatrical, but they do enjoy being flamboyantly nasty from time to time, don't they? They're even better when being conspiratorial and backstabbing. Moving across to the humans, I laughed at Tallulah's assumptions about the Doctor. "He likes musical theatre, what a waste." I like the historical angle and I don't mind the pig-men, although I can't say I cared much about any of the cast. They're not that interesting and they have "loser" tattooed on their foreheads, that's all.
Of course as a production, it's astonishing. Everything about it is impeccable... except that, for me, it lacks a certain style. Something about it is heavy-handed. There's so much potential in the idea of 1930s Daleks in the Empire State Building, but we only ever get the faintest taste of it. I wanted more flair, more fun. The scene of Martha crossing the stage during a performance doesn't work at all, to a degree that's actually shocking when you realise how it should have come across. I also adore the idea of Daleks in a 1930s Universal Frankenstein laboratory with lightning bolts and gigantic Tesla coils, but what we see isn't getting into that right spirit. It looks pretty, but that's it. It doesn't remind me in any way whatsoever of James Whale. They even have a body under a sheet being winched down from the roof, for goodness sake, yet somehow even that manages to be neutral.
They're doing Golden Age of Hollywood pastiche, but I think they're trying too hard. It would have done them good to let their hair down and have a bit more fun with it.
However, that said, the details are impeccable. There's nothing wrong with the acting or even the American accents. The photography, the effects, the costumes... all beautiful. It's also the only Russell T. Davies era kiddie two-parter not to be set in a contemporary London. Historicals are good things, you know.
Of all New Who's stories, this is the one I most want to rewrite. It had so much potential. It's heartbreakingly close to being bold and daring, which had it got there could have raised the 2007 season to a level that would blow away Eccleston. I admire the way it gives story time to the Daleks as characters, not monsters, which is something that the previous season had fallen down on. The 2006 season had often rather rushed through its monsters and as a result felt at times like something put together by children with Meccano. This story on the contrary falls too deeply in love with its Daleks for its own good. It's not advisable to think too deeply about this story until afterwards, but I can still watch it peacefully enough and go gooey at the George Gershwin. It's okay.