Doctor Who:
Daleks In
Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
By Helen
Raynor
“No, no, no,
no, no, no, no. They survived. They always survive while I lose everything.”
The Cult of
Skaro is in 1930’s New York City using the construction of the Empire State
Building as a means to return to dominance. The Daleks are using the building as a receiver
to help power their new army of Daleks.
It appears that the sun is going to be discharging a massive solar flare
and the brunt of the energy will be heading to New York City in the form of
lightning storms. The Dalkes in turn
will use this energy to awaken their army of human’s that have been imbedded
with Dalek DNA in them. This will in
turn be the new Dalek army.
The Doctor and
Martha stumble upon this when they investigate the sewers on NYC that center
around a theater. They are horrified
when they see the pig mutants running around. What is worse is that The Doctor
sees that the Daleks have combined themselves with a human in essence becoming
a human Dalek. This plan of theirs must
be stopped and it is up to The Doctor and Martha to come up with a plan to stop
this new Dalek uprising.
I really do
not like this Dalek story at all. In
fact I think it is the worst Dalek story of new Who with Victory of the Daleks
coming in a very close second. I just do
not like it and well it has to do with the human Daleks and Dalek Sec bonding
with a human. Props for doing something
different but it just did not work for me.
I thought it was stupid and the Dalek mutant on the actors head just
looked like a Halloween mask. It just
did not work and the way human Sec spoke was pretty hilarious.
The way the
Daleks were planning on reviving the human Daleks was straight out of
Frankenstein. From the raising of the
tables to the lightning striking the Empire State Building was purely homage to
the classic story. It was pretty cool
seeing this part and seeing The Doctor take the full brunt of the lightning and
adding his DNA to the mix. That effect
was pretty cool and probably one of the few things I like about this
story.
I liked how
they incorporated the depression in this story adding the hardships of the era
and what people went through. Having the
Daleks getting slaves from Hooverville by promising them work on the Empire
State building was a pretty clever idea and easy to do since there was a lot of
people down on their luck who would jump at a chance to make some money. This made them easy prey for the Daleks and
their mutant pig slaves. Hoovervilles
were very common sights during the Great Depression in the United States as ton
s of people lost their jobs and their homes and ended up living in those tent
cities.
If you’re a fan
of Spooks then you will recognize Miranda Raison as Tallulah. I always liked her in Spooks but her New York
City accent was pretty tough on the ears as most people in NYC do not talk like
that. Why they decided for her to talk like
that and way over the top was just a bad move.
She was pretty good in the role though.
This two part
Dalek story just did not do it for me as I did not like the concept of the
human Daleks and the having Dalek Sec morph into a human hybrid Dalek with that
god awful mask on his head with those tentacles that were just flapping in the wind. I was truly disappointed with this story even
though they did try something different and for that I give them props for.
Grade D
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