Episode 5: Evolution of the Daleks (The Gaz Review)

I liked a lot of things about this episode, the Human-Dalek was way cooler than I'd ever thought he'd be. When I first saw the cover of the Radio Times I thought here's another excuse for someone to go crazy with a ring-modulator and wear a squid-head. How wrong I was, Human-Dalek Sec has to be the most sympathetic alien since the Face of Boe in New Earth.

The Cult Of Skaro delivered Daleks that were unlike any others we have seen before, when they stop shouting, they question, they have doubts, they rebel and they gloat. They were a real menace and a worthy of the title of alien race most likely to destroy the universe.

The awakening of the Human-Dalek soldiers was a piece of imagination worthy of Mary Shelley. It was also fantastically realised by the design and effects team from The Mill.

But... and there seems to be a consistent but so far with this season, there were a lot of things that could have been better with a bit more thought, I mean how many times can the Daleks spout exposition and let The Doctor get away? I thought that was why the Cult Of Skaro were brought into existence in the first place? Stupid over sized pepper-pots, I agree with Jeremy Clarkson, I could take em'. Whilst I'm ranting about Daleks, the escape by Dalek Khan, that was just appalling... “emergency temporal shift”!!! I must try that in my next annual review and see if I get out of danger – be-jay-sus my cat could write a better escape than that!

I'm very quickly becoming a bit sick of Martha, she's carrying this longing for The Doctor a bit too far, in fact it's becoming a little too much like watching an episode of Grange Hill and it needs to be sorted out.

At least there were no musical numbers this week, just some pointless speechifying, very dodgy science, which I'm in complete agreement with Jones and some big explosions.

Episode 5 - Evolution of the Daleks (The Jones Review)

Colour me disappointed.

The second part of this seasons Dalek epic falls apart quite badly:

• Tennant shouts his lines, again.
• The Daleks repeatedly have the Doctor in their sights only to let him go, again.
• The science is appallingly bad (seriously when is Gamma Radiation and Lightning the same thing?), again.
• Martha is pining for a relationship and whining about Rose, again.

Each twist, turn and betrayal in the plot was obvious and cliched, and the amount of speechifying contained in the dialogue (and the numerous times that someone stands up and makes a speech!) was embarassing and made me cringe from the very first to the very last. The melodrama level was far too high and lessons should have been learned from Aaron Sorkin if they had wanted to make social comment at this level.

The visual elements were heavily borrowed from many sources, from King Kong to Back to the Future and added some enjoyment for spotting the homages. The operatic musical score added some tension to the chase scenes, and underlined the grand scope of the venture, the Dalek plan, the threat level and of course the giant building itself. Unfortunately the actual scripting and plot were pants.

While I thought the first part of this story was a weak beginning, I had hopes for the second part lifting the game and bringing it all together. It failed. A number of people/characters die in this episode and I could have cared less about them. In fact there were at least two more that I think should have died that survived in the end. The final escapee was probably my favourite in the story, at least something better may come of that later.

Poor episode and worst of the season so far.

Episode 4 - Daleks In Manhattan (The Gaz Review)

Okay, I had a look at this last night…

It’s great to see the Daleks become actual characters, not just nonsense spouting bits of wobbly cardboard and tinfoil. The scene where the Dalek and Diagoras look over New York and it speaks of humanity in such admiration, is really quite good.

This was an episode with big ambitions, lots of human and non-human drama told against a rich back drop, which it occasionally struggles to pull off. I know this is a TV drama, but the residents of Hooverville taking cues from a black man is a bit much, in reality they’d probably eat him… crass yes, true… possibly?

As it’s New York in the 1930’s they’d have been better to mix it up with accents, rather than everybody in the cast doing a terrible nasal Bronx whine, or Franks odd Tennessee drawl. I doubt viewers would notice Irish, English and Italian accents as much as we do the crap ones the actors are straining with.

However placing the dance hall girl and the pig-man at the centre of the action is a nice take, even if it borrows heavily from the 1980’s Beauty and the Beast TV show.

My main issue with the episode is the inconsistencies, one moment the Daleks are being all observational, the next moment they are being all shouty and spouting nonsense. For efficient war machines with abilities rivalling a Time Lord, why do they not spot The Doctor lurking ever so suspiciously behind Martha, or that she is a time-traveller? The musical number seems to have been thrown is as an after-thought, when it could have been used a bit more, a great example is Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Oddly I thought The Doctor and Martha seemed to be swamped a little by everything else going on, the best lines went to the Daleks and the grunting pigs!

As Jones said, it’s not Muppets in Manhattan, but it occasionally veers a lot closer than it should!!