Talking 'bout Evolution

My goodness! A rather belated review of "Evolution of the Daleks"!!! What's wrong with me? Well as you might have gathered I have been fairly busy of late...going on trips to Wales and Somerset, applying for jobs and attending interviews, hassling agencies for work, watching Eurovision, going swimming/to the gym..the list goes on...and it's all time-consuming, baby. And in terms of reportage on my blog, these topics have kind of taken precedence! Whaaaaaat? Dr Who doesn't come first?!? Well you know, I don't want to, like, totally alienate my readers by devoting my entire blog space to things 100% Dr Who...80% is surely enough, mais oui? Perhaps I should rename this blog "Diary of a Sad Gay Whovian" or "Journal of a Sci-fi Anorak", but I kinda think that might reduce my appeal...

Anyway...here comes my verdict on the second installment of the recent Dalek two-parter.

And...I'm rather pleased to say that I thought Part Two was considerably better than Part One, pretty damn good in fact!! There was tons of action, drama, moving and scary bits, some great dialogue, emotion, excitement... overall the whole episode revved things far more than in Part One and for me had much more depth. But then, as I said in my previous review, perhaps I was being a tad unfair as the first episode was to some extent setting the scene and establishing things.

First up, the Daleks. I thought they were brill in this episode and back to their chilling, ruthless, destructive selves. And straight off we got an "explanation" as to how the Daleks had managed to escape from modern day London before, yes, it was....drum roll..."emergency temporal shift"!! Wooo!! Erm. Well that's some kind of justification I suppose but not much. I guess we were meant to assume that they'd ended up in 1930s New Yoooick by chance, not just because Dalek Sec had a thing for the Empire State Building and show girls.

The whole Dalek Sec-human-hybrid issue was interestingly handled. As I said before, some fans of the show slammed this idea, claiming that it made the Daleks look "weak" and that they'd never lower themselves by merging with a human being. Yes one could argue that Sec was "tainted" from the point of view of Daleks, who see all emotion as a barrier to achieving power and domination, but wasn't that the whole point? By merging with Mr Diagoras, Sec had bitten off more than he could chew and for me, much of the drama of the episode came from seeing the results of this. Even the Dr was shocked by Sec's comments and the outcome! The fact that Sec started to become increasingly influenced by the human gene was a bit of a foregone conclusion really and put me very much in mind of "Dalek" in the first Christopher Eccleston season of the show. In that episode, a lone Dalek becomes infected with Rose's human DNA and subsequently begins to experience human thoughts and emotions, in the end losing its ability to even kill! In this respect, "Dalek" brought a whole new and I would say, moving, dimension to the portrayal of the Daleks and it was good to see "Evolution" attempting more of the same, without perhaps quite the same level of eloquence that "Dalek" achieved.

I loved some of Sec's scenes, and the growing influence that the human gene has on his character, first of all as he absorbs the negativity aspects of humanity via Mr Diagoras: "I feel humanity ... I feel everything we wanted from mankind ... ambition .... aggression ... hatred ... war" to which the Dr counters: "That's not what humanity means!" But as the human factor starts to affect him more he can't help but admire the humans, for instance when Mr Solomon faces up to the Daleks: "Observe humanity - for all their faults they have courage." He also forbids the Daleks from exterminating the Dr (something the old Sec would never have done) and admits that the murder of the humans in Hooverville was "wrong". !! As the Dr said: "Is it me, or are you just becoming more human?" But again we were given decent justification for why the Daleks had chosen to use humans - after their attempt to grow their own embryos failed, they were forced to conclude that human beings were the greatest "resource" on the planet (nice way of putting it!) and so had stashed away lots of frozen humans ready to be infected with Dalek DNA. And surely Dalek humans would be a much more attractive and sensible proposition than Dalek pigs, sheep or cows? (Actually pigs would be off the list, as the Daleks have already got a whole loada porkers as their servants haven't they - it would kind of confuse the Master and Servant issue, methinks).

Of course Sec's plans inevitably led him into conflict with his "pure" Dalek comrades who didn't like his ideas one bit, and this made for compelling viewing. The scene in the sewer where two of the Daleks talk was great stuff:

Dalek 1: What is your opinion of Dalek Sec?
Dalek 2: We were created to follow him.
Dalek 1: But you have doubts?

Dalek 2: (swivels head round to look behind him): Affirmative.

The moment when Dalek 2 swivelled his eye stick round to check that no-one was nearby listening was brilliant and amusing - I laughed out loud - it made them almost human! But like any other race I guess they just want to protect themselves at the end of the day!

And as I said, it was good to see the Daleks reverting to their customary ruthless selves, killing off all the opposition in typically indiscriminate fashion. The scenes in which two elevating Daleks fly into attack Hooverville were breathtaking and edge of the seat stuff. They looked truly menacing as they flew around the camp, zapping people, blowing everything and everyone up. "The devil in the sky!" as one of the characters cries. The confrontation between Soloman and the Daleks was totally nail-biting and I was just waiting for something horrible to happen to him. And then the poor guy gets exterminated to the horror of everyone else.

The Dr's disgust and anger at Soloman's death were even more palpable, telling the Daleks to kill him: "So it's my turn - then kill me if it'll stop you from attacking these people! Do it! Just do it!!" I've found David Tennant very shrill in the past and his tendency to shout can be annoying, but here it was justified and he was totally believable in his performance. The Dr's decision to go with the Daleks back to their laboratory only on condition that all of the humans were spared was also well played and a testimony to the Dr's compassion and sense of justice. I also liked his anger with Sec: "Those people were defenceless!"

The Daleks also got to shine toward the end of the story in the final climactic showdown in the theatre, with the new human/Dalek army poised and ready to kill the Dr, Martha and co. Again there was some great dramatic tension and dialogue between the Doc and the Daleks:

Dalek: You will die Dr at the beginning of a new age!

Dr: Oh what a world - with just anything the slightest bit different ground into the dirt. That's Dalek Sec - don't you remember? The cleverest Dalek ever and look at what you've done to him!

By the way the Dr was referring to the fact that the Daleks had now turned against Sec and chained him up....nice eh? And then they exterminate him!

Dr: Your own leader. The only creature who might have lead you out of the darkness and you destroyed him.

The Dr's appeal to the human Daleks worked well - "Do you see what they do?" - and I loved the face-off between them and the "real " Daleks with laser beams flying across the theatre, reminiscent of Star Wars or something similar. And then came the final showdown with the final existing Dalek, Karn, all of the others having been destroyed in the battle. And guess what, old Karn got away, going into emergency temporal shift again. (And how nice it must be to have that option. Wish I could do that when I miss the last tube home). To be honest I wasn't that surprised though; yet again the writers are leaving it open for another Dalek return. Till next time! However, whilst this latest two parter has proved to be a worthy addition to the catalogue of Dalek stories, I really do think that the pepperpots should be laid to rest for a while. The expression "overkill" does spring to mind! They've been in no less than four stories over the last three years and it's time that another old foe is allowed back into the fold. And a better resurrection than the Macra, please!

So I've rattled on about the dastardly Daleks for long enough. What about the rest of the story? As said, the plot moved on along at a much quicker pace than in Part one and I liked the upping of the ante, not to mention the inclusion of lots of action sequences. A pivotal part of the plot was the Dr's attempt to disable the Dalek transmitter atop the Empire State Building before the all important bolt of lightning struck and the countdown to the moment of doom was cranked up nicely (helped by the Dalek's own narration: "10 rels...") However as my fellow blogger Timewarden has already noted, having the Dr climb up the transmitter to do the deed wasn't exactly an original plot device, having been used not only in last season's Idiot's Lantern, but also the Tom Baker finale extravaganaza Logopolis! Also the fact that the Dr survived such a deadly and relentless electrical assault by the lightning was far-fetched, as was his dropping the sonic screwdriver and Martha miraculously retrieving it. Ho hum. All in a day's work for a time lord I guess.

The army of human Daleks were nicely menacing and suitably drone like, although their manner of walking was rather Cybermen-like (had they been watching some Cybermen keep fit videos?)

And the finale with the Daleks bursting forth onto the theatre stage for a final showdown was great (although I couldn't quite work out how they managed to get from their laboratory to there - did they fly? And I suppose the Daleks doing the Charleston was out of the question). The amount of deaths in the story as a whole were considerable and you were left with the feeling that way too many innocent people had ended up slain. What was even more horrible to see (and yet another testimony to the Daleks' "don't give a shit" attitude) was the deaths of the Dalek humans - once they were no longer useful, they were killed - and the Dr couldn't help but comment on this: "Genocide". Oh no, I've ended up talking about the those precious pepperpots again haven't I? But the point I'm trying to make is that all of this made for a powerful story, not one that you could just forget about, certainly not after all the senseless deaths and killing that had transpired. Martha and the others definitely seemed affected by it all which was a totally understandable reaction - this had surely been Martha's most trying and through-the-grinder adventure to date, and with all the death and destruction not an experience she could claim she fully enjoyed!

Conversely, the concluding scenes seemed to jarr with this, with the Dr, Martha, Tallulah and Lazlo all sharing smiles and laughs outside in the park - all much too jolly and unrealistic considering the bloodshed and slaughter that had gone before - everyone seemed to snap back into happy mode and forget what had happened far too quickly. Tegan in Resurrection of the Daleks didn't react like this! She was horrified by all the chaos and killing wreaked by the Daleks and as a result decided to cease being the Dr's travelling companion and stay on Earth! Similarly, after what she experienced in '30s New York, I would have expected Martha to ask the Dr to take her back home for a break and maybe even a parting of the ways (and we knew Martha was due to return to modern day Earth in the forthcoming story anyway) but the writers seemed to miss out on such an opportunity. Never mind.

All that aside, the cast all put in very solid and credible performances. David Tennant rose to the occasion with aplomb and as I mentioned before, portrayed his anger and frustration with his adversaries convincingly. I liked his dialogues with Sec and the Daleks (some of which I've mentioned previously)- this was the Doc at his impassioned, justice-seeking best. It was also good to see him refusing to succumb to his anger over Dalek Karn's escape and rousing himself to save Lazlo: "No more deaths!" And my Grace Brothers reference - regarding the Dalek coming out of the lift - was eerily mirrored in the Dr's "First floor perfumery!" A tad flippant perhaps.

Martha was used to good effect again, locating the Dalekanium on the mast and using the pipes to electrocute hordes of pig servants as they came up in the lift - good going, girlfriend! But her humanity came through when she admitted her unhappiness at having to kill the pigs. And as I said, all of the killing and destruction that went on clearly unnerved her.

I also liked Martha's scenes with Tallulah - the bit when they both shout "Dalekanium" was amusing if corny. And Tallulah remained her likeable self in this episode, with more of her New Yoooick wisecracks, for example, when she and Martha discussed the Dr: "He's a man sweetheart, they're different enough". And later on in the theatre I liked her line: "Dr, I know you've got a thing for showtunes but there's a time and a place"!

As for the character of Lazlo, whilst I was glad to see that he survived to tell the tale, I really couldn't help wondering what kind of relationship he and Tallulah would have from thereon. The Pig and The Showgirl??

There was also some great special effects and performances from the rest of the cast.

Overall then, a very thought-provoking, well-paced and action-packed episode. I loved it!