Wednesday 26 November 2014

Evolution of the Daleks


"You told us to imagine, and we imagined your irrelevance."

Writer: Helen Raynor 
Format: TV 
Broadcast: 28th April 2007
Series: 3.05

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis 

As a new Dalek Empire rises in 1930s New York, the Tenth Doctor must enter an unholy alliance with the Cult of Skaro and their newly humanised leader...

Verdict 

Evolution of the Daleks was a fantastic concluding episode to the story already started in the previous episode. Long and behold, in their sixth full appearance since the series was revived in 2005, we've finally had the infamous '... of the Daleks' title! And what a good one it is! Perfect for the story. Absolutely spot on. That's what the story really was all about, the Daleks evolving. After the excellent cliffhanger of Daleks in Manhattan with Dalek Sec emerging from his case humanised, we got to see the Dalek-Human in action, in command of the Cult of Skaro, temporarily at least. That authority would soon disappear. I liked how the Doctor didn't keep his presence in the lair of the Empire State secret for much longer after seeing a new species born. The greatest enemy was identified and the explanation for why the Daleks seemed to be cowering away hidden in the previous episode was revealed. The emergency temporal shift seen in Doomsday caused a right energy and resource drain. But thankfully, the Daleks were back to their very aggressive and ruthless best. They were utterly destructive. The scenes in Hooverville were shocking which made the Daleks absolutely brilliant in my books. After tge incredible speech from Solomon likening himself and the Daleks as outcasts, the Daleks just replied in one single and familiar word, "Extermimate!" and killed him point blank on the spot. The Doctor's disgust towards his arch enemies was incredible, I really did think this was one of David Tennant's best performances as the Tenth Doctor. I just wish he'd acknowledge Martha as companion a bit more! Sec ordering the Daleks not to kill the Doctor was a bit of a shock I must say. I loved how the Doctor was liking how much more human the leader of the Cult of Skaro was becoming. At first he likened them to geniuses of war, but now he could see and feel the courage. His comments about the purpose of a Dalek being wrong was just incredibly surprising! He questioned Davros, not by name sadly, and even said that the Daleks not being the supreme beings would be a good thing. Blimey, can you get anything further away from a Dalek? I struggle to think so! The plan of the Daleks, or Sec rather, to hybridise the human shells they'd created and create a species of Human-Daleks to live on a far away world was intriguing to say the least. But of course, the rest of the Cult weren't having it and interfered, taking their leader prisoner in the process. The Doctor's efforts to get in the way of the gamma strike were fantastic! He ensured Time Lord DNA got all mixed up in the process, which in turn would save his life in superb fashion. Dalek Sec sacrificed  himself to extermination to prevent the Doctor from receiving the fate but then all hell broke lose when the hybrids questioned orders. They soon turned on Thay and Jast were destroyed and that just left Caan, the last Dalek in the universe. And he committed genocide, wiping out the hybridised Dalek-Time Lords. The Doctor was devastated, and now it was just him and Caan left. It would remain that way too, as the latter used an emergency temporal shift to get away from the Doctor. After brilliant help from Martha, Tallulah and Frank, as well as Laszlo, the Doctor finally seemed to get the better of the Daleks as a whole. Had a Dalek plan ever failed so badly before? I struggle to come with an argument disproving the theory! But overall, the two episodes as a whole were superb and gave us an extremely strong opening two-parter of the series!

Rating: 9/10





3 comments:

  1. Dalek Sec's evolution got me. The way he forge a human soul, as the 'Metaltron' on Dalek. He chose to help the humans and the Doctor.
    Martha really rock on it. Instead of beign whiny, she takes charge and figures out the Dcotor's plan.

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  2. Woulda rock if Rose met Dalek Sec. I see her trusting him, seeing symylarites to the one she humanise. She can defend him when many doubt him. She can see his spiritual evolution before the Doctor, and hug him when he begs for forgiveness. She can bodn with him. Sec can also ask for her coz of which she did for the Lone Dalek and want her to pass on her knowlegge of the human heart so the new Daleks can learn to be kind. And Rose would mourn Sec and shout on Caan and his followers for betraying hima fter all he's done for them.

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  3. This got me ideas:

    1. Sarah J's encoutner with Rose's humanised Dalek can be similar to the 10th Doctor learnign Sec had become more human. Instead of being a sissy damsel, she's a sassy feminist who readies to take the shto from the humanised Dalesk to save children (but gets save by the humanise Dalek). She come to rescue Rose and shouting on the humansie Dalek, accusing it of kidnapping her to lure the Doctor; only to find to her shock how human he eb such as when he says he'd sooner die than hurt a friend. She'd see he's telling the truth. She can also speak to him about emotions and mention Davros to which the humanise Dalek said he was wrong; just as Sec and the 10th Doctor.

    2. Mickey and Martha can compare the stories. Martha would mention Sec becoming half-human, and Mickey can mention the Dalek Rose humanise.

    3. Rose would reveal she and the humanise Dalek saw Sec's spiritual evolution, and to'd burn his dead body. Burning the dead's better than burial.

    4. If Sec met Davros, I see the two confronting. I see Sec defying Davros and shoutign how wrong he was and show righteous anger with how Davros pervert his own people and remove which improve life, while Davros would be furious with Sec for his insolence and for siding with the Doctor.

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