Dr. Who - "Daleks in Manhattan" (SPOILERS)

[trotsky]

Promo looked good. And we find out what happened to the Dalek who initiated an "emergency temporal shift" to avoid getting sucked into the void in last season's finale.

But really, I'm a little disappointed. I'm sorry, the pig guys were funny, not scary. Nor did I find the new "human" Dalek to be in the least bit scary. (Maybe it was the spats. ;-)) And it doesn't make sense. No weaponry? No shielding? Will it have emotions?

(Odd bit that you wonder if they will reconcile: the Dalek speaking with the soon-to-be Dalek-human remarks how the human race has managed to survive throughout history, but the poor Daleks are on the verge of extinction vs. the Doctor expressing his anger at how Daleks always survive. Well, which is it? Are the Daleks doomed, or are they survivors?)

Just some wandering thoughts...

[salvorhardin]

1. It was... uneven

Really, beautifully done visuals in this ep. Especially that of 1930 Manhattan and the interior bits of the Empire State Building.

That musical number was charming, and didn't feel too spurious but yes, the pig-men were just over-the-top silly as was the human-dalek character design. Ugh! They're devolving into the same sort of poor creature makeup as Star Trek did. Next thing you know all the aliens/monsters will just have varying degrees of ridges on their faces.

And I know we're only 4 eps in but I'm getting more than a little irked that they have this really smart companion and they're not making use of her or her brains.

[trotsky]

2. "Uneven" - that's a great word for it.

I agree, the visuals and attention to period detail were outstanding. As Martha & the Doctor walk through Central Park, did you notice they put a nice old-looking wood bench in the frame? Well done. Honestly, watching the episode, it was hard to believe they weren't really in New York.

But yeah, the rest of it, ehhh. Why not make the Daleks more agile & mechanized? They could do some really neat stuff with CGI. You could echo the pepper-pot design elements and really come up with some amazing looks. The human Dalek looks like somebody about to go trick-or-treating.

[Deja Q]

3. Superficially glossy, but yeah...

As I said in a youtube clip, it looks like a reject of a 1950s sci-fi story - the Dalek Sec morph scene really reflecting how much of a joke it is.

And, yeah, the Daleks were re-christened in the new series as being impregnable to just about everything. And now, all of a sudden, they think that leaving it to walk and dance around is the BETTER thing to do? The new series, especially those penned by RTD personally, can be schizophrenic at times, but this Dalek story takes the cake and ice cream too.

No wonder RTD is pondering resigning; the grab he once had is waning. And series 1, to me, was hit and miss. But it had a consistent feel that wasn't half-bad. (but don't expect me to sit through 'The Long Game' or 'Father's Day' ever again...)

:D