...NEW DR WHO TONIGHT, 21/04/07, 6:35pm, 'DALEKS IN MANHATTEN'...

ARRISARRIS · 21 April, 2007, 06:10:30 AM

...OINK! OINK!...

chris_askham · 21 April, 2007, 08:13:39 PM

One of the best Tennant episodes so far, I thought, playing a refreshingly restrained Doctor. And a story which seemed very reminiscent (to me) of old Who.

But the human Dalek did look shit, and there was no reason for the pig heads.

Good episode though.

Lobo Baggins · 21 April, 2007, 08:40:08 PM

But the human Dalek did look shit, and there was no reason for the pig heads.

Yeah, the zombie-like robomen would have been much more effective in the sewers than the pigmen things, and the humanoid Dalek looks like a monoid. It did felt rather like the Daleks had been crowbarred into an unrelated story, though...

Still, I quite enjoyed that - season three has been a big improvement on season three so far.

Also, Helen Raynor in Confidential made a big fuss about the 'mysterious' zepalin mooring mast added to the plans of the Empire State Building late in the day - no mystery about it, adding a 40 foot tall mast to the top of the building made it 20 foot taller than it's other 'tallest building' competetor...

Lobo Baggins · 21 April, 2007, 08:41:17 PM

Still, I quite enjoyed that - season three has been a big improvement on season three so far.

I mean 'season three has been a big improvement on season two so far'.

SamuelAWilkinson · 21 April, 2007, 08:48:22 PM

Is it me, or is the HumanDalek a bit of a waste of time, being as it is not a hugely superarmoured killing flying machine, which is really the only thing the other Daleks have going for them?

chris_askham · 21 April, 2007, 08:57:56 PM

...like many a disillusioned couple, the Daleks thought having a baby would solve all their problems...

chris_askham · 21 April, 2007, 09:02:27 PM

Surely, if there are only four daleks to start with that means they can only make four human-daleks (unless I missed something). I reckon they're going to be pretty busy reproducing for the next few millenia (providing they can reproduce) ...

Hmm, the cracks are beginning to show...

VisibleMan · 21 April, 2007, 09:12:22 PM

I liked this a lot better, despite the odd wonky accent and somewhat dodgy human dalek design. I don't have a problem with the pig men, the make up was pretty good and it helps cement the Daleks' reputation for being masters of biological engineering, foreshadowing Sec's ambition. Besides robomen looked bloody silly.

One problem, although I liked the posession scene, it's stretching suspension of disbelief that there's a huge big empty space in each dalek for someone to be pulled in. Isn't there supposed to be a mass of machinery and a fusion reactor in the base of each dalek, what would be the point of a mostly empty space? At least when Davros was inside the Emperor we only saw his head.

Mike Carroll · 21 April, 2007, 09:59:54 PM

Best bit: When the elevator doors slowly opened and revealed that the foreman's mysterious master was...

A DALEK!

Bloody hell! Didn't see that one coming!

Not even with the title "Daleks in Manhattan".

chris_askham · 21 April, 2007, 10:02:46 PM

Does exactly what it says on the tin...

Smiley · 22 April, 2007, 03:56:25 AM

That Dalek should have gone ping! once it stopped cooking.

The mutant thingy that emerged after did look like a Monoid wearing an octopus for a hat, but I'm resigned to these new or re-invented monsters being cobbled together out of old ones. Slitheen were a Zygon knock-off, Cybermen are now more Daleky than Daleks and I thought the Judoon were going to be Sontarans when they first stomped into view the other week.

The pig boys were probably just handy for a pre-titles scare, which must have worked despite the constant trailers (Oh, hello eight-year old viewer. Are you sitting comfortably? This is a story about those whacky Daleks. GRARGH! WE LIED! SCREAMING PIG-FACE TRAUMA FOR YOU!) and the episode was fun; "Why, soitanly" accents, Solomon's speech, the musical theatre joke, yet another ultimate Dalek masterplan but with a reasonable motive, spooky sewer chases, and a welcome cliffhanger rather than one of those cheesey air-punch finales. Ticked all the right boxes.

Mangamax · 22 April, 2007, 08:20:22 AM

Yeah, aside from the shit hybrid design, i really enjoyed it.
Best new episode so far in my view

El Spurioso · 22 April, 2007, 01:34:10 PM

I'm completely stumped... Haven't watched an episode since near the beginning of Series 2. Happened to be in at the right time, so I thought I'd give it another chance with this episode.

It's just shockingly, depressingly, make-you-blushingly bad. IMO, of course.

PaulHarris · 22 April, 2007, 01:51:27 PM

I enjoyed it. The Daleks were taking male and female subjects for the final experiment. Maybe they're planning to do a bit of in-breeding once they've got a hybrid of each sex.

Reckon it would have been better though if the black dalek (Sec) had gotten out of his casing and sung 'I'm too Secsy for my shell'

dweezil2 · 22 April, 2007, 02:01:35 PM

Although above average, it was sadly nothing special.
After a strong opening act, the pace slackened to a crawl-there's only so many running around corridors scenes I can take.
Plot holes? Hadn't the Doctor and these Daleks met before? How come they didn't recognise him in the line up? Or did the subterfuge of the Doctor slightly hiding behind someone else bamboozle them? If so, It's no wonder they're the last of their kind!
The more human type pig creature was pretty ill conceived too and seemed designed simply to inject some unnecessary sentiment into the proceedings.
Not terrible, overall, but the Shakespeare episode has been my favourite so far.