S3E05: Evolution Of The Daleks

Part Two is where a Doctor Who story either surpasses the previous week's set-up or descends into an action-packed mess where the good guys win by exploiting dissention in the bad guys' ranks or by blowing a lot of things up. The first is dissatisfying because the established threat is reduced and our heroes don't face the enemy at full strength like you thought they would, and the second is just lazy writing. What kind of Part Two will it be? That's the real suspense of a cliffhanger ending.



Tired of staircases foiling all their plans for world domination, the Daleks installed anti-grav technology. So now everyone escapes up manholes and the Daleks are investigating slimming technology.

Dalek Jast looked over his shoulder to make sure no-one would hear him badmouth Dalek Sec. I think he's got the Human Factor already.

Glasses! Shot glasses.

What have lightning, solar flares and gamma radiation got in common? Search me, but for the purposes of this story they're all the same thing. Throw in some D.N.A. splicing and the science gets muddier from there. It's fiction so I'm not saying it's wrong per se but it IS a big bag of bollocks.

"YOU TOLD US TO I-MAG-INE AND WE I-MAG-INED YOUR IR-RE-LE-VANCE!"

People with different accents speaking in unison sounds odd. Try it.

The companion just killed a bunch of people. Yay for getting your hands dirty! Somebody should have smelled bacon.

Did the Daleks blast through the roof of the sewer to get into the theatre? It looked like they appeared in a puff of stage smoke.

So dissent did do the Daleks in in the end. But there were no deus ex machinae so my storytelling sensibilities haven't been offended. Despite a rubber-masked villain and Darth Vader getting away for a sequel I'm a reasonably happy camper. The extra story time could have been spent on something more original but there are more two-parters coming up. And I'm really glad the Daleks didn't "evolve" into something that the B.B.C. wouldn't have to pay royalties on next year (as I thought would happen).

Next week: Tennant in a tux.

Next Christmas: Kylie freakin' Minogue!