Rate And Discuss 3.5: Evolution of the Daleks

[Wayne]

Steve Morgan is younger than Jon Masters. It's official! (And so am i)

[Captain Tancredi]

I can't help thinking about the old joke about the Irish astronauts going to the sun...

[Jon Masters]

Steve Morgan is younger than Jon Masters. It's official! (And so am i)

Out of the way , sonny. Don't know how to respect your elders these days. I might have fought in a war for louts like you

[Wayne]

@Jon

Sorry for the non-serious answer to your perfectly valid point. I just find it difficult to get all that serious about Dr.Who, these days in a funny kinda way.
I think Kaybee summed up how i feel about it, best:

I see plot holes, I see bits I don't like, but they don't get in the way of my enjoyment of the show.

For good or bad, i think i've gradually become a bit of a wind-up merchant these days, to people who i percieve perhaps do take it all too seriously.
Although i've got a way to go before i'm in James Lindsay's league. @James

[The Secretive Bus]

Thought the first episode was great but this one was horribly poor. The only thing I really liked in it was Tennant, who gave a barnstorming performance against all the odds. I knew everything that was going to happen 10 minutes before it did (heck, I think we all guessed what would happen last week - "I'm your leader! Ack, I'm going on an emotional journey!" "OH NO! WE SHALL TURN AGAINST YOU!" "Bugger."), aside from the surprise of the Doctor being able to survive a solar flare lightning strike whilst clinging onto a conductor, without being singed, thrown off the building or anything. And more Rose references. Arrghhhhh.

I really did like New Who series 1. Yeah, there were a few dodgy episodes but, to be honest, there were only 3 I didn't like (the Slitheen ones) with the others being, at worst, 6/10s. But since then I've found New Who really very lacking. I've already missed one episode this series and due to going back to Uni on Tuesday I'll probably end up missing the next 4 (don't have a telly up there). And I don't feel fussed about it. I'll tune in again towards the end of the series (mainly to see Derek Jacobi and the 2 episode conclusion) but... I dunno. I'm just not keen on it, really. Maybe I ought to stick to my Hartnell, Tom and Eccles episodes.

[Jon Masters]

@Jon

Sorry for the non-serious answer to your perfectly valid point. I just find it difficult to get all that serious about Dr.Who, these days in a funny kinda way.
I think Kaybee summed up how i feel about it, best:

For good or bad, i think i've gradually become a bit of a wind-up merchant these days, to people who i percieve perhaps do take it all too seriously.
Although i've got a way to go before i'm in James Lindsay's league. @James

No apologies necessary, mate - just feeling a bit sorry for myself yesterday only to have it topped off by such a disappointment. I needed a good slap really

' Course, if you touch any of my DW stuff, I'll kill you - I'LL KILL YOU ALL !!!

[Jonno]

Having done the red button commentary tonight, I was reminded of two other moments I neglected to mention earlier - I liked the way the Dalek's "eye" contracted in its stalk while it was watching the Doctor conspiring with Laszlo, and was also quite impressed with DT stepping confidently across the top of several rows of chairs in the theatre as he approached the stage! Oh, and I also liked seeing the human Daleks arming themselves with the Dalek guns - is Genesis the only other story where we see a detached gun?

Until Dave T mentioned it here, I hadn't thought of the fact that the story was set just a year or so before the Universal Frankenstein film was released - funnily enough its director was also called James!

[Dirk Gently]

Good.
Dissension in the Dalek ranks?
Nice Dalek battle action.
Martha having to work stuff out for herself & not being led by the nose.
Tallulah's Gammon radiation gag.
Pig Slaves waiting for the lift to arrive.(Missed opportunity for a joke with the incidental music changing to Muzak in the lift).


Bad.
Dalek Sec saved the Doctors life, theres a surprise I wasnt expecting.
Lightening taking the path of most resistance?
Radiation transmitted by electricity?
DNA transmitted by electricity?
Solar flares affecting the wrong side of the planet?

Having seen it again I tend to be a bit in the middle of everyone. I see the flaws (hard not to, so many of them) but it is entertaining. I liked the first part & thought it was a good build up but this was the science part & it failed.
I can't do a review like the likes of Dave Tudor so I won't try.
Do you think there will be pork on the menu tonight?

Suffice to say I liked it even though it was flawed.
7/10 from the Smeghead jury.

[Kaybee Bailey]

Oh, and I also liked seeing the human Daleks arming themselves with the Dalek guns - is Genesis the only other story where we see a detached gun?

Yeah, I forgot to mention earlier, I liked the kind of dalek tommy-gun design they had going on... reinforces the Bugsy Malone style (if Tallulah wasn't enough of a hint!).

[WhiteCrow]

I think next years surprise follow up should be called, in time honoured Terry Nation continuity ...

The Wrath of ...

The Daleks!

This would fit nicely in with other story titles,

• The Daleks
• The Dalek Invasion of Earth
• The Chase of the Daleks
• The Daleks' Master Plan of the Daleks
• The Power of the Daleks
• The Bad Temper of the Daleks
• The Evil of the Daleks
• Day of the Daleks
• Planet of the Daleks
• Mortgage of the Daleks
• Death to the Daleks
• Genesis of the Daleks
• The Marrage of the Daleks
• Destiny of the Daleks
• Resurrection of the Daleks
• Revelation of the Daleks
• Remembrance of the Daleks
• Dalek
• The Parting of the Dalek Ways
• Doomsday of the Daleks
• Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Why did Sec turn into such a reasonable and quite nice chappy when he was formed from a merger between a Dalek and a ruthless, murdering b*st*rd human?

As much as I'd love to believe that there's this essential lovely 'humanity' inside all of us, it's not really that convincing. And it comes across as even less convincing when you write the person these qualities are supposed to be coming from as such a horrible person before he gets absorbed.

[Dave Tudor]

@ WhiteCrow. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we get 'Daleks Of The Daleks'.

I watched it again earlier, and it's already gone up in my estimation - although I do feel that the ending is a little rushed. Last week's was given a fifty minute slot; why couldn't they have done the same this week, if only to make more of Laszlo's redemption?

Pig Slaves waiting for the lift to arrive.(Missed opportunity for a joke with the incidental music changing to Muzak in the lift).

That would have been funny - maybe a little contrived, but still funny!

(Just be thankful, though, they didn't have one of the pigs farting in the lift! )

[WhiteCrow]

As much as I'd love to believe that there's this essential lovely 'humanity' inside all of us, it's not really that convincing. And it comes across as even less convincing when you write the person these qualities are supposed to be coming from as such a horrible person before he gets absorbed.

Thats a good point.

I personally wasn't sure if Sec was just using the Doctor to get what he wanted, Davros was capable of showing some of that deciept.

[Rob McCow]

I didn't like the way the choral voices seemed to sing 'Oh no a human dalek!' in all the Sec bits.

[Perry Vale]

Have I missed the "Wrath Of Caan" gags yet......?

Another 5/10, worse than last week's, imo. The only thing that really changed from last week's, apart from being overly predictable, was Tennant going in to shouty mode. And maybe it's just me, but the whole thing just looked a bit on the 'cheap' side.

When's Captain Jack back? Oh well, at least 'Human Nature' sounds interesting.....

[The Secretive Bus]

is Genesis the only other story where we see a detached gun?

Power of the Daleks has them too - the scientists examining the Dalek remove it and fiddle about with it for a while.

[Jason Thompson]

Oh, and I also liked seeing the human Daleks arming themselves with the Dalek guns - is Genesis the only other story where we see a detached gun?

No. The Daleks in Power Of The Daleks have their guns removed and tinkered with by the colonists (Valmar fits a 'control' device to one, although it is later shown to be ineffective, and Bragen shows a detached gun to Hensell before fitting it to a Dalek and ordering it to kill him), and in Death To The Daleks the Doctor is seen carrying the gun from a Dalek that the City root destroyed, and later on when the City 'antibody men' attack the Daleks one of them pulls out a Dalek's gun.

[Jim]

I thought Evolution was the stronger episode. Dave T is writing some bang on reviews of the new series - I agree with him on the strong treatment of the Daleks, examining them as creatures, rather than mobile guns. It did feel a little odd to have the doc talking away for so long with them and no real effort made to wipe him out. The half-human Dalek idea was OK and did provide the dramatic moments when integrity was questioned. Im unsure if it all made sense in terms of plot - I cant get my head around the solar flair/ lightening thing.

I think the direction was fab and the cast generally on form - it suddenly got really tense and engaging when Soloman was killed, made best by Tennants performance throughout. There is no denying he is much better this season, its exciting to watch him - and some of the weaker shouty bits aside he is nailing the part. I thought it was quite a strong episode for Martha too, desperate to get things right yet holds her own and was horrified at the moments I thought she would be. Her relationship with the Doc feels like new ground - and doesn't really ever fall into either the smug or argumentative trap others so often have done in the past.

I have given it an 8. Overall it had some memorable scenes and bits in the script - the presentation was fab, yet there is something about the storytelling which feels under constructed.

[Dirk Gently]

The Missus (a fan by association) thought the EotD was weaker than DiM & rated 7/10 & 8/10 respectively.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Having caught a bit of Confidential I was surprised to see they actually went to New York to do a bit of filming. What was the point of that? Sure if they're going to run around and see a bit of the city then fair enough, but if they're just going to take a cople of shots of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan and then unconvincingly green-screen the regulars in front of it then they might as well just use stock photographs and a bit of Mill wizardry.

I don't think any casual viewer will have thought there was any genuine location footage at all, it certainly surprised me.

[Andrew Curnow]

I know what you mean - when I heard they were doing a US shoot back in DWM a few months ago, I assumed it would be actual filming of the regulars/guest actors on location. For it just to be an effects recce seems somehow a bit extravagant - surely there would be studios in the US who could supply specifically required shots from certain angles and just email them over? Not very environmentally-friendly or cost-effective I would have thought...

[Whitney]

Screaming "Caaaaaannn!" has now been a renewed joke in the house.

I just thought the Doctor was really dumb. He even asked something like, "And this lot are going to let you do that" or something. How many years and he's being that naive? If he fought in the war, he was trying to kill them all then, why stop now?

This was plagued with small story holes, obvious set ups for later jokes (Caan...), and changing the character (into a tard) simply for later dalek stories. Ouch.

It's the American smog.

[Anthony Williams]

my review is now up on my blog.

Yes, I come to the conclusion that it was shite

Ant x

[Dirk Gently]

And have you come to the conclusion to leave ebay feedback?

[Anthony Williams]

And have you come to the conclusion to leave ebay feedback?

thinking about it

Ant x