New Who Review for “Evolution of the Daleks”
Posted By Kathleen David on August 4, 2007
Well that can’t all be gems and this episode isn’t even a diamond in the rough. But you have to get through this episode to get to the good stuff. I had some concerns about the season but I was blown away by the latter half of the season. So hang on, this will become a wild ride.
I will give the casting director props for trying to get people who can fake or have an American accent. The Daleks continuity is good and fits in with the other episodes. And yes the Doctor does seem to be dropping his sonic screwdriver at the drop of a hat. I almost started a “how many sonic screwdrivers does the Doctor go through” count but it does sort itself out later.
This has a Caroline fear factor of not much. She likes the Daleks so she doesn’t really find them scary. She was not too sure about the pig-men and hid behind Peter once or twice with them.
So not my favorite nor is next weeks show but next week is better and gets back to some basic Doctor Who tropes.
I am grateful for two working laptops.
So Martha has to yet again see if the Doctor is alive or if she has to do something about his being almost dead. (I see Miracle Max in the background by this point.) And the Doctor does do a good tall, thin, and tortured but every week? I swear his body is taking a greater beating than 1-4 ever took (OK 4 did take a lot of abuse so 1-3).
I think if the dalek/human hybrid had looked better I would accept the episode more but I just couldn’t get over the make-up/design. What they were trying to do with the idea of morality and whose morality is the right kind of morality was interesting and does come into play later in the season. But I really couldn’t make it the make-up.
That and the constant reset button that is the Daleks. Basically they have not changed since they first appeared in the 1960s. There is no growth or change for them. The stories show the possibilities that exist for change but like most Star Trek novels, there can be no true change. By the end of the episode a Dalek is a Dalek with the exception of the episode entitled “Dalek” but then he/she/it dies by the end of the episode so there is no change to the Dalek race as a whole. Cult of Skaro sounds interesting but when you get right down to it, they are no different than the Emperor Dalek.
Again Martha and the Doctor have an interesting dynamic. You can tell that Martha has one heck of a crush on the Doctor and the Doctor is still hung up on Rose. First time the Doctor has been this hung up on a companion who didn’t die and for me it is getting a little old. Rose was a good companion but she was no Ace.
Yes, Dalek Sec’s new hybrid makeup was a bit off-putting. Now the Daleks appear to be down to one Dalek again. They could have done something really mind-blowing if they implied that the Dalek that escaped this time was the same one in “Dalek.” Of course, what they explained in that episode contradicts that, but it would have been an interesting take. Now they still have a Dalek somewhere in time to encounter next season (I presume).
In the commentary, they pointed out that the first Dalek human we saw was the foreman they captured in the previous episode. They also pointed out quite a few mistakes in the episode such as the same Dalek human being killed twice in the final battle and Dalek Sec’s original casing being seen too much. They also said that they would have liked to have had more footage of the Doctor saving Lazlo’s life, but they just ran out of time. There is a link at the episode webpage at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/305.shtml
to Postcards from New York. There you can see pictures of them filming in New York. There is also a link on the episode page to a newspaper front page with the Hooverville Mystery Deepens headline that you can read or print out.
Neil
If you’re not viewing ahead, i can only say wait until you see “Blink”.
The “behind-the-couch” factor is amazingly high, and, for an episode with the Doctor in it for about seven minutes total – and Martha even less – it’s simply incredible.
Written by the same guy who wrote “Empty Child” and “Girl in the Fireplace”.
And then the next three episodes hit the ground running and don’t stop till the end.
I presume that in your episode assements that you are making some allowances for all the “more commerical time” editing the Sci-Fi Channel does, for I observed some very noticable jump cuts within the first 15 minutes or so of Evolution.
As for the Daleks not changing…
This is true at least physically. They are basically retaining the same image since their first appearance in the 1960s much like the TARDIS itself.
Story wise, for the most part there have been developments over the years. Daleks did not have flight capabilities until the Seventh Doctor/Ace era, and there is only ONE active Dalek left, at least in this universe.
“and there is only ONE active Dalek left, at least in this universe.”
Well, there were no Daleks, then there was a Dalek in “Dalek”, then at the end of the season there was an entire fleet… that was destroyed, yet some still survived again!
There will always be as many Daleks as the story needs.