Doctor Who Project - 'Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks'

Ok time for another live review I think. This time I'm going to take on a 2 parter! Think I might have to take a break inbetween. lol

Ok here goes:

Daleks in Manhatten

• Lights, music, showtime oh and a bit of love interest.
• Oh what was that rushing past the screen? ;)
• Oh look a great big man pig. This Lazlo guy's lucky it's just a pig slave and not a weeping angel as we now know they were in New York around this time.
• Martha "where are we?" Nope it's not New York, it's actually Cardiff (the team cheated by filming against a wall that looked like the wall underneath the statue of liberty.
• Oh Martha just made a valid point, New New York to (old) New York.
• What's Hooverville? A Doctor Who convention in Derby isn't it? ;)
• People living in poverty due to the recession, would be interesting if they made another episode like this now!
• 'How can they build the world's tallest building yet people are starving?' Exactly!!
• Ooh love that art deco light that lining up perfectly with the Dalek stalk. Brilliant.
• Yay Dalek. Daleks are always best when they're being sneaky.
• Missing people, the plot thickens.
• Dalek panels on top of the Empire State Building?
• This Mr Diagonal or whatever his name is is a bit of an arse.
• Yeah more Daleks. His loyalty will be rewarded by Daleks? Hmm don't like the sound of that.
• Nice close up of the black Dalek there.
• Dalek Sec, yay the Cult of Skaro are back.
• Basically RUN!! lol love it.
• Hauuns in the air and no funnny bizzniss. Dodgy accent.
• lol Lazlo's not a pig. You sure about that Tullulah?
• Oh dear Martha's pining over the Doctor. Why did they have to go down this route again?
• Liking all this Dalek experiment business.
• This whole musical performance is a bit unnecessary.
• Skaro! The Doctor's worked it out.
• Why is it she doesn't recognise his voice but she recognise him with a pig's snout?
• Like how Martha doesn't know what a Dalek is.
• lol Dalek Sec looks like a washing machine on full spin!
• Human Dalek - Interesting.

Time for a quick break before the next episode. So far so good. Not quite 'Dalek' or 'Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways' but so far one of the better Dalek stories in New Who.

Evolution of the Daleks

• Ok here we go again. No pre title action just a catch up on the last episode.
• Emergency temporal shift? What all 4 of them? To the exact same point and place in time?
• Oh oh the Dalek's feeling humanity.
• Now that Dalek Sec is no longer in his Dalek case does that mean he's no longer connected to the hive (see Asylum of the Daleks)? Bit of a weakness for a Dalek don't you think? As well as losing the protective shell which Davros designed for them to survive the Kaled/Thal war. Not much of an evolution. The only positive things I can think of for a Dalek would be that they now have little Dalek bits and could reproduce.
• Putting his gun down and trying to reason with a Dalek, big mistake.
• EXTERMINATE! lol That was pretty funny after that moving speech.
• Daleks never change their minds. They never seem to be able to kill The Doctor when they get the chance to either. They're a bit like Bond  villains in that sense.
• Ooh this looks like a scene out of The Matrix or the blood bank in Blade.
• So the final experiment is to wipe the minds of humans and fill it with Dalek ideas. So what was the point in the Human/Dalek hybrid?
• Ah right, so they need a Human/Dalek hybrid's DNA to re-write the DNA of the human captives.
• Davros was wrong? Why do they go back to him at the end of series 4 then? Saying that the other Daleks just disagreed with him, maybe he inspired Dalek Khan to pop back into the Time War and get Davros.
• So now this Human/Dalek hybrid is redundant as they're changing the DNA structure now Dalek SEC has decided they need to be more human.
• Surely if the DNA feed is now 100% Dalek it will change how the humans will look?
• Looks like the Daleks have finally cottoned onto the fact that Sec is now redundant. Could've told them that 10 min ago.
• Why is Dalek Sec all chained up? The Daleks gone soft in their old age? Exterminate him FFS.
• Bit confused, how does a solar flare affect lightening? Also lightening hitting a rod to generate enough power to feed advanced technology, deliberate nod to Back to the Future? Probably not.
• So how many sonic screwdrivers is that now? He bust one in 'Smith and Jones' and has just dropped another.
• Ok so The Doctor can survive a bolt of lightening (strengthened by solar flares) but he can't survive a fall from a satelite dish or a little bit of radiation (although he can shake it into his left shoe?).
• "I am a Dalek", you sure about that?
• This whole Daleks as masters and Dalek Sec in chains is a bit BDSM. Kinky Daleks!
• I like how the Daleks only move they're heads and eye stalks rather than wobbling around all over the place like they're on speed.
• Oh you're not a Dalek now. Make your mind up!
• Why didn't the Dalek just exterminate The Doctor just then instead of shooting at the Dalek-Human who stood up to them.
• Especially when they can just kill on mass like that.
• Nice parallel with the Dalek and The Doctor there, just 1 in the universe.
• Just thought is the guy playing Frank, Andrew Garfield from The Amazing Spiderman?
• Just IMDB'd him, yes it is.
• Yep The Doctor will see that Dalek again.

Well that wasn't too bad. It had it's flaws, the whole thing with the DNA was a bit silly and confusing as well as pointless but it wasn't the worst episode. It's not even the worst Dalek episode (That's probably Victory of the Daleks). Not a big fan of the next episode, should be interesting to see how I interpret/enjoy it this time around.

Doctor Who Project - New Who roundup

Ok I've been a bit lazy recently. I've watched a few episodes lately and haven't bothered to review them. Probably because I've been hankering for a bit of Classic Who after OD'ing on RTD era Who. Having refreshed my palette with the excellent 'Caves of Androzani' and 'Earthshock' here's my roundup of the next few Who stories:

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday

We finally get to see Torchwood, they're messing around with forces they don't understand (no change there then) and have let the Cybermen cross over from Pete Tyler's alternate universe and in doing so also release the Daleks. Way to go Torchwood! The Doctor saves the day, loses Rose (yay) and has some big overdrawn emo goodbye to her on Bad Wolf Bay (boo). Cybermen are made to look like a joke (no change there), getting their arses handed to them on a plate by just 4 Daleks (albeit there are considerable more later). Genesis Ark is a clever idea harking back to 'Dalek' as well as the TARDIS ie bigger on the inside. Final shots of the story DONNA!!

The Runaway Bride

Our first glimpse of the best companion in RTD's era (some would argue since the 2005 return), Donna Noble. Donna's a bit shouty in this story though although to be fair she has just been swept up from the wedding aisle and dumped in the TARDIS. Great chase scene with the TARDIS and taxi. Loved the scene where they travelled back billions of years too to see the creation of the Earth (so that's the creation and destruction of the planet that RTD has covered now) just to find it was a Racnoss ship. The Doctor saves the day and it snows (as always). One of the best New Who Christmas episodes yet.

Smith and Jones

Oh look it's Martha Jones, she looks familiar. The Doctor using his pseudonym John Smith, think this may be the 1st use of it in New Who. They end up on the moon whilst the silly brutish Judoon search for an alien. What they're really looking for is an old women with a straw that sucks human blood to disguise herself as human. Nice resolution sucking The Doctor's blood so the Judoon recognise her as alien. My problem is how Martha revives him with just CPR when he's had his blood sucked dry. Other than that it's a good intro to the character of Martha, let down by further appearances.

The Shakespeare Code

I quite like this story as it's playful. There's loads of Shakespeare references and even plays with the stuffy image of the Bard that is in this story he's not bald (though The Doctor warns him he'll go bald) and The Doctor gives him a big collar to use as a neck brace at the end. The villian just had to be 3 witches with it being a Shakespeare story! Of course because it's Doctor Who it's not magic it's the science of words. Loved the references to Back to the Future and Harry Potter. Experliarmus!

Gridlock

The Doctor returns to New New York but this time it's different, there's drug pushers selling mood enhancers and everyone wants to join the motorway, a place where people literally spend a lifetime in traffic (know that feeling!). Turns out New Earth is this way because of The Doctor's previous actions. He set the disease ridden people free, New Earth was quarantined, nothing survived but the people on the motorway which was sealed off to protect them. Before saving everyone again the Face of Boe (Captain Jack?) informs The Doctor that he is "not alone". The Doctor shoots Martha down when she says he's got her (arse!) by telling all that he's the last of the Time Lords. Tennant's Doctor is so emo!

So there's my brief synopsis of the end of series 2 and the beginning of series 3. No spectacular episodes (The Runaway Bride is prob the best of them) but no bad ones either. Once again Russell T Davies goes for the spectacular in his series finales and for once the 2nd part doesn't completely let the promise of the 1st one down too much. It's probably his best series finale after the series 1 finale. Put it this way it's no 'End of Time'. So far Martha is likeable (to be honest I always did like Martha but that might be because Freema Agyeman is hot!) but I know in hindsight they're going to ruin that.

Doctor Who Project - Love and Monsters

I've just realised that in all my excitement to review 'Fear Her' I missed out reviewing the other stinker of series 2, 'Love and Monsters'. I did watch it honestly, of all the episodes to skip in this series I'd have much rather have passed on 'Fear Her'.

The problem with 'Love and Monsters' which a lot of critics have pointed out is that it's not really Doctor Who. Ok the Doctor does briefly make an appearance at the start and the end of the story but really this is what's come to be known as a 'Doctor light episode' ie one that features The Doctor and companion sparsely so that the main cast can have a break. This would happen quite a lot during the Classic Who days but is a little more subtle due to the structure of stories lasting 4-6+ episodes long, you could afford to lose one or two of the main stars for a week or two whilst the rest carried on with filming.

The story also suffers from a main cast that we've never met before and apart from them all being fans of The Doctor there isn't any real connection between this story and the rest of the series. If anything this story is a love letter to fandom (could be any fandom not just Doctor Who), friendships and relationships being forged through a mutual love of The Doctor and then comes the big bossy know it all that every message board I've ever frequented seems to have to spoil it all. The gang were all having fun until Victor Kennedy comes along and I think that one of the characters remarks that since he came along it's become hard work. I think it's funny that the villain of the story is called an Abzorbaloff as this is exactly what happens when you delve too far into fandom, it takes over your life, absorbs you in and I guess it can feel like an extension of work coming home after work then spending several hours in front of a computer to the point where you feel it compulsory to log in everyday to do this. Yep been there before years ago which is probably why I tend to shun large forum communities. With this in mind Abzorbaloff is a fitting title to something which takes over your life and absorbs you into itself.

To be honest 'Love and Monsters' has a lot going for it: a nice little love story, great use of music (who doesn't love 'Mr Blue Sky'?!), a nice little critique/celebration of fandom including a very clever use of a villain and it gives  the main cast a welcome break. Unfortunately it doesn't all quite work. Like I said before it just doesn't feel like Doctor Who which is quite some feat considering how flexible and durable the format is. The story also suffers from some pretty awful stunt casting in the form of Peter Kay. Marc Warren works as Elton probably because he's an established actor. Peter Kay however is a comedian and for me he just doesn't fit into this story. He comes across as hammy and over the top but then again I think that's his persona as he seems to be the same in every other role he's played. To be honest I'm not a fan of anything Peter Kay's done since Phoenix Nights. I saw him a few years ago doing his standup routine in Manchester, it was pretty much recycled jokes from his routine 10 years earlier. Rant aside Kay's performance is easily the worst thing about this story.

Oh well onwards and upwards now that I've watched and (finally) reviewed 2 of the worst New Who episodes ever (which unfortunately were aired back to back!).