Daleks in Manhattan

So here we go... four episodes into the new series and what do we get.

Well, we get 1930s New York, the depression, the Empire State building, a sewer, a nice show, Daleks and pig men... oh, and a walk in a Cardiff park (possibly). We also get a 'human/ Dalek' somewhat pre-emptived by being plastered all over the cover of the Radio Times since Tuesday of that week. Actually, when I saw this cover in the Co-Op, I thought... "Well, at least it's not another animal head stuck on a human body, as has been the fashion this season, since the guy who'd designed the previous season aliens had obviously buggered off to work in Hollywood (probably). But you know... in a kind of way it is, the difference being, its an animal body (a baby octopus, on this occasion) papped on top of a human head!

Anyway... this was all pretty poor stuff. Season one's 'Dalek' did a fine job of re-introducing the Doctors arch rivals to a new audience. Supposedly, the most feared creatures in the universe, the Daleks had become a bit of a joke in the classic series. I seem to remember somebody whacking them with a baseball bat during the McCoy era and their eystick's snapped off, their guns got bent, and their top bits popped up on a spring (I might have made that last bit up, in fact I may well have imagined all of this in some wierd, fevered dream... or not!). In short... they'd become a bit crap. Then 'Dalek' came along, and suddenly they were all the things we'd always been told they were, but had never been given any proof. This episode successfully re-imagined the Daleks as hate driven, merciless, indestructible killing machines. The sequence where the Dalek takes out the two fireteams in the corridor with clinical, mechanical, efficiency was one of the best sequences in the first season (remember that great aerial shot, when the Daleks midsection rotated unexpectantly to fire in the opposite direction). The fact they didn't say much and often failed to respond when spoken too, added to their menace.

Unfortunately, these guidelines seem to have been forgotten. Now, if 'Daleks in Manhattan' is anything to go by, they're reduced to skulking/ trundling around in the Empire State building, in a threadbare laboratory filled with test tubes and bunsen burners!!! They have human swine (more animal heads... where's the imagination!) as slaves, indulge in uninteresting simple minded conversations (probably to pass the time) about half arsed nonsensical master plans and do bugger all in the way of exterminating anything!

Their 'Master' plan, in this case, involves 'hoovering' in some guy into one of their casings, gestating him for a bit, and then having him climb out (still wearing his suit and spats) while the music from 'The Omen' plays (sorry Murray... couldn't resist that one. I still like you're scores, however. they hold up well even if everything else is falling apart). And all this to create a (wait for it)... 'Human/ Dalek" (spoken with an American accent, I mean, couldn't he have gurgled a bit, or something. Our Trans-Atlantic cousins really are taking over everything!).

Forgive me, but I can't see the point. It's the casing that makes the daleks invincible, human/daleks would just get shot. Maybe it's to splice the two thought processes ... but that would introduce all the emotional conflicts the daleks were created to do without. Maybe it's to provide the Daleks with hands so they can handle all these test tubes in the background. Maybe that's the thinking that lay behind the creation of the pig men, except that Dalek 'Gay' failed to listen properly and mistakenly left them with trotters (if the writer can't provide an explanation for the human/pigs, then I quite happily will)!

Or maybe it's just a stupid idea!

Elsewhere we had the usual running about, some faux sentimentality (Lazlo's, 'Phantom of the Opera' bit), a motley collection of accents (some authentic, some pantomime), a dance routine apparently put together by the dancers, during the first take, on a bare stage, with an audience of ten, and some surprisingly dodgy FX. Some of the dialogue ( "Hands in the air... and no funny business!) was less then sparkling, and the whole thing seemed lacking in wit and energy. Tennant reigned it in a bit more then usual, but his occasional exaggerated facial expressions still scream "I'M ACTING!", and Martha continues to be nice, without any real development. She's just too non descript! The production itself managed the difficult feat of looking both lavish and threadbare all at once, and the direction, while not really guilty of doing anything wrong, seemed curiously flat. There was precious little action and literally no excitement.

I'm finding it depressingly easy to slag off this new season of Who. The production team are obviously trying, but the show just seems stuck in a rut. 'Daleks in Manhattan' while clearly meant to be serious, feels like a joke for all the above reasons. I want the show to be good (and there was more good then bad in the first two seasons), cos' if the audience drops off, it'll kill British television Sci-Fi stone dead for another twenty years. ITVs offering 'Primeval was hardly a pinnacle, yet in it's likeable, unpretentious, straight forward way it was preferable to this run of the BBCs supposed flagship. Maybe if the two shows had been pitched against one another, the ratings drop for Who (and I reckon there would have been a significant one) might have galvanised the production staff in a way that as far as I'm concerned, seems very necessary.

Maybe the concluding part will make amends, though the promise of more rampant 'pig' action doesn't bode well.

Oh Dear!!!