Daleks in Manhattan

I was quite impressed by Daleks in Manhattan, and thought it was a nice touch to take Martha to the "real" New York after a trip to "New New York" last week. I have to say that whenever the Daleks appear I always hold my breath somewhat, because in the past Daleks have not really seemed menacing enough. In "Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways" for instance, it was only the presence of the Emperor that took away the impression that here we simply had hordes of ranting pepper pots. However, in "Daleks in Manhattan" the Daleks seemed to exhude menace in every moment on screen, and one really got the impression that here was something dark and powerful and dangerous. The conversation between the Dalek and Mr Diagoras high up in the uncompleted Empire State building was scary. "You have rare ambition". and "Humans are weak, you shelter from the dark, and yet you have built all this". and "You think like a Dalek". What brilliant and scary lines from one of the "children of Skaro".

Martha is now beginning to be embroiled into the Doctor's world to the extent of more than "just one trip, and then home". Freema Agyeman is really putting her stamp on the character, and showing just what a fine actrees she is. Also from her conversation with Tallulah, we get an insight into how she really likes the Doctor, while not admitting so to him. Hugh Quarshie looks very convincing as Solomon, establishing his supposed presence in "Hooverville" to such good measure that I almost forgot seeing him as Dr Ric Griffin in "Holby City". Solomon comes across as one of those wise characters who is old and experienced enough to know how life turns from good to bad, or vice versa, and yet still young and strong enough to show great strength of leadership in a firm but fair manner, something which must have took guts for those who actually lived in those circumstances back then, and which makes for a strong character who one can both like and respect. Ryan Carnes came across well as Laszlo, but I cannot make an assessment to compare from his previous roles as I have not seen "Desperate Housewives". However, it would seem that Laszlo is going to have a key role in what happens in the next episode, "Evolution of the Daleks". Miranda Raison's character, Tallulah, - three ells and an aitch - I can really like, and she comes across as a gentle, yet at the same time, feisty young woman, ready to ask questions and to stand her ground, indeed doing so quite firmly with the Doctor, and I could quite imagine the Doctor asking her along for the ride, so to speak, a real candidate for the Doctor's companion if there was room for another one. Again, as with Hugh Quarshie's character, I quite forgot seeing Miranda Raison in "Spooks" as well. The great thing about these characters, and the other supporting characters as well is the accents. The American accents come across so convincingly from so many English actors, making me feel that we really were visiting 30s Manhattan. And so, to the Doctor himself. David Tennant has - in my opinion - reached a point where I now feel he IS the Doctor. David Tennant is arguably one of the UKs finest actors anyway, but his role as the Time Lord - not the last, it would seem - has reached heights that have never been reached since the Tom Baker years, and which Chris Eccleston never had a hope of reaching. The key moment that does it for me is the scene in the sewer, where the Doctor tells Tallulah what she had just seen. "It's called a Dalek, and it's not just metal, it's alive." "You're just kidding me". "Do I look like I'm kidding? Inside that shell is a creature born to hate". In this scene, David Tennant epitomises everything that the Doctor is, was, and shall be. His acting ability is so deeply convincing in that scene, that one feels just for a moment, that the Doctor, Tallulah, the Dalek, and the Manhattan sewer are all so very real, that one can almost smell the hate in that metal shell, and the anger in the Doctor's two hearts that "They always survive, and I lose everything", is almost tangible.

Now to a mystery or two. Since this series started we have had four excellent episodes of Doctor Who which in my mind are close indeed to being modern classics. But have we got a "thread" running through this series or not? By that I mean the following; In 2005, Eccleston's Doctor was dogged by the mystery of Bad Wolf. Then last year, for fairly obvious reasons we heard Torchwood mentioned in every episode. But what this time? If indeed there is a thread at all? Well, what about all these numbers? There appears to be a sequence of numbers in each episode, and each meaning or doing something different. In episode one "Smith and Jones", there was 5,000, then 50,000, then lastly 250,000. The Doctor increased the radiation of the x-ray machine by 5,000%, killing the slab dead. Then later, Florence Finnigan tells the Doctor that she has increased the setting of the MRI scanner to 50,000 tesla, and that this would fry the brain stem of every living being within 250,000 miles, thus encompassing the side of the Earth facing the Moon. This went unnoticed by me,until more numbers came in episode two, "The Shakespeare Code". In this, Shakespeare is coerced by the carrionites into writing down a sequence of words and numbers to end the play, and to summon up those witches/spirits/others of their kind/or whatever they were meant to be. And so we get "Linear 5930167.02". Then in "Gridlock", the sequence of numbers might again have been unnoticed but for the frequency of mentioning, and so we have the identification number of the car in which Martha had been kidnapped/car jacked - but not really - , "465 diamond 6." It was at this point that I almost dismissed the numbers as a coincidence. However, in episode four, came the Doctor's elaborate - but crude - DNA scan of the blob of "not human" green material found in the Manhattan sewer. "467-989", "Which would make the planet of origin..., Skaro!" At this moment, I am guessing that these numbers mean nothing, as there does not seem to be anything about them which makes sense. Maybe they are just random? Or what? It remains to be seen if there will be any more number sequences in subsequent episodes.

And finally, in the end of episode spoiler, we hear a Dalek cry "Exterminate". I think the Dalek exterminates the result of the final experiment, The Human Dalek which we saw emerge from the shell of the former "Dalek Sec". Why? Because I cannot imagine that the other three Daleks will accept their "evolution" into something so obviously grotesque, and importantly, so obviously very weak. They had after all argued with Dalek Sec against the nature of this experiment, saying "We must remain pure". and Dalek Sec's counter argument, "Remaining pure has brough us to Extinction". Saturday will tell. Only 9/10 because of the "Human Dalek". On second thoughts, 9.5/10.