Daleks in Manhattan

The first two parter in each of the new series has always been something of an anticlimax for me. Aliens of London had a good cliffhanger that was then immediately undermined by showing the Doctor running about with the words 'Next week...' floating below him, but otherwise was still a show finding its feet. Rise of the Cybermen was massively underwhelming upon first viewing, but got going in part two. Daleks in Manhattan has more in common with Rise... in that it was slower paced than most single episode stories and felt like there was a major part of the story that was somehow lacking. In the cybermen's case it seemed like the script was padded and full of stale dialogue, whereas here there is a helluva lot of talking but most of it is saying something interesting, even if it isn't pushing the story forward in any obvious way.

The script oozes potential. The tone is fairly grim throughout which makes sense giving the time and place. When good lines come they are ones that are intriguing rather than amusing (less one-liners, although still time for the odd splash of humour) and many, many questions are begged by the first episode. The two leads do their best with the material. In Freema Agyeman's case this is to make her character feel like she is reacting as we would expect her to, without any really meaty scenes for her to perform. In David Tennant's case this is to keep getting better with every episode. Expect the backlash to start sometime around 2030. The supporting cast are varied. Solomon, Tallulah and Laszlo are well played (although who else felt sorry for one of the few Americans in the case to be told 'Hullo, you're playing a pig-human hybrid! Put this on!'?) but some of the other parts veer into what New Series fans may recognise as Lumic-territory (Would you like mayo with that ham?) and accents slip every now and then as characters we know nothing about have not very nice things happen to them for no reason that will be explained in this episode. Mr Diagoras is the least convincing character of all the major players. So many questions arise ? why him? Raynor attempts to answer this but the attempt fails to raise the character to anything more than a cypher. I could not make myself feel interested in him at all. Other than this and the handling of minor characters the script is very good and should have come across better than this.

In Rise of the Cybermen, while we were all reeling from the stultifying dialogue, at least there were pretty pictures to look at. While James Strong manages to get some good shots in there are parts where he and the Mill seem to have been possessed by the spirit of the Nadir of Eighties Who. There's a good story here, why waste it on appalling CG (how can anyone be scared of Dalek Sec when he's patently not a Dalek anymore, but a curiously large squid trapped inside a poorly animated 4D hair dryer?) and direction that removes any sense of suspense from a scene whatsoever. The first time we see a Dalek, there's no hint of menace, it just emerges from a lift. Many shots in this story are cases of simply pointing the camera and pressing record in situations where this renders the shots dull and lifeless. Added to that is that fact that we know exactly what is going to happen as a result of some camera moves. It just makes it all very boring. Worse still is the realisation that Strong will probably be on the DVD commentary for one of these episodes, which will probably be as unremittingly dull as the last one he did. Another problem on the realisation front is the prosthetics. While the team have done a spectacular job on the new series in general, I just felt like laughing at some of the offerings on display here. Some people say this story reminded them of classic Who, with the sewers, and the slower pace, the Daleks, the hideously unconvincing rubber masks...

Seriously, who was scared by the pigs? I really hope the following dialogue occurs in part two:

Doctor: These pig creatures? What are they? Why pigs?
Dalek: We needed slaves who inspired fear. Pigs were readily available for experimentation.
Doctor: And why the boiler suits?
Dalek: There was a sale on. Plus you'd see the joins.
Doctor: Have you been watching Spearhead from Space?

They looked like Halloween masks. Dalek Sec was somewhat reminiscent of Scaroth as well. I'm sure kids found it frightening but I remain unconvinced as to how his current form is better than his previous one. Of course I hope to be proved wrong. I hope Evolution of the Daleks will be realised in a way that renders it exciting, exhilarating and thrilling as the script deserves, unlike today's story. Time will tell, it always does (as a famous mass murderer once said).