It looks great, and the sight of Daleks in Manhattan is highly striking, given that the series has rarely ventured into America. Manhattan is extremely well realised, and as an affectionate pastiche of the era, the over-the-top Brooklyn accents and showgirls are perfectly acceptable. The Depression backdrop fulfils the series original remit of being vaguely educational, conveying some of the wretchedness of the period very well. The pig-slaves are also visually striking, and don't look anywhere near as silly as they could have done, especially when they are menacingly advancing through the sewers. Even Laszlo doesn't look silly, largely because the actor brings pathos to the role. The only weak point is Dalek Sec, which looks like a nightmarish Muppet after his transformation.

The Daleks, with low numbers and low power, are forced to use cunning, and their plan to transform humans into Daleks harkens back to 'The Evil of the Daleks'. They are at their nastiest here, especially when a Dalek impassively listens to Solomon and lets him finish his speech before exterminating him, and when Dalek Khan kills the Dalek Humans. Sec's sudden development of a conscience is horribly predictable, but refreshingly doesn't go down the route I'd expected, with the other three rebelling against him ("You told us to imagine and we imagined your irrelevance"), chaining him up like a gimp, and finally exterminating him.

Unfortunately, it's largely bollocks. The Dalek plan to use the Empire State building to channel the gamma burst into the humans and turn them into Daleks, whilst pure Silver Age comic book science, makes perfect sense from a Dalek point of view and clearly would have worked, so what exactly is Sec's transformation all about? Or the pig-slaves for that matter? Are the Daleks just bored? After all, the Dalek Humans look human, so all the hybridisation business suddenly seems pointless. Then there is the ghastly contrivance of the Doctor somehow affecting them by channelling the lightening strike through his own body, as though electricity can carry DNA. It's almost like a first draft that hasn't been script-edited, and this is especially annoying given that it could so easily have been, if not spectacular, then a solid enough Dalek story. Predictably, one Dalek escapes at the end, but by now I'm getting fed up of the Daleks scrabbling about for survival.

In addition, we get silly moments such as the two Daleks whispering and peering over their shoulders, and the pig-slave shuffling impatiently in the lift. We also find out that the pig-slaves have a limited lifespan, almost immediately after which Laszlo starts getting hot flushes and falling over, which is horribly contrived. The biggest problem however lies in some of the dialogue. The second episode in particular degenerates into the sort of pompous and contrived morality speeches that Russell T. Davies tends to write in his worst moments, with the Doctor's speech about not a single more person dying feeling almost cringe worthy (although points are awarded for not killing off Laszlo, and thus avoiding the Talluleh sobbing over his corpse scene that I'd predicted. We get speeches from Dalek Sec, Solomon, and the Doctor, all of which are presumably meant to be rousing, but all of which are so unoriginal that it's just dull. Oh and Martha is increasingly gagging for Time Lord cock, which produces a funny line from Talluleh ("he likes musical theatre?") but generally just continues the feeling that the writers are so unimaginative and sex-obsessed that they can't think of anything to do with her apart from walking the same route that they went down with Rose, who gets mentioned yet again.

There is some decent acting on display, especially from Ryan Carnes as Laszlo and Hugh Quarshire as Solomon, and Freema Agyeman continues to impress, especially when Martha again gets to use her brain to think of an imaginative way to kill the pig-slaves. And Helen Raynor remembers that Martha is a medical student, as she tends the denizens of Hooverville. Unfortunately, Eric Loren is rather less impressive as Dalek Sec, giving a stilted, irritating performance throughout. Meanwhile, David Tennant continues to reign in the wackiness, and spends most of the episode emoting as the Daleks bring out the worst in the Doctor again. This works very well at times, especially when he mutters, "They survived. They always survive, whilst I lose everything", but leaves him shouting in a disturbingly hammy fashion during the second episode, something I hoped I wouldn't see him doing again. By the time he's delivering ultimatums to Dalek Khan, his performance is horrendously unconvincing, as is his simultaneous clowning and making a speech as he sets out to save Laszlo. And are we really expected to believe that the Doctor can now shrug off a lightening strike without even getting singed?

'Daleks in Manhattan'/'Evolution of the Daleks' suffers most of all however from one continuing factor that plagues the new series remorselessly: all of the worst scenes are made exponentially worse than they actually are by having Murray Gold's sickening musical tripe smeared all over them, his saccharine orchestral excesses crudely trying to influence the viewer's emotions in the least subtle way possible. Unfortunately, with everyone on the production team waxing lyrical about his perceived talents, this is unlikely to relent any time soon.

Overall, 'Daleks in Manhattan'/'Evolution of the Daleks' is rather odd: neither truly great, nor genuinely bad, it's an odd mishmash of both, with some great moments (Laszlo's abduction at the start is an impressively creepy scene that brings to mind The Phantom of the Opera, and the Daleks look superb when they are glidingly menacingly around the sewers), let down by a nonsensical plot, a couple of duff performances, and some ghastly dialogue. As an attempt to do a Dalek story without it being an overblown, end-of-season epic, it's a worthy experiment, but it could, and should, have been so much better.

A disappointment after the promise of the first three stories of the season, this two-parter nevertheless had a liberal sprinkling of the good qualities which characterise the 2007 run so far, enough to save it from sinking all the way back down to Series 1 and 2 levels.

The first 15 minutes are really excellent; Hooverville is a superb setting for a Doctor Who story, its pathos is well evoked despite the clich? of two men fighting over some bread, and the Doctor fits right in, of course. The loveable American characters are what really make the episodes, particularly as there are some fabulous accents on display, particularly Frank's Tennessee drawl: Helen Raynor deserves points for showing us more of a cross-section of US society than a story populated only by New Yorkers. Solomon is a commanding and sympathetic character, and Tallulah has some nice moments. The novelty of a traditionally Anglo-centric series venturing Stateside had me hooked from the word go.

More important by far is the treatment of the Daleks. Their role in the two previous two-parters has been to provide a 'shock' twist at the cliffhanger, meaning we only had one episode with them in. That trick got undeniably stale, and in an episode entitled 'Daleks In Manhattan' would certainly NOT have worked, so it was a relief to have two full episodes of Dalek action in this one, meaning I wasn't left with the sense of being short-changed that 'Bad Wolf' in particular gave me. Their reveal in the lift is excellent, as is the Dalek's ensuing dialogue with Diagoras, and our first sight of their operation recalls the spirit of countless Dalek stories which has them hidden away below stairs and working on mysterious things through human operatives: 'Day of the Daleks' especially, with Mr Diagoras standing for the Controller.

By the end of 'Evolution', however, the story much more readily recalls a mid-80s story than anything else; probably 'Resurrection'. The fragmented storytelling and multiplicity of loose ends give the whole thing an unsatisfying 'bitty' and episodic feel, as characters are killed off (though Solomon's death is quite a powerful moment) and we jump from setting to setting and threat to threat. The early promise deflates as plot lines fizzle out and everything starts to get repetitive; most annoyingly, the Doctor gets two scenes in which he offers himself up to the Daleks for extermination, and both times, in increasingly contrived ways, survives. That's just lazy. As is the confusion over whether the flashy special effect on top of the Empire State building is a simple "lightening strike" or a "gamma strike" from a solar flare (not to mention how the Doctor manages to alter a chemical process through standing in the way of the power source! What??).

Still worse is the cliffhanger. It's not even particularly exciting conceptually, as it is very hard to see just what Sec thinks he will get out of his 'evolution', but the lack of payoff, the way in which the Daleks (in evident agreement) just remove Sec from the plot fairly soon after he changes, with Raynor leaving him to be accidentally shot when the running time runs out, is practically unforgivable. I'm tempted to say, all told, that Helen Raynor's proper calling is script editor rather than writer. She shows clear and incisive understanding of the Doctor's character and obviously knows just what the programme SHOULD be like, better than almost every writer so far in fact, but the broad-brush characterisation and clumsy plotting negate the impact.

The Doctor still works though, thanks to a combination of a well-considered role in the story and David Tennant: the Doctor is at last beginning to consistently treat other people with a bit of respect, and his anguished scream when he believes Frank to be dead in part one is great. His willingness to help the Daleks is also surprising and shows a maturity which this incarnation is only infrequently capable of. He's still a bit omnipotent though, recovering from a very dramatically filmed zapping with disappointing ease.

Martha is, if not the strongest, then the most faultless element of these episodes, again. Freema Agyeman plays it with a healthy dose of fear that is absolutely necessary with such an all-knowing and invulnerable Doctor, and is gifted with a supremely traditional companion's role. She makes friends with the secondary characters, uses her wits and individual skills together with what the Doctor has taught her to defeat the minor villains and assist the Doc to wrap up the story; it doesn't get more classical than that! Although the two leads have a rather pointless spat about orders in the theatre, apropos of nothing, by and large Martha's chemistry with our hero is excellent, and her regret at killing the hybrids, when as a trainee doctor she is supposed to be dedicated to preserving life, is nicely handled.

James Hawes directs the Daleks nicely, but I've gone off him rather. And, despite the classical music echoes which keep appearing, of Gershwin especially, Murray Gold's music is even more ghastly than usual in this one, the execrable techno-choral chanting which follows that Daleks around doing nothing for them and nothing for the story.

The first misstep of Series 3, but with enough residual quality to keep me entertained.

There seems to be a theme of moral ambivalence running through the episodes this series, and it's refreshing to find that theme continued so strongly in a Dalek adventure. On the surface, DiM/EotD is a pretty straightforward "Daleks want to rule the world, Doctor has to stop them" kind of story. In fact, as far as Dalek plots go, this one seems downright simplistic. Compare the Dalek plot here with the one in Resurrection of the Daleks, Renaissance of the Daleks or McGann's Time of the Daleks and you'll see what I mean. I thought it was interesting that the Daleks felt they needed a group like the Cult of Skaro for "imagination" when most of their plans were already needlessly overcomplicated. If anything, they needed a group to work on practicality, and in this story, that's exactly what Dalek Sec tries to do.

For a species as dependent on command structure as the Daleks, they have a surprising tendency to rebel against their leaders. They did it to Davros on several occasions, and here the same happens to poor Sec. If anything, the Cult of Skaro demonstrates that Daleks really are incapable of thinking outside the box. To do so is to become something other than a Dalek, and thus to be unworthy of existence. The Cult is, in essence, a contradiction, and was destined to be destroyed from within. The Doctor's involvement in all this is almost superfluous. For once in the new series, instead of the Doctor rushing in, turning everything upsidedown and leaving, he is merely a catalyst, accelerating a process that has already been set in motion. This is how the character of the Doctor works best, in my opinion, and surprisingly, some of the best scenes in this two-parter are those between the Doctor and the Daleks.

Sadly, the human characters are not treated with the same depth, and despite generally strong performances, the humans are largely forgettable. The Daleks and the Doctor are center stage throughout, and we don't forget it. The same goes for Martha, who is saddled with plot-necessary flashes of brilliance and yet more Doctor-pining and Rose-lamenting. Talullah and Lazlo, though potentially interesting characters, seem to have been contrived only to force a happy note onto this otherwise very open-ended story (as well as to give the Doctor his amusing "...and maybe the odd pig-slave Dalek mutant hybrid, too" line).

After 40 years of trundling around, shouting EXTERMINATE! and not killing the Doctor, I've learnt not to expect much else from the pepperpots, which is probably why RTD chose to (if you'll excuse the pun) exterminate most of them. Desperate Daleks are interesting Daleks, and they don't get much more interesting than dear old Dalek Sec. While he very easily could have swayed cliche, Sec didn't. He stayed on-message throughout, a true human-Dalek hybrid in form and personality, neither overwhelmed by the emotionalism of humanity, nor completely insanely power-mad like a Dalek. I'm tempted to go as far as calling him one of the most sensible and relatable villains Doctor Who has ever produced.

But still, one has to wonder what was going on in the Doctor's head when he agreed to help Sec finish his final experiment. However rational Sec's plan, the fact remained that he'd killed at least a thousand humans to do it, which would generally throw up a big red flag for the Doctor. But if their sacrifice would mean the birth of a new race of Daleks not hell-bent on conquering all of time and space, was that adequate justification? The humans in question were already more or less dead. Was the Doctor using the same sort of reasoning that led him to grant the Gelth passage in The Unquiet Dead? He couldn't undo the damage the Daleks had done already, but if he helped Sec, perhaps he could turn lemons in lemonade. Or, was the Doctor merely stalling for time, trusting that Martha would have figured out his incredibly cryptic message and disabled the Dalek antennae (which, unless I've misunderstood, he didn't even know about until after the Daleks captured him)? Considering his final solution, it's also possible that the Doctor used the opportunity to spike the Dalek DNA juice in the lab, and his stunt on the mast was merely insurance, or compensating for the missing piece of Dalekanium (Which begs the question that if the mast did its job with just the two plates, then why did the Daleks bother putting three on in the first place? It's not like they had extras to spare).

Speaking of themes, another one in this series seems to be the Doctor really pushing the limits of his body. He mentions being electrocuted in Smith and Jones and then gets irradiated ("Itches, itches, itches!") and sucked nearly dry by a plasmavore. In his next outing, he suffers partial cardiac arrest at the hands of the Carrionites, then spends a day in New New York sucking lethal levels of exhaust fumes. And now he's been electrocuted (again). Maybe having a medically trained companion has inspired him to take more risks? I'll say this for the Tenth Doctor, next to Peter Davison's fainty Five, he's every pain fetishist Who fan's dream come true. At the very least, it's good to finally see the Doctor showing a more vulnerable side after two series' of having him built up as this unstoppable, angsty superman.

As much as this two-parter successfully rose above the usual Doctor Who formula, the presence of Daleks does dictate certain necesities, one of which being their inevitable escape at the end. The final confrontation between the Doctor and Dalek Khan is a moment that deserves to become a Doctor Who classic. In a situation eerily reminiscent of Rob Shearman's Dalek, we see the last of the Time Lords once more facing off against the last of the Daleks. But this time it's different. In a powerful role reversal from two years ago, it is the Dalek that panics and flees whilst the Doctor calmly, sincerely offers an olive branch. It's a very simple scene, with an ending spotted miles off, but as Khan vanishes in a temporal shift, the viewer is left feeling just as sad and frustrated as the Doctor. Admittedly, though, how else could it end? "Daleks always come back," the Doctor said. And as long as the BBC can fork up the dough to the Terry Nation estate, they will continue to do so. Kudos to writer Helen Raynor for taking a predictable end and making it work quite well.

There are other aspects to the story that are dismissable as too convenient and cliched to make Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks stand out as a truly great piece of Doctor Who, but it's a character-driven tour-de-force for the Doctor and his greatest enemies. Raynor's empathic touch bring a complexity and depth to the main characters that is too often either overlooked or beaten to death in new Who. In this fight, neither side is completely right, nor completely wrong. Moral lines blur in the game of survival, and that is the key ingredient that turns this otherwise overlong, pedestrian Dalek runaround into an intriguing thought piece. "Daleks always come back," the Doctor lamented, and in this story, the Daleks finally have a comeback worthy of their reputation.

Daleks in Manhatten and the Evolution of the Daleks present a bizarre mix of the powerful and downright risible. I don't really know where to start. It is perhaps saying a lot when I confess that one of my favourite scenes was the first episode's musical number! We've had musical interludes before of course ? for example the Daisy song in Talons ? but here the song Heaven and Hell was used with a nice twist of dramatic irony as the lyrics " you put the devil in me" is a neat summary of the murky experiments going on beneath the new Empire State Building. It was of course marred by Martha's clumsy intrusion as the hapless Lazlo is spotted for the first time in his post-experimental state (though not recognised as Lazlo yet). No complaints either about the 1930's New York setting amidst the Depression ? the Daleks are operating against a backdrop of human poverty and misery where it seems reasonably plausible that the authorities would turn a blind eye to members of the Hooverville community disappearing rather regularly. More perhaps than any other story of the new era to date, this story would have sat quite nicely in the classic era : like a comfortable pair of slippers, here we have the return of runarounds in the sewers, occasionally dodgy make up, and performances best described as variable, though the American accents, distracting as they were, were not as atrocious as they could have been. Miranda Raison struggles to keep a straight face, and I don't blame her, as Tallulah discovers that her beloved Lazlo has been turned into a quasi pig man, complete with what appears to resemble two cigarette ends sticking up from his mouth. The revelation of Dalek Sec hybrid, kindly brought to us courtesy of the Radio Times before any of us had even viewed the episode, seemed to vaguely resemble the Jagaroth from City of Death ? but that's where the similarity ends as this two parter is certainly not in the same league of quality as its illustrious predecessor. Then there was the convenience of the discarded green embryonic jelly laying quite happily in the sewer passage, waiting patiently to be discovered by the Doctor. The climax to the first part required us to stretch our tolerance levels to unprecedented distances as after much wobbling, smoking and general struggle, Dalek Sec, who had absorbed Diagoras in an effective scene earlier, gives birth to a fully suited and booted hybrid who not only has retained a dodgy American accent but who it is clear, as the second part unfolds, is a damn sight more cuddly than either of his predecessors: let's face it, Dalek Sec was none other than the leader of the Cult of Skaro and as for Diagoras, he is portrayed as a nasty piece of work who bluntly tells his workforce that if they don't work they will be replaced ? end of. No compassion there. This hybrid is an inconsistent step too far and no wonder the remaining Daleks come to imagine his irrelevance ? liked that line. There were good bits other than the sing-song. Diagoras's conversation with the Dalek in the first episode as they look down on NYC; Solomon's execution, showing the Daleks at their ruthless best/worst and the Doctor's utterly horrified response; the nod to Frankenstein as the human/Dalek army awakens and the climatic shootout in the theatre which was a nice homage to the gangster movies of the era. Those Daleks have certainly got it worked out haven't they? No concept of worry and when the going gets tough, go for the old emergency temporal shift option. Works a treat. I used the word "risible" earlier and unfortunately I was distracted throughout with some of the bizarre scenes I encountered. In episode one it's raining cats and dogs ? or should that be pigs ? in Hooverville but no-one's getting wet; the Doctor tells Martha to ask the Dalek what's going on because he doesn't want to be noticed, yet seems to be in full view of the Dalek anyway as it addresses Martha; two Daleks gossip about Sec in the sewers, with one moving its eyestalk around to make sure no one's watching them ? they should have given one of them the great line from Allo Allo : listen very carefully! I shall say this only once! And then one of them nicks K9's "affirmative"! And one of the recently awakened army repeatedly asks the Dalek "why?" which reminded me of my five year old in one of her more mischievous moods. As for Tallulah's schmucks and much of the other dialogue she was given, don't go there. And the Doctor's Tommy Cooper turn: "thank you very much!" he utters quickly in classic Cooper style as he hands Martha the physic paper. As has been said, the new era is often a case of the triumph of style over substance (though I remain, with a few exceptions, broadly supportive of it) but this didn't even seem to have a lot of the former. Are we in a depression? It might break your heart, but the show must go on. Next week looks good anyway ? and Martha seems to be dressed differently. May yet achieve cult status alongside Love and Monsters, and for the good bits, a (very) generous 6/10.

There is something special about a Dalek episode of Doctor Who. An extra frisson. It's always been the way. I remember waiting with incredible anticipation for Ressurection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and particularly Remembrance of the Daleks. It's my opinion that a period setting is somehow even more effective in Dalek stories than a SF one. Throw into the mix a genuine New York location (through the magic of television and well used plate shots) and it was with great excitement that I sat down to bear witness to the return of the Cult of Skaro.

I loved the first episode. Until the final seconds I was probably the happiest I've ever been watching Doctor Who. The period setting was pulled off perfectly, the location footage gave it extra realism, the Daleks complimented the art decco surroundings as if they had been designed with that aim in mind. The direction and the performances eloquently referenced the films of the period with hammy brooklyn accents lifted straight out of Singin' in the Rain or a Busby Berkeley picture (please God no one ever really sounded like that).

Hooverville (or Bute park as I know it) was effective. Some have expressed the opinion that the issue of the Doctor and Martha being a mixed race couple in 1930's New York should have been raised, and also that the white characters interraction with Martha was unrealistic. Whilst I take the historical point on the race issue I feel the answer is that you can't tackle that same problem every time the Tardis lands somewhere before 1990. They acknowledged it the first time it was relevant (The Shakespeare Code) and I imagine they'll leave it at that unless it's incorporated into the plot of an episode. Whilst it's a suspension of disbelief I'd rather suspend than hear some saturday tea-time/family drama racial bigotry every couple of weeks. Enough of this silliness it's Doctor Who not Panorama.

Hugh Quarshie was acting his little socks off, and to think I'd only the previous evening been mocking his turn as Captain Panaka in the first of the Star Wars debacles, I mean prequels. Best guest artist for episode one though must go to Miranda Raison who was captivating. The scene towards the close of the episode where she gets lost in the sewers and starts to cry I thought was brutal and touching.

The pigmen really were Dalek Invasion's Robomen weren't they, right down to the short life span. They were very good, especially the horrific masks. I felt Laszlo failed however. Ryan Carnes really touching performance was undercut by a make up job that just made him look silly instead of half-gone. I felt the whole of part one was very old fashioned and slow placed which worked brilliantly as normally it's all so frantic. Reminiscent of old Who stories in several ways.

The Daleks, in particularly chatty mode, have had enough of clinging to survival. The scene where Diagoras and the Dalek talk whilst looking over the Big Apple was beautiful. The Dalek lab was like something out of a James Whale Universal Horror and the lovely Dalek Sec was in fine form... for a few moments. Then Sec is sacrificed. Is that the first Dalek suicide? The Kaled Sec appears larger and more appendaged than the mutant we saw in series one (Dalek). I'm sure I remember reading that the mutants are specifically bred as grunts, leaders, or whatever. As a Black Dalek (sometimes reffered to as a Dalek Supreme [Dalek Spotters Guide Book, 1984, Spotty & Single]) Sec would have been bred to be more intelligent and... stuff than an ordinary Dalek. That's my explanation for him clearly being ten times the size (& limbiness) of the others. Anyways back in Sec's lab it's time for the Dalek to ingest the human thereby obviously merging their DNA (wha?) and hatching something that looks like The Mighty Boosh do City of Death. If that wasn't harrowing enough Sec has absorbed his bloody accent too.

A couple of questions; firstly why Sec? Why would the leader sacrifice himself? Okay it was his idea and the others couldn't follow his logic but if he'd ordered them to absorb the human they'd have done it. As a super-genius Black Dalek he should have forseen that the rest of the Cult would revolt without him to guide them. Secondly, how the hell did the Daleks not see the Doctor? They didn't see him, sense him, pick up on his double heartbeat. Nothing. No wonder they're on the brink of extinction as they appear to have gone blind.

Surprisingly the Hybrid was one of the things I liked most about Evolution of the Daleks, his developing conscience and relationship with the Doctor was interesting and well played. The Doctor having to try to help him despite all his better judgement just in case it could make a difference was brilliant too. The Dalek revolt was the best bit (especially the clandestine chat in the sewer where one Dalek checks nobody is looking before he will speak). 'We imagined your irrelevance!' Class.

On the other hand it transpires that the luxuriant pacing of part one was at the expense of episode two. The story plays out pleasingly if too quickly. The guest cast are wasted (literally for Hugh Quarshie - but that's one of the best bits!) and appear to serve little purpose. This is especially tragic for Miranda Raison having been so watchable in part one. The Human-Daleks really are just Robomen apparently incapable of individual thought (although it's worth a mention that the last time the Daleks experimented with the Human Factor (Power of the Daleks, 1966) 'Why?' was the first question they asked then too. Nice reference.) and no more use than the Pigmen. The Daleks get to drag Sec/Hybrid around on a chain (sweet Jaysis are you serious?) which is odd as I would expect them, having decided he is an irrelevant abomination and an evolutionary dead-end, to exterminate the flip out of him. No, apparently they're holding onto him for now so that... ah yes, so that he can be killed accidentally in a clumsy metaphor. Excellent.

The stand out best sequence of Evolution is when the Doctor climbs the mast of the Empire State Building to remove the Dalek panels, loses his screwdriver and desperatley pulls at the dalekanium as if he can rip it off with his bare hands. Seeing that he can't he clutches at the mast, presumably risking his own destruction, to block the power. This is followed by a nice scene of him lying inert, coat flapping in the wind. Is he dead? Nah, course not he's back on his feet in two seconds. Incidentally, how did the Time Lord DNA get into the Dalek-Humans? Through the power system? Wha?

Anyways, back in Sec's lab, or is it Caan's lab? Caan does a runner (he has to really or no more Daleks ever and do I like the Doctors reasoning) while DT has some kind of grinning/winking relapse and prances about the lab like he's on Strictly Dance Fever. He said he couldn't fix Laszlo, how does he do it? Actually, don't worry about it. I'm not bothered.

And as the credits run that's how I feel. Not bothered. Which is a real shame because there is a really good story in there but for me, on first viewing, Evolution of the Daleks doesn't really work. Gutted I was. After an awesome set up they lost the second half completely.

It will be interesting to see what general opinion of this story is after some time has past. I've only watched part two once and must confess I really wasn't sure how I felt about it until I began writing this review. It wasn't bad. It's no Time-Flight. It was a great disapointment to me however; and in that it achieves a first since Doctor Who returned to our screens.

I don't know about the lot of you, but my enthusiasm for the Daleks' return has all but been exterminated by this leaden, dreary two-parter. First of all, and this is no fault of the writers or performers, but this is the Daleks' seventh episode appearance in thirty-one episodes. Enough. Secondly, the Daleks have gone from legitimately terrifying in "Dalek" to impish gossip-mongers ("But you have doubt?") in this pair of episodes. The first thing the Dalek in the former wanted to do upon identifying the Doctor was to shoot him dead; two seasons later, four Daleks - the Cult of Skaro, mind you - are terribly patient and willing to listen to the Doctor prattle on, dare them to shoot him ? twice! ? or even play the radio.

Like the Macra in "Gridlock", it almost appears that enemies are not to be avoided or fought in Season Three, but merely walked passed with perhaps a nod of the head. Victory!

Performance-wise, David Tennant continues to impress, curbing his character's manic energy with some genuine world-weary experience. Agyeman's Martha is neither horrible nor wonderful ? the millennium version of the placid Nyssa from the Baker/Davison years. She still appears to be a stand-in for a real companion. Though one hates to compare companions, I'll indulge anyway: Rose, by Episode 5 of Season 1 ("World War Three"), had firmly established herself as a brave, spirited, smart and integral part of the Doctor's world. We knew her problems, her family, her fears, etc. If Martha wasn't in Episode 5 of Season 3? would you have really noticed? Apart from her Token Idea (she seems to have one each episode) in Part Two and occasionally talking about something not being fair, her character is that of a special guest star who just hasn't gone home yet. She's there because the Doctor always has a companion. I do wish Russel Davies chooses to break that mold someday with the others he has shattered since the series' return.

Writing-wise, the two scripts have great potential but ultimately fall flat. The Daleks are evolving? Momentarily interesting, but then really impossible, considering the 42-odd-year history of the scooting pepper pots. Now we're to be afraid of a a guy who looks like a cross between a spider and, to use a coarse term, somebody's butt? When he was zapped, it registered as a zero on my Surprising-Twist-O-Meter. Of course, he was going to die. Also ? and I confess I am lifting this from another reviewer ? to have New York at your disposal and to put the climax of the episodes in a theater? well. OK. Not very impressed. The Daleks themselves arguing amongst themselves did not appeal to me, either. I just cannot believe that the most brilliant machine/minds from Skaro, so brilliant they could pilot a void ship, would bicker so.

I fear that "Doctor Who" is treading a road into style over substance in Season Three ? touching episodes like "Father's Day", "Unquiet Dead", "School Reunion" and "Girl in the Fireplace" have been exchanged for the occasional touching moment and competent CGI work ? and I am very concerned that we are nearly at the half-way point of the season without an obvious classic in the bunch (though "Shakespeare" comes close).

At least they're not saying 'Torchwood' every other word this time.