29.04: Daleks in Manhattan

[HoopyFrood]

Firstly...*Wails* I missed most of tonight's programme! I hardly watch tv anymore (in fact, I only watch it once a week -- for what, I wonder? ) and as such I never keep up with what time programmes are on. So, I switched on the tv and realised it was almost halfway through the episode. Argh! Damn the BBC for changing the time. Damn them!!

I did manage to see the 'evolution' bit...very cool. Although I still love the Daleks as they were, in their metal shells. That Black Dalek Sec will always have a place in my heart The half-human Dalek just hasn't got the...presence of a true Dalek; those things have scared child (and adults!) throughout the generations, nothing can beat that staccato scream and infamous pepper pot shape!

So...those of you who aren't as stupid as I am and managed to watch the whole programme, here's the place to discuss!

 

[Erin99]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Agree with you 100%! I wasn't impressed by the "new" deleks. The old ones have that ... something. The new one looks like you could slice its head off with a sword and be done with it!

Don't evolve Daleks! No!!! Stick with the pepper pots!

Edit: you could always watch again it on Friday on BBC3, Hoopy.

 

[Talysia]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

A good episode, and I guess I'm another person who thinks that the Daleks shouldn't be evolved.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Edit: you could always watch again it on Friday on BBC3, Hoopy.

Alas, not a chance...I'll be back at university by then, so I'm unable to get access to BBC3. *Sigh*

 

[PTeppic]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Edit: you could always watch again it on Friday on BBC3, Hoopy.

Or tomorrow, Sunday, 8pm on BBC3 (if that helps).

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Again, alas, no...I return to university tomorrow...

*Sigh* This will just have to be the one that got away, I suppose! Ah well...

 

[PTeppic]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

It's summary time:
For no apparent reason (this time) the Doctor has taken Martha to 1930s New York. The Empire State Building is still under construction, though almost finished, the theatres on and off Broadway have dancing girls, whilst in Central Park the poverty-stricken unfortunates from the Wall Street Crash live in a shanty town called Hooverville (after the president).

With his unerring ability to arrive in time for trouble, the Doctor and Martha soon find that people are going missing from Hooverville, whilst in the theatre one of the stage-hands, boy-friend to the star of one of the revues, also goes missing. Meanwhile, high in the part-finished Empire State Building the foreman, Mr Diagoras, is under pressure from his new "masters" to finish to a strenuous deadline.

---- end synopsis, begin discussion ----

Always difficult with a two-parter, since the better half of the action is still to come. It felt a little slow, though it kept moving. After my comments last week I thought the CGI New York skyline was excellent. The Daleks though, as with the above people, just didn't seem scary. There was no threat, no killing people, barely any threatening.

And as for the plot - they're some of the best geneticists in the history of the galaxy (by implication): surely they can clone more Daleks from the four of them, rather than having to go to the trouble of genetically splicing with the far-inferior humans. Who, as pointed out above, would be susceptible to all sorts of simple injuries, possibly diseases and methods of extermination.

And the new hybrid Sec-human bloke - sorry: utter pants!

Let's see what happens - next week looks like being quite full...

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Yes, I was thinking that...it would surely be a much better idea to keep themselves 'pure' and just clone more Daleks. They've always hated humans (well, they hate everything, really ) so why splice themselves with them?

And noooo, now we've lost the best Dalek because he's evolved into some silly -- albeit very freaky looking! -- hybrid. (Sorry, but I really love Sec ) He'd better find some way of climbing back into his pepper pot -- and he had bloody well better not die! -- else I shall be writing a stern letter to Mr RTD!

 

[Erin99]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Hoopy, get yourself one of these: Freecom DVB-T TV Freeview USB Stick **Ultra compact and portable!**

Then, all you need is an outside aerial to plug it into and you can watch tv via your computer/laptop. It lets you record and pause live tv too. I've got one and there are 32 channels in all that I can watch. Of course, depending on where you are in the country, the number of channels vary. Some people manage to get *all* freeview channels on it, not that I'm jealous!

It also comes supplied with a mini aerial, so if you're outside with a laptop you can watch tv still. Brilliant, that's all that I can say, and the picture quality is great.

Oh, but if you want to share the tv aerial socket with another tv, you need to pick up an aerial splitter (2-Into-1 Coax Y Adaptor) and another aerial cable (TV Aerial Flyleads). Put the splitter into the wall socket where the aerial enters the house from the roof, then attach the existing TV cable into the splitter. Then put your new flyead (or called an aerial lead) into the splitter as well. Et Viola -- a TV and a laptop watching tv at the same time, and you don't need to both watch the same channels either!

 

[Pyan]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Not as good as the last couple of episodes - but I think I'll wait for Part Two before I make my mind up.


Anyone else think "Cthulhu!!" when Dalek Sec sucked him in?

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Ha! Well, I didn't at the time, but now I can definitely see it...the tentacles!

 

[PTeppic]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

I was more thinking - how can a Dalek do that? It's just an octopus with a hate-complex... though we don't know what Sec's been doing to him/itself prior to the opening up. Didn't fit, for me, what even Dalek can or should be able to do. Some sort of big fancy old shiny sided box, where Sec goes in one half and Diagoras in the other - now that I could understand. I'm thinking Cronenburg's "The Fly" here... Or even some sort of DNA splicer and manipulator, e.g. Stargate SG-1 ep 6.16 (Metamorphosis), with samples taken from both Sec and Diagoras then artificially grown at a super-fast rate... But sucking him up like that, stewing on gas mark 6 inside the shell for half an hour and spitting out a slightly efeminate tentacle-head... nah!

PS. And this weeks RTD bingo...
Talulah speaking of the Doctor to Martha: "Or does he prefer musical theatre?"

PPS. Was it just me thinking about the structural stuff on the Empire State Building, and a Ghostbusters thing going on? Did the Dalek hurrying Diagoras along say "gamma strike rate"?

 

[Dave]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

I can't really add to what was said. I thought this episode was really good; that the series had really hit it's stride, then I read these comments and found myself agreeing with all the criticism.

PS. And this weeks RTD bingo...
Talulah speaking of the Doctor to Martha: "Or does he prefer musical theatre?"

Yes I caught that too, is RTD predictable or what? Though it was actually written by Helen Raynor who has been a script editor.

PPS. Was it just me thinking about the structural stuff on the Empire State Building, and a Ghostbusters thing going on? Did the Dalek hurrying Diagoras along say "gamma strike rate"?

Well that went above me, but I'd be interested in other's thoughts.

What has the actor who played Solomon been in before? I seem to recognise him.

I also think the Daleks would rather clone themselves than form a human chimera, but sadly I don't write the stories.

I'm glad they said they were the last four Daleks, otherwise I would have been as incredulous as the Doctor: "They always survive!" - these would be the Daleks that escaped the attack on Torchwood Canary Wharf.

I also thought the Doctor took an incredibly long time to identify that the green blob came from Skaro. If I could have texted him, I would have told him when he first picked it up.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

I'm glad they always survive...I know they keep cropping up all the time and I know there are some people who think they have been overplayed, but damn I LOVE the Daleks!

Oh, and the guy wo plays Solomon...he's from Holby City ...oh, yes, and had a role in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

 

[Dave]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Oh, and the guy wo plays Solomon...he's from Holby City ...oh, yes, and had a role in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Thanks, even though I don't watch Holby City, it's probably from there that I recognise him.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Ooh, apparently been in Highlander as well! (Thanks Wikipedia God )

 

[Lenny]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

I also thought the Doctor took an incredibly long time to identify that the green blob came from Skaro. If I could have texted him, I would have told him when he first picked it up.

The problem is, we knew that this episode was the Dalek episode. Whereas the poor old Doccytor has to keep up with millions of different species from different planets - I think it's safe to say that there will be a least a handful of species that are very similar.

---

Anyway, I thought that this episode was really good, too! 4 out of 4, which, although I hate to say it, is rare, especially with them being the first four of the series.

One thing I didn't like - Dalek-Human. He could've looked slightly more the part... and call that a menacing voice?! I can do a more menacing voice when threatening my little rubber ducky with drowing when I'm in the bath!

I can't wait for next week's episode.

Ooooh! I also watched the Confidential episode on BBC3 afterwards, and I have to say, the things that you can do with Photoshop are incredible! That program is worth more credit than I give it.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

Seems the Dalek-human hybrid didn't impress many people, really. It was shocking when I saw it on the front of Radio Times, but it didn't really live up to expectations. Although I guess it has only made a brief appearance so far. I shall try to hold judgement until next week's episode! (Which I will watch!)

Visually, it did look very strange, but as I said before, you just can't beat that classic Dalek shape. And I agree, Lenny, I was expecting it to be that screamy-Dalek voice when it spoke...alas, no.

 

[Lenny]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

One thing I did think was clever, was that Diawhatsisname was wearing a BLACK suit, and it was BLACK Dalek Sec which, erm, whatever'd with him to creat the Hybrid.

 

[Dave]

Re: 29.04 Daleks in Manhattan

The problem is, we knew that this episode was the Dalek episode. Whereas the poor old Doccytor has to keep up with millions of different species from different planets - I think it's safe to say that there will be a least a handful of species that are very similar.

Yes, we did have the huge advantage of being able to read the episode title, I won't dispute that, but I did think it looked incredibly like the insides of the Emperor Dalek that the Doctor and Rose had seen before. Also, the Doctor hasn't really had to fight that many amorphous-jelly-form species, generally they are the man-in-a-suit kind of alien. The only ones I can think of are the Rutans (from the Horror of Fang Rock) (and the worst special effects in the whole of Doctor Who as it was bubble wrap painted green) and the Autons.

He had other clues such as the high level of genetic engineering employed, but yet he still had to remember a number on a galactic database. That number would be as familiar as his works telephone number, wouldn't it?