Evolution of the Daleks (2905/305)

[Rabid Coot]

And I also just remembered, what the hell happened to Art Deco Daleks??? Perhaps would have lifted the enjoyment of this episode from zero to one at the least. All I heard about leading up to this episode was "you're gonna see Art Deco, Daleks..."

Um..

Where??

I guess the spoilers forgot a comma.

[Darren]

The whole 2-parter was pretty disappointing, but this second half much moreso. Plot holes aplenty. I was completely lost when gamma radiation from the sun suddenly manifested itself as lightening (the Frankenstein image is just more dramatic, I suppose). And after going through so much effort with the genetics lab and pumping the shells full of a solution with hybrid DNA -- oops, now it's all Dalek DNA -- to have the Doctor's DNA mixed in solely because the lightening passed through him?

Please.

The semi-happy ending for Laslo was weird and unnecessary. He's a tragic character who is limping toward death the entire episode. Just let him die. Now he's alive but not restored to pre-pig form, so we're left with his hacky image of him in a trenchcoat and hat living out the rest of his life in the slums, trying not to picture him mating with the showgirl and having weird pigbabies. It's just not necessary.

I don't mind Dalek Sec's rather anti-Dalek philosophy. Every species has its oddballs who buck the system, and faced with the end of his species (again) it was a reasonable leap to make. It would NOT have rung true if the other Daleks had gone along and not turned on him. They showed true Dalek colors, which is what we needed to see in order for the writers to have kept from selling them out.

All in all, I was eager for this one to finally be over. A mediocre episode.

[jonno]

Indeed.

Poor. Very poor. Like Darren just said, I have no objection to having a slightly 'different' Dalek in Sec. but it was all just written so poorly, and didn't work.

Oh, and as a Molecular Biology student, the entire engineering thing made me wince. Loads.
And as someone who ... well, did Physics at school, the 'Gamma Radiation = Lightning' thing made me wince more.

So, you can imagine my agony when they combined 'gamma radiation lightning with genetic transfer of DNA through a building' ... I know the science is not always something i should consider with Who ... but I have my limits.

Oh. And 'Emergency Temporal Shifting' AGAIN was as much a cop-out as the constant beaming out in Stargate has become.

That said, I did mildly enjoy it - because it gave me plenty to mock. In a bad way.

By far the weakest Who I've seen (yet to see 'Love and Monsters').

[Darren]

Not to go too far off topic, but I kind of enjoyed the change of pace in "Love and Monsters." It was way out there, and only tangentially Who, but in a clever way that made me care about the characters.

Doctor Who has an unabashedly campy element, and that's great. Watch it and love it for what it is. But "Evolution of the Daleks" was bad camp. Sloppy, unbelievable camp.

[P-90_177]

you really should ignore the bad science. doctor who is all about bad science. it's what makes it so great. the idea is that becasue we humans are so primitive we couldn't possibly imagine how this stuff happens or works. Just like the tardis, the gamma radiation lightning, the dna transfer, sonic screw driver, how they moved the techtonic plates back etc etc etc.

[Pitry]

Hmm.. I dunno about plotholes, tho. I think it mainly felt like there were obvious plotholes because it actually attempted to have a plot, which was its weakest point.

But TBH I've enjoyed Evolution of the Daleks much better than Daleks in Manhattan. Both episodes are still much weaker in comparison to the first three, definitely, but Evolution still had some lovely points.

As for Dalek Sec, well I have to agree that as logn as the rest of the Daleks refused to go on with the plan it did feel possible. Also, keep in mind that Sec's idea for the continuation of the species changed only after he took human form, he'd haev never accepted it when he was a pure Dalek.

[Willow'sCat]

Well I loved Love and Monsters, and for that matter The Happiness Patrol.

But this was just bad. I would expect this on Torchwood but not on Doctor Who which I feel has at least tried to stay away from this kind of thing, at least when it did go there it did it with a huge heap of humour, in this case the show seemed to takes itself so seriously.

[Reefgirl]

I liked Happiness Patrol too, it was so bad it was good

[ShadowMaat]

At least L&M didn't try to take itself seriously, so the unlikeliness of it all was kinda forgivable. But Evolution of the Daleks had no such excuse- it was a cheesy ep passed off as something deadly serious. All my opinion of course.

[Pitry]

I dunno about "deadly serious". Nothing in Doctor Who feels to me as deasdly serious.... yeah, they meant their angsty bits and did a plot episode, but it had enough silliness, dind't it. I mean... they hd pig slaves!

[Madeleine]

There've been 33 eps broadcast in the past three years, of which seven have had Daleks in. Over twenty percent. That's too many.

[Reefgirl]

Back in the Classic series days the Daleks only turned up every couple of years and that was always eagerly awaited, the BBC could guarentee a huge rating for those episodes. My daughter isn't that much of a fan of Dr Who but I always ask her if she wants to watch it with me, this time it was "Oh not the Daleks again"

Time to give them a break and time for some new reoccuring baddies

[Willow'sCat]

Well I am not buying that the main reason this sucked was The Daleks. It was a bad ep imho because it was a bad ep. No enemy could have saved it, I can't pick just one thing (like it being The Daleks) as reason it sucked big time, there are just too many things/reasons.

I notice on "another" forum many are raving about it but I still fail to see where they are coming from. I guess like Stargate and some other shows, fandom will love anything as long as it is part of the franchise.

That makes me kinda sad.

(Not that people are not allowed to see the good points or that my opinion is better then others...blah, blah, blah.)

[Missster.Freeman]

Ah well. It was a total mess. It felt like I was watching a bunch of scenes that were unconnected and cobbled together to make up a 45 minute episode.

I kind of knew the last Dalek would have some form of escape plan. I mean, I don't think the current PTB would want to be known as the ones who killed off the Daleks.

Still, I'm glad it has not put me off Doctor Who because I would have ignored this week's episode and thankfully, it was a huge improvement - much better than the combined effort of the Dalek storyline. I would also have missed that preview for the next episode. Wow!

[The Signal]

I think the ep was poorly written, and the acting was even worse, David and Freema were brilliant as always, but the majority of the rest were quite bad IMO. As for the story, I dunno, I can see The Doctor siding with Human Dalek Sec, but the others? No way, he would never side with the rest of the cult of Skaro. The human Daleks seemed unlikely, sure The Daleks may want to make such creatures to serve them, but to give them a place in their army, to make them one of their own, no.

4/10 - meaning this ep and the last average out at a 5/10