Daleks in Manhattan (2904/304)

[Elinor]

Also the pigs? That made zero sense to me, why not just use people? Resources being what they are I don't see why they needed to go the extra mile and waste time and effort "transforming" them into pig slaves.

Yes, I thought the same. Just didn't see the point of them really. Perhaps we'll learn a bit more next week.

I thought this episode took a while to get going. My mind wandered off a few times 'cos I got a bit bored! Got better toward the end though.

Intriguing idea to have the Daleks evolve. I hope they do. I just can't get past that '60's' look they still have, even though they've been 'whizzed' up a bit!

It'll be interesting to see where they go with this.

[Easter Lily]

^^ I liked it... I like the set up and I thought DT was particularly good. In fact, he's been great the last few episodes.
The accents... meh... I don't care... I don't know any better... Apparently most of the actors were American anyway. Frank, the farm boy, Diagonas and Lazslo are Americans apparently.
The running around along corridors sewer tunnels reminded me of classic Who...
The makeshift Who lab was cool... it's been a while since the Doctor was in scientist mode.

[Commander Ivanova]

Hmmn, main problem for me was that I was distracted by some of the accents and a lot of the acting.

The pig-men extras were too lethargic and apathetic to make proper henchmen, they needed to put a bit more effort into their lumbering down tunnels intimidating the humans shtick.
Foreman guy should've been screaming and gibbering in terror, not just standing there being ever-so-lightly restrained by a couple of half-asleep goons and asking intelligent and pertinent questions that cleverly helped to advance the plot.
What is it with the animal masks, first rhinos now pigs. And why pigs? Unless that bit will be explained next week.
And the guys on top of the Empire State looked exactly like they were farting about in a studio with the wind machine on medium. Come on, the fella's wobbly cap even managed to stay on in a 'howling gale'!
The make-up job on the Dalek-human hybrid was awful. (On the other hand, in the classic Who tradition so maybe not so bad.)

On the upside, it was nice to get out of London for a change.
I'm not tired of the Daleks - yet. But it's getting close.
And Martha is great.

[Easter Lily]

The make-up job on the Dalek-human hybrid was awful. (On the other hand, in the classic Who tradition so maybe not so bad.)

I was thinking Scaroni from The City of Death.

[Commander Ivanova]

Forgot to say the overt shipping of Martha and the Doc, especially in the media (what did anyone else think of the TV ads?), is my least favorite aspect of the current series. Please don't ship the Doctor (unless it's with Cap'n Jack of course )

[wise one]

judging from next week episode it looks like the daleks would be exterminated once and for all with their vunerability!!!

[Willow'sCat]

judging from next week episode

Hmm, not that what you posted is a real spoiler but if you must talk about specualtion to do with another episode (a future one) can you please put it in spoil tags with a reason for the tags so no-one has to accidently be spoiled?

[Reefgirl]

I have to say I wasn't impressed with this episode at all, that's about all I have to say, it felt poorly written. Tallulah's accent was naff, Soloman/Bloke from Casualty City looked really out of place as hardman/peacemaker in Hooverville. I spent the first half wondering whether Black-Suit-Soprano-Type-Bloke was going to end up as Davros and thinking how much he looked like my Other Half's brother, that's how much impact the episode made. And talking of The Sopranos where were the Mafia? they would have wanted a piece of the action AND the had the unions sewn up, sorry I'm a history buff and tend to pick holes in these kind of episodes. All in all a huge disappointment

[Dusk]

Hmmmmmm... quite possibly the strangest Who episode I've ever seen, and that's saying something! I can't imagine what non-Who watchers would make of all this...

I too am tiring of the Daleks, true they are classic villains in the show, but with too much exposure, they lose their effect. Their 'evolution', whilst bold and slightly disturbing, is yet another example of anthropomorphizing in sci-fi that is unnecessary and pointless. More on this next week.

You're all complaining of the accents, but have any of you been to New York? There are people in downtown Manhattan that sound exactly like Telullah, neow kiddin'! I loved her character the most, truly played to perfection. The stage show was great!

Taking the series out of London is an EXCELLENT direction, and they really need to do this more often. Putting the story amongst a well-known historical event is also a perfect decision.

As for the pig-men... um, no. I don't know what they were thinking. They've done pigs, time to move on. I mean pigs?? This element of the story heavily depreciates from the potential quality. Uhhhhh...

All in all, entertaining enough to keep me watching. I fear, however, that next week will be virtually a carbon copy of this one, with some added Dalek assaults on huu-mans.

[ShadowMaat]

Unless the Daleks are somehow connected with the Slitheen (and given the time frame, that seems unlikely) the pig-men seem a little strange. Although I suppose a case could be built that the pig-men were a way to perfect the formula (whatever they were injecting into Sek) for the Dalek-man.

[Commander Ivanova]

I suppose a case could be built that the pig-men were a way to perfect the formula (whatever they were injecting into Sek) for the Dalek-man.

You could be right, if I recall right pig DNA is fairly similar to human DNA. We're already using pigs to grow human organs. So genetic human/pig hybrid experiments would make perfect sense in the Dr Who world.

[ShadowMaat]

Yeah, but where pig and human DNA might be a close match, I highly doubt that Dalek and human DNA are even in the same playing field. Or if it is, there goes the whole "Daleks are superior" argument. LOL!

[MechaThor]

A good episode not as good as last weeks classic however.

Although the daleks are starting to get over shown a still find it intresting to watch them talk amoung themselves and to other people as if they where a true lifeform and not just an "exsterinating evil robot".

The pig slaves look cool however i am confused?
Why Pig slaves? Where the first ones actually modified pigs? or where they all Humans? If so why turn humans into Pigs?

One last thing what was that Jellyfish? a baby dalek? in was disapointed that no one said "it looks like a jellyfish" when he question what it is.

6.5/10

[ShadowMaat]

Yeah, I was a bit confused as to why no one made the jellyfish connection, either. Or at least said, "Watch out for the tentacles, they might sting," which was one of MY first thoughts.

[Pitry]

Agreed this was prolly the weakest of the episodes so far (this series, I'd still take it every day over Idiot's Lantern!) - but I suspect, at least on my part, this has had something to dow ith me really waiting for a showdown between the Doctors and the Daleks, something like CE got to do in Dalek, after everything and Doomsday. Alas, it seems this would be put off for another week.

The accents? No, unlike Dalek (sorry, I love Anna Louise Plowman, but American accents aren't her strongest point) I bought them. Might be because I'm actually rather used to heavy Brooklyn accents

Anopther week point was the way tey tried to get the Hooverville efeling - yeah, all true and history, but they should have done it more subtle, felt like preaching more than showing an episode. And coming from me that's rich because I usually don't mind too much

Martha was great - as someone mentioned her "report!" bit to the Daleks, loved that! And the "Hey, I know that name" face when she heard the word Dalek, bwaha. Oh, yeah, one thing - whatever happened to "one trip on the TARDIS and then home?" Felt a bit like The Powers That Be, Teal'c joining the team off world without any apparent explanation.

Oy, Dalek man.... it definitely looked like a cross ebtween Davros and the green alien monster from city of death.... I actually thought it was quite anice touch, the one-eyed-Davros-esque bit, it'd make sense the Daleks, when taking human form, would try and get as mucha s Davros - hopweevr I'm not sure I'm too hot on that human-form Dalek bit, I know they addressed the purity issue but I still think Daleks would be much more aversed to the idea.
Ah, well, let's hope next week's gonna deliever the Doctor-Daleks show down, hooray,....