After
deciding to take Martha to the real New York, the Doctor
introduces her to the Big Apple in the 1930s. With the city
gripped by the Great Depression as the Empire State Building
nears completion, Martha and the Time Lord witness the poverty
of Hooverville, the homeless shanty town in the middle of
Central Park, where people who have lost everything have
made their home. Meeting community leader Solomon, the Doctor
discovers that people have been disappearing and strange
pig-like creatures have been seen emerging from the sewer
systems. When they investigate however they discover that
the Doctor’s greatest enemy is behind it but what
have Daleks got planned for 1930s Earth?
The
return of the Daleks is always a big event in a season of
Doctor Who and this latest two part episode is
no different.
After
escaping from the battle with the Cybermen last season,
Dalek Sec and the cult of Skaro teleported to 1930s New
York to formulate a plan that will save their race from
extinction. The only four reminding Daleks in the universe,
Sec believes that evolution is the only way for the race
to survive and the humans are the key.
Believing
that humans are the great survivors, Sec experiments on
the downtrodden in a way that will change not only our race
but the Daleks forever. Only their greatest enemy, the Doctor
stands in the way of their survival.
Russell
T. Davies and writer Helen Raynor get the chance to move
the Dalek/Doctor story on again, after their surprising
and battling return at the conclusion of last season. Dalek
Sec and the Cult of Skaro return and show their ability
to think for themselves. Their audacious plan gives the
special effects teams the chance to push themselves again,
creating a Dalek lab under the streets of New York, recreating
a 1930s Big Apple and bringing a new species into the Whovian
universe. The SFX budget has again been pushed to the limit
and shows how the show has grown since its return in 2005.
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The
story gives the Doctor/Dalek plotline the chance to grow.
The modern Doctor’s reaction to the sight of his greatest
enemy has been one of anger and hatred. The still unseen
Time War, which led to the devastation of the Time Lord
race and the almost destruction of the Daleks, has filled
the Doctor with fear and hate but for the first time he
actually listens to what they have to say. This leads to
an understanding and an unlikely alliance that we may never
see again.
‘Daleks
in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks’ is another step
forward for the new ‘Doctor Who’. With Freema
Agyeman getting better and better as the lovely Martha Jones
and David Tenant becoming everyone’s favourite Doctor,
the show is becoming a shining light again the television
science fiction.
