Name: Louise Green | Age: 15

Last week: Martha and the Doctor headed to New York where they started to investigate the mystery of why people were going missing from Hooverville. It turned out that the Daleks were taking people from there for ‘The Final Experiment’ where people were turned into pig slaves or kept by the Daleks (if they were clever enough) to be turned into Human Daleks (The Final Experiment) We met Lazlo, who got turned into a pig slave, Tallulah, a stage girl who was in love with Lazlo, Solomon, the head of Hooverville and the guy who made all the big speeches to keep people together and Frank, a guy from Hooverville who nearly became part of the Final Experiment. Also, Dalek Sec turned himself into a Human Dalek by using Mr. Diagoras to help him. What we wondered was… Is he still a real Dalek?

This time: The episode opens with Dalek Sec, and the other 3 Daleks stood in the basement of the Empire state building with the people for the final experiment. The Doctor didn’t want to get noticed but had to so something to keep himself and the others alive, so he grabbed a radio. What was music to people is a screeching noise to a Dalek. Dalek Sec notices the Doctor and once he calls his name, the other Daleks go to exterminate him but Dalek Sec tells them not to.

Dalek Sec tells the Doctor that he feels humanity – everything that he wanted from people in the final experiment. Ambition, hatred, aggression and war. No matter what the Doctor says to him, he will not listen to the fact that that is not what humanity means. He has his own beliefs and refuses to believe what he doesn’t feel.

After his little speech, the Doctor turns on the radio which hurts the Daleks so that they cannot attack until the noise stops and it gives the Doctor and Martha a chance to get themselves and the others out of the room. They run back into the sewers to get out of there and they run into Tallulah. Lazlo does not go with them but I think he will be able to help them out later though.

The Pig Slaves and the Daleks follow them but they escape before they can take them back up. Because the Daleks do not know where they have gone, they have a few seconds to talk to each other. They say that they must follow his orders because he is their master but that they have doubts as to whether or not a human Dalek is the right thing to have. They believe that it is not pure as they were bred in the form that they are now.

The Doctor goes back to Hooverville to warn everyone to leave. He tells them that the Daleks are going to be there and if they don’t leave, they are all in danger. Solomon refuses to leave because he says that there is no where else to go. Hooverville is the lowest place anyone can go and there are no other places that they can escape to.  

Elsewhere in Hooverville, the Pig Slaves come in and the people are terrified. They all grab weapons and shoot the Pig Slaves. They think that if they can hold off the Pig Slaves until morning, they will be able to think of a way to stop the Daleks. Unfortunately, this will not work because the Daleks are coming flying in.

Frank shoots the Dalek but nothing happens. All that it does is make the Dalek angrier. The Daleks then fly round shooting everything and blowing up the cabins and tents. They tell the humans that they must surrender but the Doctor says otherwise. He says that they have done nothing wrong and don’t deserve to be involved in it. Dalek Sec (who is watching from a screen in the basement) realises that he has located that Doctor and is ready to listen to what he has to say.

Solomon, being one for long speeches, tries to talk to the Daleks. The Doctor tries to stop him because he doesn’t want to risk him being killed. His speech is as follows: ‘From what I hear, you’re outcasts too. Daleks, ain’t we the same? Underneath, ain’t we all kin? See, I’ve just discovered this past day that Gods universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was. And that scares me. Oh yeah terrifies me right down to the bone! But, surely it’s got to give me hope, hope that maybe; together we can make a better tomorrow. So I beg you now, if you have any compassion in your hearts, then you’ll meet with us and stop this fight! What do you say?’ Well, you can probably guess what happens next. After a wonderful and meaningful speech, it all ends with…’Exterminate!’

The Doctor is furious after this because Solomon should not have died. He tells the Daleks to kill him and the flying Dalek goes to. He seems excited that he will be the one to defeat their greatest enemy. As he goes to kill him, Dalek Sec, tells him not to. After this, Dalek Sec tells him to bring the Doctor to him. He only agrees to go if they promise to spare the lives of every single person there! Dalek Sec says yes so the Doctor goes with them. The main reason he goes is because he wants to know what is happening to the Daleks. They have never changed their minds about anything before and he needs to see what is becoming of Dalek Sec. Before leaving, the Doctor hands Martha his psychic paper. She has no idea what to do with it but I can guarantee that she will figure it out!

In the basement with Dalek Sec, the Doctor screams at him because he thinks that no one else should have died. The only person they wanted was him, so why did they kill the others? To me, that is what a Dalek is born to do. Because Dalek Sec has been transformed, he is not pure Dalek anymore so has other emotions as well as the urge to kill. He also tells the Doctor that the deaths were wrong and Solomon shouldn’t have died. The Doctor is quite puzzled about this and tells Dalek Sec that there is a bit more human in him than he thought.

The Dalek wants the Doctor because he can help them build up a new race of Dalek. They tried growing new Dalek embryos but the flesh was too weak. He says that they then started to grow their own human Daleks. He shows him he all of the people that they have taken so that they can use the bodies to create new Daleks. There are over a thousand there and there is no where to reverse it. The people they have used are near death but their minds have been erased so that they can they can be filled with Dalek ideas.

Meanwhile, back in Hooverville with Martha, she and Tallulah discuss what the psychic paper could be for. She thinks about what the Daleks said down in the sewers and about the mast of the Empire State Building . Something to do with the Dalekanium!!

Back with the Doctor and Dalek Sec, they are talking about the energy conductor (what Martha has just worked out). Dalek Sec tells the Doctor that by mixing human DNA with Dalek DNA, they will use gamma radiation, by using the sun. They will use the next solar flare to gain enough power to do it.

Dalek Sec needs the Doctor because he is a genius. With his brain power, he will be able to create the Daleks with him.

The Daleks are different to Dalek Sec because they have no emotions. The scene here shows just how different they are because Dalek Sec believes that having no emotions makes them lesser than their enemies because they do not feel the same way but the other 3 Daleks believe that emotions are unnecessary because it makes them the Supreme beings. The Doctor here, kind of agrees with the Daleks but also with Dalek Sec because he is making it sound as if everything they have done in the past was wrong. I know that this may not be the case, but to me, the Doctor feels slightly concerned because of how Dalek Sec wants to change.

Martha and the others manage to get into the Empire State Building and head straight to the top. Once up there, they try to discover what exactly is going on up there. The plans that Frank finds are dated today so that means that the Daleks changed something last minute. They must figure out what they have changed before it is too late! They take the old plans and compare them to the new ones. There is more than one set of plans so they lay them all out and start looking through them.

Back with the Doctor, they are creating the formulas to create the new Dalek species. The Pig Slaves come in carrying something in a wooden box that will help create the new Daleks. With the Pigs comes Lazlo. He kept himself alive and is trying to find out new information for the Doctor.

Martha seems upset back upstairs because she starts talking to Tallulah about Rose. She says that sometimes she thinks that the Doctor likes her but then other times she thinks that it just reminds him of Rose. Tallulah is also upset because the Daleks destroyed Lazlo. She says that even if Lazlo is still alive, there is no future for them because he is so different now. ‘The one good thing I had in my life and those Daleks go and destroy it’.

All systems are go downstairs because everything is in place to bring about the new Daleks. The people, now Daleks, are coming alive and everything seems to be going well for the Doctor.

Martha realises that Dalekanium is on the top of the Empire State Building and it was only added to the plans today. Let’s hope she can do something about it before it’s too late.

Well, I may have said that everything was going smoothly in the basement but things often change, like in this case. The pure Daleks are trying to override the system and stop the new Daleks being created. They force the Doctor to step away from the controls and have the Pig Slave take hold of him and Dalek Sec. Fortunately for the Doctor, Lazlo grabs him so there is a chance that they can escape. Once the lift arrives at the top, Lazlo and the Doctor jump in it. The pig slaves try to get in but the Doctor closes the door before they get a chance. There are only minutes before the Gamma Radiation reaches the earth so they haven’t got long to stop the Daleks. The only way to do it is by going to the top of the building. Together, he and Martha will be able to stop the Daleks. We hope…

Once the Doctor and Lazlo arrive on the top floor, Martha tells the Doctor that they have found out what is up there. He says that he needs to remove it as soon as possible. Martha tries to stop him going because it is so dangerous but he says that it is the only way to stop the Daleks. When Martha says that she will go with him, he says that she will be occupied with fighting! She has to stop the Pig Slaves and Daleks ascending and stopping him reaching the top.

Once again, Martha uses her brain to stop the Pigs killing them. She says that by using lightening, they can shock the Pigs and kill them.

The Daleks are still downstairs and counting down time until the Gamma Radiation. Once it hits, the new Daleks will be reborn. This time though, they will be pure Dalek and have no humanity in them whatsoever.

After getting two pieces of the Dalekanium off, the Doctor drops his sonic screwdriver. Now there is no way for him to get the last piece off. What can he do now?

12…11…10…9…Nearly time for the Gamma Strike.

The Doctor has no other way of stopping the Daleks so he climbs up the lightening pole and gets shocked by the Gamma Radiation. Even though he is in serious pain and screaming, he still holds on and never gives up!

Martha’s plan to stop the Pig Slaves works and when she looks at them, she sees that they are all dead. She is beyond doubt upset because he feels responsible for their deaths. She says that they were real people and she killed him. Lazlo reassures her that it was the Daleks and that she did what was right. Martha then goes up to look for the Doctor and see if he is ok but finds him lying on the floor. She tells him that she found his sonic screwdriver but he doesn’t wake up. But when she tells him that there is still Dalekanium attached to the mast, he wakes up suddenly.

The Dalek tribe is now up and ready but we’re not quite sure at this stage as to what they are. Are they half Daleks or did the Doctor do something to change them? Whatever they are, they are out looking for the Doctor and will not rest until they find him.

The only way of stopping the Dalek people is by having some sort of space. The best place the Doctor can think of is the theatre. If he can get the Daleks in one place, there is a chance that he will be able to control or maybe even stop what is going on. Once at the theatre, the Doctor calls on the Daleks with the Sonic Screwdriver. They appear suddenly and surround them all. The pure Daleks then arrive with Dalek Sec on a chain. They go to exterminate the Doctor but Dalek Sec jumps in the way. He believed that the Doctor could have helped them so he didn’t think it was right that he died. Instead, he gave his own life to save him.

The Doctor then tells the new Daleks what they are really like. He wants them to shoot him but every time the Dalek tells them to shoot, nothing happens. Eventually, one of the newly bred Daleks asks ‘but why?’ they want to know why they should shoot. Because the Doctor got in the way of the Gamma Radiation, the new Daleks are not pure Dalek anymore. They till have a part of humanity left. Because they will not obey, the Daleks say that they must die. The Daleks shoot one of the humans and the humans shoot the two Daleks. In the end, the two Daleks and up dead. Now, that’s 3 down and 1 to go. The leader!! Because there is one Dalek still in control, he kills every single half human left.

Once the Doctor arrives with the final Dalek, he talks to him about what he has done. He tells him that he can help him and show him compassion, which no other man in the universe will do. He refuses to listen and uses his emergency temporal shift. Off he goes, out there in the universe. He’s escaped!! 1 Dalek left in the Universe and he cannot do anything about it.

After the Dalek escaped, Martha and Tallulah bring in Lazlo. Unfortunately he is dying but there is one small thing that the Doctor can do though. There have been too many deaths today so the Doctor manages to save Lazlo. He cannot change him back to a human but he is still alive and with Tallulah. They take him down to Hooverville where they say that he can stay and he will have a home. Exactly what Hooverville is for, giving people somewhere when they haven’t got anywhere else.

Back to the Tardis for the Doctor and Martha. As they approach it, Martha says that there is someone out there for everyone. He agrees with her but does not say that she is the one. She doesn’t seem to mind though and apologises to the Doctor because the Dalek got away. She knows how much it meant to him and will be there for him while she is upset! An excellent end to an excellent episode!

Episode Rating: 10! My first 10 of the series. The episode was unpredictable, exceptionally well written and made me laugh and nearly cry. I hope that all the episodes in the series will be this fantastic and I really look forward to when the Doctor finds that Dalek. It will certainly have to be an episode and a half to beat this one. I can now say that Doctor who has brightened up my Saturday nights. It is a wonderful show and the storylines just keep getting better. Thank you for such an incredible episode!

Name: Georgia Shippen | Age: 14

Wow the last 5 weeks have gone fast! Now we are at our 5th episode,and what a episode it was! With Dalek Sec in human form and now with human emotions the whole of New York is at risk,including the Doctor and Martha.The Doctor is now faced with a new form of dalek....but with still 3 normal daleks.He notices that dalek Sec is slighty more human than he frist thought.But the Doctor escapes along with everyone else and goes back to Hooverville.He tells Soloman all about the daleks and Soloman just says that he wants to keep everyone alive.The pig salves go to Hoovervilel.But 2 daleks follow them there and with bangs,screams and shoots of guns its not looking good.But it gets worse after Soloman trys to reason with the daleks,and is  sadly killed.At this point it just pushes the Doctor over the edge and starts to scream at the daleks.

"KILL ME!! KILL ME NOW!! JUST DO IT IF IT WILL STOP YOU FROM KILLING THESE PEOPLE!! KILLE ME!!!".I think that he says this because he is sick of everyone around him dying.So he thinks that it is up to him to save everyone but dying.But lucky Dalek Sec stops them from killing the Doctor (thank god! I love David!).He is taken to Dalek Sec but before that he handed over his phyic paper to Martha.As Dalek Sec explains his plan to the Doctor,Martha,Tallulah and Frank go to the empire state buliding to find out what the daleks are up to.As the Doctor decides to help the daleks,Dalek Caan,Jast and Thay reble againist Dalek Sec because he is "to human".But the doctor escapes along with Lazlo and find Martha.The Doctor must take off the dalekcanium from the top of the empire state buliding.Martha is left to take care of the pig slaves.But she thinks of an idea to kill them.But up above the Doctor is in even for trouble.With the wind and rain he loses his sonic scredriver and is hopeless without it,he trys everything to get the plates off.Instead he holds onto the mast that the lighting will go down.He is electrcuted and faints near the edge of the drop hundreds of floors down to the ground.At this point i had a pillow to my face and when i saw him near the edge i actually thought he was dead."NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO" i shouted! I was sitting next to my sister and she shouted back "HE LIVES!!!" Woop! Marthas plan worked but her and Frank go up to see the Doctor.She sees his life less body and trys to get him up."Owww ....my head" He lives! They all head down towards the stage but before all of that,The 3 Daleks have taken dalek sec and cast him as a emny.The army of the human-daleks are awake and out to get the Doctor.As Dalek Caan stays behinde the other Daleks and Sec go through tied up the Doctor is standing waiting.

"Come on then baptise them!" he shouts at the Daleks hands raised.

"Dalek-humans EXTERMINATE!" Nothing happens the dalek-humans have not listened and start to shoot the daleks.As everyone hides one dalek is alive.He kills the humans,than let them live.The Doctor goes back to Dalek Caan and asks him to leave.

"Emegency templeral shift!" And with 1 Dalek in the whoole universe the Doctor said it him slef...He'll meet him again.

This episode was great and it was full of energy and again it had that WOW factor.

My overall rating is 10/10.

Next week Martha returns home and is invited to a party with her family.The Doctor with her they meet a funny old scary monster and will it all end well? We'll have to wait to find out!

 

 

Name: Frankie Eden-Smith | Age: 15

 

So, we waited a week for the second part of Daleks in Manhattan and we weren’t disappointed. Left with the lasting image of the human dalek the next episode had to be a must see. The secret of the final experiment was revealed and the doctor quickly revealed himself. Equipped with a radio he reintroduced himself to the Daleks followed by a quick goodbye as he led the captured humans and left the Daleks with a high pitch whistling on the radio which disorientated them for a while. As the Doctor and the captured humans escape the Daleks follow behind- it made me laugh how the Daleks already possessed human qualities like looking around before gossiping!!! Never trust a dalek!!!
The Doctor arrives at Hooverville and explains what has been happening to its residents. They are soon invaded by pig men and later the Daleks. Solomon tries to plead with them but the cruel, merciless Daleks exterminate him!!! This makes the doctor extremely angry; I would just like to point out here how tremendous the acting was!!! Especially David Tennant and Hugh Quarshie (Solomon) they were so emotionally convincing.
The Doctor instructs the Daleks to kill him and just as they prepare to, Dalek Sec forbids them and tells them to bring him up. The doctor can see the humanity of the humanized dalek sec and sees the ultimate dalek leader has gone soft. He follows dalek Jast and dalek Cann, after slipping Martha the psychic paper, to a Daleks' genetics laboratory.
Dalek Sec requests his help with combining human and dalek DNA, the doctor helps. It’s only with a few minutes to go that the rest of the cult of skaro explains that they’ve made the solution 100% dalek. They claim dalek sec is no longer a dalek and chain him to the wall.
The Doctor and Laszlo escape up the Empire State building to rejoin Martha, Frank and Tallulah on their mission to remove the dalekanium which was attached to the mast. The Doctor is in a race against time to remove the dalekanium, except he drops his sonic screwdriver and in a last desperate attempt, attaches himself to the mast!!!
As the lightning strikes he screams out in agony. We see the laboratory humans awake but the doctor lays unconscious at a great height!!! Martha finds him where he awakes, they rush down to the theatre and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to let the Daleks know where he is. They arrive and the Doctor, Martha, Laszlo, Tallulah and Frank are surrounded. When the human Daleks are asked to kill the doctor they repeat “why”.
Of course when the Doctor attached himself to the mast Time Lord DNA was mixed in the solution, the human Daleks turn on dalek Thay and Jast destroying them. As dalek Cann witnesses this from the empire state building he destroys the human Daleks. The Doctor rushes back, to tell Dalek Cann he is the last of his kind and offers to help, but the dalek uses the Emergency temporal shift and disappears. The Doctor and Martha return to the TARDIS, the doctor knowing he will see Dalek Cann again one day. Wow, what a show!!! I hope we keep on seeing the Daleks they can’t get extinct- Doctor Who isn’t Doctor Who without the Daleks!!!10/10

 

 

Name: Brendan Kennedy | Age: 21

 

"Give me your poor, your huddled masses and maybe the odd pig slave
mutant Dalek hybrid."
I'd just like to open this review with one caveat: Daleks in
Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks is a better opening two-parter than
the Cybermen effort was. The second part has several memorable
moments, vibrant direction and impressive set-pieces, but something
feels amiss. Something important and vital to the creative process.
Ah, yes: A coherent narrative. Evolution of the Daleks feels like a
bit of mess in places. It's certainly very exciting in places and
yields one of the best scenes of Doctor Who in quite a while, when
Dalek Sec is paraded on-stage at Tallulah's theatre. The contrivances
of the plot, however, feel lightweight and don't make much sense. The
Daleks could have exterminated the Doctor several times over, even
when they weren't being prevented from doing so by Sec in spats. A
solar flare wouldn't cause a lightning strike on the side of the
planet currently not facing the sun. I know that these are all minor
faults, but when coupled with a very sketchy Dalek plot that is a
little too familiar from "Evil of the Daleks" and you have an episode
with a few glaring inconsistencies.
The Doctor's ascent to the top of the Empire State building is
directed impressively and the music has a tribal energy to it, but I
feel it would have been more effective had we not seen something
extremely similar in last year's Mark Gatiss effort. The Sec/Diagoras
prosthetic is effective and has an incredibly expressive eye. It would
have been more effective had it not had the terribly distracting
moving tentacles. A lot of the episode is top quality, but over-egged
or over-ambitious. I rarely complain about Murray Gold's music, but
Evolution had some of the most intrusive incidental music in the new
series. It was wonderfuly, stirring stuff, but as always the sound mix
had it several times too loud.
On the more positive side of things, David Tennant is still
commanding in the role of the Doctor, even if he does channel
Eccleston during some of the more intense moments of the episode,
namely when he orders the Dalek to exterminate him while at
Hooverville. Freema Agyeman was perfectly serviceable in the role
again, but if we don't start learning a little more about her
character other than she is in love with the Doctor, then I'm going to
get fairly bored with her fulfilling what appears to be the role of a
classic series companion. After nuanced history of Rose Tyler, this
won't satisfy. The supporting cast are still caricatures in this
episode and while I appreciate that it was almost a cartoon-like
version of New York being presented in these episodes, the audience
needs human touchstones in every episode and when the regular
companion isn't fulfilling the role, the supporting cast are vital in
this function. Every other two part episodes so far have had an
excellent supporting cast, even the otherwise irredeemable Cybermen
episodes. When the characters are so hollow, so one dimensional you
really don't care that the Daleks want to exterminate them all and
this is a big mistake in a Dalek episode.
I feel a little guilty in ranting on about the episodes like this,
especially when there is so much to appreciate. Beyond the glaring
plot holes, logical inconsistencies, and barely sketched characters,
there's a beautifully shot, blockbuster-esque couple of episodes. At
the end of Evolution, I felt empty and a little indifferent to the
proceedings of the episodes. This isn't what I want from new Doctor
Who.
Evolution of the Daleks: 6/10
Daleks in Manhattan/Evoltuion of the Daleks total score: 6.5/10

Name: Sophie Taylor | Age: 9

Now – that was a FAB episode! It’s the second part of Daleks in Manhattan, with: Dalek Sec (Hybrid), ill Lazlo, the doctor filled with gammon energy and Dalek CARN now the last of the Daleks! This episode had a bit of a sudden ending though with Dalek Carn using emergency temporal shift. I loved the idea of Dalek Sec Hybrid becoming so human and wanting to save them. I also enjoyed the preview of the next episode, (The Lazarus Experiment) it ending with the Doctor jumping out of an explosion! BANG!

A definite 10/10

Name: Zoe Brown | Age: 27

We rejoin the Doctor and Martha at the top of the Empire State Building , face-to-face with the hybridised Dalek Sec.  The Daleks’ latest plan for world domination now becomes clear – they need to integrate to survive.

This episode marks a significant change in belief for the Daleks – where previously they would have exterminated anyone who was not a Dalek, they have now adopted the attitude of the Cybermen and want to convert everyone into Daleks.  However, the one thing that they do have in common is the belief that to be emotionless makes them stronger – when the Doctor asks Dalek Sec how he feels, this is a pivotal moment, as he has never experienced this before, and in a continuation of the ‘Frankenstein’ allegory, just as the monster loses his hatred and begins to feel other emotions, so Dalek Sec starts to feel humanity for the first time, and crucially, pain.  The remaining members of the Cult of Skaro – Daleks Thay, Caan and Jast – obey Dalek Sec’s orders, but they also start to display some human characteristics in that they start to question his plan and his authority.

Back in Hooverville, as in ‘The Parting Of The Ways’, the group assembles and waits for the Daleks to attack.  Even though Solomon tries to reason with them, this has no effect on the Daleks – despite Dalek Sec’s new sense of humanity, and his admiration of the humans’ courage, he still gives the order to exterminate.  However, when the Doctor, in frustration, implores the Daleks to spare the humans and kill him instead, Dalek Sec forbids it, even though their urge to kill is almost too strong to resist. 

From this point onwards, the Doctor and Martha are separated for much of the remainder of the episode, but they work as a team.  As Rose did in ‘Doomsday’, the Doctor now gives Martha the psychic paper – a sign that he’s starting to trust her more.  With Frank and Tallulah’s help, Martha works out how to use the psychic paper to gain access to the Empire State Building , and discover from the revisions to the plans that the Dalekanium plates from the Daleks’ outer casing have been welded onto the mast in preparation for the Gamma Strike.  Martha takes charge of the situation very quickly, and also comes up with the plan to create a makeshift lightning rod to kill the pig slaves.  However, in spite of her quick-thinking, she still seeks advice from Tallulah about the Doctor, convinced that he is only seeing her as a replacement for Rose, and not a person in her own right (even though he made it clear in ‘Smith And Jones’ that she wasn’t replacing her).  Martha is more vocal about her feelings for the Doctor than any of his previous companions, however this may be because she feels inferior to Rose, as the Doctor has mentioned her a lot so far this series.  Perhaps if Martha knew the circumstances of Rose’s departure, she would understand the Doctor’s feelings a bit better – it seems odd that this didn’t come out during the course of the episode.

Once again, there are numerous references to ‘Frankenstein’ in this episode, primarily in the scenes showing the Dalek-Humans awaiting the Gamma Strike.  As in the novel, they are to be brought to life using lightning, this time conducted through the mast at the top of the Empire State Building .  Dalek Sec’s newfound humanity leads him to refute the core belief instilled in all Daleks - going right back to Davros, their creator – that they are supreme, and all other species are inferior.  He also decides that removing their emotions is making them weaker, not stronger.  As touched on last week, Dalek Sec asks the Doctor to help genetically engineer the Dalek-Humans so that they now share Dalek Sec’s humanity, by way of the altered genetic code.  Despite his own feelings, the Doctor agrees to help, and to take the Dalek-Humans to another planet, but the other Daleks stand together (mirroring the residents of Hooverville) and rebel against Dalek Sec’s orders, altering the genetic code again so the Dalek-Humans will be 100% Dalek instead, believing that integration between the species will weaken them.

In trying to halt the experiment, the Doctor has to scale the aerial mast, as he did at Alexandra Palace in ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’ and also in ‘Logopolis’.  After losing his sonic screwdriver (for the second time in almost as many episodes), and desperately trying to prise the Dalekanium plates off with his bare hands, he clings to the mast to diffuse the Gamma Strike through his own body, and ultimately add some Time Lord DNA into the mix.  The Doctor seems to be able to withstand almost anything, even lightning or X-ray radiation – it actually seems impossible that the Daleks would be able to exterminate him at all.  Although he is always brave, the Doctor has been particularly fearless so far this series – deliberately placing himself in life-threatening situations, and also when trying to find the solution – again, this would suggest that because he has nothing to lose, he has no qualms about his own safety, even though I’m sure Martha would disagree. 

There are more similarities with ‘Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday’: the Doctor saying “Allons-y!”; Martha, like Rose, refusing to leave him during the final battle; Laszlo telling Martha that she shouldn’t feel bad for killing the pig men, when the Daleks had already killed them a long time ago (the same reason the Doctor used to justify killing Adeola and her colleagues); the Doctor referring to the pig men as “foot soldiers”, just as he referred to the first cohort of Cybermen as “the advance guard”. 

In the final battle, the Doctor, like Solomon, appeals to the Dalek-Humans not to follow orders, and to question and think for themselves.  This time, thanks to the Time Lord DNA, they listen, and (in another nod to ‘Frankenstein’) turn on their creators.  However, the Daleks will not allow them to exist in peace, declaring them substandard, and destroy them, wiping out an entire species.  Witnessing this carnage appears to have changed the Doctor’s opinion – on discovering that Dalek Caan has survived, he declares that he will not be responsible for more genocide, even though destroying it will wipe out the Daleks forever.  Caan vanishes via the Emergency Temporal Shift, and, as the Doctor grimly observes, will no doubt return at some point.  It remains to be seen whether this change of heart(s) will carry on during the remainder of the series – in ‘The Runaway Bride’, although he gave the Empress of the Racnoss the chance to withdraw, he didn’t show the same compassion towards her children, only coming to his senses when Donna begged him to stop.  There was at least a happy ending (of sorts) for Tallulah and Laszlo – after the Doctor saved his life, Frank was able to find Laszlo a home in Hooverville, even though the Daleks’ experiment could not be reversed.

David’s performance just keeps getting better – every week he raises the bar even higher, and we’re not even halfway through the series, which bodes very well for the episodes to come.  Both the scenes where the Doctor implores the Daleks to kill him were outstanding – you could feel his anger and frustration that, even after losing all his people at their hands (or should that be plungers?), and being separated from Rose, they always survive.  The scene on top of the Empire State Building , when the Doctor, in desperation, tries to tear off the plates of Dalekanium with his bare hands, was also brilliant – his cries of anguish (and also of pain when the lightning was coursing through him) were very moving.  (With performances like this, it’s no wonder he’s winning awards – well done on your BAFTA Cymru, David!)

Martha really came into her own as an independent character this week, whether it was working out why the Doctor had given her the psychic paper, or creating the lightning rod to defeat the pig men.  Freema has really settled in now, and feels more established with each episode.  However, despite Martha’s toughness, she does seem to have a weakness where the Doctor is concerned – since he never opens up, or reveals how he feels about her, this seems to have given her self-esteem a knock, and I was a bit disappointed that the Doctor didn’t explain to her what had happened to Rose, as I think she would then know where she stands.

This was by far my favourite episode of the series so far – since the Daleks now seem to make an appearance at least once a series, the pressure is on for the writers to come up with new ways for them to seek world domination, and their plan this time was probably their most ingenious to date.  It did seem a bit improbable that after everything thing that’s happened, the Doctor wouldn’t take the opportunity to wipe the Daleks out forever, but there had to be a way for them to return.  Now that Dalek Caan is the only one left, we’ll have to wait and see whether he returns alone or with reinforcements (and if the episode isn’t entitled ‘The Wrath Of Caan’, I’ll be very disappointed!).

Despite Martha’s worries, I thought that her relationship with the Doctor was still growing ever stronger – their reunion and hug at the Empire State Building certainly didn’t suggest to me that he was thinking about Rose instead, although seeing the Daleks again would obviously have brought a lot of memories flooding back.  When Martha commented at the end of the episode that there’s someone for everyone, the Doctor did seem a bit distant again (which didn’t go unnoticed), but hopefully that was just a momentary lapse.

So, the Daleks have been defeated again (for the time being at least), but this now leaves the way clear for greater dangers still to come…

Zoë’s Rating:     10/10 – a perfect 10 for the Perfect Ten!