Doctor Who: Daleks In Manhattan Preview
This coming Saturday's episode of Doctor Who - fourth episode in the third season - has the prosaic title of Daleks in Manhattan. Spoilers follow.
We know from last week's preview that we're looking at 30s New York - presumably there's some link between New New York and Old New York, at least in the Doctor's stream-of-consciousness style reasoning.
There are also humanoid pigs in the sewers, which are reminiscent of the "alien" from the Slitheen story in season one. It looks, however, like there are a lot more of them than just one, and that they're considerably more hostile than scared.
And, of course, there are the Daleks, who are apparently taking over the Empire State Building, and one of them is the first recurring Dalek character ever - Dalek Sec of the Cult of Skaro, who (which?) was last seen escaping being sucked into the Void at the end of Doomsday with a neat "temporal shift" trick. The Who universe really does seem to be jammed with time travellers; it's a wonder they can keep their timelines straight at all.
The writer, Helen Raynor, holds the slightly dubious honour of being the first woman ever to write a Dalek story for TV. Stunningly, she's also the first woman to pen an episode for the new series. There's something bizarre about that, considering the huge female fanbase, and the number of women involved in writing the novels, episodes of Torchwood, and so on. She notes in Doctor Who Magazine that her favoured quote from the episode is "There are four of us, and millions of humans. If we are superior, why are we not victorious?". I think it needs some context, myself.
This is also the first episode in the new series to be filmed outside the UK. There's a slightly odd comment from David Tennant with regard to filming in NY, where he says that everyone else did, but he didn't. Maybe he doesn't appear out of doors in this episode, or something.
I'm looking forward to seeing the Doctor's reaction to the Daleks, and his explanation to Martha of just why these things need eradication. Even Rose, who didn't question him much, objected to that idea, and Martha is far more independently minded.
Posted by Drew Shiel at April 17, 2007 9:14 AM
Dalek Sec is transformed into the Dalek/Human Hybrid.
Posted by: Dalek_God at April 19, 2007 6:19 PMIt was so excruciatingly bad it is almost indescribable but I attempted to do so in a scathing review on my own site. This was one of the worst stories, classic or new, ever to be broadcast. It had no redeeming qualities, none whatsoever. Ugh. x
Posted by: Andy at April 22, 2007 2:20 AMhi dalek god
Posted by: Badwolf_grl at July 15, 2007 8:36 PMHAY EVERYONE DAVROS WILL BE BACK IN SERIES 4 YEAH WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW BUT I REALY WANT ROSE TO COME BACK MARTHA STINKS!
BI, SCOTT DALEK
That said, Rose objected to killing the Dalek when it was a poor, sad, imprisoned space dustbin.
Martha might not have the same introduction.
Posted by: Mytholder at April 17, 2007 11:43 AM