Dr. Who 3/29.04, Daleks in Manhattan

[selenak]

Not as fantastic as last week's Gridlock was, but then, it's the first part of a two-parter, which means lots of set up and the pay-off delayed until next week. Overall, I did enjoy it.




Two scenes were in particular outstanding for me: one was the Doctor's "they always survive" reaction to the sight of the Daleks, full of quiet intensity, and the other was the conversation between the Dalek and Diagoras. Not just because quiet moments between villains are rare in general, but because this one was a direct mirror to the Doctor talking to Martha about Gallifrey in Gridlock. Planet destroyed in great time war (the great war, the war to end all wars they called the human WWI, which also gets referenced in this episode, and of course we know how untrue that description turned out to be), last survivor(s), must survive for that reason, check. Granted, the Dalek didn't rave about the sky of Skaro, but the parallel was clear enough.

Skaro gets blown up by the Seventh Doctor - well, rather, by the Doctor tricking the Daleks, if you want to get technical - in Rememberance of the Daleks. A storyline which includes one faction of Daleks having human minions and some Daleks fighting against other Daleks because they were not "pure" anymore. No prices for guessing Hybrid!Dalek and the others will turn against each other in the second part of this storyline, too. (If only for the practical reason that there is no way the BBC is giving up on the iconic pepperpots. Though this is the last year they can use them without having to renegotiate with Terry Nation's estate anyway, which is presumaby why we get them here.) This being said, it makes sense that the Dalek Sec, last seen initiating a time shift in Doomsday, would come to the conclusion that with only four Daleks in existence, something has to be done to restart the species. So the question is whether the imperative to survive and win or the one of "racial purity" is stronger within the Daleks. Both in Rememberance of the Daleks and in Dalek you have a Dalek committing suicide rather than exist in tainted form (and alone), which is why I don't think they'll go there a third time. I'm really curious whether they'll come up with a twist which makes the solution less than obvious.

However: it got me thinking about the season arc. Because aside from you-know-who turning up at the end of the season, there is another possibility to the Face of Boe's "you are not alone" pronouncement. I rewatched The Shakespeare Code the other day. When the Doctor says to Shakespeare "you lost your son", he has that look of personal rather than general empathy. Now obviously, he lost whoever Susan's parent was, either before or during the Time War, and Susan, as well as the rest of the Time Lords. And "family" is explicitly mentioned as having been lost in Smith and Jones and Gridlock. And the Doctor and the Daleks have the parallel thing going on ever since Dalek. So. "The children of Skaro will walk again." (Ah, Khaleds. You really got screwed over by Davros, didn't you?) Via an attempt of forced symbiosis. If the Doctor procreates, will that in the long term restart the Gallifreyan race? The human race survived not in "pure" form - the last "pure" human was Cassandra, who was a symbol of how hollow and horrifying the concept is - but via mixing and mingling with other species, and here in Daleks in Manhattan, it's textually upheld as an example of how to survive, by the Daleks, no less.

Back to the episode. Tallulah was fun and the Blake's 7 girls would be proud of her, continuing the fine tradition of walking on high heels through danger; Solomon has something of an on-the-nose name (especially given his introduction scene with the bread!) but didn't come across as a stereotype, as they gave him the confession of having abandoned Frank because of his fear in addition to is other scenes where he gets to be the wise and strong leader; and the Depression era setting was used very effectively, with the slum, sorry, Hooverville in Central Park and the Empire State Building summing up the contrast visually even before Solomon makes his point.

I'd have preferred more of Martha this week, but she did have some excellent moments, what with the "I'm going to kill you for this" and "and you had to pick it up". Loved the Doctor asking her for her diagnosis, too. If I were Martha, though, I'd kill the Doctor for changing his wardrobe and not offering me the chance to change mine. Alien slutboi tease. (Speaking of which, "you can kiss me later; you, too, Frank, if you want to" still makes me smile.) I also liked that we didn't get slammed on the head with the fact that Martha recognized the name "Dalek" from the Doctor's tale; her repetition of the word and her facial reaction was enough (as opposed to a "oh, I remember that name! This means, blah, blah, blah").

Statue of Liberty: the Doctor: having a thing for French ladies since the 1700s...



ETA, and with no connection to this episode: from londonkds: The Master on the Doctor. No, not that way. His canonical opinion on the first seven regenerations, people.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I must have been in a mellow mood, as I found it less irritating than most Tenth Doctor episodes, despite obvious flaws. (I rolled my eyes at the showgirl love story and the revelation in the final seconds of the episode, and I was annoyed by Solomon's response to meeting a Doctor. Surely he would have said "We could use a doctor!" and mentioned health problems in the camp, rather than infodumping about stockbrokers and lawyers. Unless their financial and legal advice is going to play an important role in the second half, that was clunky.)

I liked Martha here - I had an overwhelming sense of relief when she already knew about the Depression, and I also appreciated the swift recognition of the name "Dalek" which you mention.

But my favourite scene was the Cult of Skaro whinging and Sec trying to keep control of his little band. "'Snot fair there's only four of us!" "Now, now, we've all had to make sacrifices!"

I am still irritated, though. Why is it taken for granted that the Daleks have to follow the same timeline-through-time as the Doctor? They just happen to keep turning up at the same moments in the same order? I'd find it much more convincing if the Doctor occasionally met Daleks who knew less or more of his story than he did, and vice versa. It would save them from having to show a couple of Daleks jumping into an escape pod every time, too.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

But my favourite scene was the Cult of Skaro whinging and Sec trying to keep control of his little band. "'Snot fair there's only four of us!" "Now, now, we've all had to make sacrifices!"

LOL, and so true. Together with the Dalek/Cybermen bitchfest in Doomsday, that makes me think the Cult of Skaro are the most entertaining Daleks around...

Why is it taken for granted that the Daleks have to follow the same timeline-through-time as the Doctor? They just happen to keep turning up at the same moments in the same order? I'd find it much more convincing if the Doctor occasionally met Daleks who knew less or more of his story than he did, and vice versa. It would save them from having to show a couple of Daleks jumping into an escape pod every time, too.

I always thought that this was for the same reason the Doctor doesn't run into other timelords from the period before Gallifrey was destroyed on his travels - that the big bang that wiped out Gallifrey, the Time Lords and the Daleks except for those trapped in the Void at the time and the Dalek in "Dalek" wiped them out retroactively throughout all time lines except for the one the Doctor is living, and that only works in one direction, so to speak.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

That's probably the clearest explanation I've heard of why the Time Lords can't be reached in the past (my own theory was that Gallifrey had been placed outside ordinary time, so once destroyed couldn't be reached through other times) - though when you say "the one the Doctor is living", do you mean all ten Doctors, as Sarah Jane clearly remembers living through the Fourth Doctor's timeline, and the British government had records of earlier encounters with him?

But I was really talking about the past two and a half seasons, ie post Time War. Apart from the isolated Dalek, which isn't necessarily tied to any of the other postwar Daleks' timelines, he's met them three times, which (probably coincidentally) move back in time, but the Doctors and the Daleks always seem to be moving in the same direction. On your argument, wouldn't all timelines start again from scratch after the big bang, in which case I'd expect the crossing of their paths to be more random?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

though when you say "the one the Doctor is living", do you mean all ten Doctors, as Sarah Jane clearly remembers living through the Fourth Doctor's timeline, and the British government had records of earlier encounters with him?

Yes, I mean all ten. I've heard people speculate that since what's his name only has found pictures of Nine in Rose, all the previous ones are erased from people's memories (save for the Doctor), but as you said, School Reunion settled that theory for good - Sarah Jane remembers him as Three and Four, and all their adventures together.

he's met them three times, which (probably coincidentally) move back in time, but the Doctors and the Daleks always seem to be moving in the same direction. On your argument, wouldn't all timelines start again from scratch after the big bang, in which case I'd expect the crossing of their paths to be more random?

Yes, but then, didn't that already happen? I mean, the Daleks he met in Doomsday clearly have no idea of what happened to the Daleks he met in Parting of the Ways, and the later were of course uncreated anyway by the TARDIS/Rose creature. So this is actually the first case where we know the Daleks and the Doctor are both experiencing one event after the other, since we saw Dalek Sec initiating the timeshift in Doomsday and know the Cult of Skaro couldn't have been around on Earth before "Doomsday" happened because they were trapped in the Void.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

What's his name was puzzling, anyway, because it wasn't clear when the Ninth Doctor fitted in all those adventures (evidently without Rose).

I probably didn't take in the Cult of Skaro's explanation of when they'd entered the Void; I was too irritated at the time. So they went there pre-Time War rather than pre-Tardis/Rose?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, we don't know how much time passed between Eight becoming Nine and Nine meeting Rose. Yes, he makes that remark about his face in Rose, but other than that, there is no indication of how much or little time has passed.

So they went there pre-Time War rather than pre-Tardis/Rose?

During the Time War, rather. Which is why they have that Time-Lord-made prison for the many Daleks around (bigger on the inside! the one that needed unsealing), and why they have no idea the Emperor got uncreated etc. until Rose mentions it.

[cereswunderkind.livejournal.com]

Was that Martha's first Companion Scream we heard this week?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

When the pigs abduct her? Yes, I think so. I mean, she yelled at her two kidnappers last week, but that's not the same thing.