Thoughts on Evolution of the Daleks
Well, I'm going to try something a little different this week. I'm going to get my major episode annoyances out of the way first thing so that they won't pollute the remainder of my post - hopefully.
- DalekSec's tentacles. I spent the entire episode with the urge to milk the damn things. Seriously, did they just do a mould of a jersey udder?
- That annoying Dalek music was back. It's like very bad Wagner completely overpowering the scene. Considering that this is a show I bought the soundtrack for, I'm pretty disappointed by this bit.
- Martha's unrequited love emo moment. I thought for sure we got the obligatory "Woe is me, he doesn't know I'm alive" moment out of the way during the first part of this episode. Yes, she's in love with the Doctor - aren't we all - I got the memo and we're good to go. Give me at least one episode as a break from the emo-fest.
- While I absolutely adored Tellulah, I finally figured out where her accent reminded me of. Can we say Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors? I kept waiting for her to break out into her rendition of 'Somewhere That's Green"....
Okay! I feel that I can continue on in a sane manner now.
So, this was evidently the Doctor Death-wish episode. I counted three times that he basically offered himself up for a dirt-nap. If I was a sane and non-emo Martha, I'd seriously be questioning my traveling arrangements and my ability to get home on my own. I think that this season is really bringing home the fact that Ten is just as damaged and dark as Nine, only with a shinier exterior to camouflage it.
The Dalek storyline was decent. I found the references to their creation and purpose interesting since I've just rewatched Genesis of the Daleks and Resurrection of the Daleks. I thought they overplayed DalekSec's humanity a bit, but the overall message of 'change or die' seemed to be in keeping with the general message of the past three seasons. Bottom line, as much as I liked these episodes, I hope that we're done with the Daleks for a bit. I love the little pepperpots as much as the next Whovian, but I'm ready for some new baddies.
Tennant was great, as always. The opening scene between the Doctor and DalekSec was classic Ten sarcasm, and the theater scene invoked the obligatory 'Guh'. I adored when he rolled out the classic "Allons-y!" before catching the lift with Martha, Tallulah, and Laszlo. His manic determination to help Laszlo at the end was perfect. IMO, I think that writers are finally giving Tennant some darker material to sink his teeth into, much like they did CE, and he's doing it justice.
That doesn't mean that I'm not taking issue with the writers. I think that they still don't know what the hell to do with Martha, rotating between strong/intelligent/independent (Yay!) and emo/teenage/whiny (Ugh!). I don't completely approve of the way Ten is treating her, but watching some of the older Doctors reminds me of the fact that they often treated their companions very rudely. Rose was a huge step away from that, and either they're unconsciously trying to fit Martha back into the more traditional role, or they honestly think they're writing a good characterization - which terrifies me.
All in all, a decent episode and a decent follow-up to Daleks Take In Manhattan. Though I'm still volunteering Frank and Tallulah as TARDIS members.....