DW: Episode 2905, Evolution Of The Daleks (spoilers)

[Dartzap]

Starting in T-minus 13 minutes...

[Lost Soal]

Umm, my paper says 6:45, not 35.

[Dartzap]

Yes well, time differences between England and Scotland....



*whistles innocently*

Anyway, if either Vald or NecronLord would be more than polite enough to add a poll, one would be most grateful, heh

[Lost Soal]

Yes well, time differences between England and Scotland....



*whistles innocently*

Yeah, riiiight.
That would be about 1 second depending on if your watching on terrestrial or through freeview

[Bounty]

Confirmation that the Daleks burned out their power cells in the emergency temporal shift. It's nice to see they plugged that plot crack.

I think Sec could be quite the interesting character. Especially when the rest of the Cult dumps him...

[Bounty]

And with that, we have the setup for The Wrath Of Caan.

[NecronLord]

Anyway, if either Vald or NecronLord would be more than polite enough to add a poll, one would be most grateful, heh

It has been done!

Poor Sec. Smartest dalek ever.

[Crazedwraith]

I hope they don't use 'Emergency Temporal Shift' to often. Still I'm glad Caan was the one who survived. And the Tommy Ray Guns were nifty. It's a pity those hybirds didn't get the regeneration bits installed. How awesome would that have been? But since when is DNA pased on via lightening bolt?

[NecronLord]

It's a pity those hybirds didn't get the regeneration bits installed.

That would have been hilarious...

How awesome would that have been? But since when is DNA pased on via lightening bolt?

God knows. I would have preffered them to say 'Bio-energy' or 'telepathic field' or something to that effect.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Bloody native brits, bloody time zone, bloody "Alternative release venue" not being available to me till Friday grumble mumble.

I think Sec could be quite the interesting character. Especially when the rest of the Cult dumps him...

Daleks dumping a hideous unpure mutation as soon as it isn't being enforced by the Emperor/Supreme Dalek/Davros for the slightest sign of failure? Who would have thought it

[NecronLord]

Who voted two? Am I going to have to wipe this poll and make it work the other way around?

[Crazedwraith]

I voted two and I meant two. I didn't think it was even as good as last weeks. Which I gave 3 for being alright but clearly lead up. The pay off didn't really work for me. At all.

[NecronLord]

Also, I don't think the 'Doctor hybrid' bit was necessery. I think it would have worked much better if they'd just obeyed Sec instead of the daleks.

And at no point did they call themselves Kaleds. Bah!

[Bounty]

I liked it. It wasn't as predictable as I'd feared, thanks mainly to Sec, who worked out quite nicely as a character. The spirit of Dalekness - the absolute corruption - was preserved in the end, which is perhaps a bit of a pity since a race of "kind" Daleks could have been a very interesting thing indeed.

The only downsides, to me, where the quick-fix ending for Tallulah and Pigface on the one hand and Caan's escape. It was to be expected from a Dale, but it seemed a bit cheap and sequelitis-y.

But the episode as a whole was interesting, well-acted and a entertaining. A solid four.

[Crazedwraith]

Come ot think of it if the first time jump nearly burnt them out, how come Caan could do another? I'd laugh he fucked up and became the Dalek from 'Dalek.'

Plus I thought the Doctor should made some reference to not being regenerated after the lightening bolt hit.

[Lost Soal]

The Lightning botl must have also powered them up, because if you recall, wneh they attacked the camp they didn't have their shields. Come to the end and they've got them back.

[NecronLord]

Come ot think of it if the first time jump nearly burnt them out, how come Caan could do another? I'd laugh he fucked up and became the Dalek from 'Dalek.'

I expect they would have re-charged with the overflow from the gamma strike...


Personally, I think they missed the opportunity to have Sec as a companion. Think of the comedy value.

<Sec> How about we just shoot the Zygons?
<Doctor> We're not shooting them...
<Sec> Not even a little?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Come ot think of it if the first time jump nearly burnt them out, how come Caan could do another? I'd laugh he fucked up and became the Dalek from 'Dalek.'

Gotta love time-travel. Sucks for him if he appears in Earth's future when they can fight back.

An odd couple of episodes. I didn't like these as much as previous Dalek tales, but they were a new twist on their plans, what with being in the past instead of future or present. And now there's only one. I can't see a bright future for him.

The whole gamma rays and lightning and blah blah genetics stuff is typical DW "science". I learned to ignore that stuff long ago, because otherwise I'd simply be running commentary with each episode on how utterly retarded everything is. Soft sci-fi, folks.

[NecronLord]

Gotta love time-travel. Sucks for him if he appears in Earth's future when they can fight back.

I want him to land in Torchwood HQ in Cardiff. Right at the beginning of next season, and kill everyone therein.

Also, noticed that every time we see them in the new series, they get progressively better at fighting in flight?

I would really have loved the human-daleks and sec to survive, mind. And start taking over the post of 'Time Lords...'

[Big Orange]

I knew Dalek Sec was going to eventual get zapped by his compatriots for being too human and not being a true DAaa-lEk, I knew that one of them was going to get away ("KAAAAAAN!!!") and I sort of expected that the pig/show girl subplot getting resolved with a happy ending (kinda). I was happy that the Daleks not running at 100% was addressed, with the Doctor taunting them about the temporal shift being a power drain in addition to the Dalek energy shields not working properly (and by extension their wide arch sensors).

[petesampras]

I'd have rathered that they either killed off the Daleks altogether or had had an ending with no clear victor. Just leaving Dalek Kaan is crap. The only thing he can do in another episode to make the Daleks a serious threat again is the crappy 'make daleks from humans' which has been done to death.

I'd have rather had all 3 remaining members of skaro cult survive, but forced to teleport out, and have sec and an army of hybrids (that don't just look like humans) survive. Give's us 2 workable Dalek factions for a new episode.

[Mari Wolfe]

Considering that the Doctor has jumped all over the Dalek timelime they could have killed the lot and still used Daleks. Just would not be time war ones which would be a pluss in my book.

[Big Orange]

I'd have rathered that they either killed off the Daleks altogether or had had an ending with no clear victor. Just leaving Dalek Kaan is crap. The only thing he can do in another episode to make the Daleks a serious threat again is the crappy 'make daleks from humans' which has been done to death.

You wonder how they reproduce as species if the stranded Emperor Dalek and Cult of Skaro both faced the same dilemma of unabling to successfully producing more Daleks, without turning to unconventional means that contradict their dogma of utter racial purity - it made sense that the Cult of Skaro were making human/Dalek hybrids due to their limited resources, but not so much for the Emperor Dalek who still had his flagship and had successfully subverted a major galactic empire from within for two centuries (although a segment of the Daleks seen in "Bad Wolf" and "Parting of the Ways" could've been of pure Kaled ancestry).

And then there is the fact of "Emperor" Davros still being unaccounted for since "Remembrance of the Daleks" nearly two decades ago. Off tangent I kinda of prefered the idea that the predecessors of the Daleks, the Kaleds, were never humanoid to begin with and they were always octopi creatures, but man sized and land dwelling, using their tenticled tool using abilities to build an advanced civilization (imagine a more evolved version of the Squibbons from The Future is Wild).

I'd have rather had all 3 remaining members of skaro cult survive, but forced to teleport out, and have sec and an army of hybrids (that don't just look like humans) survive. Give's us 2 workable Dalek factions for a new episode.

They would've made an interesting "enemy" race for the next two seasons, while the "real" Daleks are given a rest (which they would hopefully be after this two parter).

[Stark]

Yes, I want no more Daleks for at least two years. The only way TW era Daleks would have worked was as ocassional super-genius puppetmasters behind-the-scenes, and they never did that - it's too stupid to have guys so apparently powerful constantly defeated (like the old cybermen lol). So give it a few years and use non-TW Daleks and follow the old series in never encountering the main force, just scout ships, spy ships, archaeology ships, assault ships, etc.

The Bad Wold emperor could have used his own material to clone daleks, but then they'd ALL be god and he was clearly insane.

[Yuri2356]

Well, that was certainly a good recovery from last week. Liked how Daleks still can't seem to get over the simply terrifying reputation that the Doctor must have with their species (Let alone the personal experiences of the Cult) Also enjoyed dragging Sec out in chains, and the Dalek Tommyguns. Lots of good Dalek-isms, like in Hooverville when someone tries to reason with them ("What do you say to that?" "EXTERMINATE!") and I could almost taste the rage as they became more and more shocked with Sec's behaviour.

I'd have preferred if Caan Jast and Thay stopped referring to sec as "Dalek Sec" after they usurped his command. (Just to add that extra bit of insult to Sec, who was still referring to himself as a Dalek)


Now, the thing I feel about Caan's exit though, is that he didn't shift out until the Doctor offered to help him. It just played on the same Idea that came up in Dalek - They are (for the most part) terrified of anything that would make them anything but the killing machines they are. They cling so tightly to that image, that essence of Dalek, that it creates a sort of genuine evil to them. They want to kill and destroy and conquer, because they really believe that it's what they should be doing. It's as much a part of them as breathing.

But maybe in that last moment, after all that Caan's been through, he may just experience some real change in how he thinks about life. At very least, he may consider getting an auto-fire or widespread setting for his Death Ray. (A 70's Dalek would have cleared that whole theatre in one or two sweeps, easily) Maybe Caan will try to dupe someone into helping him build a new wave of Daleks (As in 'Power' - "I am your ser-vant") maybe he'll sulk on some dead rock, mourning the loss of his great race, maybe he'll find a nice swamp where his little squid-body can just squirm around in the dirt for the rest of its days. (Wouldn't that be fun? He just completely snaps under the weight of it all and goes silly on us)

Or maybe, by the slimmest chance of all, he builds a nice timeship, finds some ambitious and heartless soul on a distant world, and together The last of the Daleks and his Companion will adventure through time and space...