10.20: Evolution of the Daleks
In which both Daleks, capitalism and the episode all turn out to be bad.
In which Daleks, capitalism and the episode all turn out to be bad.
Broadcast: April 2007
Watched: August 2021
I’ve written that “the problem is less the script than the execution”. I think there’s some truth to that – it’s a dumb action movie one, and fails to deliver the exciting action that’s meant to cover for the dumbness...
...but the ending involves a) the Doctor trying to reason with the last Dalek, which is annoying and nonsensical, and b) ensuring a pig man doesn’t die and can live on in a slum, which the show seems to think is a happy ending. So maybe the script isn’t very good either.
Okay, some good bits. The Daleks looking around to check nobody’s listening before conspiring are hilarious. If you do read the Daleks as a symbol of faceless capitalism, then the way they reply to Solomon’s big “Why do we need to be enemies” speech by killing him is brilliant.
And there is something good in the idea that the human/Sec hybrid turns out to be the least bad Dalek. That’s not actually because it makes humans out to be brilliant (the Daleks are right and the Doctor wrong, in some ways, humans are awful), it’s just a nice twist. Although the fact Diagoras is less awful as a Dalek than he was as a human is hilarious, too.
Towards the end, there’s a bit when the human Daleks march on the spot for a bit before moving. That feels oddly symbolic. There’s potential here for a story about exploitation and dehumanisation... but that isn’t the story we got.
Oh well, it’s the worst of the season, it gets better from here.
Other things:
Laszlo looks totally different from the other pig men and nobody ever notices.
The scene in which we hear Martha explain why the psychic paper worked, rather than seeing it work, is bloody annoying.
A lot of modern Doctor Who involves some combination of the Doctor climbing a high thing and getting hit by lightning: Lantern, Venice, Rebel Flesh, this. This one is done really badly – it's not that high, no way would he survive that lightning strike – and it doesn't solve anything either. God this episode sucks.
I wonder if there are kids (I mean, actual children) who really like it and think Gridlock is the bad one?
In response to your final question, I distinctly remember liking this more than Gridlock when this came out. I'd have been eleven. I think I didn't like how cramped and dark and grim Gridlock felt. Which is weird because this one is also that in many ways.
I do think the saving grace of it is that it's a Jewish woman, a black man, and a (I think intended to be, and I certainly read as, from his response to the Doctor's flirting) young gay guy fighting the Daleks alongside the regulars. Also the whole 'the Daleks, as Space Nazis, slot right into the capitalist system of the day' feels instructive, as, you know, in the historical period in which it's set that would soon be coming all too true.
The actual plot is mostly bad though 😅
Very belated comment to say I’m reading through all these as I’ve been watching the modern series from the beginning with my 10yr old (my 13yr old was always too scared much to my disappointment and is now joining us sporadically). I absolutely suffered through this story and I remember hating it at the time (and like you loved Gridlock). My daughter seemed to quite like it, but I’m sure I’d have spoiled any fun she might have been having by writhing and sighing and rolling my eyes all the way through. She was, however, delighted that a Spider-man was in it.