Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks [TV/2007.4.21 ~ 4.28]

★★★☆☆

  So a companion of the Doctor, a future companion of the Doctor and a future web-slinger walk into the Empire State Building... what a cast, eh? I loved writing that one down, it even has a double meaning because Constance Clarke comes from the World War II era, about ten years after the setting of this two-parter. Oh, I do love making note of these silly things. It's almost single-handedly worth it watching the episodes just to see a baby-faced Andrew Garfield sporting the most impressive American accent out of all the non-American actors pretending to be from the States. 

  For a moment, disregard my ranking and read my next sentence: we needed more Dalek adventures like Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks at this point in time. The new series was so far up its own arse with the post-Time War Dalek stuff at this point, and yeah, that was great and all... but more casual Dalek tomfoolery was a desperate need for the third series, and this two-parter delivers just that. Oh, thank whoever I need to thank (that would be Russell T Davies, I imagine). You have all the survivor's-guilt angst delivered by the Tenth Doctor (with David Tennant having a lot of fun baring his teeth and being quite the emotionally explosive menace), plus a story that finally has some fun with the Daleks and their surroundings. Sure, we didn't get them art deco Daleks in the end, but pig-human hybrid slaves? Dalek-style Tommy Guns? A cabaret sequence? In many respects, this two-parter was tailor-made for people like me who like their Dalek stories a bit out of the ordinary, a bit odd and loopy but with lots of love. This is a production with lots of love for its depicted era and for its villains, and I can't fault it for that at all, not when I'm too busy lapping everything up. The human-Dalek hybrid remains one of the most interesting developments in TV Dalek history, and the supporting characters are pretty charming to boot (helps immensely when they're played by Miranda Raison and Andrew Garfield). I will say that the first episode is far more intriguing and confident than the second -- Evolution of the Daleks has the dubious honour of having to spoon feed the Doctor and the audience the Daleks' plan -- but with all these wonderful elements, I can't complain too much about it. Very fun stuff, this. Can't believe the bad reputation it has among some fans.