Evolution of the Daleks

186b - Evolution of the Daleks
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Production
Directed by	James Strong
Written by	Helen Raynor
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	3.5
Series	Series 3
Running time	45 minutes
First broadcast	28 April 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by Daleks in Manhattan Followed by → The Lazarus Experiment

Evolution of the Daleks is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 April 2007, and is the fifth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is the conclusion of the two-part story begun in Daleks in Manhattan.

The story is set in New York City in 1930.

Synopsis

The Cult of Skaro's plan is in full force. Dalek Sec is reborn in human form while the Pig Slaves are launching an enormous assault upon the Central Park Hooverville, along with the remaining pure Daleks of the Cult of Skaro. The Doctor, Martha, Solomon and the others must stay and fight. Time is running out, for the future of humans and Daleks alike is being decided underneath the Empire State Building. Will the Doctor cope with joining an unholy alliance?

Plot

File:Evolution of the Daleks.jpg

"Daleks are bad enough at any time, but right now they're vulnerable - and that makes them more dangerous than ever"

The Hybrid Dalek Sec finally comes face to face to the Doctor, who has revealed himself from the crowd. Angering the Daleks, they attempt to capture him...but the Doctor holds out a surprise: a radio, Using his sonic screwdriver, he causes the radio to emit a high pitched sound which causes the Daleks and the pig-humans to lose their orientation. Meanwhile, the Doctor and his 'gang' run, catching up with Tallulah on the way. As soon as they ascend the ladder and disappear out of sight, two Daleks (Jast and Caan) come into view. They begin to discuss how they are 'doubting' Dalek Sec's orders ever since be became a human. After arriving back into Hooverville, the Doctor's stories are told to the crowd. Soon enough, a watchman sees one of the pigs, and begins to call everyone to arm themselves. A small fight begins to break out between them but suddenly Daleks Jast and Caan fly along and prepare to exterminate the assembled humans. The leader, Solomon, tries to reason with the Daleks, saying that as they are both outcasts they should work together to create a better universe. The Daleks' only response is to exterminate him. The Doctor steps out in front of the Hooverville residents and demands that they kill him. The Daleks prepare to do so, but are stopped by Dalek Sec, who requests that the Doctor returns to the Daleks' genetics laboratory. The Doctor agrees because, for the first time, the Daleks have changed their minds, but only on the condition that the Daleks do not kill the residents of Hooverville. Martha asks the Doctor if she could go with him, but the Doctor refuses, saying that she should help the injured. However, he has slipped her the psychic paper.

When the Doctor arrives at the lab, Dalek Sec explains how he wanted to create a new race which combined Dalek DNA with that of humans by 'formatting' the human brain, ready for information to be loaded onto it (this would be the new hybrids). Unfortunately, there were problems which only the Doctor's knowledge could fix. Using the suns solar flare as an energy source (which would happen in 20 minutes) and leaving the Doctor no choice but to help the Daleks, he prepares the gene solution, ready to be fed into the human 'shells'. Just 10 minutes before the Flare occurs Dalek Caan leads a revolt where they take Sec & the Doctor hostage. They propose that Sec is no longer a Dalek & that because of this, they don't have to obey him any more. The two Daleks plan to make the humans cause a malfunction and therefore load pure Dalek gene solution into the humans. They try to catch the Doctor and Lazlow, but they run to the elevator & assend to the top of The Empire State Building. At the same time, Martha and Tellulah use the physic paper to gain entry into the Empire State Building. Upon reaching the top floor, they scan the blueprints of the top floor, looking for any design and construction changes.

Cast

• The Doctor — David Tennant
• Martha Jones — Freema Agyeman
• Tallulah — Miranda Raison
• Solomon — Hugh Quarshie
• Laszlo — Ryan Carnes
• Frank — Andrew Garfield
• Dalek Sec — Eric Loren
• Myrna — Flik Swan
• Lois — Alexis Caley
• Man #1 — Earl Perkins
• Man #2 — Peter Brooke
• Hybrid — Ian Porter
• Dalek Voice — Nicholas Briggs
• Hero Pig - Paul Kasey
• Dalek Operators - Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, David Hankinson

Continuity

• This is the seventh episode (and the fourth overall story) of the revived series in total to feature the Daleks. They previously appeared in Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Parting Of The Ways, Army Of Ghosts, Doomsday and Daleks in Manhattan.
• The Big Finish audio play Invaders from Mars features an alien invasion of 1930s New York, under cover of Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds broadcast; however, the aliens were not Daleks.
• This episode includes the first location filming outside of the United Kingdom since Doctor Who's return in 2005. Several classic Doctor Who stories included location filming outside of the UK: City of Death (1979) included filming in Paris, Arc of Infinity (1983) included filming in Amsterdam, Planet of Fire (1984) included filming in Lanzarote, and The Two Doctors (1985) included filming in and near Seville. Also, the entire of The 1996 Doctor Who TV movie was filmed in Vancouver, apart from some stock footage of San Francisco and world capitals.
• Several other Doctor Who stories have featured Daleks and human beings being combined in different ways. These include:
  • The Evil of the Daleks: humans are infused with the "Dalek Factor", and Daleks infused with the "Human Factor"
  • Revelation of the Daleks: human beings kept in suspended animation pending the discovery of disease cures are instead converted into Daleks
  • Dalek: a Dalek extracts human DNA to regenerate itself, and is altered in the process
  • The Parting of the Ways: the Daleks in this story are all created from humans by the Dalek Emperor
  • The Doctor Who Quick Reads book I am a Dalek: The Dalek Factor is added to humans in the Roman era
• This is the first story using the familiar "_____ of the Daleks" titling scheme (which began with The Power of the Daleks in 1966) since 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks.
• The Daleks once again show a weakness to their own weapons. Daleks Thay and Jast are destroyed by a constant barrage of laser fire from the weapons wielded by the hybrids which are hand-held Dalek guns. The first time a Dalek was destroyed by its own weaponary was in The Five Doctors when the First Doctor and Susan pushed a Dalek down a hall of mirrors. The Dalek promptly opened fire and the lasers reflected off of the mirrors destroying it.
• The Daleks plan to turn Earth into New Skaro; this is similar to the plans of the Cybermen in Silver Nemesis, where they planned to turn the planet into New Mondas.
• In this story, the Daleks turn against and exterminate their leader, as they did in Genesis of the Daleks.
• Davros is described in this episode and was described Dalek but he is yet to be named in the new series.
• The Daleks count in rels, the Dalek unit of time, about the same length a second, first introduced in the non-canon movie Dr. Who and the Daleks, and reused in Doomsday.
• The speech given by the Doctor to Dalek Caan is similar to the one the Seventh Doctor gave to a Renegade Dalek Supreme at the end of Remembrance of the Daleks.

Production

• Helen Raynor is the first woman ever to write a televised Dalek story and the first woman to write a story for the revived series.
• Some filming for this story was done in New York, although not with any cast members.
• The presence of the Daleks in this story was reported by the News of the World on 12 November 2006, and confirmed by the BBC in late December.
• This episode has been nicknamed "Sec's in the City" (a reference to New York-set Sex and the City) by Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones, after being given such a tagline on the official Doctor Who website.