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 a half-human form, and the Pig Slaves launch an enormous assault upon the Central Park Hooverville along with the remaining pure Daleks. The Doctor, Martha, Solomon and the others must fight for their lives, while the future of humans and Daleks alike is being decided underneath the Empire State Building.

Plot

File:Evolution of the Daleks.jpg

"I will be the one to destroy our greatest enemy... EXTERMINATE!"

The Hybrid Dalek Sec finally comes face to face with the Doctor, who has revealed himself from the crowd. The other Daleks wish to exterminate him, but Sec orders them to stop. 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 disorients the Daleks and the pig-humans. The Doctor and the captured humans run back through the sewers, 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, discussing their doubting Dalek Sec's orders ever since he became a human.

The 'gang' arrives back in Hooverville, and 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 fight breaks out between humans and pigs, but suddenly Daleks Jast and Caan arrive in the air and prepare to exterminate the assembled humans, as Dalek Sec watches from the Empire State Building via visual link. The leader, Solomon, tries to reason with the Daleks, saying that they are both outcasts and should work together to create a better universe. The Daleks promptly exterminate him. Furious, the Doctor steps out and demands they kill him instead. 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, noting that the Daleks have changed their minds for the first time in history, but only on the condition that the Daleks do not kill the residents of Hooverville. Martha asks the Doctor if she can go with him, but the Doctor refuses, saying that she should help the injured. At the same time, he slips her the psychic paper.

At the lab, Dalek Sec explains to the Doctor 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, thus creating new hybrids. The Daleks planned to use a gamma strike from a solar flare (which will occur in eleven minutes) which will hit the Empire State Building as an energy source, but there were problems which only the Doctor's knowledge could fix. The Doctor has no choice but to help the Daleks. He prepares the gene solution, ready to be fed into the human 'shells'. In the meantime, Sec explains that the new race will have the intelligence of a Dalek, but the emotions of a human. He also states that the Daleks' obsession with universal supremacy must be removed. The Doctor is shocked that Sec is willing to eliminate the one thing that makes a Dalek a Dalek. However, seven minutes before the flare, as the Dalek DNA is pumped into the humans, a malfunction occurs. The other Daleks are overriding the system. Dalek Caan leads a mutiny, taking Sec and the Doctor hostage. They propose that Sec is no longer Dalek, and so they don't have to obey him. The two Daleks load pure Dalek gene solution into the humans. However, the Doctor and Laszlo escape to the elevator and ascend to the top of The Empire State Building.

At the same time, Martha and Tallulah use the psychic 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. They discover that the design change is at the top of the building where Dalekanium has been added. The Doctor and Laszlo escape up the lift and meet up with Martha, Frank, and Tallulah. The Doctor climbs up to the top and starts using the sonic screwdriver to loosen the bolts holding the Dalekanium. However, after removing one strip of Dalekanium and a bolt holding another, he drops the sonic screwdriver; all he can do is hug the pole as the lightning strikes. Martha has set up a string of pipes that divert part of the lightning onto the elevator, just as the pigs arrive. The Dalek humans awaken, and Dalek Caan designates himself the new leader, Sec states that he was to be the controller, but Dalek Caan deems him unfit and orders them to take up arms (Thompsons retrofitted with standard Dalek laser weapons). The army goes into the sewers, and the Doctor, Martha, Tallulah, Frank and Laszlo head for Tallulah's theatre.

At the theatre, the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to let the Daleks know where he is, and the army breaks in. Daleks Thay and Jast come in, with Sec bound in a chain and crawling like a dog. The Doctor tries to tell the Daleks that what they have done to Sec is wrong, because he is the most intelligent Dalek who ever existed. They attempt to exterminate the Doctor, but Sec begs them not to and blocks their fire, which kills him. This angers the Doctor; he again tells the Daleks to order the Dalek-humans to kill him, but one human Dalek repeatedly asks "Why?", and eventually states that they are not Daleks. The Doctor reveals that, because he hugged the pole as the lightning came through, some Time Lord DNA was mixed into the hybrids and gave the Dalek humans freedom. Jast promptly kills the Dalek human who openly questioned orders. However, the other Dalek humans return fire. Thay and Jast kill several more Dalek humans, but are eventually overwhelmed and destroyed under the sheer volume of fire power. Back in the building, watching via the visual link, Caan states that the Dalek humans are a failure and commands "Destruct." All the Dalek humans suddenly clutch their heads in pain and collapse dead on the ground. After witnessing this genocide, the Doctor arrives at the Empire State Building, and confronts Caan and offers to help. He tells Caan that he is probably the only person in the universe that would show him any compassion, because he has seen enough death today - they are now both the last of their species and he does not want to see another genocide. Caan replies with "Emergency temporal shift" and, as the Doctor lunges forward to stop him, vanishes.

Meanwhile, Laszlo is on his deathbed (the pig-slaves could only survive for a few weeks), so the Doctor starts to work on a solution to save him, stating that "there's been enough death today. A whole race, wise old men, and age old enemies!". Later, Laszlo (still a pig slave, but alive and healthy) and Tallulah are in the park. Frank comes and tells Laszlo that he talked to the residents of Hooverville, and that they will take him in and give him a home; as always, Hooverville is the place people go when they have nowhere else. As the Doctor and Martha are about to enter the TARDIS, Martha says there's somebody for everyone. The Doctor says "maybe." Martha then asks the Doctor if he thinks he will ever see Dalek Caan again, and the Doctor responds "Oh yes... one day".

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

• In Smith and Jones, the Doctor referenced having been electrocuted when helping Benjamin Franklin fly his kite. In this episode, he again proves resilient to high levels of electrical current. This ability was also demonstrated in Terror of the Zygons, Aliens of London, The Idiot's Lantern and the audio story Spare Parts.
• This and the previous episode includes the first location filming outside of the United Kingdom since the TV Movie in 1996. Several 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 entirety 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, as previously seen in The Evil of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks and The Five Doctors. Daleks Thay and Jast are destroyed by a constant barrage of fire from the variant Dalek energy weapons wielded by the hybrids.
• In this story, the Daleks turn against and exterminate their leader, as they did in Genesis of the Daleks Sec also says "For the last time, i am your creator, you will obey me!" as Davros did before being seemingly exterminated.
• Davros is referred to in this episode and in Dalek, but has yet to actually be named in the new series.
• The Daleks count in rels, the Dalek unit of time, about equal to one second, first introduced in the non-canon movie Dr. Who and the Daleks, and reused in Doomsday.
• Dalek Sec references the "emergency temporal shift" that it activated in Doomsday, explaining it to be the method by which all of the Cult of Skaro escaped being sucked into the Void, unlike the Genesis Ark, the other Daleks and the Parallel Earth Cybermen. Dalek Caan also initiates a similar shift at the end of this episode.
• Dalekanium, referenced in this episode and Daleks in Manhattan, was first referred to in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
• The Daleks used a battle computer on Earth in Remembrance of the Daleks. On that occasion, it was controlled by a human girl.
• The Doctor says the French phrase "Allons-y", meaning 'let's go'. He last said the phrase in Army of Ghosts, and in that episode mused that he should say it more.
• This is the third time in this series that the Doctor has appeared to be dead. Martha resuscitated him in Smith and Jones, while in the following episode only one of the Doctor's hearts failed.
• Despite not being mentioned in the previous episode, Rose is again mentioned (not by name) by Martha when speaking to Tallulah at the top of the Empire State Building.
• 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.

Production

• Some filming for this story was done in New York, although not with any cast members. It primarily consisted of static shots of landmarks and landscape views, many of which were digitally altered to remove architecture created since the story's setting.
• 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.

Cultural references

• As with the first-part of this story, Daleks in Manhattan, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera were amongst the horror novels and films that served as inspiration for this story.
• "Happy Days Are Here Again" by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen is heard on the radio.
• When Laszlo escapes with the Doctor, he says, "The lift is here." In American English a "lift" is called an "elevator," and as an American Laszlo should have said "The elevator is here." Incidentally, Martha later tells the Doctor that they can take the "service elevator." Since she is British, it would be more likely for her to say the "service lift."