Some afterthoughts from the Lucozer about DIM

Just a little afterthought about 'Daleks In Manhattan'. I've read that RTD gave Helen Raynor a shopping list of ingredients to weave into her script. I have just one question..WHY? It's not as if the elements given to her to twist her script around were essential to the overall story arc of the season. They are utterly frivolous, so why interfere? Frivolous elements are only acceptable if they are genuinely funny or entertaining. The pig men & the showgirls qualify on neither account. I agree with the Co-Pilot. Why pig men again? They looked ok at best & they've been done in a much more inspired fashion in 'Aliens Of London'.

If Helen Raynor is talented enough to be commissioned to write a two-parter for a multi-million dollar institution like Doctor Who (& I believe she is), she is good enough to come up with her own shopping bag of speccy moments & idiosyncratic elements. Having them imposed makes them seem even more obviously & painfully the uninspired 'tack-ins' they really are. Think of the gritty adventure we could be watching with just the shady businessman & the poor workers involved in the Dalek scheme. Dark & desolate. My kind of Doctor Who.

Addendum: After a second (& sober) viewing of DIM, I've revised a few of my opinions a little. I was perhaps a little too harsh on the actress playing Tallulah. 'Sassy broad with a heart-a-gold' is a thankless stereotype to have to breathe life into. Her accent falters & there are plenty of cringeworthy moments, but I'd prefer OTT to wooden & forgettable any day. She gives it a lot of energy & I hope she gets a chance to improve. I also feel that with Martha, it is not so much a problem of 'wobbly characterisation' as I said in my review, it's more that there hasn't been very much of it (relative to Rose) thus far.

With Rose, the 'Companion's Journey' schtick was laid on thick. All her emotions & reactions were explored in intricate detail. It was almost a 'Time Travel & its myriad mystical effects on you & yours: 101' for viewers. This was probably a necessary evil to entice new & 'inexperienced' viewers, but now the training wheels are off & viewers are expected to make the connections for themsleves. We can assume Martha is feeling many of the same things that Rose did without time being spent/ wasted having to spell them out so blatantly again. This is a great thing because the focus is back on the Doctor (just in time for Tennant's more assured performance) the monsters & the scares. The intricacies & nuances of Martha's personality can be revealed more subtly & with a greater sense of mystery because the framework building stuff has been dealt with through Rose. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh & the incidental chanting music just before Dalek Sec's 'reveal' was diabolically inept & over the top. There were 3 pained groans in unison in my loungeroom. Never a good sign. Til next time.....

Lucozer.

Lucozer Does Manhattan!

Hmm, not quite sure what to say, my reviews usually start with a confident flurry. I should say our reviews are always written immediately after viewing the episode to give them a feverish freshness & to capture the 'bubble & squeak' of the moment. A moment that has usually been aided by quite a few potent beverages. I'm stalling. Well, to start with the easy things...Tennant was once again very solid & has been far superior this season compared to last. Freema struggled valiantly & put in a good showing despite the continuing trend of worryingly wobbly characterisation for Martha. We should have a better sense of her by the end of episode 4. All the attraction to the Doctor talk comes across as stilted & a little tired. We've (over)done frustrated sexual tension with Rose; just f*%k or shut up about it! Let's get on with marvellous monsters & fabulous shocks!

It all looked grand & polished, but there was just something lacking. That 'lack' was ably aided by the woeful performance of the vapid blonde playing Tallulah W&%khead. She 'performs' a truly atrocious wafer-thin stereotype. I hope she gets bumped off quick smart. The Daleks 'reveal' was completely lacking in tension & suspense, but I guess the director thought 'why bother' when the bloody thing was lumbered with a subtle & mysterious title like 'Daleks In Manhattan'! They should have taken a leaf out of the 'Earthshock' book of "whooaa, f%@k!!". Perhaps the internet has neutered the possibility of such a peerless shock ever happening again. Very sad. The Dalek dialouge, although never grimace inducing, had the uneasy & somewhat forced quality that seems unavoidable when the writer has been given the troublesome mandate of shoehorning the plot around a 'glitzy' set peice; in this case Dalek Sec's 'shocking' 'Extreme Makeover' 'reveal'. Half Dalek, half human! Joe Public will lap it up! ...screamed the production team memo no doubt. Well I didn't lap it up folks, but I liked it enough to watch next week with hope for improvement. Maybe I'd give this the edge over 'Shakespeare Code', but only just & it's a lagging third for the season.

Cheers, a disconcerted Lucozer.

Daleks in Womanhattan by the Co-Pilot

Daleks in Manhattan is a grim episode touching on themes of genetic engineering, racial purity (it is a Dalek story) and class segregations. Though it appears on the surface to have a lot going for it - not the least of which is the flashy setting and of course the return of the Daleks, it is ultimately an uninvolving and disappointing episode. Firstly, I just did not get into the showgirl stuff - which seemed to be there solely to generate laughs based on exaggerations and cliches - T.Davies templates. The pig 'experiments' seemed to again be there just for effect - we are given no explanations as to why pigs were chosen for modification - particularly as they have already been used by the Slitheen for similar reasons...why not genetically modified sheep, ducks or even cabbages ??? I am not really a fan of the new series Daleks either - perhaps it's just personal taste, but there is something about Nick Briggs's performance that irks me...his Dalek voicing somehow seems too passionate and over-played.

For me Daleks in Manhattan suffers from many of the same problems as its Cybermen counterpart 2 parter from last season - a thin plot weighed down by charicatures, and interspersed with images of horror that are not carried off with enough panache to be classic Who moments. Fingers crossed things will be better next week.

To end on a positive note, great to say that the David Tennant renaissance continues.

See you next time.

Love

The Skonnon Co-Pilot