Sunday, April 6, 2008

Doctor Who Season 3 Episode 5 Evolution of the Daleks

Doctor Who Evolution of the Daleks 5/13
The hybrid Dalek Sec announces that the captive humans are to be prepared for "hybridisation". Suddenly a radio plays; Dalek Sec comes face to face with the Doctor, who has emerged from the crowd. The other Daleks wish to exterminate him, but Sec orders them to stop. The Doctor asks Sec what it feels like to be human. Sec's response focusing on the traits of ambition, hatred, and war, all traits that humans have in common with Daleks, does not impress the Doctor.
The Doctor then tells Sec and the other Daleks that they have achieved nothing with the Final Experiment. They attempt to capture him but the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver and a radio to emit a high pitched sound, disorienting the Daleks and the Pig Slaves. The Doctor and the captured humans escape, catching up with Tallulah on the way. Dalek Thay remains behind to guard Dalek Sec whilst Jast and Caan, secretly discuss their doubts about Dalek Sec's orders ever since he became part human.
The group arrives back at Hooverville, Solomon advances the possibility that he could reason with the Daleks, but the Doctor explains that because they are vulnerable they have become more dangerous than ever. Soon enough, a watchman sees one of the Pig Slaves, in response the remaining residents form a defensive circle to shoot the Slaves, which are armed only with their tusks and bare hands. Daleks Jast and Caan fly over Hooverville, killing its habitants, allowing the Pig Slaves abduct others. Confronting the few armed survivors, the Daleks prepare to exterminate the humans, as Dalek Sec and Dalek Thay watch from the Empire State Building via visual link.
The leader, Solomon, tries to reason with the Daleks, appealing to their sense of mercy. As pure Daleks have none, Caan promptly exterminates him. Sec gasps as Solomon falls to the ground. Furious, the Doctor steps out and demands they kill him too, provided they spare the other residents of Hooverville. Caan is more than willing to oblige him but is ordered to stop by Dalek Sec, who requests that the Doctor return to the Daleks' genetics laboratory. Hesitating, Caan and Jast begrudgingly obey. The Doctor, noting that the Daleks have changed their minds for the first time in history, agrees to be taken to the laboratory on the condition that the Daleks do not kill the residents of Hooverville. Martha asks the Doctor whether 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, shown in the picture, the Doctor is furious that the Daleks killed people, even though Dalek Sec wanted the Doctor only. Sec admits that the deaths were wrong and that he admired Solomon's courage. Sec explains to the Doctor how he wants to create a new race with combined Dalek and human DNA by 'formatting' the human brain, ready for information to be loaded onto it, thus ensuring that the Daleks will live on in these new hybrids. As Earth's power generation capabilities are inadequate for the task, Sec plans to use a gamma strike from a solar flare (only eleven minutes away) which will hit the Empire State Building as an energy source, but there are problems which only the Doctor's knowledge can 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 asks Sec about the Pig-Slaves; Sec explains that none survive for more than a few weeks, as Laszlo overhears him. However, seven minutes before the flare, as the gene-solution containing Sec's altered 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, or worthy of leadership. Thay and Jast 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. Dalek Caan orders the Pig Slaves to pursue them and kill the Doctor.
At the same time, Martha, Frank and Tallulah use the psychic paper to gain entry into the Empire State Building. Upon reaching the top floor, they scan the building's blueprints, looking for any changes in design or construction. They discover that plans for the top of the building — where Dalekanium has been added — have been modified. The Doctor and Laszlo arrive, having escaped from the Daleks' laboratory. The Doctor climbs up to the top of the building 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. Meanwhile, Martha has made a makeshift lightning rod from some spare pipes to divert the lightning onto the elevator, electrocuting the Pig Slaves as they arrive.
The Dalek humans awaken, and Dalek Caan designates himself the new leader. Sec angrily states that he was to be the controller, but Caan deems him unfit and orders the Dalek humans to take up arms (Thompsons fitted with standard Dalek laser weapons). The army heads 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 a squad of Dalek humans march in. Daleks Thay and Jast come blast through onto the stage, with Sec bound in chains 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 prepare to exterminate the Doctor, but Sec tries to reason with them. When that fails, Sec sacrifices himself by standing in the way of a blast which Thay had intended for the Doctor. The Doctor showed his respect for Sec by calling him the only creature who could have led the Daleks out of the darkness.
He then demands that the Daleks order the Dalek humans kill him. Dalek Thay gives the order, but the Dalek humans do not respond. One of the Dalek humans repeatedly questions Thay's orders, 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 with the hybrids and gave the Dalek humans freedom. Thay promptly kills the one who questioned his orders, and the other Dalek humans then return fire. Thay and Jast kill several more but are eventually overwhelmed by 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 the Dalek Humans to "destruct". All the Dalek humans suddenly clutch their heads in agony and collapse.
After witnessing this genocide, the Doctor goes to the Empire State Building to confront Caan, both of them the last of their respective species. He offers to help, telling Caan that he is probably the only person in the universe that would show him any compassion. He has already seen one genocide today; he does not want to see another. Caan replies with a cry of "Emergency Temporal Shift!" and, as the Doctor lunges forward to stop him, Caan vanishes.
Laszlo is on his deathbed, his heart is racing and it is getting impossible for him to breathe, so the Doctor starts to work on a solution to save him, stating that "there's been enough death today". 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 can 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's reply is noncommittal. Martha then asks the Doctor if he thinks he will ever meet Dalek Caan again, and the Doctor responds, "Oh, yes. One day."

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