The first two parter of the 2007 series sees the return of the Daleks who were last seen being sucked into the void except for the cult of Skaro. Despite this story being set in Manhattan, the Doctor Who team do a good job of making 21st century Cardiff seem like 1930’s America. The story is written by Helen Rayner who had been the shows Script Editor so the story was going to make sense at very least. The story does a good job in making us understand the setting. Set during the Great Depression, the scene where the ‘residents’ of the camp would be rounded up to work on something that they thought they were going to get paid.
The problem with this story is that this episode doesn’t have much going for it. Miranda Raison’s performance was ridiculously over the top. I found the bit where Talluah has that scene with her pig faced boyfriend to be awful. This sums up my general feeling of this story. There is too much emotional stuff going on and this gets in the way of the Dalek stuff which is why after all we have all tuned in. In this story Dalek Sec consumes a human and its actually well set up and slowly built to with the revelation coming at the end. Although when I say revelation, most of us already knew what it would look like because the kind chaps at the Radio Times decided to put it on the front cover thus ruining any sense of surprise. It’s a shame because that bit of shock and surprise is what the story really needed and would have been a great cliffhanger.
The big name is Hugh Quarshie who is best known to modern British audiences as appearing as Ric Griffin in the BBC medical drama Holby City. He is quite good despite not being a role that befits his acting ability. Despite my feelings regarding the character I do think Miranda Raison is a good actress. She is quite good in the BBC spy drama Spooks but unfortunately on this occasion is given a dud role. Only Eric Loren has a good role as Mr Diagores. His character spends the first half of this episode as a typical gangster boss who doesn’t fully understand his bosses. The scene where he is consumed by Dalek sec is a nice suitably horrific scene. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman have gelled and their performances are very good. I think the attitude from Agyeman’s character has been toned down a bit but not too much as to make her bland and dull. Tennant puts in a good show and he has some nice scenes with Quarshie.
I’m not a huge fan of this two part story but normally the first part would be the stronger of the two because it was have the more interesting build up before being let down by a lacklustre action part. There are moments in this episode that I quite like but unfortunately for Daleks in Manhattan it doesn’t have enough to give it that killer punch and I think that if I had to give a ‘Best Episode out of the two Award’ then it would reluctantly have to go to this one.
The problem with this story is that this episode doesn’t have much going for it. Miranda Raison’s performance was ridiculously over the top. I found the bit where Talluah has that scene with her pig faced boyfriend to be awful. This sums up my general feeling of this story. There is too much emotional stuff going on and this gets in the way of the Dalek stuff which is why after all we have all tuned in. In this story Dalek Sec consumes a human and its actually well set up and slowly built to with the revelation coming at the end. Although when I say revelation, most of us already knew what it would look like because the kind chaps at the Radio Times decided to put it on the front cover thus ruining any sense of surprise. It’s a shame because that bit of shock and surprise is what the story really needed and would have been a great cliffhanger.
The big name is Hugh Quarshie who is best known to modern British audiences as appearing as Ric Griffin in the BBC medical drama Holby City. He is quite good despite not being a role that befits his acting ability. Despite my feelings regarding the character I do think Miranda Raison is a good actress. She is quite good in the BBC spy drama Spooks but unfortunately on this occasion is given a dud role. Only Eric Loren has a good role as Mr Diagores. His character spends the first half of this episode as a typical gangster boss who doesn’t fully understand his bosses. The scene where he is consumed by Dalek sec is a nice suitably horrific scene. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman have gelled and their performances are very good. I think the attitude from Agyeman’s character has been toned down a bit but not too much as to make her bland and dull. Tennant puts in a good show and he has some nice scenes with Quarshie.
I’m not a huge fan of this two part story but normally the first part would be the stronger of the two because it was have the more interesting build up before being let down by a lacklustre action part. There are moments in this episode that I quite like but unfortunately for Daleks in Manhattan it doesn’t have enough to give it that killer punch and I think that if I had to give a ‘Best Episode out of the two Award’ then it would reluctantly have to go to this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment