awkwardreviews

This isn’t even the Dalek’s final form yet!

So they travel back in time, only to be greated with more salt and pepper shakers! I swear, if they over-do this villain and make the-…great…

I don’t think I really liked this episode, but then again… wait… did I? It’s been a full three days since I watched it, and I still can’t form a coherent opinion on it. All I can properly say, is it was all over the place. This two parter was definitely… different. I think the entire theme was pretty interesting, but the accents and acting was SO mixed, I find it difficult to enjoy for more than a few minutes.

The Daleks evolved… or, I should say, one Dalek tried to evolve before he was put on some leash like he was auditioning for some bondage porno. It was an odd shift in tone, but I don’t think it was sold as well as it could have. This dragged the episode down, it had proper and interesting themes, but the execution of those themes wasn’t something that I can say was impressive.

We had that little love story between lady-do-how, and pig-man-sort-of, which never really got anywhere. It started the episode, and then just ended it, answering or progressing nothing. This show is usually quite adept and making the side characters be engaging and three dimensional, so I’d think a two parter would give them MORE opportunity to do so. But no… these characters were nothing but some exposition device and some strangely reference-y dialogue.

Sheesh… were people really THAT cliché back then? The entire aspect of the Daleks evolving is interesting, better yet, the entire aspect of them gaining feelings is VERY interesting. But the way it was sold here was just… not.

I can’t really say this episode acted like a two parter, since by the end of the first episode everything is already in full motion. While much more successful two parters like “The Satan Pit” built their story and villains up gradually, this one didn’t really succeed in that aspect as well.

However, this is where it DID succeed, it succeeded in being quite fun. Even in its lowest point, the show never quite stooped to being boring. Every seen contained enough development and action to keep be going, and Tennant’s performance was particularly strong in this episode, as he portrayed his emotion towards the Daleks to a fantastic degree. I will say though, him pretty much letting the last one go… AGAIN, was sort of a frustrating moment. I mean, how many times do they have to threaten the world until you realize they need to go?!

I suppose I can’t take too much off this episode… it’s simply not wrong enough, as it’s the writers trying something new and getting a slightly sub-par episode in return. Let’s hope the next two parter is more promising.

Grade:

Ep1: B-

Ep2: B-

Overall: B-