1)This is one of my favorite Dalek stories - I like a relatively low-key Dalek story, they don't all have to have the fate of the cosmos at stake. I think the lower-key stories allow the Daleks to emerge as characters, whereas stories they tend to be faceless hordes. They did a good job in this, conveying how the other Daleks slowly come to question Sec - particularly the scene in which the two Daleks go off to have a secret conversation. You can tell they're being furtive: "What is your opinion of Dalek Sec?" And later: "You told us to imagine, and we imagined your irrelevance."  (Never encourage your subordinates to think - it only leads to trouble.)  Also, I want a Dalek tommy gun.

 

2)Sec's an interesting character, too - the "cleverest Dalek ever" - who comes to doubt the Dalek way of life: "If we are supreme, why are we not victorious?"  The scene where Sec "absorbed" Diagoras was extremely creepy - almost like watching a rape scene.

 

3)There was one line of the Doctor's that made me laugh a bit:  "Right now, they're vulnerable - that makes them more dangerous than ever."  Have you ever noticed that whatever's going on with the Daleks, it makes them "more dangerous than ever"?  "The Daleks have just had some Nilla Wafers and milk and now it's their nap time - and that makes them more dangerous than ever!"  Also, I like to think that the Daleks remembered their visit to the Empire State Building in "The Chase" and thought, "We've got to go back and visit there again when we've got more time."

 

4)The Pig Men were fairly nasty - what happened,  did the Ogrons price themselves out of the market?

 

5)They did reasonably well with the American setting.  No horrendously bad "The Gunfighters"/Peri Brown accents.  Talullah was kind of overdone, but not too badly.  Do you know, it was only when I just re-watched this that it occurred to me that Solomon was called "Solomon" because he was supposed to be so wise?  Geez, you'd think the scene where he splits the loaf of bread in half would of given it away. Ha-ha, I'm thick.

 

6)Cliffhanger for "Daleks in Manhattan": "I am a human Dalek. I am your future." Resolution: No, he wasn't, actually. 

 

7)Some fun quotes:

  • "Daleks have no concept of worry."
  • "You think like a Dalek." "I'll take that as a compliment."
  • "Hello. Surprise. Boo. Et cetera."
  • "First floor, perfumery."  Apparently, the Doctor watches Are You Being Served?.


Overall:  I quite enjoyed this - an interesting look at what can happen to someone who challenges his society's prejudices.  Poor Martha, she gets the Daleks pretty early on.  Also, they missed their opportuniy when Caan  did his Emergency Temporal Shift - they should've had the Doctor yell: "Caaaaaannnn!"

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  • Perhaps I’m belaboring the obvious here, but the Daleks’ search for the “human factor” in an effort to introduce into their own genetic make-up (because human beings have always ultimately beaten Daleks in the long run) in the Second Doctor adventure “The Evil of the Daleks” directly foreshadows “Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks.”

  • Oh, sure - and when I get around the re-watching "Victory of the Daleks", we'll see how that story draws from "Power of the Daleks".

  • There's a long history of Terry Nation writers recycling ideas from his own earlier Dalek stories.

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