Evolution of the Daleks (TV story)

Evolution of the Daleks was the fifth episode of the third series of Doctor Who. It marked the destruction of three members of the Cult of Skaro, as well as the genocide of two species and the near genocide of the Daleks.

Synopsis
As a new Dalek Empire rises in 1930s New York, the Doctor must enter an unholy alliance.

Plot
The hybrid Dalek Sec comes face-to-face with the Tenth Doctor, who has emerged from the crowd. The other Daleks wish to exterminate him, but Sec orders them to stop. As they attempt to capture him, the Doctor holds out a surprise: a radio. Using his sonic screwdriver, he causes the radio to emit a high-pitched sound which disorients the Daleks and the pig-humans. The Doctor and the captured humans run back through the sewers, catching up with Tallulah on the way. As soon as they ascend the ladder and disappear from sight, two Daleks (Thay and Caan) come into view, discussing their doubts about Dalek Sec's orders since he became humanised.

The gang arrives back at Hooverville, and the Doctor's stories are told to the crowd. Soon, a watchman sees one of the pigs and calls everyone to arm themselves. A fight breaks out between humans and pigs. Suddenly Daleks Jast and Caan arrive in the air, ready to exterminate the assembled humans. Dalek Sec watches from the Empire State Building via visual link. Solomon tries to reason with the Daleks, saying that they are both outcasts and should work together to create a better universe. The Daleks exterminate him. Sec watches and gasps in horror as Solomon - a man whose courage he admires - falls. Furious, the Doctor steps out and demands they kill him too and spare the other residents of Hooverville. The Daleks prepare to do so, but are stopped by Dalek Sec. He asks the Doctor to return to the Daleks' genetics laboratory. The Doctor agrees, but only on the condition the Daleks do not kill the Hooverville residents. Martha asks the Doctor if 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, Dalek Sec explains to the Doctor how he wanted to create a new race which combined Dalek and human DNA by 'formatting' the human brain, ready for information to be loaded onto it, creating new hybrids. The Daleks planned to use a gamma strike from a solar flare (which will occur in eleven minutes) which will hit the Empire State Building as an energy source. However, there are problems which only the Doctor can fix. The Doctor has no choice but to help the Daleks. He prepares the gene solution to be fed into the human 'shells'. Sec explains the new race will have the intelligence of Daleks but the emotions of a human. He also says the Daleks' obsession with universal supremacy must be removed. The Doctor is shocked that Sec is willing to eliminate the one thing that makes a Dalek a Dalek. However, seven minutes before the flare, as the Dalek 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 believe Sec is no longer Dalek, so they don't have to obey him. The two Daleks load pure Dalek gene solution into the humans. The Doctor and Laszlo escape to the elevator and ascend to the top of the Empire State Building.

Meanwhile, Martha and Tallulah use the psychic paper to gain entry into the Empire State Building. On reaching the top floor, they scan the blueprints of the top floor, looking for design and construction changes. They see a design change at the top of the building, where dalekanium has been added. The Doctor and Laszlo escape up the lift and meet with Martha, Frank, and Tallulah. The Doctor climbs to the top. He uses 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. Martha has made a makeshift lightning rod from spare pipes to divert the lightning into the elevator, just as the pig slaves arrive, killing them. The Dalek-humans awaken, and Dalek Caan designates himself the new leader. Sec states he was to be the controller, but Dalek Caan deems him unfit and orders them to take up arms (Thompson submachine gun fitted with Dalek laser weapons). The army goes into the sewers. 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. The army breaks in. Daleks Thay and Jast enter, with Sec bound in chains and crawling like a dog. The Doctor tries to tell the Daleks what they have done to Sec is wrong, because he is the most intelligent Dalek who ever existed. They try to exterminate the Doctor. Sec, trying to reason with the others, gets up and is hit by a blast from Thay meant for the Doctor, which kills him. This angers the Doctor; he again tells the Daleks to order the Dalek-humans to kill him, but one Dalek human repeatedly asks "Why?", and says they are not Daleks. The Doctor reveals that, because he hugged the pole as the lightning came through, some Time Lord DNA was mixed into the hybrids. This gave the Dalek humans freedom. Jast promptly kills the Dalek human who openly questioned orders. The other Dalek humans return fire. Thay and Jast kill more Dalek humans, but are overwhelmed and destroyed under the volume of fire power. Back in the building, watching via the visual link, Caan says the Dalek humans are a failure and commands "Destruct". All the Dalek humans clutch their heads in pain and fall to the ground, dead.

After witnessing this genocide, the Doctor arrives at the Empire State Building. He confronts Caan and offers to help. He says he is probably the only person in the universe that would show him any compassion, because he has seen enough death today - they are now both the last of their species. He does not want to see more genocide. Caan replies with "Emergency temporal shift". As the Doctor lunges forward, he vanishes.

Laszlo is on his deathbed (the pig-slaves can survive only for a few weeks). The Doctor starts to work on a solution to save him, stating, "There's been enough death today. Brand new creatures, wise old men and age old enemies!" Later, Laszlo (still a pig slave, but alive and healthy) and Tallulah are in the park. Frank comes and tells Laszlo he talked to the residents of Hooverville. They will take him in and give him a home. As always, Hooverville is where people 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 says, "Maybe". Martha asks the Doctor if he thinks he will ever see Dalek Caan again, and the Doctor responds, "Oh, yes. One day..."

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Tallulah - Miranda Raison
 * Laszlo - Ryan Carnes
 * Solomon - Hugh Quarshie
 * Frank - Andrew Garfield
 * Dalek Sec - Eric Loren
 * Man #1 - Earl Perkins
 * Dalek Operators - Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, David Hankinson
 * Dalek Voices - Nicholas Briggs
 * Pig slave - Paul Kasey
 * Human-Dalek hybrid - Ian Porter

Story notes

 * This is the first new series episode to use the classic ...of the Daleks title format. (So far the only other new series episode to have this format is the Eleventh Doctor episode Victory of the Daleks. A Tenth Doctor novel, Prisoner of the Daleks, followed.)

Ratings

 * 6.96 million viewers - BARB figures, 18th most popular broadcast on British television that week.
 * 6.5 million viewers - Overnight
 * 1.04 million viewers - BBC3 Repeat

Filming locations

 * Some location filming took place in New York.

Production errors

 * Throughout the episode, Thay, Jast and Caan's recognition codes switch.
 * When Dalek Thay confronts Sec about the latter's belief that the Daleks shouldn't be the supreme race anymore, Thay's recognition code is inverted.
 * In the last episode and this one a Dalek has a unique symbol which is not of the Cult, but looks like Dalek Caan's symbol without the middle identification line and dot. It also has a deep voice like Caan's. So the identity of this Dalek is unknown, as all of the Cult have specified codes.

Continuity

 * This is the first Dalek story in the new series to be named with the title scheme "(blank) of the Daleks". The last time this was used was 19 years ago for Remembrance of the Daleks.
 * Dalekanium was first mentioned in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
 * The idea of genetic purity within the Dalek race was explored in more detail in Remembrance of the Daleks, and has been a theme from their beginning.
 * Caan used an emergency temporal shift to escape the Doctor. Sec previously used an emergency temporal shift in Doomsday.
 * The Cult of Skaro planned to turn Earth into "New Skaro". In Silver Nemesis, the Cybermen planned to turn Earth into their base planet as the "New Mondas".
 * The idea of humans being the "great survivors" re-surfaced in Utopia.
 * Dalek Caan 'shifts' himself back to the Time War to save Davros. This is explained in Series 4, in The Stolen Earth.
 * It is revealed in this story that Skaro was destroyed in a 'great war', presumably the Last Great Time War. In Remembrance of the Daleks the Doctor destroys Skaro in his seventh incarnation. If the Doctor was correct, perhaps the Time War started in the Doctor's Seventh Incarnation. Perhaps it started even earlier: some fans and commentators, including Russell T. Davies, speculate that the Fourth Doctor's interference in Dalek evolution formed part of the Time War. (Genesis of the Daleks) A simpler explanation, however, was that Dalek Caan was referring to the Dalek civil war. (Remembrance of the Daleks)

Home video releases

 * The story was released with Daleks in Manhattan, The Lazarus Experiment and 42 on the Series 3 Volume 2 DVD.
 * It is also part of the series 3 DVD box set.