Evolution of the Daleks (TV story)

Evolution of the Daleks was the fifth episode of the third series of Doctor Who. It marked the demise of three members of the Cult of Skaro and the near genocide of the Daleks. It also marked the first time that a Dalek saw the truth about its race, and tried to change the Daleks into something better than mass murderers. Although Dalek Sec failed to help his race escape their programming, Dalek Caan would later use more extreme methods to put an end to the Daleks' madness.

Synopsis
As a new Dalek Empire rises in 1930s New York City, the Tenth Doctor receives help from an unlikely ally.

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, Thay and Caan discuss 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, the Dalek 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 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 then tells the Doctor how sorry she is that Dalek Caan got away, knowing how important it was to him that he finished things with the Daleks. When asked if he thinks he'll meet Dalek Caan again, the Doctor replies that he'll be back... the Daleks always come back.

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
 * Hero Pig Man - Paul Kasey
 * Hybrid - Ian Porter

Story notes

 * This is the first new series episode to use the classic ...of the Daleks title format.
 * When the Cult revolts against Sec, for unexplained reasons on-screen, Nicholas Briggs changes his depiction of Dalek Caan's voice from deep and raspy to the equivalent of Dalek Sec's pitch and never reverts to the original tone. During David Tennant's video diary for this episode while it is in mid-production, Briggs reveals that Caan's voice starts to go up higher because he's become the commander of the group, and thus changes in demeanour. Personally, Briggs did this to alleviate the painful toll on his throat from continuing with a gruff impression. Briggs chose the gravelly portrayal during Caan's debut back in series 2, knowing he had only one line, and discussed the business of altering his voice with Russell T Davies. Likewise, he made sure Dalek Jast would have the least lines because of his "ridiculous"-sounding high-pitched voice.
 * This marks the demise of Daleks Sec, Thay and Jast. Dalek Caan does not return until the Series 4 2-part finale, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.

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.
 * As Dalek Thay and Dalek Jast exterminate Dalek Sec, the green light of their Dalek laser comes from above them not from in front of them as seen by the direction of shadows on them.
 * 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.
 * As The Doctor, Dalek Sec and the Pig Men look up to the human-Dalek hybrids, the superimposed shot of them is suspended in mid-air which can be clearly seen as the characters' legs have been cropped out.

Continuity

 * Dalek casings are made from Dalekanium. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth')
 * The idea of genetic purity within the Dalek race previously resulted in a civil war between different factions. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor had previously caused a Dalek civil war by implanting DNA into a group of Daleks in order to give them a sense of free will & morality (TV: The Evil of the Daleks). In both cases, the war was ignited by one Dalek asking "Why?"
 * The humanised Sec declares that humans have a "genius for war"; Mavic Chen made exactly the same observation of the Daleks. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * Caan uses an emergency temporal shift to escape the Doctor. (TV: Doomsday)
 * The Cult of Skaro planned to turn Earth into "New Skaro". The Cybermen previously planned to turn Earth into their base planet as the "New Mondas". (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * Humans are referred to as the "great survivors". (TV: The Ark, The Ark in Space, Utopia)
 * Dalek Caan's emergency temporal shift ultimately leads him back into the Time War where he rescues Davros and rebuilds the Dalek race, albeit while changing sides himself. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
 * Skaro was destroyed in a "great war". The Doctor destroyed Skaro in his seventh incarnation. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor was previously struck by lightning in London in the summer of 1762 during his first incarnation. (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers)

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.