Day 729: Evolution of the Daleks

Ignoring the fact that this isn't technically Day 729 (I'm just calling it that to help rationalise me doing a double post today), I found the entire experience of watching Evolution of the Daleks weird. Indeed, there was one point, approximately 3 minutes in, where I was reduced to helpless laughter as I suddenly made a connection that had been festering away in my mind.

"PROTECT THE HYBRID!"

Thus speaks one of the Daleks at the start of this episode, as the Doctor makes his escape, temporarily confusing the Daleks and the Human-Dalek hybrid. The Human-Dalek hybrid was created at the end of the previous episode, initially as a means to extend the life of the Dalek by way of combining Dalek DNA with Human DNA, as humanity always seems to survive where Daleks fail. Instantly, this hybrid begins to realise the benefits of such a species intermingling, given that both are adept at waging war, with all of that anger and hatred bottled up within the two races. Two great warrior races, merged together in the heat of the moment. A hybrid.

This is, of course, the basis of the story arc of Series 9 of the revival series of Doctor Who. It supposed that two warrior races would merge to form some unbeatable enemy, and was presented as something to be feared throughout the cosmos. Instead, we end up with a man with phalluses hanging off his face who keeps on struggling with the fact that he's got feelings. This entire juxtaposition is hilarious, and represents a lot of what is fundamentally wrong with this story. There's enough foundation there for something worthwhile, but the story doesn't quite go into those areas.

For instance, the killing of Solomon could have either been used as a big dramatic moment to expose the cruelty of the Daleks, or as a dark joke, revealing the cruelty of the Daleks. Both work well to the story's message, and yet the story ends up aiming for the big dramatic moment and hitting the joke, giving the impression of a rough script. Another, even more interesting example is that the Doctor accidentally creates a new race of Time Lords when he injects a bit of his own DNA into some humans who were set to become more Human-Dalek hybrids. But the story immediately forgets about that, leaving us instead with a botched message about how the Doctor won't let another person die today, because there's been too much death. It's such a missed opportunity, and shows how good this story could have been if it had just been slightly reworked at the end. But instead, we're left with a rather poor Dalek story, that can be forgotten about in an instant.