Human/Dalek Hybrids? Get out of town. The
Doctor Who two-parter “Evolution of the Daleks” proved that even beings free from time and space sometimes inspires the most ridiculous TV writing. “Evolution of the Daleks” may have been a hoot for
Doctor Who newbies, but it was a drag for aficionados.
The Human Dalek Sec is planning a human/dalek hybridization so that Daleks can become bipedal and be freed from their metal shells. Doesn’t fit with what you know about the Dalek mindset? Congrats, you’re not a newbie.
In the process of selecting humans for the hybridization, they are evaluated for their intellectual skills. Superior are chosen for hybridization, inferior are transformed into human/pig hybrids that function as drones.
The Doctor and Martha naturally find themselves smack dab in the middle of all of this. The Doctor offers himself up for hybridization, which the tin cans are completely opposed to, but Sec is in complete agreement with. The Doctor's superior intellect can be used to find a way to save the Daleks. Meanwhile, Martha slips away with the Doctor's Psychic Paper.
In order to thwart the Dalek's plan, they must prevent them from harnessing a solar flare that is going to strike the Empire State Building. Martha, thanks to the magic paper, knows exactly what she needs to do.
Sec, as it turns out, has the noble concept of domesticating the Daleks through the hybridization process. He believes it is the only way the Daleks can survive as a species. In his master plan, the time lord can transport the new beings to a new home planet with the Tardis.
The tin can Daleks don’t like this idea and revolt. Pumping the hybrids with 100 percent Dalek DNA. During the revolt, the Doctor escapes and helps Martha stop the device that will capture the solar flares power and activate the Human/Dalek army.
Sec is killed off and the tin cans order the Hybrids to attack, but they refuse. In the end, only one Dalek remains, again, and the Doctor allows the Dalek to shift away out of pity, since he is the end of his race.
The Doctor allowing a Dalek to live is not, as you’ve noticed, the only piece of skewed logic in the episode. The episode was certainly enjoyable on a pop-corn crunching level, but the idea of Daleks accepting frailty and modification of themselves, even to prolong their existence, was the strangest twist of
Doctor Who logic.
- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of Sci Fi Channel)