h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have to agree that the hybrid was slightly spoiled for me by seeing him on the front of the Radio Times. I still think that thelook is scarier.

"I enjoyed the episode right up until Dr. Zoidberg, sorry, the Human-Dalek Hybrid appeared... what a naff idea. I hope it gets exterminated."

I agree. I was disappointed because I thought that the Cult of Skaro were going to breed a half-human-half-dalek army of slave-soldiers in order to continue their conquests. The notion that the daleks would gladly cross-breed with another species (and thus stop being actually being proper daleks) is simply ludicrous. Yes, Sec has imagination but he's still a dalek.

The name of part-two of this story did make me worry that the BBC are looking to "re-imagine" the daleks for the foreseeable future, however I think this is likely nonsense because:

1)compared to the normal daleks it's rubbish-looking 2)the daleks as a race simply won't accept being replaced in the manner Sec wants 3) the estate of Terry Nation are very protective of their IP and wouldn't allow a rival "version" to compete with (still less replace) their property 4) RTD is a massive dalek fanboy and wouldn't have allowed this storyline to go ahead unless the daleks survive unchanged 5) the public love the daleks.

What is possible is that Sec will somehow be accepted as an "impure" non-dalek leader in the way Davros was (although the only daleks loyal to Davros weren't "proper" daleks at all but knock-offs he built himself) but I can't see how that would be the case. I did get the feeling in "...Manhattan" that the rest of the Cult of Skaro didn't approve of Sec's actions one jot. We shall see...

They seemed to be bickering about it even before it happened, so I'd be surprised if they didn't have second thoughts.

And I'll also be surprised/disappointed if the Sec hybrid doesn't end up falling off the Empire State Building at the end of next week's episode - after all, that's what you do with the Empire State.

I enjoyed it, but my enjoyment was tempered by two things - that part one of all mid-season two parters so far* have always seemed disappointing to me. I think I must be primed to want resolution after 45 minutes. But I think that's a personal failing, rather than a failing of the story.

But the main thing that spoilt it for me was the blasted Radio Times putting the hybrid on the cover. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the article within starts with RTD virtually apologising for the huge spoiler, thus letting out the fact that it doesn't appear until the cliffhanger. This means that the whole first episode is reduced to merely setting up the scenario for something that you know is going to happen. I think, dramatically, the episode suffered greatly because of that.

It's a good thing that the episode itself was good enough to overcome these problems. I thought it was good all round, but very clearly setting things up for the next episode, which will probably be even better (and, I hope, unspoiled).

* Thinking back, the only two first-parters which don't suffer from their status as 'setup' episodes were Bad Wolf and Army of Ghosts. Perhaps these work better because they work more like two distinct stories, and have a very different tone to their respective part twos, while the other two parters are very much one longer story split over two episodes. It also can't hurt that they also have the two best cliffhangers of the new series so far. Eccleston's 'No' speech still makes me want to cheer every time I see it, and the Daleks emerging from the Void sphere (even though I was pretty sure they were coming) was not only a great entrance, but it also effectively changes what story they're telling, making the first part more self contained.

Or maybe I'm just a sucker for the Daleks.

<>

Very true... and when people/monsters aren't falling off it, it becomes a meeting point in 90s rom coms.

Luckily I don't usually get the Radio Times so I was able to save my "what the...?" reaction until I saw the cliffhanger.

Cthulhu Fhtagn!

"But the main thing that spoilt it for me was the blasted Radio Times putting the hybrid on the cover. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the article within starts with RTD virtually apologising for the huge spoiler, thus letting out the fact that it doesn't appear until the cliffhanger. This means that the whole first episode is reduced to merely setting up the scenario for something that you know is going to happen. I think, dramatically, the episode suffered greatly because of that."

I agree. The whole plan of crossing humans and daleks was clearly written to be a shock revelation, with hints of what was to come early in the story (the dalek lamenting human success and dalek failure, all the references to the "final experiment"). The Radio Times cover ruined that, even for people like me who didn't read the thing and just saw it in the newsagents.

"Thinking back, the only two first-parters which don't suffer from their status as 'setup' episodes were Bad Wolf and Army of Ghosts. Perhaps these work better because they work more like two distinct stories, and have a very different tone to their respective part twos, while the other two parters are very much one longer story split over two episodes."

Well, personally I thought "Bad Wolf" was an awful episode (one of the worst in the programme's history) until the bit where Rose gets zapped when it redeems itself but I think the reason why those two "worked" was because of the quality of the cliffhangers - there was a real desire to see what happens next, more so than there was (for example) at the conclusion of "Aliens of London". I don't really have a problem with maintaining a story and tone over two episodes - this series used to do that over eight at a time at one point - both episodes need to be engaging and the cliffhanger exciting is all.

"Well, personally I thought "Bad Wolf" was an awful episode (one of the worst in the programme's history) until the bit where Rose gets zapped when it redeems itself"

I can understand that - I expected to hate the Big Brother stuff as much as I hate the real thing, but I found it strangely charming. And, as you say, when Rose gets zapped the episode goes effortlessly from wacky pastiche to dark human drama. At that point, I didn't know if Billie Piper was going to be in the next series, so I thought there was actually a chance that she was really dead, which mae it even more dramatic for me. Just like, throughout Army of Ghosts and Doomsday I kept having to assure my three year old son that Rose wasn't really going to die, all the while crossing my fingers that I wasn't wrong, because I just didn't know.

Same here, Jim. It was a very nervewracking evening to be a parent of young DW fans.

Although I was expecting Captain Jack to be inside the sphere in Army of Ghosts - I had no idea it was going to be daleks, so when they emerged from it I screamed.

There was a moment on Saturday when all 3 of our children had cushions over their faces, so I don't think the episode was completely useless. But then, the children hadn't read RT, and I had. The ending wasn't much of a cliffhanger, but it did leave me thinking "how's the Doctor going to get out of this one, then?" Cos surely your average super-intelligent dalek is going to blast him out of existence the minute he's spotted - and he's hardly hiding, is he?

And that thought was rapidly succeeded by "Oh well, I expect he'll manage somehow". Bit boring, really.

Mol

I thought the episode was ok but I'm afraid that Radio Times absolutely ruined the cliffhanger for me (and my brother). If the human-dalek had actually *done* something, like leap at the Doctor, that would have been a cliffhanger but just to appear wasn't because I knew it was going to happen. I was not cliffhung!

Van

"I am a hu-maaaan da-leeek", not much of a talker is it?

I thought the Empty Child/whatever it was paired with was a brilliant two-parter. Still one of the absolute best bits of new Doctor Who.

I thought, if we are being honest, that the tentacles on it's head looked stiff and robotic, which broke the mood straight away - and then it spoke. I *know* it's supposed to be a hybrid of the poor chap the Dalek absorbed but a silent whispery rasp isn't terrifying compared to the HECTORING DALEK VOICE.

I'm kind of hoping that The Cult of Skaro kill it off and quickly - but as already mentioned this 'who are the Daleks trying to contact with the mast antenna' plot line is going to be substantially more interesting - and may even play into the Face of Boe revelation.

but - if that were true - that scenario begs the question that the daleks know something they can't possibly know: if they escaped from the time war in the void ship, shortly only time time-jump to 1930's Manhatten - how could they possibly have knowledge of *anything* let alone whomever The Face of Boe was referring to.

Indeed if you bear in mind that the Dalek Emperor's fleet was reduced to atoms, and the remaining Daleks are in the void, that leaves only the Skaro cult, less Dalek Sec, who unless they met someone in the Void as they crossed dimensions have a very slim list of people they can call upon. so maybe it's not to call anyone but for some other purpose?

Also I agree the Empty Child was nice and creepy. I still enjoy Army of Ghosts and Doomsday however, not least for the clever twist half-way through the elevated the whole thing. The verbal jousting between Daleks and Cyberman was ace too!

Oh! and The Empty Child was paired with The Doctor Dances.

As someone said earlier, the hybrid was very reminiscent of the last of the Jagaroth. The last of the Jagaroth gave me nightmares for several weeks when I were a young sprog so on Saturday I was glad I'm now 35.

Adults discussing children's programmes! We're always going to miss the point...

i loved the episode okay we can "nit pick" on parts of it.. one question though if rtd is in charge of the script's... how much does he write ?? or is it just a case of "i'll throw a few idea's and see what they come up with "

one of my favourite "monsters" was the yeti's or ice warriors late 60's now the bit... i had a dalek the one's you sat in.. hey i was only about 10 at the time
i'm sorry if i went off topic a bit

I do agree with that, as a general rule, but the three children I watched the last episode with seemed equally unimpressed with the cliffhanger. They were scared at some points, and they hadn't seen the Radio Times (I watched with Mol, see post above) but they didn't seem that cliffhung. Perhaps Radio Times isn't to blame, perhaps it just wasn't a very good cliffhanger?

I loved The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, and I like the two-parters (they seem more like 'proper' Who), but I would like a full-on cliffhanger on the few occasions when there is a possibility of there being one.

I thought the end of 'Rise of the Cybermen' was great because the cliffhanger wasn't the Doctor et al. being surrounded by Cybermen, it was the fact that they surrendered and said they'd happily become Cybermen but the Cybermen said Uh-uh, we're going to delete you anyway. I suppose it's the Doctor playing his card and it not working that creates the cliffhanger for me.

Enough of me, and I'm sure next Saturday's episode will more than make up for the minor annoyances I have had.

I have faith in

I agree with what's been said about The Empty Child/Doctor Dances being the creepiest episodes, I loved every minute of it, and definatly the best episodes so far

Clive, you're assuming the mast is for communication, which isn't necessarily the case. They could be building some transmitter to zap everyone on Earth with Human/Dalek DNA and transform the whole planet into a new race of monocular misanthropes. Or building a time/space portal to get them somewhere else. There are loads of possibilities, none of which have even been suggested in the show - all we know is 'The mast must be completed tonight'. So there's still plenty of potential mystery to come. And hopefully I'll be more successful at avoiding spoilers this week than last week.

Didn't they describe the mast as a 'conductor'? Sounds like they need power for something. 'Its alive, mwahahahahahaha...'

Or maybe it's for a bus!!!!

(sorry, too much)

Or maybe they've put together the world's largest orchestra.

I'll get me coat...

Hmmm, the Dalek Chorus,

They'd have to do 1812 Overture wouldn't they?
That and I can see a floating invasion force of Daleks (a la end of last series) bearing down through the atmosphere, energy weapons firing ,whilst playing 'Ride of The Valkyries' very loudly!

You gotta admit, Daleks do look like Wagner fans