The Lonely God

[strange_complex]

Well, that was a very biblical episode, wasn't it? White angels and red devils dancing around on stage, a worker's wife thinking the Empire State Building is like 'a spire reaching into heaven' (like the Tower of Babel, maybe?) and Daleks hanging out in a basement with random bursts of fire shooting out for no reason.

I noticed a bit of a white / red theme going on in the previous episode as well, actually, when two of the cars the Doctor dropped through had a red and a white inhabitant each living in them. Continuity = nice - and there's certainly a continuation from the last episode of the dissonance between overground and underground, privileged and desolate New York.

And what about the character names, eh?

Diagoras, a fifth-century BC philosopher famous for his atheism. Nice enough touch for a character primarily driven by money and ambition - especially if you apply a fairly modern definition of atheism. And how ironic that he should worship, and eventually become one of, the Dalek-devils. (ETA: although, as I just realised while talking to pickwick, since this is a two-parter perhaps in fact his character has yet to manifest its atheism, and the Diagoras-Dalek hybrid will do so next week, with important plot-advancing consequences?)

Solomon. 'Nuff said. Though I loved him being given the line, 'I'm not a fool, Doctor.'

Tallulah (who's very insistent about how her name should be spelt) I think must be based on Tallulah Bankhead - she's about the right age, although I think Bankhead's career was a bit further advanced in 1930. Famously, Bankhead said "I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education." Neat.

And Laszlo made me think most of all of Victor Laszlo, the fugitive resistance leader from Casablanca. Well, the Daleks with their 'Final Experiment' certainly carried resonances of the Nazis. So will his character live up to his namesake's role? Find out next week!

Comments

[sir-didymus.livejournal.com]

I thought the episode was fantastic, though the human dalek at the end should've had a scarier sounding voice and he should have said less ("I am the future" would have been enough) and I would have prefered robomen to pig slaves but aside from that I loved it.

I'd give it 5/5

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I can't really see how being a humanoid, which can easily be shot, can't levitate, can't scan people's brains with its sucker, doesn't have a built-in gun, etc. can really be a step forward for the Daleks. Oh well - we'll see how it plays out next week.

[taimatsu]

Mmm, you're right - though presumably not all the Daleks' powers are integral to the robot shells rather than the creatures themselves - I can see the brain-scanning still perhaps working.

[sir-didymus.livejournal.com]

It's a sci fi cliche that something half human is seen as better, I've seen it in tv series and films dozens of times.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Though for me, the thing that make new Who so good is that it reverse or plays with sci-fi cliches. I hope it'll do the same with this one next week.