In light of the disappointing Dalek two-parter – ‘Daleks in Manhattan‘ and ‘Evolution of the Daleks‘ – this turned out to be a fine return to form and a great ravenous beastie episode.
I appreciate the show-makers pushing the envelope and the budget to try and come up with something special, even though the scorpion-Lazarus-throwback did look a little unconvincing at times (it worked well enough to put the Scorpian King in The Mummy Returns to shame). It captured all the essential elements of the classic monster tale, filled with science gone wrong, awful deaths and a final showdown in a bizarre location.
Of course the episode almost got overshadowed by the trailer that following for the rest of the season, with explosions, monsters, Captain Jack, more explosions, running around, the Doctor shouting, and the ominous image of a gas-masked Saxon tapping out a sinister rhythm on a table. Creepy… can’t wait to find out what’s going on there… While I don’t appreciate the intervention of Eurovision (nor do I believe that it warrants a slot on BBC1 in this day and age), this almost compensated for the extra weeks wait for the next episode, ‘42‘.
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