'Daleks in Manhattan' (Story Code 3.4) by Helen Raynor

“It’s the Depression sweetie. Your heart might stop, but the show goes on.” – Tallulah

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”We must adapt to survive.” – Dalek Sec

At the Majestic Theatre in New York, 1930, showgirl Tallulah kisses her boyfriend, stagehand Laszlo, and then joins her fellow performers on stage; but instead of enjoying his lover’s show, Laszlo follows a sound into the depths of the theatre – where a terrifying pig-man creature attacks him… Two weeks later, the TARDIS materialises at the base of the Statue of Liberty; but Martha’s excitement at arriving in the real city of New York is quickly overridden by the Doctor’s sense of curiosity, after he sees a newspaper bearing the headline ‘Hooverville Mystery Deepens’. Together they head for Hooverville, a section of Central Park where, following the events of the Wall Street Crash, dispossessed citizens with no home, no job, and no money have set up a shantytown; here they meet the society’s leader, the charismatic yet diplomatic Solomon. Elsewhere, at the construction site of the impressive Empire State Building, boss Mr Diagoras is having problems with his workforce’s foreman, who is objecting to the rigorous work that his men are being ordered to do by their “new masters”. Diagoras responds by introducing the foreman to his boss – and as the foreman looks on, the lift arrives bringing with it two pig-men and a terrifying robot-like creature – a Dalek! Ignoring the foreman’s screams of protest, the Dalek orders its swine-like slaves to take him below for something called “The Final Experiment”. Back in Central Park, the Doctor and Martha learn from Solomon that something is abducting the inhabitants of Hooverville at night, and that the police are not interested in helping. At that moment Diagoras arrives, asking for workers to help clear a section of the sewer tunnels that has recently collapsed; when the Doctor and Martha immediately volunteer, Solomon and a young man named Frank follow their example, and it is not long before the four of them are wandering the labyrinthine depths of New York’s tunnels. After half a mile of walking, the Doctor and his party come across a curious, organic, green blob lying on the floor; intrigued, the Doctor pockets the thing for examination later. At the Empire State Building, Diagoras instructs his workers to weld Dalek panels to the base of the mast atop the structure; he then meets with one of the Daleks, assuring it that construction of the conductor will soon be finished. In a control room below the building, Dalek Sec and the remaining two members of the Cult of Skaro continue their machinations; realising the Diagoras’ potential, Sec orders that he be brought below for the final experiment. Grateful to finally meet his boss, the ambitious and sycophantic Diagoras follows his escort; but his thanks at receiving Sec’s transmitted thoughts in his mind soon turn to horror, as the pig-slaves seize him in preparation for the Daleks’ experimentation. Down in the sewers, the Doctor and his party come across a lone pig-slave, apparently in distress; the compassionate Doctor tries to help, but when more pig-men appear and close in on them, he is forced to shout a hurried retreat. As the porcine creatures attack, the Doctor, Martha and Solomon manage to reach the safety of a ladder that takes them to the basement of the theatre, but Frank is not so lucky, and he is dragged back into the depths. The Doctor, Martha and Solomon then meet Tallulah, who demands an explanation as to where her boyfriend has gone. While the Doctor uses some local electrical equipment to build a DNA scanner, Solomon returns to his comrades in Hooverville, urging them to take up arms and protect themselves. In the Dalek control room, Sec sacrifices itself in order for its race to survive; opening up its casing, the Dalek mutant within reaches out its tentacles and seizes hold of Diagoras, absorbing the man into itself… As Tallulah goes on stage with her fellow showgirls, giving a sexy performance of “My Angel Put the Devil in Me”, Martha sees a pig-man watching from the wings. Disrupting the show, Martha gives chase, but the creature escapes into the sewers below the theatre, and another of the porcine monstrosities captures her. The Doctor uses his DNA scanner to analyse the organic creature he found in the sewers – and is shocked to discover that it originates from Skaro, the home planet of the Daleks; he immediately rushes to find Martha, only to learn that she has been taken into the sewers. With Tallulah stubbornly in tow, the Doctor follows his companion into the tunnels. Elsewhere, Martha meets up with Frank, who is being herded along with several other people from Hooverville through the sewers by two Daleks and their pig-slaves. After the Doctor and Tallulah narrowly avoid a Dalek patrolling the sewers, the Time Lord is furious that his old enemies have again survived. When they then meet a pig-man, Tallulah is upset to discover that he is in fact her lover, Laszlo, augmented as part of a terrible Dalek genetic experiment; Laszlo explains that the Daleks have combined experimentation with their need to create a slave force, which they have then used to abduct others for testing; he managed to escape before he lost his mind, but others were not so lucky. Laszlo takes the Doctor to the Daleks’ base, where the Time Lord slips unseen into the ranks of the captives and is reunited with a relieved Martha. Arriving in the control room, the Doctor and Martha are just in time to see the unveiling of the Daleks’ final stage of evolution: the dawn of a new age is heralded as Dalek Sec’s casing opens and a hideous Dalek-human hybrid steps out…

David Tennant (The Doctor), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), Miranda Raison (Tallulah), Ryan Carnes (Laszlo), Hugh Quarshie (Solomon), Andrew Garfield (Frank), Eric Loren (Mr Diagoras / Dalek Sec Hybrid), Flik Swann (Myrna), Alexis Caley (Lois), Ian Porter (Foreman), Joe Montana (Worker #1), Stewart Alexander (Worker #2), Mel Taylor (Dock Worker), Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Anthony Sargo, David Harkinson (Dalek Operators), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voices), Paul Kasey (Hero Pig)

Directed by James Strong
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX:
21st April 2007 @ 6.35 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha

Part 1 of a 2-part story