The newly-transformed Dalek Sec orders the pig-men to prepare the prisoners for hybridisation. The Doctor takes this as his cue to finally slip away.
As the pig-men advance towards the humans, a radio starts playing music. Everyone looks around for the source of the sound, and the Doctor steps out from behind some machinery.
One of the Daleks wants to exterminate the Doctor immediately, but Dalek Sec tells them to wait. The Doctor and Dalek Sec talk for a while, and the Doctor learns that the Daleks wound up in 1930 as a result of an emergency temporal shift, using up most of their power, which explains why they're not operating openly in New York.
Dalek Sec says that he feels humanity, and goes on to describe the aggressive nature of humans, and says that it's everything they wanted from mankind. The Doctor says that's not what humanity's about, and gestures at the radio.
One of the Daleks asks what the purpose of the device is, and the Doctor replies that it plays music. Unless you're a Dalek, in which case it's noise. He sonic screwdrivers the radio, and it produces a screeching noise which affects the Daleks and the pig-men, but somehow leaves the human prisoners unaffected.
The prisoners make their escape, and reach a ladder leading out of the sewers, having collected Tallulah on the way, although Laszlo has remained behind. The pig-men and two Daleks give chase, but the humans are long gone by the time they arrive at the ladder. The Daleks order the pig-men to return, and then the two of them talk and express doubts about Dalek Sec as their leader.
The escapees make their way to Hooverville, where the Doctor urges Solomon to get everyone to leave. Solomon won't do this, and says that Hooverville is the lowed place someone can fall, and there's nowhere to go from there.
A sentry spots some pig-men and sounds a warning, and the inhabitants of Hooverville prepare themselves for battle. For a group of unemployed and homeless people, they certainly have a lot of firearms.
The pig-men drive everyone to the centre of Hooverville, and then the big guns arrive in the form of two of the Daleks, who open fire and the usual Dalek-related devastation occurs. At one point there is a lull in the attack, and Solomon uses that to try and reason with the Daleks.
The Daleks' response is, unsurprisingly, “Exterminate”, and they kill Solomon, who is unarmed. Dalek Sec, who is monitoring proceedings from the lab, lets out a gasp, and the Dalek still with him looks at him strangely, or at least as close as a Dalek can come to looking at someone strangely.
The Doctor then addresses the Daleks, telling them to kill him if it will stop them attacking the Hooverville residents. The Daleks are about to do so, but Dalek Sec orders them to stop.
Dalek Sec orders the Doctor to be brought to him. The Doctor says he'll go on the condition that the humans are spared, which the Daleks agree to.
Martha doesn't want the Doctor to go, but he tells her he must because the Daleks changed their minds, something which they never do. He clasps Martha's hand in his hands and thanks her, giving her a wink. Once the Daleks have left, it is revealed that the Doctor has slipped her his psychic paper.
In the Daleks' laboratory, the remaining Dalek asks Dalek Sec why the Doctor was saved. Dalek Sec replies that the Doctor is a genius, and the future of the Daleks may depend on him.
Tallulah assists Martha in tending the wounded, and asks what they should do now. Martha shows her the psychic paper and says the Doctor must want her to go somewhere, but she doesn't know where.
The Doctor arrives at the Daleks' lab, where he angrily confronts Dalek Sec about the deaths of the defenceless Hoovervillians. Dalek Sec apologises, saying that the deaths were wrong, and the Doctor is a little shocked by this revelation.
The Doctor asks what they want him for, and Dalek Sec tells him that after attempting to grow new Dalek embryos and failing, they realised that the Earth's greatest resource is its people. He flicks a switch, and the lab lights up to show hundreds of human bodies suspended above them. One of them is lowered to the ground.
Dalek Sec tells the Doctor that the body isn't dead, but he, like over a thousand others that the Daleks have obtained, has had his mind wiped and is ready to be filled with new ideas. The Doctor asks where the Daleks are going to find enough power to convert the humans, and Dalek Sec mentions a conductor.
In Hooverville, Martha recalls that the Daleks mentioned an energy conductor and that the Dalekanium was in place. Martha doesn't know where it might be, so she and Tallulah go and ask Frank about Diagoras's projects. Frank says that most of the time the work Diagoras offered involved building the Empire State Building.
Dalek Sec shows the Doctor a plan of the Empire State Building, and explains that a solar flare will soon hit the Earth and the Daleks have turned the building into a conductor for the gamma radiation, and that will provide enough power to splice the human and Dalek genetic codes and create more hybrids.
When Dalek Sec says that Daleks are emotionless, the Doctor replies that their creator believed that removing the emotions made them stronger. Dalek Sec's reponse is that the creator was wrong, and the other Daleks appear concerned at this statement.
The Doctor continues by saying that Daleks would no longer be the supreme beings, and Dalek Sec says that it is good. The other Daleks object to this, but Dalek Sec appears to convince them by pointing out that their quest for supremacy has led them to hiding in the sewers of a primitive world.
Dalek Sec tells the Doctor that his knowledge of genetic engineering is greater than that of the Daleks, and that knowledge must be used to make the Dalek-human hybrids even more human. The Doctor asks if the other Daleks are going to let that happen, and they reply that Dalek Sec is their leader and therefore must be obeyed.
The Doctor says that there's no room on Earth for another race of people, but Dalek Sec says that the Doctor can use the TARDIS to take the new race to another planet where they can start again. This seems to convince the Doctor, and he gets to work.
Martha, Frank and Tallulah get into the Empire State Building without any difficulty, thanks to the psychic paper, and make their way to the top floor. While Tallulah admires the view, Martha and Frank start looking through the architects' plans to try and find the Dalekanium.
In the laboratory, the pig-men bring in some supplies, and amongst them is Laszlo, but for some reason none of the Daleks have noticed that he's not completely transformed. The Doctor asks what will happen to the pig-men, and Dalek Sec says that their lifespan is limited and none survive beyond a few weeks.
A hundred floors above them, Frank stops examining the plans and goes to keep watch. Tallulah joins Martha, and the two of them reflect on the lack of prospects regarding their relationships with Laszlo and the Doctor, respectively.
In the laboratory, the Doctor orders a switch to be pulled, which begins some process related to the task at hand. An alarm sounds, and the Doctor discovers that the Daleks have overwritten the gene feed, meaning that the new bodies will be 100% Dalek.
The Daleks order the pig-men to restrain Dalek Sec and the Doctor, and Laszlo makes sure that he is the one who restrains the Doctor. The Daleks are distracted by the imminent arrival of the solar flare, and the Doctor and Laszlo run for the lift. As the lift ascends, Laszlo is clearly out of breath, but he shrugs it off as nothing.
The lift arrives at the top floor, and Martha and Tallulah, who by this time have discovered where the Dalekanium is, are overjoyed to see the Doctor and Laszlo. However, as they're greeting each other, the lift closes and starts to return to the laboratory, with the Doctor unable to stop it. Martha shows the Doctor where the Dalekanium is, and he tells her that he'll have remove it on his own, as she must stay and fight.
The lift arrives in the Dalek laboratory, where Dalek Sec has now been chained up. The Daleks order the pig-men to take the lift in order to find the Doctor and kill him.
Martha, Frank, Laszlo and Tallulah arm themselves and wait for the lift to arrive. However, Laszlo collapses and is clearly not going to be able to fight.
When the lift is about half-way there, Martha notices the storm that is raging outside, and realises that a bolt of lightning will strike the building. So if they connect the lightning conductor to the lift, then the pig-men will get zapped. She, Frank, and Tallulah begin to place metal bars for the electricity to travel along.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has removed one the panels of Dalekanium. However, as he begins work on the second, he loses grip of his sonic screwdriver, and it falls over the side of the building.
Inside the building, the metal bars have been set up, and Martha, Frank, Tallulah, and Laszlo wait for the lift to reach the top floor. The lift definitely seems to have slowed up, taking a lot longer for the second half of its ascent than for the first half.
As the lightning strike approaches, the Doctor for some reason clings to the conductor. The lightning hits, and electricity flows through the conductor and the Doctor's body.
The electricity also reaches the lift, which rather conveniently reaches the top floor at the exact instant of the lightning strike. The pig-men are all zapped, although I have to confess to some scepticism about whether Martha's plan would have actually worked. My knowledge of thunderstorms isn't that good, but isn't a lightning bolt more like a single spark rather than a sustained current, which is what was depicted here?
Anyway, the pig-men are now all dead, and Martha reflects on the fact that they used to be people and she killed them. Laszlo's response is that it was actually the Daleks who killed them, a long time ago.
The lightning has also provided enough power for the Daleks' plan to work, and the human bodies wake up. They still look completely human, even though they're apparently 100% Dalek, so I think someone needs to check their maths. The Daleks order their new subjects to begin the invasion of Manhattan, and the Dalek-humans arm themselves with large guns.
Martha checks on the Doctor, and finds him lying next to the conductor, dazed but still alive. She gives him his sonic screwdriver, which she found half-way down.
As the Dalek-humans march through the sewers, the Doctor says that there's only one chance. He got in the way, and the gamma strike went through him first. He doesn't explain what this means though, but asks Tallulah if she can get them into the theatre.
When they get to the theatre, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to send out a signal which will attract the Daleks, as they'll want to find their biggest enemy. The plan works, and before too long, the Dalek-humans have entered the theatre.
The Dalek-humans surround the Doctor and his companions, and then two Daleks enter the theatre, together with the chained-up Dalek Sec. The third Dalek remains in the laboratory, hooked up to the main computer.
The Doctor tries to talk to the Daleks, and Dalek Sec also joins in, trying to convince the Daleks not to kill the Doctor. The end result is that one of the Daleks kills Dalek Sec.
The Doctor turns to the Dalek-humans and tries to point out to them what Daleks are really like. The Doctor then addresses the Daleks and tells them that if he's going to die then he should be the first blood for the new Dalek-humans.
The Daleks give the order to exterminate, and the Dalek-humans take aim. However, they don't fire, and one of them begins to ask the Daleks why.
The Doctor explains that he got in the way of the lightning strike, which means that Time Lord DNA got mixed up with the Dalek DNA, giving the Dalek-humans a little bit of freedom. The Daleks decide that if the Dalek-humans won't obey then they must be destroyed, and they open fire.
The Dalek-humans return fire, and the end result is that the two Daleks are destroyed. The remaining Dalek states that the Dalek-humans are failures and sends out a signal which kills all of the hybrids.
The Doctor returns to the laboratory to confront the last remaining Dalek, Dalek Caan. The Doctor offers to help Dalek Caan, but the Dalek activates the emergency temporal shift and disappears.
Martha and Tallulah arrive with Laszlo, who is out of breath and not looking good at all. Laszlo says that he's dying, just like all of the other pig-men, who only lasted a few weeks. The Doctor says that there have been too many deaths today, and he's not having another one, and starts to get to work.
The scene changes to Central Park, where Frank tells the others that the Hooverville residents have agreed to give a now fully-recovered Laszlo a home. He can't promise Laszlo won't cause people to stare, but in the end, Hooverville is for people who don't have anywhere else to go.
The Doctor and Martha return to the TARDIS, and Martha asks if he'll ever see Dalek Caan again. The Doctor replies that he will one day, and I'm thinking that Season 4 would be the ideal time (at least for the viewers, not the Doctor, who I'm pretty sure would be very happy if he never saw another Dalek again).
Quotes
Dalek Sec: You have betrayed me.
Dalek #2: You told us to imagine.
Dalek #3: And we imagined your irrelevance.
The Doctor: See, never waste time with a hug.
Dalek Sec: My Daleks - just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you.
The Doctor: There's been too many deaths today. Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age-old enemies. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now, I am not having one more death! Got that? Not one! Tallulah, out of the way. ...The Doctor is in.
Martha: Do you reckon it's gonna work, those two?
The Doctor: I don't know. Anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York, that's what this city's good at. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd pig-slave-Dalek-mutant-hybrid too.
Martha: Meant to say – sorry.
The Doctor: What for?
Martha: Just 'cause that Dalek got away. I know what that means to you. Think you'll ever see it again?
The Doctor: Oh yes...One day.