The eternal encyclopaedia tells me that “Hoovervilles” were not a single shanty town in New York, but formed all over the US. One of them was indeed in central park. I do like when historic DW episodes educate me about something.

This episode definitely had some promise as an exploration of class. The piecemeal offer of work for poor folk is basically what we in modern times call the “gig economy”. I’d argue this part of the story is more interesting than anything involving aliens.

But then it also has daleks. And pig men. I’m really not sure why they needed the pig men. The pig men masks are pretty well done, far better than the weird human dalek thing, which just looks like a parody of doctor who rather than something scary.

Some things come to mind:

• When Doctor first sees a pigman he says can help - I’ll need to wait untiI rewatch part 2, but I don’t think he ever does…
• There’s some nice jokes like “he’s into musical theatre”, which sort of makes up for annoying pining Martha.
• Despite being a theatre fan, Martha does seem to have a lot of trouble realising you can get to the other side of a stage without walking right across it

This episode has quite a lot to like. Early 1930s New York City! Class tensions! The aftermath of World War I! The Cult of Skaro! British actors gamely doing American accents! Andrew Garfield!

It also has mutant pig people, so I suppose it’s a bit of a wash.

I actually can’t find much to say, really - it’s the first part of a two-parter, so it probably doesn’t bode well that I’d lost interest by the final act. A lot of the setup is pretty interesting, but at a certain point they’re mostly just chasing pig men through the sewers, which is…not exactly compelling.

And in general, those pig men are a baffling choice that derail the whole thing. Yeah I get it, the Daleks were doing genetic experiments. But…they also could have just enslaved regular people? Have them do a little mind control, and you’ve made your episode far less silly, and less expensive at the same time! I suppose that would make it less palatable when they all get slaughtered next week, though.