The Effects
Ian: It’s the make-up effects team that make the biggest impression this time; unfortunately it’s not a favourable one. Did someone find the pig-head mould from "Aliens of London” in a box somewhere and decide “hey, pig-men would be cool!”? If so they were sadly mistaken. The pig-men are laughable, and not in a good way. And the best thing that can be said for the Dalek-human hybrid is that I’m relieved they didn’t call him Davros!
Tony: In a word, unconvincing. And the whole pig-men idea was just idiotic anyway.
Ian: Depression-era New York is reasonably well realised by the visual effects team, but being a “real” place it’s not very exciting. Then there’s the now regular sight of flying Daleks, although this time it’s a little less convincing.
Daniel: Oh good — a stupid-looking Dalek-human hybrid prosthetic, stupid-looking pig-men, a stupid-looking half pig-man, and Daleks that look pretty stupid thanks to how they've been shot (the Dalek-cam was laughable). Some of the shots from high up on the Empire State were passable, but there wasn't much to recommend, or enjoy, here.
Cast and Crew
Ian: Terribly fake American accents and hammy performances are the order of the day from the supporting cast. As for the leads, David Tennant looks like he’d rather be somewhere else and Freema Agyeman, after several fine performances, does nothing here, but then the script gives her nothing to do.
Tony: Almost universally bad. Dreadful attempts at accents, Freema Agyeman has gone back to amateur hour and not even the usually reliable Tennant can make this dialogue work. Some of the sloppiest direction yet seen in the series.
Daniel: Miranda Raison needs to stick to Spooks (MI5); her accent here was utterly diabolical. Hugh Quarshie does a better American accent than the last time I saw him (in the excellent, if misunderstood, horror Nightbreed), but it's still deeply crap. Ryan Carnes is actually American, but surrounded by so much crapness actually sounds as cheesy as the others. Tennant gets virtually nothing to do, as does Agyeman. The less said about Eric Loren's Diagoras the better, I think. In a word: lousy.
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