Whatever endearing qualities existed in the first part of this story are almost completely absent in the second. It’s mostly a lot of things happening, and most of them don’t make sense.

The most potentially interesting storyline is Dalek Sec’s newfound humanity, but it’s made abrupt and dull. The concept was played with more successfully back in “Dalek”, and will be played with again more successfully in the future.

The Doctor offers himself as a sacrifice to save the residents of Hooverville, despite there being no real reason for the Daleks to spare them even if he does surrender - the ploy only works because Sec has a sudden change of heart, and he’s not even there for the Doctor to appeal to.

The Daleks’ plan revolves around a solar flare, but the eventual power source for their experiment is a bolt of lightning?

The Daleks’ betrayal of Sec is actually a high point, particularly because their doubts were clear in their “body language” even in the last episode. But then they keep Sec alive for…some reason, even though that’s an extremely un-Dalek thing to do.

The remnant of the Cult of Skaro recalibrate the machine to convert the humans with pure Dalek DNA, so of course they come out the other end looking exactly like regular humans, without even Sec’s goofy hybrid makeup. Their laser Tommy guns are pretty fun, though.

The idea of a Dalek-Time Lord hybrid species is glossed over so quickly it doesn’t have any time at all to land, even though the episode tries to make a big deal out of it.

Dalek Caan escapes without killing the Doctor, because the plot says so.

The Doctor can use the genetic machine to save Laszlo’s life, but can’t turn him back into a regular human. Okay.

Martha’s still hung up on the Doctor. What a thrilling plot twist.

What a shame. Despite the obvious flaws in the first part, this episode thoroughly fails to salvage the interesting bits.