It's not a very compelling script, but Daleks in Manhattan manages to skirt by a lot thanks to its outstanding production. They do a good job of evoking the time period and setting in a way that this and Evolution of the Daleks are still left feeling unique to this day. Sure, there are quite a few American adventures in Doctor Who at this point, but few feel so thoroughly there. That only some shots were actually taken in New York and the rest was done in Cardiff makes this illusion all the more impressive. I really like the locations like the still under construction Empire State Building and Hooverville.

It feels like these elements of the story also are used to inform the plot. There's a ring of desperation around the poverty of the era that informs a lot about how the Daleks are able to get away with so much.

Things kind of go off the rails in Evolution of the Daleks but Daleks in Manhattan does a decent job at selling the setting and creating a relatively engrossing setting with some decent build-up to the mystery around the Daleks and their plans, even if the pig-monsters are weird and some of the writing around that feels overplayed. This also feels like a very underwhelming follow-up to Doomsday. The Daleks go from barely surviving the Time War as these Cult of Skaro Daleks manage to nearly conquer the Earth and defeat the Doctor only to start messing around with a single building on Earth? It's a little underwhelming. Martha and the Doctor also feel pretty underused, especially the former. Their characters feel more like passive observers to the story around them rather than active participants in the story - a very Chibnallesque trait, unfortunately.