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| The Doctor, under fire from a Dalek. |
THE PLOT:
The Doctor is taking her friends on a tour of successive New Year's celebrations from across time and space, until the TARDIS detects an alien incursion in present-day Sheffield. She follows the signal to an archaeological site, where archaeologists Lin (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mitch (Nikesh Patel) have discovered a strange squid-like creature. The Doctor investigates, but the creature has gone, leaving behind a trail of ooze and slime. She orders the two away from the site, then gathers a sample of the ooze for the TARDIS to analyze.
The Doctor hasn't taken all possibilities into her accounting, however. It turns out that the creature has found a host to control: Lin, who is now an unwilling puppet as an alien being takes her on a rampage to recover weapons and armor. Only when the TARDIS finishes analyzing the alien sample does the Doctor realize just how serious this situation is.
The alien is a Dalek. With Lin under its control, it has set to work rebuilding its shell before resuming its former mission: Total conquest of Earth!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Some good nonverbal acting from Jodie Whittaker as the TARDIS finishes analyzing the sample. One instant, she's bantering with her friends and smiling. She glances down at the readout, and she goes absolutely quiet as the smile drops away. From that moment, her manner is grim and determined, in a way she's mostly avoided showing when her companions are present. "Me and a Dalek, it's personal," she explains. She remains protective of her friends, finding a reason to send them back to the safety of the ship before confronting the Dalek directly.
Graham: Family isn't just about DNA... It's about what you do. And you haven't done enough." Graham is separated from the TARDIS relatively early in the episode, leaving Bradley Walsh to carry a subplot in which Ryan's neglectful father, Aaron (Daniel Adegboyega), attempts to reconnect with his son. Graham's dealings with Aaron are effective. He isn't directly unkind, despite the hurt Aaron has caused. Instead, he gently reproves him for not being there, then deals with him sympathetically, asking why Aaron didn't come to his mother's funeral: "Why didn't you come, Aaron? Not for your mum or for Ryan, but for yourself?"
Ryan: Genuinely rattled by his father's reappearance. Tries to remain polite as he goes out to share a coffee, but his anger can't help but seep out. "Don't come walking back in demanding respect, cos that ain't where we are," he snaps. He very deliberately calls Graham "gramps" in front of Aaron, knowing that it will needle Aaron to see him sharing the relationship with Graham that he believes should be his.
Yaz: Yet again, gets the least to do of the regulars. She does get to "play cop" when she walks Lin and Mitch off the site. Her loyalty to the Doctor shows throughout, and she is the first to protest when the Doctor insists the others return to the TARDIS while she faces the Dalek. Her fondness for Ryan is also evident when Aaron asks the team to watch out for his son, and she firmly replies, "Always."
The Dalek: Give Chris Chibnall credit where it's due: He does right by the Daleks. I loved Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner, but in his hands the Daleks were reduced to little more than a joke. Chibnall restores them as a legitimate threat, in large part because his script does something many of his previous Doctor Who scripts have failed to do: He shows instead of tells. The recon Dalek's ability to control Lin like a puppet is genuinely eerie, first as it makes her turn one way and then another to demonstrate its hold on her, then when it contorts her lips into an evil smile after murdering two police officers. After the Dalek rebuilds its shell, largely out of scrap, it faces a squadron of trained soldiers... and proceeds to slaughter them in an utterly one-sided extermination that recalls another Dalek's old boast: "This is not war - This is pest control!"
THOUGHTS
The 2019 New Year's special, Resolution aired mere weeks after The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos. It follows up on the Series 11 strands, first by showing the TARDIS team as a fully unified group, then by addressing Ryan's abandonment issues with his father. As such, it feels very much of a piece with that Series. The Dalek becomes the first old monster to return during Chris Chibnall's tenure, in a story that returns to Sheffield - where the Thirteenth Doctor's era began - and does so with a noticeably larger production than most of the preceding season. All of which makes it feel far more like a proper season finale than Battle did.
Director Wayne Yip, the first pre-Series 11 director to return to the series, infuses Resolution with energy. There is almost continual motion during the episode - Vehicles in motion, or characters, or even just the camera - which helps to develop a sense of urgency. The motion only stops during the dramatic scenes involving Ryan's father, Aaron, almost certainly a deliberate choice to differentiate the tone between the action-heavy main plot and the character-based family drama. Yip has a strong visual eye, and even manages to get good use of the TARDIS console room, a set which has left me largely underwhelmed.
THE AARON SUBPLOT
I've read many complaints about the subplot with Aaron. I'm split in my reaction. I actually liked the early Aaron scenes. I enjoyed the way every one of the regulars greets him with coldness, from Graham literally slamming the door in his face to the Doctor bluntly telling him, "You weren't at Grace's funeral. Ryan waited for you. You let him down" - Stated not just flatly, but practically in a monotone, with a brief pause after each statement to allow Aaron to feel each verbal slap before the next is delivered.
I also thought the Ryan/Aaron scene in the coffee shop was fine. Some of the dialogue was a little on-the-nose, but some strong acting smoothed it over. The scene is also placed at the right point in the episode's structure for a slow bit, coming as it does during a pause in the main action before the Doctor realizes that the creature is a Dalek, and thus before the urgent chase kicks in. All of this worked for me.
What didn't work was the extended scene between Graham and Aaron in the second half. Not because it's a bad scene - It's actually a very well-written scene, with two very good actors sinking their teeth into some excellent character writing. But it intrudes on the main action just as the Doctor's pursuit of the Dalek is kicking into gear. As good as the scene is on its own merits, as a piece in itself, it tramples badly over the pacing. Given that the scene is not actually narratively necessary, it probably should have been removed.
THE ENDING
The other main flaw is not exactly a new one in Doctor Who, and is far from unique to Chris Chibnall's stories. The very last part of the episode just doesn't quite come off.
First, before executing her plan to destroy the Dalek's casing, the Doctor bizarrely pauses to check with her friends that she's being "nice." This does not remotely fit with her demeanor across the rest of the episode, and it actively undermines the seriousness of the situation (and, irritatingly, undermines an otherwise very good performance by Jodie Whittaker).
Then comes the climax, in which the Doctor tries to trick the Dalek into a supernova. This plot turn sounds perfect on paper, the Doctor turning an apparent defeat into a victory while at the same time demonstrating her ruthlessness. Unfortunately, it plays out as a bit frenetic and rushed, the emotional beats failing to connect. It's not a disastrous or bungled climax - But it doesn't quite land the way it should have.
OVERALL
Resolution does most of its job well. It successfully recreates the Daleks as a threat with an approach similar to, but not outright copying, 2005's Dalek. It allows Jodie Whittaker to show more urgency than most Series 11 scripts allowed, while also making an effective close to the Graham/Ryan arc that was Series 11's strongest continuing thread.
The ending doesn't quite work for me, which is why I rate this as merely a good episode instead of a great one. But it is still a far better close to the season than The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos, and the many things it gets right give me hope for the next season.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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