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| Prime Minister Jo Patterson (Harriet Walter) unveils her new security drones: The Daleks. |
THE PLOT:
The Doctor is in prison.
Captured by the Judoon and sentenced for the crimes of incarnations whose very existence she can't remember, she has now spent decades in a facility that is also home to Weeping Angels, Ood, and even a P'Ting. Fortunately, an old friend has come to rescue her: Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), who uses his Time Vortex Manipulator to sweep her back to her TARDIS, so that she can rejoin her friends in Sheffield.
Unfortunately, the Doctor arrives ten months after her friends' return. The new Prime Minister is Jo Patterson (Harriet Walter), and courtesy of her connections with American businessman Jack Robertson (Chris Noth), she is introducing a new innovation - a security drone that she promises will ensure the country's security. The Doctor and her friends recognize these drones instantly: Daleks, reproduced from the wreckage of the Dalek recon scout the Doctor previously defeated!
The Dalek creature also survived. It has used human DNA to supplement its genetic code and has cloned itself. With thousands of Daleks rolling off the assembly line, the Doctor has no choice but to call for help to the one force in the universe capable of destroying these mutated Daleks.
The pure-bred Daleks are coming to Earth. And it's the Doctor herself who invited them...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: When she discusses the Master's revelations about her hidden past, she reveals that she's angry. Unfortunately, this mostly doesn't show in the actual episode... or any other emotion, really. Part of this is the script, which has the Doctor say that she's angry in one scene and say that she's sad in another; there's very little less authentically emotional than hearing a character directly tell us their emotions. The rest, I'm sad to say, is Jodie Whittaker's performance. She's perfectly fine insofar as there are no badly played scenes or misjudged acting choices... but the spark that's carried so many episodes just isn't there this time. It feels like an "end of the production block" performance, and is adequate but no more than that.
Yaz: Was the most hurt by the Doctor's ten-month absence. Yaz has spent that time literally living inside the TARDIS that was the vessel for her and her friends' escape while searching for any information about the Doctor. When she hears the sound of the Doctor's timeship, she pleads aloud for it to be real... only to angrily shove the Doctor upon her appearance, snapping at her about how worried they were. Later, when the Doctor hatches her final plan, she pauses to assure a worried Yaz that she won't disappear; Yaz replies sadly that someday, the Doctor will do just that.
Jack Robertson: Chris Noth returns as business mogul Jack Robertson... unfortunately. Chris Noth has never been my favorite actor, and I pretty much hated both his performance and the character in Arachnids in the UK. This is a better episode, with a script that makes a reasonable effort to mold him into more of a character and less of a comedy sketch creation. He's cautious enough to try to talk the incoming Prime Minister out of rushing the Dalek rollout, and reacts with appropriate disgust when shown the first cloned creature. He's still an opportunist, and when he sees an opportunity to turn the crisis to his advantage he can't help but take it, but there are notes that a more nuanced actor might have played. If anything, however, Noth is even hammier than before, at one point actually growling at one of his associates. The door is again left open for Robertson to return, and dramatically speaking that's something that should happen... but I really hope it doesn't.
Capt. Jack Harkness: In what is all but certain to be his final appearance as Jack, John Barrowman delivers a "Capt. Jack's greatest hits" compilation: Quips about how good the Doctor looks in red, references to exactly how he stored his tech to smuggle it into prison; calling Graham as a "silver fox"; and blowing stuff up with a wink and a smile. More interesting is his conversation with Yaz. Jack understands how it feels to be left by the Doctor, and in one of the episode's best moments is able to both listen to Yaz's frustrations and respond to them in a mature and thoughtful manner.
Daleks: 2020's Resolution was essentially Chris Chibnall's take on Dalek, with a lone Daleks causing havoc. This story has shades of The Power of the Daleks, with greedy humans eager to use the Dalek technology to further their own agendas while mainly just setting themselves up for destruction. There's not much new here. Chibnall recycles the Dalek possession bit from Resolution, and his climax draws in the "Dalek purity" idea that drove the plot of Remembrance of the Daleks. I actually like the redesign of the sleek black "Robertson Daleks," however, and wouldn't mind seeing it used again.
THE DEPARTURE OF GRAHAM AND RYAN:
This episode sees the departure of Graham and Ryan after two full seasons. The actual exit is done well enough, building on the restlessness Ryan expressed back in Can You Hear Me?, in which he wondered how much longer they (really meaning, he) could continue doing this. He's the one who really wants to leave, having come to the conclusion that it's time for him to return to his life to try to make a positive contribution to Earth in the present. Graham would as soon keep traveling... but if Ryan is staying, then he prefers to stay with the young man who's finally comfortable calling him "family."
I like that this is an entirely voluntary exit, the first Doctor Who has offered since Martha Jones in Series Three. I just wish it had come a year earlier. The Graham/Ryan arc was the strongest element of Series 11, but it came to a close in The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos, with the return of Ryan's father in Resolution adding an effective button. Had they left at that time, I think the exit would have been more effective. Series 12 had little idea what to do with them, pushing them mostly to the background, and even this episode gives them little to do beyond leaving. Given that, it's hard to feel sorry to see them go.
THOUGHTS:
Resolution, Chris Chibnall's previous Dalek story, was surprisingly good. It re-energized the Daleks as a genuine threat, had some real tension and momentum to it, and overall felt fresh. A weak ending was all that kept it out of the upper ranks of Dalek tales.
The good news is: Revolution of the Daleks has a better ending. The bad news? It's not as good an episode. At 71 minutes, I think it needed to be trimmed closer to 60. There's little momentum here; large chunks feel downright sluggish. The means by which the Doctor defeats the Daleks is clever and fits the pieces that are established in the first part of the episode. But the beats feel slightly off, the humans lingering long enough for me to wonder why the Daleks haven't shot them yet.
The episode is entertaining overall, with well-staged action scenes and solid performances (well, except for Noth). It even offers up some decent social commentary, as the Prime Minister's promise to the voting public is that the Daleks will offer security. We then see them deployed, with the public either oblivious to them or snapping selfies - with not a single person seeming the slightest bit concerned.
As a basic Dalek runaround, Revolution of the Daleks does its job. But it feels oddly slack, multiple scenes feeling as if they should have been cut tighter; and despite getting better material, Chris Noth manages to be even worse than in his first appearance. All told, it's perfectly OK entertainment. But since it was billed as an "event," being merely "OK" feels a bit disappointing.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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