Revolution of the Daleks
Story 296, Episode 862, 2021 New Year’s Special
Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor
Companions: Jack Harkness, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
Revolution of the Daleks breaks up the fam in an episode that is largely good, but can’t focus on any one thing for too long.
The Review
This was a story written a long time ago, before a global pandemic and a global reckoning with racism and police brutality and all the fun stuff 2020 gave us. How perfect could it have been then that the Daleks are back, and now integrated with British police forces to provide ‘security’. Unfortunately, this episode never sticks with one thing for very long. Bringing back Jack Robertson from Arachnids in the UK was a great movie, as he is even slimier and hilarious here as he sells out the Doctor to Daleks and somehow comes out on top. He has been working with a MP, Jo Patterson, since Resolution to develop the ‘defense drones’, and they are rolled out when she gets voted Prime Minister by her party (and then she is exterminated). The idea of the UK accepting literal Daleks in the name of security would be a great one, but oh well, the show doesn’t care that much about that. Leo, a moron working for Robertson, found tiny traces of Dalek cells and cloned a Dalek because of course he did, that Dalek creating more Daleks in secret that all teleport into the defense drone shells and start murdering, which we actually don’t get that much time with. Overall, this would have been some excellent dark satire that gets mostly wasted. (Oh, and people don’t remember the Daleks because The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End got erased by cracks in time and barely got a glimpse in Doomsday)
The Doctor has apparently spent decades in space jail, but fear not, Captain Jack breaks her out. Jack is a good presence throughout the episode and fits in seamlessly like he’s never been gone. It’s always fun for me to remember that Jack traveled with the Ninth Doctor. The Doctor’s escape comes so quickly I’m not sure the point of her being in jail at all other than as an excuse to have her miss ten months away from the fam which could’ve been accomplished some other away. I guess the idea was the Doctor could come to terms with the Timeless Child stuff, so that’s something I guess. The most interesting reaction is how pissed Yaz is at the Doctor and how aggressive and adventurous she is throughout the episode, and as she’s sticking around for an unprecedented third full season in the modern era I think the show finally knows what her character is. Remember when they made her a cop? Remember how that could’ve tied in to the defense drone stuff? No? Ok. The Doctor’s genius idea to destroy the Daleks is call in a Dalek purity squad that destroys all the ‘impure’ Daleks, then they blow up that Dalek ship and the rest are lured into the extra TARDIS which collapses on itself. All the Daleks look gorgeous, sound gorgeous, and the show is very confident that it is a great show, even though it’s only a good show these days. Also, the ‘SAS Daleks’ didn’t have plungers. What the hell.
This episode also sees us bid farewell to Ryan and Graham. With five characters vying for time, it is no surprise one slips out of the picture, and that is Graham who after being a fantastic companion gets nothing at all to do in this episode. Ryan has a very sweet sit down with the Doctor talking about him growing as a person that I liked a lot, I think he’s actually had some underrated character moments and Tosin Cole really grew into the role. Jack disappears quickly in the episode, hopefully because it’s not the last we’ll see of him, but we do get a very nice Gwen Cooper shoutout. The Doctor wants to welcome the fam back in the TARDIS, Yaz is an immediate yes (she has some good character building with Jack) but Ryan has finally figured out who he is on Earth and Graham just can’t live without him. The Doctor gives them psychic paper which is mighty unusual and it seems they will keep dealing with aliens on Earth which is fun. I don’t understand going back to Ryan trying to ride a bike and still not being able to do so though, it just felt like a weird ending. Overall, like a lot of the Chibnall era, this is an entertaining, confident, pretty episode to watch but thinking back on it there is a lot less going on than you hope there is. We had four years with Graham and Ryan, but they have much less depth than Bill did in just one season so we don’t feel their departure as keenly. The Chibnall era has been fun but the deep emotional depth just isn’t there anymore.
I had fun watching Revolution of the Daleks, but it decided not to be a dark satire and instead just had us having fun with different Daleks highlighted by two good character scenes with Ryan and the Doctor as well as Yaz and Jack. Jack Robertson was a lot of fun to have back as a villain, it was a fun episode, but will we care more about Dan in Series 13? I kinda doubt it.
8/10 I keep think I’m giving the Chibnall era way too good scores? I don’t know. Solid eight for this one.
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