'Revolution of the Daleks' Fits Right In with So-So 'Doctor Who' Era

by Julian Spivey

Photo: BBC Studios

Ever since Chris Chibnall took over the reins as showrunner of “Doctor Who” in 2018 the show has gone through some growing pains that find episodes varying from disappointing to good, with seemingly the days of great “Doctor Who” stories in the past.
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But I’m honestly not as harsh on Chibnall’s era as many “Doctor Who” fans seem to be by reading comments online. I think part of the reasoning behind this is I felt the last couple to few seasons of Steven Moffatt’s run as showrunner on the series were much of the same “good to disappointing, without many classic episodes.” Maybe it’s time to realize the revived era of “Doctor Who” is 12 series old and there’s not a whole lot left to be done? Or maybe there will be an infusion of interesting stories or talent somewhere down the line to rekindle the fire? Either way, I’m probably on the “Doctor Who” train for the long-run, unless it completely derails and there are no longer any good episodes.

The Christmas Special was a thing of the previous showrunners of the series and many of those were spectacular episodes but wanting to do something of his own Chibnall has traded in Christmas Specials for New Year’s Day specials and it doesn’t really matter much being a week later and not having to focus, even in the slightest, on including a holiday aspect to the episodes. It’s a new tradition and I don’t mind it; the only problem is there hasn’t really been a classic yet. In fact, I have almost no recollection of the episodes that preceded this year’s “Revolution of the Daleks,” and wonder if I’ll remember this year’s episode on New Year’s Day 2022.

The thing is, though, I found “Revolution of the Daleks” to be a good episode. I enjoyed it while I was watching, even if it’s something I probably won’t remember in the long run. It’s one of those good, but not classic episodes, which would be completely fine if I felt there would be classic episodes down the pipeline.

As the Counting Crows sang, “Maybe this year will be better than the last,” and after the harshness of the entirety of the year 2020 hopefully it will be. As far as “Doctor Who” goes there’s reason to believe it could be better, as Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker’s iteration of The Doctor was better all-around in their second season together than the first. However, there’s also reason to believe there’s going to be more growing pains with a new era within an era beginning, as I’ll get to by the end of this review.

The first New Year’s Day special of Chibnall’s era “Resolution,” from 2019, saw The Doctor and her companions destroy a Reconnaissance Scout Dalek, which like I previous admitted I really had no remembrance of, but “Revolution of the Daleks” picks up shortly after that episode’s ending with the shell of the defeated Dalek being transported to a government facility and being hijacked and stolen in the process. The stolen shell winds up in the hands of American businessman Jack Robertson, guest star Chris Noth who we previously saw in series 11, who uses them to build security robots to help police in riot situations and such.

Noth makes for a terrific villain for the series, and we rarely see recurring human villains on “Doctor Who,” but his Robertson, an arrogant and rich American businessman with political aspirations (does that sound familiar to anyone?) seems like the kind of character that will stick around (and I hope does).

At the beginning of this episode The Doctor is in a prison on a distant asteroid, which includes Weeping Angels, and evil Ood and other great ‘Who’ baddies we don’t see often enough these days as prisoners and has apparently been there for 19 years before being rescued by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), truly the best throwback brought back into the current era that Chibnall has given us.

Back home on Earth, The Doctor’s companions Yaz (Mandip Gil), Graham (Bradley Walsh) and Ryan (Tosin Cole) haven’t heard from their beloved Time Lord in 10 months and fear they won’t ever see her again. Graham and Ryan have come to terms with this, while Yaz has been obsessed with finding The Doctor. When they see Robertson’s new pet project is a Dalek they go into investigative mode without The Doctor, before eventually being rejoined.

Robertson doesn’t truly know what he’s gotten his hands on and things go completely haywire when his top scientist clones the living particles, he found within the Dalek shell and creates a new, impure Dalek race. Long story short, The Doctor summons a group of death squad Daleks who don’t want any impure Daleks roaming the universe and they come and take care of the problem and then the death squad is outsmarted by The Doctor themselves.

OK, that was fun. It’s a good “Doctor Who” story with the series most relied upon villains and a nice new recurring baddie in Robertson.

But let’s get to the important part of the episode, tacked on to the end, that is also my biggest issue with the episode.

It was announced in November that Walsh and Cole would be leaving the series as The Doctor’s companions, so we knew it was coming, but it still seemed so incredibly rushed and the worst companion sendoff of the “Doctor Who” revival era since 2005, even if it’s terrific these two guys get to live happily ever after (unlike most companions when their tenure is over). I always liked Graham and Ryan, even if they won’t be quite remembered by me like a Rose or Amy Pond will be, and I particularly liked the relationship between the two. I will miss these characters. It also hurts the show that the two companions with the most character building are leaving and the one companion, Yaz, who two years into her run doesn’t feel like she’s been completely built up by the writing staff behind.

Maybe the departure of Graham and Ryan will give the staff a chance to build Yaz more, but then again, the show is adding another companion for series 13 later this year played by comedian John Bishop.

So, not only were these two companions written off rather abruptly, but we’re about to enter another series that feels like a new start, just when things were maybe starting to get comfortable. Certainly, more growing pains for this era of “Doctor Who” could be ahead.

Filming on series 13 of “Doctor Who” began in November, but things overseas were shut down once again due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it feels like things are stricter overseas than here in America, so there’s no clue when the series will premiere, but hopefully will be coming sometime in 2021.