Tony
joins the revolution.
Timelines are odd things. And one thing
we know to be forever true about the Doctor is that she’s not great at tidying
up after herself.
These are important things to keep in
mind going into Revolution Of The Daleks, because it’s a story which acts as a
sequel to at least three timelines left unfinished in the wake of the 13th
Doctor’s one-problem-at-a-time approach to the universe.
Firstly, the reconnaissance Dalek
finished off by the Fam in the last New Year’s Day Special turns out not to
have been quite as finished off as they thought.
Secondly, Jack Robertson, the powerful
American sleazeball introduced in Arachnids In The UK, was left unpunished at
the end of that adventure. He’s been busy since then, dabbling with advanced
drone tech.
And thirdly, the Doctor’s in space-prison.
Separated from the Fam, who were left on Earth, she was zapped into a penal
asteroid at the end of Series 12 by the ever-zealous Judoon.
These three timelines converge to form
the basis of Revolution of the Daleks.
The Doctor, alone, is having a crisis of
confidence and identity. In the aftermath of the Timeless Children revelation
that she wasn’t born on Gallifrey (alright, four timelines…), she
wonders who she really is. Does being the Doctor mean anything, divorced
from the history she’s always owned? And if not, what does it matter that
she spends decades, or even lifetimes, in the Judoon’s cell?
Meanwhile on Earth, some forces are
moving, and some are standing still. Ten months of relative time go by, and
waiting for the Doctor to come back turns into accepting that she’s probably
dead, and from there into trying to get on with their lives – at least for Ryan
and Graham. Yaz, though, is standing still, in the spare Tardis that played a
role in getting them home, trying to work out how to make it move, or how to
track the Doctor down, and get back to their adventures.
It’s a divergence in the Fam that will
prove to be prophetic as the episode unfolds. Yaz is not ready to give up on
the Doctor and return to her Earthbound life. Ryan is reconnecting with the
structures of his life, taking the positive change of his time with the Doctor
forward into new relationships and challenges. And Graham is trying to live the
way the Doctor would want them to, rather than focusing his energy on trying to
recapture his time with her.
In some ways, this is a dilemma we’ve
seen before. In School Reunion, Sarah-Jane Smith revealed that she’d never got
involved with anyone after she returned home, always wondering if the Doctor
would just suddenly come back for her one day. And knowing that if he had,
she’d have gone – and that that would have been unfair to anyone she loved. In
The Death of The Doctor, Jo Jones too speaks of that little pang in the heart,
knowing that the Doctor’s probably out there somewhere, without her.
Splitting the Fam up in their reaction
to ten long months of cold turkey without the Doctor can only mean we’re in an
episode which is as much about people as it is about science fiction. Which in
some respects is just as well, because if two series of the Thirteenth Doctor
under Chris Chibnall have taught us anything, it’s that he’s far more comfortable
writing intimately about people than he is writing giant, sprawling
science-fiction opera.
Meanwhile, the Recon Dalek’s casing is
being used as the prototype for a series of entirely robotic security drones by
Robertson and his pet genius, Leo. As a timely upgrade to the stories from
which it draws the bulk of its DNA, Power of the Daleks and Victory of the
Daleks, we have former Technology Secretary and now Prime Minister Jo Patterson
preparing to roll out Dalek drones as electronic police officers and border
guards. Patterson is played by Harriet Walter, who can be guaranteed to add
value to any production, even when called upon to do ‘the Chibnall thing’ and
deliver chunks of unnecessary exposition about how her character was the one
who gave Robertson the Dalek tech in the first place…
As a plot-strand, there’s precisely
nothing wrong with this update of the Power of the Daleks scenario. It’s
bright, it’s modern, it’s relevant to the concerns of our age, and it still
centres on the stupidity of human beings, thinking they’re in control of a
situation in which Daleks are a crucial part. Let’s even get briefly
controversial – it’s a much better retelling of that basic story than
Victory of the Daleks was, because the logic checks out all down the line,
whereas in Victory, fun though the imagery was, the logic was utterly bat-crap
crazy if subjected to even the slightest assessment.
Cue Captain Jack, all cheekbones and recycled
Russell T Davies dialogue, to bust the Doctor out of space-jail. Really
speaking, that’s by no means what he’s here for. He’s here to make fans cheer
and go ‘Yay! Captain Jack!’ and he’s here to pass on the torch to Yaz, the
patient one, the one who will always be there till she can’t be there anymore.
The one who may just possibly have at least a Platonic crush on the Doctor.
Mayyyyybe more. We’ll see. As Yaz tells him, ‘You’re inferring a lot from a
shove,’ but establishing that they are some sort of kindred spirit is literally
the only thing in Revolution of the Daleks for which you need Jack.
Beyond that, he’s just a forgotten Christmas present, discovered on New Year’s
Day, a frisson of excitement from the Immortal of Christmas Past.
When the Doctor gets her Fam back,
there’s room for more moping, more emoting, more genuine character development.
A ‘keeping it real’ chat between Ryan and the Doctor gives both of them the
best scene in their Doctor Who history to date, and for Tosin Cole, also
possibly the most words he’s had to say in any episode yet. More of this,
earlier on, might have warmed up more of the fandom to Ryan’s character. But
pleasingly, their conversation advances both their characters, while the Power
of the Daleks Redux storyline pootles on outside.
There’s some slightly dangerous
territory as the Resolution plotline of an innocent turned into a puppet for
the uncased Dalek is recycled beat for beat, but the pacing of this episode
allows for it to seem much more natural than the cut-and-shunt style of
Resolution. The Dalek production line, the separation of mutants from cases,
the feeding of Daleks on liquidized human, is all very groovy and nostalgic – a
lot of Power of the Daleks, a smidgen of Revelation just for extra-gruesome
kicks. And the traditional Dalek power-flip is delivered well. Suddenly, the
Dalek ‘drone’ cases, previously empty, are filled, plugged into a Dalek’s
consciousness of hate and boom! Extermination-fest.
The Doctor’s plan for dealing with these
new, human-built Daleks is of course stark raving bonkers. In fact, it’s
jusssst stark raving bonkers enough to make a sort of Doctor Who sense. The
‘SAS’ Daleks are purity-bouncers. Full on Nazi nutters in tanks – ‘You’re DNA’s
not pure, you’re not coming in.’ Sure, let’s invite them to the party…
But it does allow for the resurgence
(Ooh, Resurgence of the Daleks, you heard it here first…) of another Classic
era Dalek truth. In the words of Seventh Doctor companion, Ace, the Daleks are
set to ‘hate each other’s chromosomes.’ One lot of blobs versus another lot of
blobs-with-bits-on. Dalek wars go back as far as Evil of the Daleks, but the
difference of allegiances, of DNA, of ‘blobbiness’ was especially an 80s
phenomenon, which reached its peak in Remembrance of the Daleks. As such, the amount
of Classic Who DNA crammed into Revolution of the Daleks is actually fairly
impressive.
For the first time in a while, there are
two opposing factions of Daleks on our screens.
What’s gonna be wrong with that?
Well, ironically, what’s wrong with it
is the essential premise of the episode.
There are certainly some almost
shot-for-shot Russell T Davies moments here. The ‘true’ Daleks sailing out of
their ship in vast ranks. The ‘new’ Daleks flying through the streets of the
Earth on an extermination rampage, etc. But the moment of negotiation between
the sets of Daleks on Clifton suspension bridge feels truncated. And in its
briefness and inevitable outcome, it reveals both the cleverness of at least
Phase 1 of the Doctor’s plan, and central visual shortcoming of the story. The
new Daleks, as she more or less explicitly says, are not going to be that much
use as a universal baddie. Sure, compared to hapless humans, they’re
bloodthirsty killing machines with an upgraded range of offensive weaponry. But
bottom line, they’re built by humans, using Earth metals, earth technology.
Throw them up against real Daleks, and they’re going to be a greasy
smear on the floor in a matter of minutes.
So, we’re robbed of some of the dramatic
space opera of full-scale Dalek wars in the skies above the Earth because bless
’em, the new Daleks are a bit naff, almost inevitably. Again, this makes sense
within the script, but it also seeks to disguise the preferences of the writer
– more touching human moments, fewer epic alien battles, thanks very much.
As such, there’s a level on which
Revolution of the Daleks feels like a good-ish story that could have actually
been epic with just a touch more money, a little more bravery, and, without
meaning to whinge, a little more festive epic. It’s New Year’s Day,
dammit, give us some epic!
The ultimate resolution of Revolution is
another nod to Russell T Davies and his Genesis Ark sequence – shedloads of
kickass Daleks all racing into the Tardis, because the Doctor’s stopped playing
and moping about. She’s remembered who she is – she’s the one who stops the
Daleks. Nicely ‘to hell with the lot of you’ in terms of talking through the
screen to the critics, it seems to mark a turning point for a Doctor no longer
prepared to take any nonsense.
The crunchy Tardis hologram fake-out
should have been obvious, but agreeably, everything before it is pretty loud,
so the sudden what-the-hell moment actually delivers the cleverness a
determined Doctor should have. If anything, it’s the mark of a Doctor using her
anger as fuel, rather than, as she seemed to be doing at the start of this episode,
using it as a stick to beat herself with. Again, subtle statements to the
nay-sayers? Maybe. Probably not, but easy to read that way.
And the ending. Oh, the ending. People
have complained that Jack’s farewell here is rushed and peremptory. Maybe. Or
maybe they did all the talking back when the Doctor looked like David Tennant.
Now they’re in a different place. Jack tells her his plans, so she knows where
he is if she needs him. But right now, he has connections to rebuild with his
Torchwood pal.
And the break-up of the Fam…
Did we mention that Chibnall does humans
better than space opera?
The break-up of the Fam is a beautiful,
honest, well-delivered heartbreak, more Jo Grant than Sarah-Jane – and of
course, joining a long line of others, Ryan and Graham will now go off to make
a difference in the world (Big Finish – Ryan, Graham, Jo Jones. Just a
thought…Call me…).
Joyfully, thankfully, Ryan’s
still dyspraxic at the end, he hasn’t been magically ‘cured’ by his time with
the Doctor (You clenched, thinking he might have been, didn’t you?). And sure,
the Grace moment is unapologetically sentimental. But for both of them, it’s
she, as much as the Doctor, who’s always been their moral compass. When they go
off to save the world, it’ll still be her who guides them as much as the
Doctor. So sure, a little memory-glimpse of her to finish – why not?
Just as importantly, back on the Tardis, there’s Yaz. The Doctor, faced with
feeling sad, mulls the idea of changing the timelines to erase the reason for
the sadness. Yaz, grounding her, stops her from going down a path of the Time
Lord Victorious again, lets her know that it’s fine. It’s OK to just be sad.
And to move forward.
All told, Revolution of the Daleks will
probably always live slightly in the shadow of the epic thing it could have
been with just a little more dosh and polish, a little less telling, and a
slightly bigger commitment to delivering something epic.
As it stands though, it’s certainly in
the top five Thirteenth Doctor episodes so far, delivering possibly the best
re-invention of Power of the Daleks since the original, and a Doctor more
certain of herself by the end. Not quite the epic it could have been, then –
but still, epic enough to reward unlimited rewatching.
