TV Review – ‘Resolution’ (Doctor Who)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s a New Year and we’ve started off well with an exciting ‘Doctor Who’ episode! I enjoyed the New Year’s Day Special called ‘Resolution’ by Chris Chibnall. I was pretty gripped into the episode from beginning to end as it features the Doctor and her friends against an old foe we’ve been waiting for!

The Daleks are back! Yes! You heard me right! The Daleks have returned to ‘Doctor Who’! (Pause) Okay it’s one Dalek in this, but it was exciting to see the nasty pepperpot monster return to the series. And it’s the first time Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor gets to face a Dalek in her era of ‘Doctor Who’!

I hoped Jodie Whittaker would get to face the Daleks sometime soon in her era of the show and this first encounter she has with one of them doesn’t disappoint. I found how terrifying the Dalek was in this episode. Chris Chibnall has managed to keep the fear factor with the Dalek featured throughout!

Speaking of which, I’m surprised Chris Chibnall didn’t take the opportunity to have a ‘Doctor Who’ episode featuring Daleks shown on Christmas Day. I mean, it’s okay to have a change with tradition by having the Dalek episode shown on New Year’s Day instead. But there was a missed opportunity!

I would’ve liked it if they did a two-part Dalek story shown on Christmas Day 2018 and New Year’s Day 2019. That would’ve made the story more exciting with the Doctor dealing with more than one Dalek and having to deal with a Dalek invasion fleet. The production team could’ve been brave here.

I’ve done my own Dalek Christmas Special for my ‘Fifth Doctor’ fan-fiction series which I hope to release it soon. Why haven’t we had a Dalek Christmas Special yet?! We should have that sometime soon! That and with Cybermen in it! (Pause) ‘The Time of the Doctor’ does not count by the way! 😀

Apart from that, ‘Resolution’ was pretty amazing! 😀 I’m very pleased with how this episode kept to a clear storyline of the Doctor and friends dealing with a Dalek and it had scary twists and turns throughout. There was not anything complicated or silly to ruin things with the episode throughout!

The episode has the Doctor and her friends return to Earth on New Year’s Day in 2019. As they return, a terrifying evil stirs from the sewers of Sheffield. It turns out to be a Dalek and the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz have to find a way to stop the monster from wreaking havoc on planet Earth.

The Dalek soon works to get its armour back by taking possession of a scientist called Lin. It makes this makeshift armour for itself before setting on its mission to summon a Dalek fleet to destroy the planet Earth and humanity. Will the Doctor and her friends save New Year’s Day from the evil Dalek?

What struck me about this episode is how it slowly builds up to the reveal of the threat of the Dalek. I did think that we would never get to see the Dalek back in action in its casing. For the most part, it was a mutant creature taking possession of poor dear Lin. Soon the Dalek builds a brand-new casing!

I was afraid this episode might end up being average and we wouldn’t get to have the Dalek creature in its casing. Thankfully Chris Chibnall didn’t disappoint and the Dalek soon had a makeshift casing that felt very much like the original Dalek design and was still unique in being built from spare parts.

Thankfully the Dalek design for this episode was not at all like the one featured in ‘Victory of the Daleks’ as I feared that might happen. In many ways, the Dalek in ‘Resolution’ looks like a skinnier version of the bronze Dalek featured in the new series. It’s a one-off design, but it looks pretty cool!

It’s quite surprising that the Dalek was able to build that makeshift casing in a short space of time. But on par with the equally excellent ‘Dalek’ episode, a Dalek mutant creature can be very clever and it can work pretty fast, which makes it even more threatening and terrifying to watch on screen.

The episode also didn’t play the Dalek for laughs as previous Dalek stories did. You feel the Dalek is a threat and it’s the Doctor’s responsibility to see to that humanity and the planet Earth are defended. I was also glad that the Dalek was voiced by Nick Briggs, as I would’ve been disappointed if it wasn’t.

The Dalek gets to do some cool stuff in its makeshift Dalek casing from spare parts including firing its ray gun and…YIKES IT CAN FIRE MISSILES OUT OF ITS BAUBLES?! Where did that come from?! I didn’t know a Dalek can do that?! That must be the very first time I’ve seen a Dalek do that in the TV series.

I really liked it when Jodie’s Doctor got to face the Dalek in the episode. Jodie Whittaker excels in this episode, showing off how she can be serious and funny at the same time. Jodie’s Doctor is determined to let the Dalek know to not stand in her way, showing her mettle pretty extraordinarily.

I enjoyed those scenes where Jodie’s Doctor and the Dalek talked to each other. The build up of the Dalek’s reveal before the Doctor was pretty exciting. The Doctor also remarks that the Daleks keep coming back no matter how many times they’ve been dealt with or got rid of many times in the past.

I liked the scarf Jodie’s Doctor wore in the episode as it suits her well for the New Year’s Day Special. I think she should keep that scarf. It’s not a Tom Baker scarf of course, but it suits her Doctor well. Maybe she’ll wear it again for a future festive episode. All she needs now is more custard creams. 😀

I also liked how the Doctor talked to Ryan’s dad, Aaron, telling her he let his son down by not attending Grace’s funeral. It shows how honest and forthright she can be. She also does it in a way that sounds alien in her attitude towards humanity. Something I am able to expect from the Doctor.

Bradley Walsh is very good as Graham in this episode. He shows concern for Ryan when his dad’s back for New Year’s Day. There are some amusing moments with Graham’s character when he shocked at the Doctor breaking one of his chairs as the TARDIS lands in the living room of his house.

I also found it amusing when Graham gets annoyed with the Doctor for leaving him and Aaron behind and calls her on his phone to return for him right away. Graham also has some interesting scenes with Aaron when he advises him on handling his son Ryan who has been through a lot lately.

Tosin Cole is equally good as Ryan in this. This is an episode where Ryan gets to have a hard time trying to reconcile things with his dad Aaron who returns to try and settle things with him. Ryan is reluctant to reconnect with his dad, telling what he wants to hear from his dad to accept him again.

The climax of this episode is a defining moment for Ryan’s character. The Dalek creature takes possession of Ryan’s dad and is soon about to be sent out into space when the Doctor tries to get rid of it. It was tense when Ryan saves his dad and reconcile with him before the Dalek’s sent into space.

Mandip Gill is very good as Yaz in the episode, although I don’t think her character isn’t standout throughout. It pains me to say it but I think that Yaz is the least developed of the Thirteenth Doctor TARDIS team. Don’t get me wrong, she is a good character and she wants to be there in the TARDIS.

But compared to the character development Graham and Ryan have had, Yaz seems underused. But at least the Doctor recognises Yaz’s police skills when she suggests to her to escort Lin and Mitch out of the sewers. She also has this connection with Mitch throughout the episode in contacting him via phone.

Charlotte Ritchie (who has been in ‘Call The Midwife’) guest stars as Lin, a scientist who works at a site where the Dalek creature is found in the Sheffield sewers. She encounters the Dalek and sadly gets possessed by it to do its dirty work. It was scary when Lin got possessed by the Dalek in the tale.

Nikesh Patel guest stars as Mitch, who is a fellow scientist working with Lin in the Sheffield sewers. There’s clearly a romantic connection between Mitch and Lin which I found sweet whilst watching the early scenes of the episode. Mitch is clearly concerned for Lin as he joins the Doctor and friends.

Daniel Adegboyega guest stars as Aaron, Ryan’s dad in the episode. It was interesting to see Ryan’s dad return to his son’s life in the episode as we’ve heard quite a bit about him during Series 11. It’s interesting how he interacts with his son Ryan; wants to connect him and discovers the life he’s had.

Interestingly, this episode doesn’t have any opening titles. This was the same for ‘The Woman Who Fell To Earth’. Not sure why the episode did not have any opening titles. If this episode was called ‘Resolution of the Dalek’ instead, then the omission for the opening titles would be justified in this.

The scene where the wi-fi is gone and the family who realise they have to have a conversation was funny to watch. I know it seemed like an unnecessary scene to establish that the wi-fi is gone once the Dalek causes trouble, but I honestly found it very amusing since it reflects modern-life for me. 😀

Overall, ‘Resolution’ has been superb! I enjoyed watching the episode on New Year’s Day with my parents. It’s a great episode featuring Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor against a Dalek and I’m very pleased she got to face a classic monster of the series as opposed to the lack of classic monsters in Series 11.

The Dalek was pretty scary and the episode was pretty scary to watch indeed. I felt gripped throughout and found tense moments worth watching, especially when the Dalek caused trouble; took over Lin and was about to take Ryan’s dad, Aaron, out into space before Ryan gets to save him.

I’m saddened ‘Doctor Who’ won’t be back on TV screens for a while as I’ve enjoyed Series 11 and ‘Resolution’ with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and her friends recently. I look forward to when ‘Doctor Who’ returns in Series 12. I also look forward to re-watch Series 11 and ‘Resolution’ again on Blu-ray.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂