The last time of year of Doctor Who , subtitled Flux , hadmore downs than it did ups — a mess of plot thread , unconvincing resolutions , and nebulously high stakes that never really lived up to the serial ’ attempt to return toa serialized story format . Thankfully , its return on New Years Day was fairly much the accurate antonym .
“ Eve of the Daleks ” might be in the viewing of Flux , but it feels entirely unlike it . Set in the final minutes of the twelvemonth at a storage whole in Manchester , it feels far removed from the thought of the demise of most of the world , the Doctor teetering on the edge of discovering their hidden past , billion of being hoovered up into walking prison house - forms , and whatnot . After a time of year of prophesied encounters and awful omens of the end of all thing , it ’s incredibly brisk to have an episode where the Doctor and her friends just happen to show up as Something Weird Happens . That “ something weird ” is , as the only two people in the warehousing unit discover — put - upon employee Sarah ( Aisling Bea ) and the only customer who somehow confab every New Year ’s Eve , Nick ( Adjani Salmon)—is a meter loop that resets every prison term they are polish off by a horrifying foreign death machine . So as the Doctor , Yaz , and Dan are likewise get into the killer loop and Daleks roam the foyer of Elf Storage , the stage is set for them to regain out what caused the loop , separate out of it to relieve Sarah and Nick , and try not to get killed by Daleks too many times .
It ’s a simple premise , but executed incredibly well . The mechanics of the temporal loop give “ Eve of the Daleks ” a compelling sense of complex body part , even if it is one that has to be delimit by our heroes failing and getting knock down by the Daleks time and time again . Even as the tenseness is ratchet down up by the find that the loop resets one minute closer to midnight , giving the Doctor and supporter even less fourth dimension to escape until they ’re stuck in a perpetual cycle of executing , the stakes never ramble into nebulously high territory in the way they did with Flux , wee us in reality wish about them . When it ’s revealed that the Daleks ground the loop to pin the Doctor and execute her for the devastation of their fleet at the last of Flux , it still feels check and abject - key . Thank god they ’re not invading earth or want to conquer the galaxy as the Daleks are so often wo nt to do ; here they ’re simply petty pepperpot planners who saw an opportunity to get back at the being they hate most in the creation and thought , “ It ’s New Year ’s Eve , why not ? ”
The Daleks are back, and this time they brought pettiness and some truly over the top weaponry.Image: BBC
These low stakes and a compellingly small cardinal mystery mean that “ Eve of the Daleks ” can actually focus on its characters — a cast that , after Flux threw legions of people at us to ostensibly care about , is just a likewise refreshing five mass in totality . The bulk of that attention is , of course , hand to newfangled character Sarah and Nick , enough to give us a starcrossed sports meeting - cute that sees their arc start out as the great unwashed who barely know each other outside of their singular “ workplace ” relationship , to mass who actually can take the time to get to know each other and develop a meaningful connection . Their electric discharge ( Sarah ’s in fussy , as her tribulations hale her to permit people into her life again ) give “ Eve of the Daleks ” actual stakes to be invested in instead of some dire menace to all of realism , and give our grinder something to fight back for even as they keep trying and failing to break the loop . But the small ordered series of the narrative and its simple narrative self-love in the loop also imply that , for what feels like the first time in a considerable while , we get to spend time and further explore the Doctor ’s own human relationship with her friends .
Admittedly , this is only really to rivet on one pairing in particular — Yaz and the Doctor , as Dan ’s role in the instalment , when he ’s not cue everyone of his most important and delightful character reference trait ( that he ’s from Liverpool ) , is mostly to show up to a New Year ’s special performing like it ’s a Valentine ’s mean solar day one . In disjoined moments alone with the Doctor and Yaz , Dan pushes the two of them to agnize a subtext that has been sit in the background of all of Chibnall ’s foot race on Who , now finally fight to the forefront : Yaz has feeling for the Doctor . It makes sense , given that one of the on-going frustrations Chibnall ’s time on Who has been that Yaz has had little focusing alfresco of airing the annoyance she has over the Doctor of the Church refusing to allow her into her sprightliness more , keeping things secret all the time . And it make sense for the Doctor in turn , whose reaction to Yaz ’s revealing is more of an “ oh no ” rather than anything particularly amorous — after all , they ’ve been through this before — to now have to face the consequences of not just hiding thing from her friends , but sail the awkwardness of dealing with her actual feelings for them . But it ’s one that has taken up until now to get dug into because latterly Doctor Who is , usually , run around at a mi a second hollo about the remainder of the globe / universe of discourse / time itself . Even if we ’re still in the early stages of exploring this development in the Doctor and Yaz ’s human relationship , the fact that we actually got meter to breathe in an episode and explore it is grounds enough to celebrate the restraint of “ Eve of the Daleks . ”
And that ’s the thing , in general : After Flux adjudicate , and mostly die , to throw big plot of land reveals and story post together across its six - hebdomad - long tale , “ Eve of the Daleks ” feels like something of a reset as we direct into Jodie Whittaker ’s concluding year in the TARDIS . There is no fantastic secret here or arch over plot connective , beyond what worked up ramifications there will be for the Doctor and her companions moving forrader . There ’s a simple , good function of a intimate villain that feel excuse beyond the “ event ” position of them showing up . There ’s a whole lot of love in the air , too , which is Doctor Who ’s most knock-down weapon against any monstrous menace ( exterior of questionably legal amounts of fireworks and inflammable chemical substance materials ) . As Chibnall and Whittaker ’s time on the serial publication begin to draw to an end , Doctor Who seems to be head back to rudiments — and just in clip , too .
Image: BBC
Assorted Musings
It ’s go bad to be very interesting now that the Doctor is mindful of Yaz ’s feelings for her , insomuch as we the consultation be intimate that there ’s only going to be two more episode they can research them with — one of which admit the aim of Yaz ’s tenderness “ die ” ! Will Yaz carry on to travel with the new Doctor and have to navigate her complicated intuitive feeling like Clara , or will she kick the bucket before clock time ’s up for the thirteenth Doctor ? We ’ll find out … at some point in time this year !
The Dalek ’s latest technological development is a Richard Jordan Gatling - artillery - esque extinction blaster that is , depending on if you call for to reset a fourth dimension loop or are just running down a very long corridor , either the most horrifyingly overkill portable weapon or the least exact laser hit man in Doctor Who chronicle .
There ’s a very weird cameo at the end of this episode in the form of an looker-on to the explosive end of the Daleks and Elf Storage in general : Karl , the random dude targeted by Tzim - Sha in Jodie Whittaker’svery first episode . Certainly … a reference !
Image: BBC
Next time , at least in a couple of months : the return of the Sea Devils ! The classic Who backwash first appear in the ‘ 70s , and have become commonly link up with the Silurians . Given that it was Chris Chibnall himself who re - introduced them with a very unlike take way back in season 5 ’s “ The Hungry Earth , ” it ’s interesting that this sentence around the Sea Devils actually count jolly faithful to their classic design .
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