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Resolution is the only Doctor Who episode we’ll get in 2019, since there’s no new series coming until 2020, thanks to the lazy, new head honcho, Chris Chibnall, which is why there’s no ‘Next time’ clip, as he hasn’t even bothered to think of anything for that, just a James Bond-style “The Doctor will return”.
So, he really went all out for this special episode, coming up with the most incredible and brand new baddie, yes?
No… it’s the Daleks… again. Ugh…
A long and pointless opening led up to the present day where a couple of mature students, who are acting like ten-year-olds who had a secret kiss, meet up to uncover a burial site, and only they haven’t a clue as to what it’ll turn up. It’s a Dalek. It’s going to be a Dalek. We already know!
The trouble is – the Daleks aren’t any sort of a threat, these days. I’ve had scarier gas bills after winter!
Every so often, the Doctor meets up with them, then blows them into oblivion – or transfers them to some dimension from which they’ll never escape, but they always do. And once, they turned into fat Daleks.
This time (and I’ll mention this here, as it happened just 15 minutes into the hour-long episode), we learned that student Lin (Charlotte Ritchie) now has a monkey on her back… or rather, the inside of a Dalek… such that the dodgy CGI can allow. It wants her to use her crappy PC World laptop to help take over the world. Let’s hope, like anything from there, it breaks down and that’ll save Earth, before the environmental loonies start on again about how mankind is killing it, instead.
Baddies causing mind control is not a new thing in sci-fi, but then Chibnall is often a stranger to new ideas, and after Lin encounters the cops, she really should’ve tuned the radio to NWA so it was blaring out their classic track, Fuck Tha Police.
Time is wasted showing someone new to the TARDIS so they can gawp at how the inside is bigger than the outside, and once again, the Daleks have to be explained.
For some reason, this Dalek is smarter than the average Dalek. It even swiped The Doctor’s pic-a-nic basket! Well, maybe not, but it was the first to leave Skaro which really puts the willies up the Doctor, even now she’s a woman!
At least this ‘human Dalek’ is killing people, even though, as it dragged a dead body along the floor, it’s not quite up to The House That Jack Built standard.
The Dalek aims to conquer Earth in 9376 rels. How long is a Dalek rel? One Earth minute is appproximately 50 rels, that is 187.52 minutes, aka 187 minutes, 31.2 seconds, so, pretty much the length of 1997’s Titanic before the end credits begin.
Christmas/New Year episodes are always going to be at least an hour long, but this certainly overstayed its welcome. On the plus side, it was a whole 39 minutes before the Doctor whizzed out her sonic screwdriver, unless I missed an early use.
The only bit which made me laugh was that if you shut down the internet, and thus, cannot watch Netflix, the only thing humans can do is… have a conversation, even though that’s an old joke… and we’ve already learned that Chibnall and originality make strange bedfellows.
Elsewhere, some attempt to build a story for Ryan is when his Dad, Aaron (Daniel Adegboyega), turns up out of the blue. Yaz says that Dads are complicated, to which the Doctor replies, “So I’ve heard”, so she was the immaculate conception? Either way, when one character needs some medical help, the Doctor gives them some headache tablets, adding, “Don’t take with alcohol or you’ll grow an extra head!”
Apparently 2020 will see a huge storyline for Yaz. I hope it involves sellotaping her to Ryan and dumping them back on Earth. Or just killing them in cold blood. I’m easy, either way.
Resolution is available on the BBC iPlayer.
You can pre-order this episode on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release on February 18th.
You can also pre-order Series 11 on Blu-ray, Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook and DVD, ahead of the release on January 11th.
Yes, they could bundle it all in together – which would make sense – but… y’know, money.
Individual episodes can be bought in HD and SD here.
Score: 3/10
Director: Wayne Yip
Producer: Nikki Wilson
Writer: Chris Chibnall
Executive Producers: Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens
Music: Segun Akinola
The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Graham O’Brien: Bradley Walsh
Yasmin Khan: Mandip Gill
Ryan Sinclair: Tosin Cole
Lin: Charlotte Ritchie
Mitch: Nikesh Patel
Aaron: Daniel Adegboyega
Police Officer Will: Darryl Clark
Security Guard Richard: Connor Calland
Farmer Dinkle: James Lewis
Mum: Sophie Duval
Teen 1: Callum McDonald
Teen 2: Harry Vallance
Call Centre Polly: Laura Evelyn
Sergeant: Michael Ballard
Previously on DVDfever:
December 9th:
Resolution is the 2019 New Year Special episode of Doctor Who… yes, new showrunner Chris Chibnall has ditched the traditional Christmas episode, for reasons unexplained, and has moved it to New Year, instead.
Personally, that’s a better option for me, since Christmas is way too busy a day to always get the chance to watch Doctor Who and get the review online a moment after broadcast.
In this episode, The Doctor begins: “This is the DNA of the most dangerous creature in the universe… It’s been buried on Earth since the 9th Century. It’s not going to stop until it’s taken control of this planet. It’s going to kill anyone who gets in its path.”.
Bradley asks, “Does it have a name?”, and The Doctor just glares back at him… so the BBC are keeping their cards close to their chest about who it is, but everyone knows – since the ball was dropped recently – it’s the Daleks. Yes, the bloody Daleks are back… again. YAWN!!!
Does the title suggest they’ll see them off once and for all? Or is it just a reference to New Year’s resolutions? What do you think.
At the time of posting, neither the episode’s director nor guest stars are known, but I’ll add more info once it becomes available.
Chris Chibnall is writing it, as you’d expect. Happy New Year, eh?
Resolution is broadcast on New Year’s Day, i.e. Tuesday January 1st 2019 at 7.00pm on BBC1, and it’s an hour long.
Read our review for The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos.
Producer: Nikki Wilson
Writer: Chris Chibnall
Executive Producers: Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens
Music: Segun Akinola
Cast:
The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Graham O’Brien: Bradley Walsh
Ryan Sinclair: Tosin Cole
Yasmin Khan: Mandip Gill
Check out the brand new trailer below along with a look at what police officer Yasmin Khan has on file about The Antizone from episode nine.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.