Doctor Who Series 11 First Impressions: New Year's Day 2019 Special (Resolution)

Destroying humanity with a kettle and some string.

So this is how we end the story of Doctor Who in the 2010s, huh? Okay. It's also the only Doctor Who we get all year, and god knows when Series 12 will be in 2020? Like it could be another October air date of ten episodes for all we know? ...Okay. As one last adventure before the inevitable cold dark of the series resting? It's okay. It's another Chris Chibnall joint and he manages to make something that's not offensively boring like... oh, the Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. Mind you, it's still not going to crack my top three for Series 11 or anything. This presents us with a problem. Series 11, in comparison to what came before, had some episodes that resonated well with me, some others that were well-executed adventures but faltered in places, and then a bunch of somewhat mediocre stories. Unfortunately, all of those were written by our current showrunner. (Okay, on a rewatch in the marathon leading up to Resolution, Woman Who Fell To Earth still worked for me and that entire climax with the crane and Segun Akinola's score for that bit were rad as hell.) Anyway, let's send Series 11 off and talk about this slim island of Who that we got. The news of the hiatus gave this episode some unfair expectations. If it was shitty we'd all be down because it was our only Who for 16+ months. If it was spectacularly good we'd be pissed off that Chibnall blew his quality wad on the ending and put out all that mediocrity in 2018, and that he was finally getting good before the show went off the air for 16+ months. With all that in mind, how was Resolution?



It's okay. Again. This should have been the outcome we all expected, honestly. Chibnall's very good at doing perfectly servicable Doctor Who, and this is no exception. It's a bit more interesting this time because of what it inherits, though. That's right! He finally decided to bring back a returning villain and went "fuck it, get me a Dalek". It's a very back to basics approach, with one lone Dalek causing havoc and exterminating with wanton Dalek fury and creating a problem for everyone involved. Hey, it worked in 2005. If nothing else, Chibnall manages a fun and unique idea by going "Hey what if we had a Dalek out of its casing and made it into one of the Puppet Masters?". Yeah. We have a squishy mutant Dalek riding on a woman's back and taking over her mind and body to pilot her to the places it wants to go to get all its weapons back and exterminate everyone. It's a neat expansion of Dalek lore and gives you some great body horror stuff, so... yeah, that works. The Dalek actually ends up having some more interesting signifiers to it, as well; for one, we're playing around in the Hinchcliffean "ancient deadly monster long thought dead coming back to life to wreak havoc once more" trope because this Dalek is some sort of super-spy recon Dalek (we should have called this one Recon Of The Daleks, there's at least a cute pun there) come back and ready to... well, wreak havoc once more. The second fun thing is when it mirrors the Doctor. Like, specifically Jodie Whittaker. An alien stranded on Earth, frantic and looking to stop all their enemies, ends up in a workshop on Planet Earth and uses their alien know-how along with whatever shit they can find in the workshop to make themselves new tech to accomplish their goals. For Whittaker, it was making her own sonic screwdriver with Sheffield steel in Woman Who Fell To Earth. For this Dalek it somehow makes itself a new casing, fully armed and ready to exterminate. You know, I'll allow it.


So what's the Resolution in the title? Probably the Ryan stuff. This time we have his dad show up and try to use the New Year to turn over a new leaf and be a better dad and whatnot, and we get family drama from it all. Interesting. Using a Dalek story to also have a bunch of resolution for family drama? I haven't heard that before-- oh wait, yes I have, and it's Doomsday from 2006. Hmm. At least he didn't die at the end. I was honestly expecting that, but I'm very glad they didn't pull the trigger on that one. Okay, all I have left is assorted observations and nitpicks, so let's start at the ending here. Finally, at last, the Doctor actually commits premeditated murder of one of her enemies when they refuse to take the like, 55 last chances she gives them. She literally tricks the Dalek into the TARDIS and blows it out into a supernova. She planned this. She plotted to murder the Dalek. This was actually a source of worry for many, given that weak-willed centrist "IF YOU KILL THE GENOCIDAL PLANET DESTROYER YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS HIM, GRAHAM!" malarkey from Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. Thank GOD she fucked that Dalek up. Now let's talk about the jokes. There were a lot, but two in particular are getting a lot of talk. One I like, one I don't. The gag about UNIT being out of commission, implied (or maybe textual, I forget) to be because of Brexit? Darkly hilarious. Chibnall wanted the Doctor to be on her own in stopping the Dalek this time, so he made up a funny reason to take UNIT out of the picture. I can buy it, and really... what would UNIT have done, honestly? Looking at UNIT in the new series, they got their asses handed to them by not just Daleks in The Stolen Earth, but the goddamned Sontarans. The scene with the Dalek vs. the army is basically what UNIT would have done, minus fun interactions between the new Doctor, Kate Stewart, and Osgood. OH NO OUR BULLETS HAVE NO EFFECT ON THIS ALIEN, WELL SHIT WE'RE OUT OF IDEAS, ALL UP TO YOU DOCTOR. The joke that doesn't land, though, is the wi-fi one. The Dalek, in hacking the planet to call the rest of the Daleks to fuck up Earth, takes out all the wi-fi in England or maybe the planet. There's a funny line that's like "what a monster" which would have been a good joke... but then we honest to god cut away to a family whose tablets and phones aren't working and get dumb old man humor about the goddamn kids on their Appledroids all day long. It's unneeded and just... bad. Chibnall, you dumbo, like half the views of your goddamned show are on those devices!


That will do it, I think. I have pals who loved Resolution, and pals who hated it. For me? I guess I'm the one in the middle this time. There are things that work for me, good ideas that are fun to see executed and some really funny gags. There are things that don't work for me, a slower paced long episode that dragged just a little bit and some jokes that did not land. It is, in the end, a Chris Chibnall episode. It's just okay. I wonder if time will be kinder to his 5/10 writing style chops in 16+ month's time. (You know we're waiting until April 2020 at the least.) We'll have to see, but for now? Doctor Who is to take a rest. Not quite the LONGEST it's taken, as those poor people who lived through the Wilderness Years between 1989 and 2005 will remind you... but the only other longer gap when the show was actually airing consistently was the Colin Baker one of 18 months. Which is a funny mirroring since when that DID come back? Time wasn't kinder to it, and we even had a 16 year-old Chibnall on TV complaining about how it was mediocre. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We'll see you in 2020, Doctor. I hope your adventures excite me more then, but until that day comes? Doctor, I let you go.