"This is why people don't like experts..."
Happy New Year and that. Last night was a bit of a washout for me what with the fireworks terrifying the little one and her not settling until very late indeed. This morning was somewhat unpleasant, too, waking up to the news that a fellow member of Doctor Who fandom, stalwart of the Whoovers, and regular MC of the Whoverville convention, died suddenly during the night at an unacceptable age. This has shaken East Midlands fandom a lot. I didn't know Ian well, far from it, but my few interactions with him were pleasant and enjoyable, his Facebook contributions have always been a pleasure, and this has absolutely no business happening. My sincere condolences to his wife, family and many friends.
Yet it seems somehow appropriate that I should be here, with some rather pleasant Chilean Cabernet, blogging the first new episode of Doctor Who in what feel like much longer than it actually was- March of 2020, just before the current plague hit my native foggy island, feels like another era. And, I'll say this up front, I liked this episode a lot.
And there's a lot to talk about, much of it fannish stuff, such as the cleverness of the title which deliberately evokes Revelation of the Daleks while homaging elements from that story's plot such as the original Daleks arriving at the end to exterminate the "impure" new race, and even a brief nod to cannibalism. But I must, firstly, talk about Chris Chibnall, who is impressing me more and more.
Chibnall had the misfortune of following Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat, both of whom are writers of the very first rank. I'm not sure either is quite up there with the Troy Kennedy Martins or the Dennis Potters, but the comparison isn't absurd. It's no criticism of Chibnall to say that I wouldn't put him in such company. He's certainly an impressive writer, though. Alas, I've still yet to see his much-praised Broadchurch, but I'm currently rewatching and blogging Life on Mars and Chibnall is, for me, the best of its writers by far. It's clear that the man has talent- yet his pre-showrunner episodes of Doctor Who were decidedly mixed- partly, I suspect, that despite being a Doctor Who fanboy of old (though not necessarily of the works of Pip and Jane Baker), his natural talent lies more towards straight drama and crime than to whimsical science fantasy.
Certainly, with his first season as the Moff's successor, I felt that he had shown himself to be an impressive showrunner in the decisions he made around where to take the series while not necessarily being that great as a writer. I felt, and still feel to an extent, that his dialogue lacks the sparkle of both of his most recent predecessors. And yet, last season, with his glorious heresy of introducing pre-Hartnell Doctors and cheerfully telling us that everything we knew was wrong, he impressed me hugely and seemed to find his mojo. He seems to have embraced his inner fan in a big way without compromising his professional judgement or knack for what the casual viewer (always the most important consideration) will enjoy.
And, with that preamble out of the way and setting a context, I think I probably ought to talk about the episode.
I like that all the problems in this episode stem from politicking, greedy humans monkeying around with the remaining tiny bits of Dalek DNA left over following the decidedly explosive conclusion of Resolution. I like that Jack Robinson is back as a gloriously hissable baddie, a kind of Donald Trump without the dementia. Even more, though, I like the perfectly judged political subtext. Like the Cyberman (and, indeed, all science fiction), the Daleks at their best when their use is actually about something. I'm sure that those who like to sneeringly use the word "woke" whenever Doctor Who addresses political matters (often choosing to ignore just how left-wing the stories were in the Pertwee years, and not just those by Malcolm Hulke) will insist that this episode's nod to Black Lives Matter is overly didactic, yet I'd say it's subtle, effective and perfectly judged. We all saw the ridiculous over-policing of the protests after the brutal murder of Mr George Floyd, with tanks and armoured vehicles being deployed by police forces. The use of Dalek casings for the same purposes, with water cannon and CS gas, is both clever and effective. I also like the gentle satire of the corrupt, authoritarian prime minister (blatantly a Tory) through dialogue, in which Chibnall manages to outdo David Hare in Roadkill.
I like also that Robinson is seen to do his Tobias Vaughn thing with the Daleks- with the Tobias Vaughn being a well-honed Doctor Who trope- betraying his species to save his skin- and not only escapes the expected extermination but ends up being hailed as a hero, no doubt to return for more enjoyable Trumpian skulduggery, nicely subverting the Tobias Vaughn trope. And I like the light touch with which Captain Jack's backstory is gently fed to casual viewers who won't necessarily remember back to 2005. It's a joy to see the good Captain, with his good humour and his squareness gun, and John Bannerman is fantastic. He has a lovely character moment with Yas in which he notices her strong emotional connection to the Doctor- could this be a hint at romantic feelings? I think we are, at least, meant to wonder.
Characterisation as a whole is VERY strong here. I've criticised Chibnall in the past for his use of three companions and failing to balance them all, and I feel on the while that my criticisms were valid in terms of story structure. Yet we find ourselves, by this point, with a surprisingly well-characterised TARDIS crew. The nice little heart to heart between Ryan and the Doctor is wonderful, foreshadowing his forthcoming departure and setting the scene for Ryan to leave too, in a perfectly realised double companion departure that works dramatically and feels just right. There's more, though. Although I've always liked Jodie Whittaker's performance- she's the Doctor- I've always felt that Chibnall has written this Doctor as a rather flat character, without any of the character depths of all the Doctors from Eccleston to Capaldi but more like the Doctor as written prior to the show's revival. This episode, with the Doctor articulating her angst at no longer knowing who she is and Ryan urging her to search for answers, goes a a long way to address that. I'm increasingly getting the sense that, although I've had my criticisms of Chibnall's writing in the past, he's been very much aware of his flaws and is addressing them. His writing seems to constantly improve, which is exciting and wonderful.
Finally, I love the treatment of the Daleks here. There's no dwelling on their complex backstory; they're simply doing their traditional thing of emerging from their flying saucers to fly about exterminating people with a CGI version of the traditional special effects. The latest "new paradigm" Daleks (actually a rather good design) are symbolically exterminated by more traditional models. The ethnic conflict between Daleks echoes both Revelation and Remembrance, a subtle reset to the '80s ideas of what Daleks are about. There's some lovely fanwank, too, with the other inmates of the Doctor's Shada-like prison.
Oh, and on the subject of fanwank, this hard of hearing viewer is delighted to see the subtitles render the TARDIS' wheezing, groaning sound yet again as "Vworp, vworp". Long may this continue. And long may Doctor Who continue to be as good as this. Chibnall is really growing as a writer, and it's a joy to see.
