Revolution of the Daleks - The First Review

The blockbuster-style poster designed to promote "Revolution of the Daleks".

Starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill & Tosin Cole, with John Barrowman, Chris North and Harriet Walter.

Written by Chris Chibnall.

Directed by Lee Haven Jones.

The Doctor is imprisoned halfway across the universe. On Earth, the sighting of a Dalek alerts Ryan, Graham and Yaz. Can the return of Captain Jack Harkness help them stop a deadly Dalek takeover?

I imagined what this episode would be like 10 months ago when the title was announced. And guess what? I predicted everything that would happen in practically precise detail!

"Revolution of the Daleks" is an episode that has huge significance. Some of the reasons for this are deliberately intentional: this is the first episode to follow on from the 'revelations' (if that's what you want to call them) about the Doctor's past in "The Timeless Children", as well as the cliffhanger ending of that story, which saw the Doctor chucked in prison; it sees the full reappearance of the popular character of Captain Jack Harkness, after his extended cameo in "Fugitive of the Judoon"; and it's the final episode to feature Bradley Walsh as Graham and Tosin Cole as Ryan, marking the break-up of the team that has been in every episode since October 2018. As well, since the airing of Series 12 and this, the world has gone through a huge pandemic that is still ongoing, and has seriously affected television production, including the next series of Doctor Who (we're down to 8 episodes per series instead of 11), so this was not only the last chance to take a last glimpse at a pre-pandemic world, but also to see where Doctor Who might be heading in future. And, I'm afraid to have to be the bearer of bad news, but if "Revolution of the Daleks" is indicative of where the show is going, then I really wish they wouldn't bother. Unlike "The Timeless Children" or "Fugitive of the Judoon", which were abjectly awful, "Revolution of the Daleks" left me incredibly cold. There were some good ideas there, and some potent social commentary, but so much of it just felt auto-generated and lifeless, and it's possibly the first time Doctor Who has actually made me feel so empty and hollow towards it.

Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) is back,
to the delight of 4 of his 5 fans.

The basic plot involves Jack Robertson (that thinly-veiled Donald Trump parody from "Arachnids in the UK" a couple of years ago) getting his hands on the remains of the Reconnaissance Dalek casing from "Resolution", and reverse engineering it to create Defence Drones that he is selling to the UK government. Now, on paper, this is a great idea: the Whittaker era has had a problem with just discarding villains when it's episodes get bored of them, and it's an excellent vehicle for social commentary; in particular examining that fine line between the police being used to protect civilians from harm and criminals, and the police being used as weapons of oppressive governments to maintain control. And particularly in the day and age of ever advancing technology, the scenario depicted in this episode can't be too far away. As such, Chibnall had a really strong set-up for something that, honestly, could have been one of Doctor Who's sharpest satires to date. However, because this episode is a special, all that gets chucked in the bin in favour of big action set-pieces and high stakes. And that's fine, but even these aren't done that well, so maybe they shouldn't have bothered? The potential, though, was there for something incredibly thought-provoking and challenging, and they didn't act on it in any meaningful way. It reminded me of some of Russell T Davies' stories, in that it had a great idea, and could have gone in so many interesting ways, but instead chose the most predictable and boring one. It just seems like a massive missed opportunity, from an era of so many missed opportunities. As I mentioned above, this episode is all about huge set-pieces and high action stakes, but these feel sloppy and phoned in. In total, between the Robertson-created versions and the classic, Time War-era models, the Daleks get just over fifteen minutes of screen time, which, considering this episode is nearly 75 minutes long (yep, somehow this is nearly the same length as "The Day of the Doctor"!) should be practically a crime. I get that this episode had other things it needed to do, but surely you'd want to do loads with the Daleks, especially considering that "Resolution" was a little more guarded with its use of the infamous pepper pots. In fact, the story seemed to spend more time dwelling on the fallout of "The Timeless Children", a story I wanted to forget anyway, so a lot of these elements didn't work for me at all. The prison aspect is resolved in about ten minutes, and only seems to have been included so we could reuse some old costumes for the inmates. There's no real lasting impact on the Doctor, and any lasting impact on the companions could have been worked around more interestingly while doing less. The story did seem to be painting itself as a Doctor-lite story from the trailer and the promotional material, and this would have been a fantastic opportunity for the companions to take the lead and solve a problem without the Doctor's help (something "The Timeless Children" should have done, but didn't), but, within fifteen minutes, the Doctor and Captain Jack have turned up, and the team are split up and doing their own things. What is Chibnall's reluctance with having the companions going off and solving problems on their own? Lots of other companions have done it, especially in the new series, so I find this reluctance to engage with this idea baffling. It would help with the obvious characterisation problems the show currently has (which I'll get to), and it would show how far these characters have developed since their introduction. I would also say the pace was incredibly uneven: the first third of the story felt condensed and rushed, as Chibnall compressed a lot of information into a tight time frame, while the second third felt long winded, and could have easily been compressed in order to extend the first third. The whole thing needed tightening if it was to stand any chance of working, even with some of the other problems mentioned above.

The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) locked in her cell
for days on end, acting as a visual metaphor for
how our 2020 has looked.

The characters in this story also feel a little disjointed, and it seems like there were perhaps too many character threads going on for Chibnall to keep hold of. Of course, this is the final story for both Ryan and Graham, and I found myself more satisfied with one character's departure than I was the other. Honestly, I was surprised by how well Ryan's decision to stop travelling was handled, and Tosin Cole easily gave one of his finest performances in the role. Ryan has had a bit of a turbulent ride, starting off with plenty of interesting facets and avenues to explore, but, over time, it was clear that writers were struggling to give him anything interesting to do. However, his reasons for leaving are clearly spelled out, and, ever since "Can You Hear Me?", we have been building towards this ending for the character. And I quite like how understated it is, especially in comparison to all the world-shattering, heart-breaking exits modern Doctor Who is known for. Other than Martha, Mickey and maybe Nardole, the companion departures from the modern version of the show have been pretty final and definite, with the companions either ending up dead, trapped beyond the TARDIS' reach or mind wiped. This leaves the door very much open, however, much like the vast majority of the companion departures from the classic series. Graham's, on the other hand, comes a bit more out of left field, and seems especially jarring when you realise that, out of the three companions, he easily has the least to do in this episode. Other than a few comedy moments (which Bradley Walsh delivers perfectly), Graham is very much the spare wheel in the team in this episode, despite this being his final story! You'd have expected Graham to be as front and centre as Ryan, in fact possibly more due to Graham's pronounced arc across Series 11 (probably the only companion, arguably, to really have one). However, his decision to leave, while understandable, seems to come out of nowhere, and, as such, feels forced. If they had previously set up that Graham would stop travelling with the Doctor if Ryan did (whether that be in a previous episode or even in this one), I think it would be easier to get behind. I will miss both Bradley and Tosin, as both brought a lot to their characters and the overall TARDIS team's dynamic, but they have often been dealt an inconsistent hand (especially in Series 12, where all three were fighting for even a little bit of development), and I'm not as sad to see their characters go as I should be. A lot of these issues are not helped by the story being overshadowed by Captain Jack's presence. Now, I love John Barrowman - I really do. And I like the character of Captain Jack - in Torchwood and in the Big Finish Lives of Captain Jack series. But I find that he has always been a bit of an awkward presence in Doctor Who itself, and, even since "Utopia" in 2007, he has never really added anything to the stories he has featured in, beyond gimmick value. Here, the expectations from his return actually drown out a lot of what else this story is going for, and, while it doesn't end becoming 'the John Barrowman show' like some feared, Jack's presence in the story eats precious time away from the regulars who deserve it. As for Jodie and Mandip, well they're as good as the writing allows, and Jodie's particularly good at portraying the depressed Doctor's attitude to incarceration. I will say that I found a number of the Doctor's action in the middle slightly bizarre, and there were some aspects of the Daleks' plan that she probably should have worked out sooner, and the explanation for this was rather weak. The guest characters were... well, they were there, and again, there was potential for something really interesting, especially for Harriet Walter's character, but they were just underuterlised and undeveloped in the tangle of plotlines the story was dealing with. Robertson had a little more substance to him than in "Arachnids in the UK", but he's still pretty much a vacuum into which Chibnall can use for some kind of social commentary. Especially after getting two outings, that feels slapdash, and his fate in this story almost certainly guarantees his return at some point in the future, something I don't think we needed, if we were being honest.

A new family photo shows the Dalek family with
their son's latest boyfriend.

Production wise, however, this episode is pretty much standout. Lee Haven Jones returns to direct, and, while I wouldn't say he was the best director in this era, his work in this episode just shows the talent that Doctor Who is working with at the moment. This looks amazing, easily standing with the blockbuster programmes of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and showing that, production wise, Doctor Who has never looked healthier. The effort that has gone into this episode is herculean, especially considering a lot of the post-production work was done in lockdown, and so a lot of the visual effects have had to be created in people's bedrooms and remotely. I would agree that some of the work does look a little less realistic in comparison to more recent episodes (some shots of the Daleks towards the story's conclusion feel a little artificial in this regard), but I imagine this was probably only due to a lot of the conditions that were imposed on them due to the pandemic. Jones' direction is really solid, and gets some wonderful performances out of the regulars. The scenes on the Clifton Suspension  Bridge are some of the most amazing looking in this current era, and, as a set-piece, there's little finer. His handling of the emotional material is just as strong, and the fact that these scenes work on some level at all is no doubt down to him. Segun Akinola's score is equally superb, again considering it was recorded in lockdown. While some criticise him for not providing so-called 'memorable' scores like Murray Gold, I've found his more subdued and experimental style more interesting. Gold's music often drowned out the action, and his repeated use of the same cues over and over again became more annoying than endearing after a while. Segun's music, meanwhile, compliments the action, lets the drama speak for itself and doesn't overburden the soundscape. His soundtrack for this episode demonstrates this in spades, and I urge you to listen to it when you can, as it is a perfect demonstration of his skill and talent.

Can't be any worse than the one we've already got.

Overall, "Revolution of the Daleks" is, in all honestly, a disappointment. Despite what I intimated on Twitter in the run-up to this episode, I did go in wanting to like this. There was potential in what I'd heard of the set-up, and more improbable things had happened in Doctor Who before than Chris Chibnall turning things around after "The Timeless Children" (Steven Moffat producing Series 10 after "Hell Bent" and Sylvester McCoy becoming such a good Doctor after the mess that is "Time and the Rani" have proved that). However, despite the potential, "Revolution" ends up a cold, soggy disappointment that is full of half-developed plotlines, inconsistent tone and pace, and poor characterisation. The production gamely tries to save it, but, to be honest, it has got to the point where I just don't care anymore. I don't give a damn that John Bishop's joining the show, or the Sontarans are coming back. I'm not even really that bothered about Jodie leaving either (although I have plenty of ideas about her replacement). Until Chris Chibnall announces he is leaving, and we get a major change in format and ethos, then Doctor Who really isn't for me. "Revolution of the Daleks" was the last chance to get me re-engaged with this era, and, I'm afraid to say, that it utterly failed to do that.

All pictures copyright to the BBC. Thank you very much for reading. Apologies for the negativity. If you wish to keep up to date with the blog, you can subscribe by clicking the link at the top of the page. Keep an eye out for special social medias for Who Time (& Space) coming very soon!