Doctor Who had a very interesting new year (get it?) in 2018 with Jodie Whitaker coming in as the new Doctor. Though it ended its first new season in a let downish way, the New Year’s Special “Resolution” did pick things up for the better. Which is good, because it’s the only episode we’re getting in 2019! By the way, Happy New Year!
Though it was one of the worst teased secrets of the episode, “Resolution” was indeed the return of the Daleks. Or in this case, Dalek. But to their credit, just like “Inside The Dalek” did for Capaldi, “Resolution” gave us a new reason to fear the Dalek race.
Creating a “new breed” of Dalek while also maintaining the lore might not be something fans like per se, but the results speak for themselves. This new Dalek was able to actually control a human like a puppet while looking freaking creepy in regards to its “octopus form”. And seeing the “Scrap Metal Sheik” shell that it made for itself was a nice touch as well.
For me personally, the best part of the episode was Jodie standing up to the Dalek in all its many forms. She showed the intensity and pain of a being who has fought the Daleks for over 2000 years and is frankly quite tired of seeing them. The holographic scene in particular was very inspiring.
But that wasn’t the only thing going on here, we finally got to meet Aaron, aka, Ryan’s dad. And the writing team didn’t hold anything back here. Ryan and Graham’s animosity towards Aaron was very well played out, including Ryan not taking any crap for the “is this how you talk to your father?” line, because as Ryan noted, he wouldn’t know because he wasn’t there.
Now sure, not everything worked. The extended conversation at the beginning with Mitch and Lin was painful to listen to. And parts of it felt a little too Doctor Who for its own good. And did we really need Unit shut down because of Brexit? Really?
Still, in the end, “Resolution” was a really fun episode, and a much better way to end the “season”, especially with the wait that the next season is going to have.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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