The decision to forgo a Christmas special in favour of a New Year's Day special has been met with predictable controversy. I understand, especially for those whose Christmas routine has always involved Doctor Who, but at the same time, I think it's probably for the best. The Christmas Special was becoming increasingly restrictive and, whilst none of Capaldi's Christmas episodes were completely rubbish, not all of them were the most memorable. Plus, as much as I enjoyed Nick Frost's Santa, bringing in Father Christmas himself was a sign that perhaps they were struggling for ideas. So, moving the special to the New Year seems like a good idea to me. It opens up many new narrative and thematic possibilities. Plus, the iconography surrounding New Year's is a lot vaguer than Christmas, so they can probably justify most ideas as being somewhat related.
So, how does Resolution utilise the festival? Well, for a lot of the episode it's largely just set dressing. A couple of characters reference that it's the New Year and Team TARDIS are seen at the end of a trip through 19 different New Year's Days witnessing a galactic fireworks display. There's also a funny joke about the cruelty of bringing down the Wi-Fi on New Year's Day (“We'll have to have a… conversation!) However, the plot itself doesn't really rely on it being set on New Year's Day. In fact, for the most part, it probably could've been a Christmas special. It's possible trying to cram in Christmas imagery would distract from the actual story and that it would’ve equally felt like arbitrary set dressing, but it wouldn't have exactly clashed with the narrative a whole lot. That is except for one thing; Resolution marks the first appearance of Ryan's dad.
In the spirit of the New Year, Aaron Sinclair has made a resolution to sort out his parenting. Yes, you could have done a similar thing with 'the spirit of Christmas’ or whatever, but that's been done to death and it's a much fluffier concept than the more defined idea of a New Year's resolution. Now, Ryan's relationship with his dad has been a somewhat problematic aspect of his character. It's been pointed out that he's the fourth major black man in the Doctor Who universe to come from a broken home. Admittedly, it's broken as a result of death rather than straightforward abandonment but Aaron is still an absent father. Resolution sees Ryan (and Graham) reconciling with his father and it’s handled very well, taking place in the less action-packed scenes set aside for maximum focus. The episode concludes with Ryan's dad no longer being absent, which means he no longer follows the stereotype, although it doesn't erase the fact that he did for an entire series. Still, as far as developing Ryan's character is concerned, it's successfully effective.
The rest of Resolution is rather fantastic. It's not the most cerebral of Doctor Who episodes, clearly focusing on creating something more action-packed and cinematic. Fortunately, it is quite successful at doing that. Director Wayne Yip keeps things very tightly paced, moving events along with an exhilarating speed we haven't really seen in any of series 11. There's particular fun in spending lots of time in the TARDIS zipping around short distances in pursuit of the alien threat. The use of cinematography is also notably inventive, especially regarding some of the angles used during the tenser moments within the TARDIS. The visual effects department do a valiant job and, even better, there's Segun Akinola's always wonderful music, which really emphasises the episode's thriller leanings with some vigorously heavy drumming. The episode's also quite funny, with a particularly great (and slightly surprising) extended gag poking fun at customer service and austerity.
Obviously, though, the most significant thing about Resolution is the long-awaited return of the Daleks. Series 11 intentionally avoided bringing back any old monsters and, whilst this had mixed success, it did mean there was at least a guaranteed level of novelty. Bringing back the Daleks inevitably brings pressure to do something different with them because otherwise, it'll all feel tediously familiar. Thankfully, Chibnall actually does some really interesting things with the Daleks. Taking them out of their armour for most of the episode allows for a focus on the underappreciated grossness of their organic form. Having them then possess humans by latching on to their backs allows for an extra level of body horror style freakiness, finding a new reason to get scared of the Daleks. Once this episode's Dalek finally gets back into its armour it doesn't lose its scariness, either, because they do an excellent job of conveying its unstoppable ruthlessness. There's a really tactile sense of its threat, emphasised by the very physical way Team TARDIS have to combat it.
So, no more Doctor Who until 2020, how will we ever survive? It's a real shame this is the only hour of Doctor Who we're going to get this year, but at least it was a rather good hour. Chibnall, Yip and the rest of the crew manage to squeeze out some genuinely compelling action, bringing back the Daleks in a way that manages to feel fresh and frightening whilst taking the time to accomplish some quality character development as well. Hopefully, the next year will give those behind the scenes some time to further improve on the solid foundation they established in series 11. In particular, I feel like they could expand their sci-fi scope and attempt to challenge the character of Jodie Whittaker's Doctor to expose more flaws. However, for now, we'll just have to wait. Oh how we suffer!
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