Who Review: Eve of the Daleks

The TARDIS needs to perform a reset to get rid of some lingering effects of the Flux, so the Doctor plans a beach vacation for her and her friends Yaz and Dan while the TARDIS is busy. However, it seems the Doctor miscalculated and they end up in a storage facility in Manchester ten minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. Also at the facility are Sarah, who inherited and runs the place, and her only customer that night, Nick, who has come to put an ex-girlfriend’s gift into his storage unit. While there, he encounters an Execution Dalek–a Dalek with a multi-barrelled shooting arm. After exterminating Nick, the Dalek goes on to kill Sarah, and then the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan. A moment later, the TARDIS team emerges from the TARDIS as if nothing had happened. Something’s messing with time. They need to figure out what’s going on and avoid being killed by the Dalek before time ends permanently for all of them…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

I’ve noted before how outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall has the amazing ability to take a good story idea and make a complete mess of it. Case in point: Eve of the Daleks. In this story, the Doctor and friends are caught in a time loop generated by the TARDIS as a result of the reset it’s performing. But this is not a simple loop. Every time they return to the beginning, it’s a minute later than the previous time. This means they can only go through the loop so many times before the loop ends. Since there will be no escape from that last one-minute loop, they need to make sure they end up alive when it finishes, which means dealing with the Execution Daleks in the meantime. The Doctor, Yaz, Dan, Sarah, and Nick come up with a plan and all ends well. Of course, we knew it would, but as always it’s how they get to the happily ever after that makes a good story.

And that’s where Chibbers problems lie. As I said, I think this is a good premise for a story. You have the tension of trying to figure out why time’s repeating itself, and then the added danger of the Dalek, and then the race against time to survive the last loop. With each cycle, the Doctor and friends learn more about their situation and are able to trial-and-error some solutions. However, the Dalek also learns about the humans, and particularly the Doctor, who is, of course, the real target, and also modifies its action each cycle. This includes calling in reinforcements so, in the end, the Doctor has three Daleks to deal with, not just one.

So how does Chibnall go wrong with this?

First, there’s the whole Nick and Sarah relationship. Nick is romantically interested in Sarah but painfully awkward about it. Sarah, on the other hand, thinks Nick’s a bit weird and clearly isn’t interested. The dialog between them is strained. We’re probably supposed to feel sympathetic toward Nick, but the fact he’s been through a series of girlfriends who have thought enough of him to give him gifts shows he can’t be that socially inept. Then there’s the fact that Nick only finally reveals his feelings for Sarah toward the end when their odds of survival have diminished greatly, and Sarah suddenly reciprocates. Of course. They could all die, so why not? The epilogue shows the two of them going off on holiday together all smiles and laughs, but how long will that last, especially given Nick’s track record?

Then we have the Daleks themselves. I will grant that the Execution Dalek is a better “new” Dalek than the “fat” Daleks we got in New Series Season 5’s “Victory of the Daleks.” What irritated me was the Dalek characterization. “Daleks don’t have managers,” it tells Dan as if that would even be a meaningful concept to a Dalek, clearly Chibber’s misplaced attempt at humor. Earlier, the Dalek stops to have a conversation with Sarah before killing her. And why would two Daleks take so long to shoot Nick only to be fooled by a tactic so simple as Nick ducking so the Daleks destroy each other? These are supposed to be a highly intelligent life form!

Next, we have the Doctor’s “We can do this!” speech. This was exactly the kind of preachy, Public Service Announcement kind of thing I hoped we’d seen the last of after “The Timeless Children.” These are grown adults facing the deadliest force in the universe, Doctor, not the Under-11s netball team! Patronizing? I rolled my eyes so much I nearly lost them behind the sofa!

Finally (at least of the major issues I had), there’s the whole Yaz-Doctor thing. I was afraid Chibbers was going to go there last season, but it seems that this was only a foreshadowing. Yes, after two whole seasons, we suddenly find that Yaz a) might be gay, and b) may have feelings for the Doctor. Fellow Whovians may recall that previous gay characters in Who have been pretty much out of the closet from day one (Captain Jack and Bill come to mind). Could this be Chibbers pandering to a certain sector of the audience by suddenly revealing that one of the companions is same-sex attracted? The heart-to-heart moment she has with Dan where he encourages her to express her feelings was the stuff of daytime drama (i.e., soap opera), not Doctor Who.

But that’s not all. No, there’s a hint that the Doctor may have similar feelings for Yaz. Her initial reaction when Dan tells her that Yaz likes her (which really wasn’t his place to do, especially after the lecture he gave Yaz about opening up to the Doctor) was what I would expect from the Time Lord: “I don’t know what you mean.” But the look she gave after Dan said, “I think you do” suggested inner conflict. I can only hope that the Doctor will let her down gently and move on. But knowing Chibnall, he’s probably building us up to a moment that would compete with the Doctor and Rose (except that the Doctor knew such a relationship couldn’t happen, as did his Eleventh and Twelfth incarnations).

As of this episode, the Doctor hasn’t responded in kind to Yaz, so there’s still a chance Chibbers will back away from this. I’m not hopeful though. His track record and the way he’s building this don’t bode well for a woke-free finale to the Thirteenth Doctor.

To sum up, this was a good idea ruined by bad writing, bad characterization, and woke social politics. In other words, what we’ve come to expect from Chibnall. As I’ve said before, he doesn’t fail to disappoint.

Did you watch this episode? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments!