Eve of the Daleks

Having roundly castigated Chibnal for being a terrible Dr. Who writer, with justification, he produced a standalone in Eve of the Daleks that certainly ranks among the best of the Christmas/New Year specials of the NuWho era, and while I wouldn’t rank it above A Christmas Carol I appreciate the arguments of those that place it at the top of their list. The list of great NuWho episodes is much larger but this episode, along with A Christmas Carol gets onto that list for me. I hope the last two specials live up to this quality. It might be too little, too late but it would give Jodie Whittaker the send off she deserves.

Given the Doctor is a Time Lord (species name so not gendered and it doesn’t change with gender), I’m surprised no one has done a time loop episode before. This one has a twist, the loop is getting shorter each time, and they have, as usual, to work out how to escape. But the story and conflicts to be solved along the way are suitably Whovian and, as the name suggests, suitably Dalek too.

There’s a B-plot with Aisling Bea who is, as always, an absolute delight. The overall arc of her story is predictable from almost her first words, certainly her character's first interaction with Nick. That doesn’t stop the moments along the way being great. Let’s just say Nick is a bit twisted and quite naughty, not in a typical Who “I’m going to blow up the world” way, just in a normal, idiosyncratic, human way. Sarah's (Bea) reactions as she learns more and more about Nick while dodging Daleks are a delight.

The other big moment is Dan asking Yaz about her feelings for the Doctor, then challenging the Doctor about the situation. Years of fanfic and subtext is suddenly canon! Rationally, writing it here, it seems like the absolute least they could have done. There were plenty of times they knew were going to die in the loop and Yaz could have just kissed the Doctor instead for example. But emotionally this feels like a big deal. They can drop the ball but I hope something comes of it in the remaining episodes, even if it’s small and doesn’t develop into a romance. Yaz having a crush that isn’t returned but the Doctor having to deal with it other than by running away could still be a good story.

For the first time in years I feel I can say watch this special, it’s a great episode of Dr. Who and a great bit of TV.

Bechdel Test: Pass. We have four named female characters (Sarah’s mum gets named too, and has a recurring role as she facetimes her daughter to wish her HNY in every loop). They all talk to each other. Some of the conversations are about Nick and Dan, the only two named male characters, but there are far more about planning how to escape the loop and so on. Easy pass.

Ko Test: Pass. Yaz might be the only WOC but she talks in a lot more than five scenes in only an hour of TV.

Russo Test: Pass. As I discussed above, rationally this is literally the least they could do. However, Yaz loves the Doctor and is clearly some flavour of queer. We don’t get her labelling herself, so I’m not going to label her either. She easily passes all the other parts of the test.