2nd Opinion, Take 2 “Eve of the Daleks” – Meh on Repeat

JC’s take on the 2022 New Year’s special.

I love time loop stories, and there have been some very good ones (Palm Springs, and the mentioned-in-script, Groundhog Day being the inspiration for this episode). So I was somewhat intrigued to see what Chibnall would come up with. But the end result just left me feeling “meh”. Repeatedly. It’s the best way I can sum it up.

Part of the fun of the whole concept is seeing the person who is stuck in the loop freaking out as they are forced to relive the same day over and over, and in turn, seeing everyday people reacting to a person who knows everything that is going to happen in a day. But in “Eve of the Daleks” almost everyone is in on the joke immediately and the only outsider we see unaware of what’s going on is Sarah’s mum.

Chibnall also adds a gimmick of removing a minute with each reset, and the loop starts small and only gets smaller. But while this is quite a novel addition, I also felt it left things feeling rushed rather than allowing the characters to settle into this strange situation and figure things out more naturally. I wanted to see more of the day play out, not just a fragment.

As in most time loop stories, death determines when time is reset, but this poses a bit of a problem here because you have a central character who can’t actually die (at least not in the traditional sense). The Doctor shouldn’t cause a reset when hit by a Dalek death ray. Remember, the Tenth Doctor started to regenerate after being hit by a Dalek in “The Stolen Earth”. So by this same logic, Thirteen should regenerate (and infinitely, thanks to the Timeless Child retcon as the Doctor is now basically immortal). Why then does the loop reset for the Doctor? As ever, the rules are not defined clearly enough to determine why leaving fans to fill in the blanks.

Despite being wiped out in Flux, the Daleks were back, though we got a flimsy explanation of how. Unfortunately, they were treated like jokes again. As people who followed my reviews for Flux will know, one of the worst traits of Chibnall is how he has the Doctor’s foes shooting down narrow corridors and missing every shot. This episode was the worst case yet, with it happening on repeat and with the newly installed Gatling guns no less. They can’t even shoot through flimsy doors! Then you have characters literally walking circles around them, ducking shots and poking fun. Why should I take them seriously anymore? RTD needs to make the Daleks a serious and scary threat again when he inevitably brings them back.

The episode is noticeably a budget saver. Did all the money go to Flux? I went from watching season 2 of The Witcher to Doctor Who after and, my god, was the difference stark! One wowed me with its scope and stunning landscapes and monsters, the other was set in a dull storage facility in Manchester. I know Doctor Who has a much, much tighter budget, but it made me question why this show shouldn’t be looking as good as its peers. It’s meant to be the number one sci-fi show after all. It should be budgeted as such. Hopefully, RTD will rectify this too.

I’ll congratulate Chibnall for actually having a smaller cast for once, as it did mean the two main guest stars got more time to shine. Though their characterisation could have been better. Aisling Bea gave a strong performance as Sarah, but I wasn’t sure where Adjani Salmon was aiming at with his acting. Part of that may have been the writing. Nick came across as a creep when I think he was meant to be endearing in a kind of “Haha! What a funny guy keeping his ex-girlfriend’s items like serial killer trophies, whilst also stalking his current prey”. This was sold as a big love story, but I saw barely any chemistry between the central pair. Sarah switches from “you’re weird” to “I love this weirdo” far too quickly. It was like an alien had written how he thought humans talked when they were bonding.

As for the main cast, Jodie was Jodie with lots of exaggerated swinging of the Sonic, over-emoting and telling the audience what we can already see is going on. Yaz and Dan pop up, sometimes. But for the biggest revelation… Yaz admits she has feelings for the Doctor. Now, I know in today’s world that’s all you have to do to grab some headlines and cause excitement on a subsection of Twitter, but what else does Yaz have to show for her character after all these episodes? Very little. The same goes for Dan, who now gets treated like a joke by everyone – and this is meant to be the new companion. I do have to give Dan credit though. His gaydar is incredible! There’s been, at best, a couple of vague lines and stares hinting at this before now. But for Chibnall to finally act on it with just two episodes left? What’s the point? There’s going to be so little time left to actually develop it. If Chibnall really wanted to do this properly and not just as a token gesture (which is what it looks like), this should have been done far earlier.

In conclusion, “Eve of the Daleks” is certainly not the worst episode of this era, it’s just so… boringly mediocre. Now, I’m off to rewatch “Heaven Sent”.

Asides

• Wouldn’t Dan, Nick and Sarah know what a Dalek looks like, given that they were unveiled on TV by the government as the new “defence drones” just a year ago in “Revolution of the Daleks”?
• Dan says the Doctor saved the universe. Did she? At best, you could say she helped save Earth. But the rest of the damage to the universe following Flux’s destruction is still unclear.
• Daleks can shift their mid-sections, so Dan should not be able to circle one so easily.
• What was the point of the return of the weedy crane guy from Jodie’s first episode? Were fans actually meant to be excited by this? If so, that’s laughable.
• The TARDIS is fine now. I guess. Who knows, who cares? Certainly not Chibnall. Why even bring it up?