Breaking the Fam

Story: Revolution of the Daleks
Written By: Chris Chibnall
Length: 70 Minutes
Year: 2021

 

It feels like it has been years since the last episode of Doctor Who...but then reality sets in and you remember that it has only been since March.  2020 was just that kind of year.  But while this gives us resolution to the cliffhangers left dangling at the end of Series 12 (specifically the Doctor being imprisoned by the Judoon and the Fam sent back to live their lives on Earth), it also happens to be a fun Dalek extravaganza...with Captain Jack back too! Jack, obviously, made a brief appearance in the middle of Series 12, not interacting with the Doctor at all, but only getting to talk with the latest companions and have them send the Doctor a message. Now she failed to listen to his message, but he did say that when she needed him he'd be there.  And that's how he comes in here.  Helping to break the Doctor out of the prison she has been in (and from what she says it sounds like she was in there for decades!) Once Jack gets the Doctor out using goofy gadgets and his smuggled in Vortex Manipulator, she is finally able to be back in her own TARDIS and reunite with her good friends Graham, Yaz, and Ryan.

She's ready to get back to adventuring with the Fam...but she gets back to them a little late. It has been 10 months since they were returned to Earth. They've been trying to adjust back into life on Earth. At least Graham and Ryan have been trying. Yaz has been in the TARDIS the Doctor sent them back in obsessing on how to get the Doctor back.  But now that the Doctor is back, they've already got a task at hand: Daleks.  Jack Robertson (the scummy American businessman from the Series 11 episode "Arachnids in the UK") got his hands on the destroyed casing from the Dalek in 2019 New Years special "Resolution,"  and he has been conspiring with a ambitious government member to make new security drones based on the design. Now their work is nearly done...the women in government is the new Prime Minister, and he has thousands of the security drones ready to be set nationally in the UK.  This is obviously going to backfire. 

 

And of course it backfires!  Robertson's top scientist on the project also happened to get some of the Dalek DNA and clone it.  And that clone managed to connect itself to the companies database and buy up a factory in Japan, buy up all the equipment needed to clone it, hire a bunch of workers to build it all, and then clone a ton of new Daleks that are feeding on the workers liquidated bodies.  Talk about backfiring! Now all the clones get into the casings and start exterminating.  The Doctor calls in the real Daleks to fight off the new impure Daleks (because when you base your entire existence on purity you are bound to start arguing over what is pure!).  And then Doctor just has to dispatch these real Daleks too.  Easy peasy right?  It is when you've got a spare TARDIS hanging around and you trick all the Daleks into it and send them into oblivion.  The Daleks are maybe dealt with too easily in the end, but I still had a good time watching it all.  I enjoyed the massive amounts of new Daleks and old Daleks battling it out, and while it seemed a tad too easy, I still liked the ending.

 

This brings us to the aftermath.  While Robertson tried to betray the Doctor, his betrayal didn't hurt the plan in the long run...and sadly he ends up using his involvement to his advantage, even raising the possibility that he could end up running for President.  Jack decides to stick around on Earth, and it is mentioned that he has met back up with Gwen Cooper...maybe Torchwood will be rebuilt?  I highly doubt we'd get a new series of that anytime soon, but I wouldn't mind those two characters cropping up in Doctor Who from time to time, maybe as a sort of modern UNIT equivalent?  Not that I disliked Kate Stewart...but UNIT being disbanded does open up possibilities for new Earth defenders to be recurring.  Jack and Gwen?  Maybe have them team up with Stewart and Osgood...a new hybrid team working in secret?  I'm just spitballing ideas, not theorizing that any is in the works.  Could be neat though!

 

And what of the Fam?  Everyone meets back up in the TARDIS, but before the Doctor can whisk them all off into more adventures, Ryan decides to stay on Earth.  He has begun to adjust to life back on Earth, and he wants to be there with his friends.  This was being steadily built towards throughout Series 12.  Ryan felt like he was missing home, and he never truly fit into the Doctor's world.  And if Ryan is staying Graham decides he is too.  He'd happily adventure a little longer, but he wants to be there with his grandson. Of the two I'll miss Graham vastly more, but the exit makes sense, and I enjoy that they are leaving on their own terms, quietly.  The RTD and Moff eras spent a lot of time having companions make their exits in big extravagant ways.  Rose had to be trapped in another universe to stop being with the Doctor. The Ponds trapped back in time and cut off from the Doctor by the Weeping Angels.  Bill turned into a Cyberman and then some kind of ethereal space traveler.  They had big epic sci-fi endings...ones that meant they HAD to be apart from the Doctor because RTD and Moff couldn't imagine writing characters just moving on from this fun lifestyle.  I definitely love someone finally saying "this has been fun, but I have had my fill."  That is how Sarah Jane left.  Of the modern series it seems only Martha made that choice on her own.  

 

And their exit was nice and hit all the right notes.  It reminded me of the more reigned in storytelling and character plotting that Chibnall introduced in the underrated and overly maligned 11th Series (which he combatted with a vengeance in Series 12 and went far too over the top).  It is where Chibnall works best as showrunner. He should stick to that, and not let the critics force him into trying to recreate the Moff madness.  He isn't Moff, and should not try to be.  

 

It's nice to have Yaz continuing on, and it was announced a new companion named Dan (played by John Bishop) will be joining on next series.  Looking forward to it!

NEXT TIME: Flux is Coming