Elf Storage Time Loop

Story: Eve of the Daleks
Written By: Chris Chibnall
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2022

For whatever you can say about Chibnall's tenure as showrunner, and boy oh boy do people love to say some shit, I think it would be crazy to knock how his era has handled the Daleks.  That doesn't mean it hasn't and won't continue to happen, but for my money he has handled the Daleks far better than Moff ever did.  I've been more forgiving of plenty of Chibs run than many other fans...I genuinely think it hasn't been that bad and most fans are masking their hatred of his initial casting decision and realizing if they say she is fine but has been saddled with nothing but horrible writing, they feel they can get away with it.  He has his issues and not all of his series long stories have worked out perfectly...but each New Years he has delivered really entertaining specials centered on the Daleks, and they have all been quite good in my view. 

The first truly made a scary Dalek story for once, all with a lone pepperpot.  It echoed RTD's intro to the monsters in all the right ways.  His second was more mad and crazy, but it was another solid step forward for the Daleks, succeeding with newer variations on the Daleks where, in my opinion, Moffat failed with his "New Paradigm" Daleks that fell flat almost as soon as they were introduced. He once again makes a solid Dalek adventure here with a time loop story which gets our heroes and two guest stars killed by the Daleks over and over again until they can successfully outwit the foes.  

This episode has a fun time loop plot, Daleks and the Doctor trying to outsmart each other at every turn each time the time loop resets, and it has two decent guest stars, with particular praise needing to go to the great Aisling Bea...who I happen to be a fan of anyway (I have enjoyed her on many panel shows including the tremendous Taskmaster as well as her turns in the sitcoms "This Way Up" and "Living With Myself").  She really is great in this.

This episode is also notable in that on the character side of things in that what has long been hinted at as far back as Series 12 has finally been confirmed: Yaz is definitely in love with the Doctor.  It's not a huge shocker, but I know a lot of fans out there have been dying for this to happen and be confirmed, so I suppose it is a good thing it has in it's way.  Obviously, that relationship will never work due to the Doctor's nature...but in a very Rose Tyler/Martha Jones style of character development, it is cool.  Dan is also great here in that he just cuts through all the subtext crap and tells Yaz he can see it, and then the first chance he gets he just tells the Doctor to start paying attention to it already. The Doctor again evades not only dealing with this problematic element of her friendship with Yaz, as well as avoiding to talk to her about anything that she has been keeping so secretive.  Luckily these kind of things rarely bite the Doctor in the ass.  

So only two specials left for the Thirteenth Doctor and this controversial Chibnall ending.  Will he finally win over all the naysayers?  Of course not, they made up their mind when Whitaker wasn't another dude.  But anyhow, I hope his final two specials (one this spring and another likely at the end of the year, Christmas maybe?) can be as enjoyable as this episode, or the bulk of "Flux" had been.  I think his era is being overly maligned (though I concede I hate the Timeless Child/Secret Past Doctors bullshit), so I look forward to seeing it out...and we get some cheesy looking Sea Devils next time!

NEXT TIME: The Sea Devils Return!