Bernie, Border Terrier (10 w/o), Washington Square Park, New York, NY • “Bernadette Peters – we just got her yesterday. She slept through the night.”
[initial reactions] Doctor Who 11x11 - Resolution
(of the Dalek)
Now that is what I’m talking about!
Also, I don’t care how BBC numbers this episode, for me this is the season finale for series 11. It’s written that way in a way that DW 11x10 never felt like.
Things in bullet points:
- WAYNE YIP. I knew he won’t let me down as a director! I loved the episodes he directed in Doctor Who but especially in Class: ‘Detained’ and ‘The Metaphysical Engine or What Quill Did’. Those episodes together with the Class season/series final made me care for Class in a big way. And its part writing and its part directing/editing.
And I think more than anything, this series proves to me that a good director is crucial to both the pacing and feel of a Doctor Who episodes. Jaime Childs, bless him, is more comfortable directing very intimate and cozy stories than in Big Even Cinematic stories. Unfortunately, his directorial vision set what Series 11 would look like.
Jaime Childs directing ‘It Takes You Away’ worked well in his wheelhouse because it’s a small cast, in a very closed setting. It’s basically theater. Jaime Childs directing very big set pieces like ‘The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos’ on the other hand? Aside from some nice tableaux, outside of his wheelhouse. Also, it makes TBRaK feel more tacked on and make me wonder what the writing schedule/bts is behind it.
- Speaking of TBRaK, remember the Doctor’s ‘Don’t quote me, I always change the rules’. I knew that would come back, and I knew it would be significant because already, the Doctor’s changed the rules on them. I don’t know if the Chillest Companions to Ever Companion noticed but there was a great deal of heaviness to the Doctor’s ‘Me and a Dalek? It’s personal’. And, I know the Team was distracted because of Ryan’s Dad but the moment the Doctor acquiesced to the the Dalek’s demands and said ‘Fine’ with that flat but cold look in her eyes, the same look she had in ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ as she watched Tim Shaw absorb five DNA bombs, I knew The Doctor was up to something, and it wasn’t good.
True enough. She was and did fling the Dalek straight into a supernova.
- ‘I learned to think like a Dalek a long time ago.’ I went ‘ooooooooooh’. Because, mate, DUDE. More than anything else, that tells me a lot about the Doctor and how they really think tactically. She’s no longer going there for a first and practical option like she did when she was Twelve (Bill’s hurt and judging voice still echoes to this day ‘have you killed anyone?’), but that kind of cold, strategic thinking is still there.
- The Dalek!Control of Lin was terrifying and excellent use of a Dalek. I actually prefer this over the Dalek hybrid in terms of horror elements and body horror. It’s a really great horrifying moment on par with the body horror in World Enough and Time in Series 10.
- “Now do that again to my face.” Chills man. Also, the whole microphone scene, both BAD. ASS. and also, like the Doctor playing to a crowd (which she was — the Doctor’s established this).
- “You don’t have to come.”
“‘Course we do!”
“We’re always with you!”
Again, that look on Thirteen’s face. More ambivalent, more and more it seems like she’s not liking that Ride or Die. Especially here, against a Dalek but she keeps quiet. But the first chance she got to come face to face with a Dalek, she dispatches them away.
- The dark mirror of a Dalek!Controlled!Lin building the Dalek Casing and Thirteen making her own sonic. Amazing.
- “Except. I’m not human, have a scan!” The swaggering bravado. The ego. “Aw, mate. I’m the Doctor, ring any bells?”
And the Dalek backing away. The most dangerous being in the universe. And it backs away from her, because everyone who is in the know knows that the Doctor is the most dangerous being in the universe.
There’s that savage joy there at being recognized. The sheer glee she has at being recognized (without the grandstanding), and how much dark joy she has at tracking the Dalek. Pure Predator of the Dalek coming out but with the Humans there, kept firmly at bay.
- “I tried, I gave it a chance.” Oh, Doctor, seeking absolution. Seeking an excuse and this team, not knowing about the Doctor’s history with the Daleks gives it to her. And even without flinging the Dalek into a Supernova, the fact that she’s to melt a Dalek in its shell…
‘Rules change all the time’ and ‘think like a Dalek’ indeed.
- Jodie Whittaker is enjoying playing the action hero! She never gets to do stuff like that as Britain’s Number One Grieving Mother. The slide! The unnecessary roll! In my head Jake Peralta went: ‘Unnecessary’ and then Thirteen’s Inner Rosa Diaz replied with: ‘Disagree’. (If you think Jodie didn’t imagine the same thing in her head, then you don’t know Jodie’s deep, abiding love for Brooklyn Nine Nine).
- I’m currently watching the First Doctor’s first encounter with the Dalek and the The Doctor and the Team ganging up on the Dalek is a visual callback to the time when the First Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian did the exact same thing to a Dalek! Chibnall, you nerd!
- “I was thinking… Everywhere.” I know this was similar to the TBrAK ending but IMO, this was better, which again, begs the question, when was TBrAK planned?
Other Things of Note:
- I can’t help but laugh at how UNIT was scuttled because of Brexit and possibly because Trump. Although pfffft. Anyone who knows Kate ‘Bleeding’ Stewart knows she’s not going to let an issue like ‘funding’ get in the way and she’s operating an underground taskforce right now. But the Doctor’s face at the stupid money stuff was amazing.
Also, Kate Stewart is a Chibnall creation, I bet she’s coming back next season, at the most opportune time, just when the Doctor needs her.
- I hope the ‘Order of the Custodians’ comes back for series 12! That feels too awesome an organization/name to use just once.
- Speaking of, the proliferation of three letter companies in series 11, aside from Kerblam… coincidence or something more? GFB in Rosa, JLR Disposal in Arachnids in the UK (okay, that’s a stretch), and MZD weapons research here.
- The scene between Ryan and his dad, and Graham and Ryan’s dad. I really like the quiet moments. I hope we get more Yaz in series 12 as Chibnall said during the press briefings.
- The music, as Jodie would say, is ACE!
- Who was the narrator? I need to look him up in IMDB.
- THE SCARF. PLZ BE MORE PART OF THE DOCTOR’S OUTFIT!
