Television from the 1990's, especially in the US, had favoured the story-arc approach. A long running series would have an over-arching narrative, but individual seasons might have their own self-contained arcs, with the villain(s) being defeated in the season finale but with the overall story still to be fully told. Often, a cliff-hanger ending would set up the next individual season arc, or the next stage of the overall narrative.
One major problem with this was the mercenary attitude of the TV networks, for whom viewer numbers and advertising were paramount (no pun intended). If a series wasn't performing as well as hoped, it would be axed with no opportunity for its makers to devise a satisfactory conclusion. Personally, I used never to even start watching a genre series if I already knew that the season would end on an unresolved cliff-hanger.
Some series like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or the first three new Star Trek iterations were allowed to run to a natural conclusion. Babylon 5 only managed this by compressing its ending when it looked like it was going to be axed. All of the Star Trek shows had run to seven seasons, but Enterprise was ended after only four, with a much derided final episode.
Doctor Who had had run for 26 years, but had never been beholden to continuity other than the basics of the series - a Time Lord travelling through space and time with a selection of (mostly) human companions, fighting alien threats.
It had some recurring characters and monsters, but precious few proper sequels.
RTD was a self-confessed Buffy-phile, and made it clear that he favoured this type of series structure.
The revived series would see the 45 minute, mostly self-contained episodes, with the odd two-parter and a season-long story arc. RTD also had an eye to a longer arc - that which would see the return of the Master and the eventual regeneration of the Tenth Doctor.
Steven Moffat followed with a similar structure - individual season arcs, forming part of a longer overall narrative. Things introduced in The Eleventh Hour would not see their final resolution until Time of the Doctor.
When Chibnall took over, he seemed to turn his back on story arcs. It looked like one might be developing with the Stenza appearing in his first episode, then getting a mention in the second, but this came to nothing. We only had a return appearance by T'zim Sha in the lukewarm finale, and they never made any other appearance.
It was only with his first festive special - now shifted to New Year - that we saw a returning element from the past. This was a Dalek.
They were the most famous returnees of all iterations of the series, and had helped to launch the series in the first place - in terms of popularising it.
They featured in Season 1, returned twice in Season 2, and their two appearances in Season 3 were combined to form one big story. Season 4 saw them back for two separate stories. Had it not been for Terry Nation's obsession with America, and the rapacity of his agent, we would probably have seen at least one Dalek story in Seasons 5 - 8.
It was only when Hinchcliffe and Holmes took over that we had a conscious move away from old enemies. Towards the end of the original run, the Daleks were used more sparingly, with the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors encountering them just the once each.
Daleks were so synonymous with Doctor Who that everyone assumed they would feature when the series returned in 2005. The BBC even announced it without checking with the Nation estate, which almost scuppered things for the first series. Jane Tranter assumed that they would be featured in the opening episode, but RTD insisted they be held back in case the series struggled to launch and a mid-season reboot was necessary.
Each of his series had a Dalek story, and he would have continued this up to his departure had Moffat not informed him he wanted to use them in his first season. This is why they are absent from the 2009 specials, other than for a cameo appearance. Following the adverse reaction to the radical Teletubby redesign, they were confined to just another cameo in Series 6, but were back for Series 7 and the concluding stories of the Matt Smith era (which were tied closely to the Time War).
As mentioned, we had to wait until the first New Year Special for the return of any classic monster in the Chibnall era. Rather predictably it was the Dalek. He did at least try to do something original with them by having an especially powerful lone Dalek, with a new makeshift, scrap metal, design.
Chibnall then had several returnees in his second series - the Master, Judoon and Cybermen all making an appearance.
The Daleks were reserved for the next New Year Special. And the next...
The festive specials attract a different sort of audience, and should see non-fans tuning in - but the audience figures slid. It had become predictable, and we saw the law of diminishing returns in action.
With the arrival of RTD2, we have all been hoping for a series renaissance. He's starting off with the diamond anniversary episodes which are bringing back David Tennant and Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, albeit for three nights only, adapting a classic DWW comic strip, and reviving the Celestial Toymaker.
He has also agreed with the majority of us that the Daleks have been overused of late, and has announced that he has no plans to have them return unless he has a very good reason for doing so.
We're promised a return to Skaro for Children in Need, but just for 5 minutes or so. After that, there's no plans for a Dalek story for Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor as far as we know, and certainly none have been seen during filming, which is now well into the 2025 series.
Unless they've been involved in some all-studio story, it looks like we will be having some respite from them, which can only make their eventual return something a little more special...
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