Story 296: Revolution of the Daleks

In which the Doctor languishes in prison on a remote asteroid, 79 billion miles out in space... 

Back on Earth, Graham and Ryan have been returning to their old lives, whilst Yaz remains obsessed with seeking a means to find her - making use of the TARDIS which had brought them home from Gallifrey as a base.

Shortly after the lone Reconnaissance Scout Dalek had been destroyed at GCHQ in 2019, its remains had been hijacked so that they could be reverse engineered. The man behind this scheme is millionaire businessman Jack Robertson. He is a friend of politician Jo Patterson, the Technology Minister who has designs on leading her party. Robertson presents his Defence Drones to her at a secret location, and she sees how effectively they deal with a staged civil disturbance. They are in fact purely robotic versions of the GCHQ Dalek. They are solar powered, and run on artificial intelligence, equipped with non-lethal weaponry such as tear gas and water cannons. It was Patterson who informed Robertson of the wrecked Recon Scout's transportation arrangements, enabling him to stage the hijack. He promises to have an army of Drones ready in 12 months - just in time for her to use to help win the next General Election.

Patterson goes on to win the election and commissions the Defence Drones from Robertson. Graham and Ryan have discovered footage of them being tested and identified them as Dalek-based. They notify Yaz. Robertson leaves a meeting with his technical expert, Leo Rugazzi, and is confronted by the Doctor's companions - whom he recalls from the spider incident in Sheffield. His security team chase them off. 79 billion miles away, the Doctor discovers that she has a familiar fellow inmate - Captain Jack Harkness. He had learned of her imprisonment and has allowed himself to be arrested so that he can aid her escape. The attempt succeeds and they teleport to where the TARDIS is waiting.

They materialise in Graham's house, where Yaz is upset with the Doctor for abandoning them for so long. They are shown the material relating to Robertson and Defence Drones. The Doctor and Jack will take action.

Leo informs Robertson that he found some organic material in the wrecked casing, and shows him a Dalek mutant which he has grown from it. Robertson is disgusted and orders it incinerated. However, as Leo attempts to do this, it escapes and latches on to him - mentally dominating him.

The Doctor confronts Robertson and he shows her that the Drones are entirely robotic machines, under computerised control. In Osaka, Leo discovers that the Dalek mutant has been working behind the scenes to create a whole army of its kind. When asked bout the Japanese facility, Robertson is confused and explains that he doesn't have anything in that country. Jack and Yaz travel there and discover the mutant cloning farm.

At Downing Street, PM Patterson rolls out the Defence Drones to the general public and they begin taking up positions at strategic locations around London.

The Doctor brings Robertson to the Osaka factory in the TARDIS, and find Yaz and Jack planting explosives to destroy the Daleks. Leo confronts them, revealing his Dalek master. 

The Doctor suddenly notices that the lighting has changed as they have been speaking - distracted by Leo. The mutants have been brought to life by ultra-violet light. before the facility can be blown up, they teleport away and into the waiting Drone shells. No longer needed, Leo is killed.

The new army of Daleks begin exterminating everyone - beginning with Patterson.

The Doctor is at a loss initially as to how she can stop the Daleks, but then comes up with a highly risky strategy - using fire to fight fire. She allows the Recon Scout Dalek's initial message to its own kind to be projected through the temporal vortex to a Dalek Death Squad saucer. This will bring them to Earth.

She is gambling on the new arrivals to reject the new army as they are not pure Dalek.

The Death Squad will hopefully exterminate the newcomers - but needs a second plan to deal with the victors. Otherwise she has simply replaced one invasion force with another.

The two Dalek forces confront each other and, as expected, begin to battle each other. Robertson, always seeking to ensure he is on the winning side, decides to offer his services to the Death Squad, and they transport him to their spaceship. He is going to tell them about the Doctor's presence on Earth to get on their side.

The original Dalek grown from the Recon Scout DNA attempts to ally itself with the Death Squad, but they refuse to accept it due to its lack of genetic purity. They destroy it, ending the new army. Captain Jack transports himself with Graham and Ryan to the saucer with explosives using his Vortex Manipulator. They abduct Robertson.

The Doctor, meanwhile, materialises the TARDIS above London and intentionally draws attention to herself. She then allows the Dalek force to invade her ship.

However, she proves to be a hologram. This isn't her TARDIS at all, but the other one which had brought her companions to Earth. It has been disguised as a Police Box, and its dimensional controls have been sabotaged. The entire Dalek force is trapped within as it collapses in on itself. Jack and the others transport themselves off of the saucer seconds before it explodes.

A short time later, the Doctor and her companions witness Robertson on TV, manipulating recent events to make himself out a hero and hoping that this will help his Presidential hopes. Jack has left to seek out his Torchwood colleagues. As the Doctor is about to set off, Ryan announces that he has decided to remain behind - feeling he has missed too much of day to life with his friends. Graham elects to stay with him, now that they have a healthier relationship which he does not wish to lose.

Revolution of the Daleks was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on New Year's Day 2021. It acts as a direct sequel to the 2019 Special Resolution, and sees the departure of Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole as regulars Graham and Ryan.

Walsh had an extremely busy career, involved in a number of prime time TV shows including The Chase, whilst Cole had the offer to make a series in the US.

Whilst Ryan's departure had been set up earlier in Series 12, Graham's departure comes out of the blue. Indeed, the character is clearly intending to travel on with the Doctor is quite surprised when his grandson makes his announcement. The impression is that he is bounced into making his own decision, and his heart isn't truly into it. As such, it's a disappointing way to write out what has inarguably been the best companion figure of the Thirteenth Doctor's run. The funniest companion, and the better actor of the trio.

We are now left solely with the frankly underwhelming Yaz, who has been the least well developed of the companions. It's very annoying to see her angry with the Doctor when we know that she has been stuck in prison and can hardly be blamed for not getting in touch.

Another annoyance is the latest example of this Doctor's impotence. If Jack hadn't shown up, she'd still be stuck in jail. No previous Doctor would ever have spent that much time locked up. The Doctor should be seen to get round any sort of obstacle, quickly, using their wits and ingenuity.

Yaz won't be travelling on her own with the Doctor, however, as we are granted a brief coda after the episode which introduces Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop as a character named Dan.

The Special also sees the return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, in what has been his final appearance to date. Soon after, a scandal broke relating to his outré behaviour on set during his initial run on the series and on other shows - leading to him being widely "cancelled". Despite his sexually inappropriate behaviour taking place over years, beginning a decade earlier, allegations about him only surfaced in May 2021 off the back of those regarding one-time co-star Noel Clarke.

A similar fate has befallen the actor who returns as Jack Robertson - Chris Noth - last seen in Arachnids in the UK. Despite being a very broad cartoonish parody of Donald Trump - one reason for the story to be so lowly regarded - Chibnall wanted to bring the character back. A number of women have made allegations of sexual assault against him, the first in December 2021. However, no criminal charges have ever been brought, but his career is very much dead at the moment.

The main guest artist for the story is Harriet Walter, who plays politician Jo Patterson. She is one of Britain's most accomplished actors: made Dame of the British Empire in 2011 for services to her art, member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, star of film, TV and theatre, her career goes back to 1974.

She has performed a number of traditionally male Shakespeare roles, including Henry V and Prospero.

More recent TV work includes Ted Lasso, Succession and Killing Eve. She also featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Leo is played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Prior to getting the role he had appeared opposite Andrew Garfield in the National Theatre revival of AIDS era drama Angels in America. An early TV role for him was as a regular in Misfits.

Sharon D Clarke makes a final cameo as Grace in the closing moments of the episode as Graham and Ryan are seen to go back to where it all began - Ryan practicing his bicycle-riding.

It was always assumed that the unique Dalek design from Resolution could never be used again, being such a one-off, but Chibnall manages it by having new copies made, based on the Recon Scout.

Overall, it's not a bad episode. Always nice to see Daleks en masse, and Captain Jack getting more to do than the mere cameo he had in Fugitive of the Judoon. Even Robertson is more bearable this time round. Only those initial annoyances - and Graham's departure - mentioned above let it down.

Things you might like to know:

• The draft script was pretty close to the finished version. The Defence Drones made their debut in Russia before being brought to the UK by the politician who is already PM, and the threat was more global. The Daleks exterminated most of the world's leaders before being stopped. Graham and Ryan left the TARDIS specifically to help rebuild the Earth after the damage caused by the Daleks.
• To conceal the involvement of the Daleks, the Drones were called "Bobs" in paperwork, with the Death Squad ones called "Nigels".
• Cameo appearances by monsters in the prison include a Weeping Angel, P'ting, Silent, Sycorax, Skithra, Gathering Coil, Thijarian and a Cyberman.
• Filming was able to take place on the Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol as it had been temporarily closed for maintenance work.
• Graham and Ryan appear to see Grace's image in the sunlight - but the sun is clearly seen to be behind them when this happens.
• One of the prison escape scenes has obviously been flipped, as the black stripe on the outfits worn by the Doctor and Jack swap sides.
• A few plot queries exist, such as the odds on the driver just happening to stop at the roadside burger van where the hijackers are waiting. What if he had stopped earlier because he had to use the loo? Were agents placed at every potential stop on the route? Also, how does the Dalek mutant, isolated in a tank, manage to set up the whole Osaka facility? If it had been shown that Leo was taken over much earlier and done all this then that might have made more sense.
• Also - whatever happened to the future refugees who travelled back from Gallifrey in that TARDIS? They're simply forgotten about.
• The episode debuted on the BBC i-Player 10 minutes before the TV broadcast.
• It was originally intended that this festive special would move back to Christmas Day, but it was felt to be too dark and violent for that slot.
• Guest star Harriet Walter is a niece of Christopher Lee.