2nd Opinion, Take 1 “Eve of the Daleks”
Gustaff Behr’s take on the 2022 New Year’s special.
We kick off Jodie Whitaker’s final year with the conclusion to this strange Daleks-at-New Year’s trilogy that Chris Chibnall has been so adamant we get. I half expected this story to tie up at least some of the many loose ends left behind by the Flux arc, but in hindsight, I probably should have expected a self-contained bottle episode instead.
Even from the trailers I could tell “Eve of the Daleks” was going to be the COVID episode. Or the budget episode. Or both! The story takes place almost entirely within a self-storage warehouse, and the only prominent special effect is the fireworks display at the end. The cast is small at six, including one that only shows up via video call, and a few Daleks. Even the warehouse location has the feel of ‘we need to save some money’. It does work well enough for the episode. The characters we are introduced to, all have a plot purpose, even Sarah’s mum. The script wisely doesn’t try to shove a boat load of meaningless characters in our face, ala the usual Chibnall-style.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I liked any of the non-Dalek characters. Nick is creepy and weird. There is no getting around it. He is not someone you’d want for a friend. There’s an argument to be made that he has Fatal Attraction (stalker syndrome) and Compulsive Hoarder syndrome, both of which are classified as mental illnesses, so it makes it even stranger that the episode would acknowledge how hair-raising his behavior is. The Chibnall era is well-known for tackling social issues…to varying degrees of success.
I have seen a lot of praise for Aisling Bea’s character. I acknowledge the performance is a spotlight stealer, so kudos to the actress, but I found Sarah to be utterly unlikeable. She is abrasive, selfish, narcissistic, and rude. I thought she deserved working in a company she loathes. Thankfully, the episode manages to squeeze in some character development for her. That was very sweet.
But before that, I could not understand why she kept answering her phone if she didn’t want to speak to her mother. Also, her budding romance with Nick feels unearned and if you give it more than two seconds of thought, you realize just how unhealthy this kind of relationship is. The episode essentially has her fall in love with a man that has been stalking her three years, and we’re supposed to think it’s cute. The episode tries to have a moment between them after his death, but it feels cheap, as it’s clear Sarah is only behaving this way out of guilt from watching him die in the previous loop.
This episode is stupidly fun to watch though, even if you don’t like the Chibnall era. It’s so bad, it’s good. You get to watch a bunch of characters you dislike be murdered for an hour. You have a Dalek taking five minutes to get through one storage door—with a gatling gun! I was in stitches. This is between the Doctor taking an entire three minutes to realize she is trapped inside a storage room. Priceless.
Going back to the gatling gun, on the one hand, it looks really cool and could stick around for future episodes. On the other hand, isn’t one shot from a Dalek already enough to kill someone? Why waste so much energy on multiple rounds…especially if it takes you five minutes to get through one door? In another scene, I laughed when the Daleks waited patiently for Dan and Yaz to finish their heart-to-heart moment before killing them. Who says Daleks don’t have compassion?
This episode ladies and gentlemen…
I was sure this was a dumb comedy after the storage warehouse blew up and not a single piece of rubble fell on the TARDIS. Not one piece! After almost fifty years, Death to the Daleks has some worthy competition.
The episode did feature some classic Chibnall wasting of companion characters though. I actually paused to make note of it, but Yaz and Dan do not do anything notable for twenty-six minutes. Dan finally springs into action right after by going to confront and delay the Dalek, but poor Yaz doesn’t get to do anything for at least the first thirty-six minutes of the episode. She does defend Dan at minute thirty-eight, but the first significant thing that happens to her occurs forty-three minutes into the episode–and it’s the discussion about her love for the Doctor.
I am laughing as I write this out.
It’s easy to see why people love or hate this episode. It’s dumb fun. It reminds me of an 80s slasher flick with a nonsensical plot featuring unlikable characters that you enjoy seeing killed off one by one. Viewed in that light, this episode rocks!
To conclude my thoughts, I don’t have a problem with Yaz being in love with the Doctor. Yes, it most definitely feels tacked on, and I do have to question what she sees actually in this person who 1) actively lies to her about stuff, 2) intentionally keeps her and other people at a distance and 3) does not share anything about herself.
Why are you so attracted to this incarnation again?
The series can’t even show us because Jodie only has two episodes left—one of which has her Doctor dying at the end! It’s a pity Chris Chibnall couldn’t use his four years of showrunning to give us any real moments with this two ALONE TOGETHER and show us why we should care whether Yaz and the Doctor are actually good for each other. If only we’d gotten some minisodes.