Thread by @ellardent, Let’s do some #tweetnotes on #DoctorWho — Revolution of the Daleks.In short: [...]

Let’s do some #tweetnotes on #DoctorWho — Revolution of the Daleks.

In short: A adequate sequel to last year’s Resolution. Struggled to be about any of the things it aimed at — instead being mostly about the villain. But hey, Daleks shooting at other Daleks…briefly!

DW-ROTD: Let’s talk about the stories this tries to be, starting with “The Doctor questioning who she is.”

Because once again the first female Doctor is introduced as passive. For most Doctors, those lines on her cell wall would be a tally of escape attempts… #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Arrested for “the crime of being herself” (she says, though weren’t the Judoon after her from Ruth’s actions?) the Doctor apparently took Ko Sharmas’ sacrifice as a chance to…give up and pout in a cell. Waiting for a man to rescue her. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: I say pout, only…none of there time in prison is sold as miserable self reflection. Instead she talks to the cameras, banters with the spare costumes and re-reads Harry Potter.

At no point is this articulated as an emotional issue. Except after it’s passed. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: While incarcerated, there’s no sense of an emotional story at work. But once she’s out and acting like a dynamic Doctor again, she tells us her lack of action *was* about the events of The Timeless Children.

Anyone feel that? I didn’t. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Did this ep ever play as ‘The Doctor finds herself?’ Did she refuse to return and eventually find herself rising again?

Where’s the moment in her cell where she tells Jack she’s staying put, by choice? “I don’t know who I am, who you’d be letting out”. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (“I don’t know what you’d be releasing onto the universe” is a fucking great idea for a Doctor scared of who she used to be. But mostly she knows her past was as lab rat and space cop, so her regular self was actually worse…!) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: What’s funny is that she’s reading Harry Potter from memory. A story about an adopted kid whose parents abuse him, who’s told he has a destiny but finds that being who you are and making your own choices are what matters.

Did she not notice the parallels? #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (Let’s be honest, the nod to Rowling in Shakespeare Code was about grabbing for the biggest thing in kids’ imaginations in 2007. To be doing the same nod 13 years later is more a callback, and an easy reference. It’s not about what kids are into in 2020.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: I thought the Doctor might tell one of her own adventures there, tell the story of herself — which might have related to a story about her trying to ‘find herself’ again after all the ‘I don’t know who I am because I forgot my distant past’ stuff. But no. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So the first beat of the Doctor not being herself is her passing time, with exercise time in a space smaller than her cell.

Then she gets on with Doctoring. But later we stop for the ‘Doctor feels sad after Timeless Children’ index card scene. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: We’ve spoken before about how Chibnall’s style is to pause the urgent story, sit the characters down to talk.

Here, Graham and Robertson literally vanish from the slow-moving TARDIS so Ryan can tell the Doctor about how she shouldn’t fear new things. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: And really, I don’t know how anyone found that scene felt true, or like drama.

We do Ryan’s “I like home” sad thing, then he turns and basically says “Your turn”. Do your sad thing.

The Doctor, of all people, needs a guy to tell her not to fear new things?!
#tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: And that exchange turns out to be the resolution of the Doc’s issues for the episode. After that, it’s all tucked away.

He tells her a quick platitude about how it’s okay to be scared, etc. and that deals with it. No climax, just parked. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So instead of the Doctor not feeling herself and that coming good in the finale — a climax where she reaches that spark just as all seemed lost! — it’s talked away and stowed for later. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: This is especially irksome when the climax relies on the Doctor tricking loads of Daleks to follow her because ’she is the Doctor’.

Imagine if she hadn’t been until that moment. Imagine if becoming herself was how she defeated the Daleks! #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (Aside: This is the second time the Doctor has decided to weaponise race hate to her own advantage. It seems almost designed to concur with the people who said of Spyfall that “You wouldn’t have minded if the Nazis she used were Daleks”…) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (…But look at the story there. She gets pure Daleks to kill the Drones…then has to lead the pure Daleks into a trap.

The Drones could have been lured! By reminding them that the Doctor is their nemesis — claiming the role, tying to her theme of identity!) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (And don’t give me ‘These Daleks don’t remember the Doc’. They haven’t all met her personally, it’s a hive memory thing, and the one she defeated last year, that they’re all built from, met her. Seriously, sonic that info to the drones. Themes tie up.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So it fails to be a dramatisation of the Doctor’s quest for self after an undramatised identity crisis. Ho hum.

This also wants to be the story of how Ryan has grown past the TARDIS. Is it? #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Well no. We never see how Ryan’s been functioning at home, how his mates need him, how important that is. His life is undramatised to spend more time on the Robertson plot.

So Ryan tells us. No showing. No feeling. Another index card. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: But hey, it’s also the story of how Yaz lost the Doctor.

Only, again, nope. Her status quo at the start leads to an angry shove — actual drama! — and then…the plot separates her and the Doc rather than lean into the difficulty of working together. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Why take the most powerful emotional conflict in the show and then actively avoid keeping them together?!

Note that the Doctor never even acknowledges Yaz’s wall of obsession. No guilt from that.

Yaz is funnelled off to Jack. “You don’t get to decide…”
#tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: What do all of Yaz’s wall plans actually say? Seriously?

In all these months she’s got to “the controls are coded to the Doctor”. That feels like day one. And then…what?

It’s a movie wall. Pure fakery. There’s no real content to put there. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: We’re meant to see Yaz’s issues reflected in Jack. But Jack’s always come and gone as he liked. Saunters out the TARDIS at the end of another season finale, gets his own show, pops back.

Talk about the betrayal of being left behind doesn’t fit him at all. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Jack is not the guy to talk about being a companion. His experience is too atypical.

Ironically he IS the guy to talk about how a gap in your memory doesn’t define who you are as a person… #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: …Imagine that! The Doctor refusing to leave her cell. Jack adamant that who you are and a past you can’t remember aren’t the same thing.

Does the Doctor think he’s any less Jack for his lost past?

Of course not. And so she stands! #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Jack gets Yaz over her issues with a lie. Loads of companions chose to move on. More than get left, in fact. (Anyone who think that’s not what Clara and Bill do, too, need to look again.)

And come the end, Ryan and Graham chose to go, too. Yaz is just…left. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Companions mostly leave in two ways: back to a regular life, or off to their own adventures.

Here the twist is “the first one, but with an option to do the second”.

And does anyone think Ryan and Graham would be any use if they showed up with psychic paper? #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Ask yourself: Why does Ryan feel he’s done with the TARDIS while Yaz feels she needs it?

It’s not earned character growth, is it? It’s cos one’s leaving, one isn’t. If it were the other way round, Ryan’d be written resentful and Yaz as happily back at work. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: I didn’t feel Ryan and Graham’s loss. “I’m done” and “I’m with him” and off they go. Done.

And the weird beat of Yaz and the Doc left together was off somehow.

But at least Yaz will get—

“INTRODUCING JOHN BISHOP”

Ah well. Back to the feed lines for Yaz. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So it fails at being about the Doctor, Yaz or Ryan stories. We get no climax where Yaz regains her trust of the Doctor, where the Doc finds herself again, or where Ryan learns he’s done with this life.

And Jack’s goodbye scene is cut and replaced with ADR. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (The insane irony of the ‘you only get sad goodbyes’ guy being written out as an aside, literally a function without emotion, is hilarious.

Clearly a production issue of some kind, but it just gives the lie to his one big speech.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: And it’s not a ‘Jack is back’ story. He facilitates an escape, talks to Yaz, carries bombs. Exploring him and the Doctor being together again isn’t on the menu.

He’s got no real life anyway — no time is devoted to knowing where he is as a person right now. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Anyway, pfft, Jack’s clearly going to do more guest spots, so a quickie goodbye is fine.

Though with Jack happily following instructions and not flirting, his main job is to cite 2005-2010 continuity references. Dunno how much of that I need.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (Btw, what was with “Have you had work done?” Recycling a line from Utopia is an odd way to lean into a facelift 4K can’t hide. Why do it at all?!

But then, why is a time travelling conman from the 51st century saying the Doctor showed him the universe?) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So let’s talk about what this IS, more or less: A story about the Daleks sneakily attacking the Earth again. Through the medium of corporate/governmental satire.

Robertson’s story.
#tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Satire — the ‘build them in my constituency’ stuff lands okay. It’s at least suggesting it’s a bad business.

The blackmail over taxes? Not so much. That crime isn’t the avoidance so much as the government system that legally allows avoidance for the rich. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: If you want to look at how ‘not a commentary’ this all ends up being, we have Daleks as cops and nothing is done with the idea at all.

Here’s a weird one: if Drones apply the law harshly but accurately, wouldn’t they be *less* racist than real police?! #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Mostly this seems to be ‘saying a thing exists’ like it’s satire. The “nobody likes experts” line was downright bizarre once you look at who’s saying it. It’s only there for the nod, it’s not a comment ON that issue.

We have Trump and Nazi cops and…nothing. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: What frustrated me about all this was the pace. How slowly we went from a stolen Dalek to the drones.

Basically, the show makes Robertson the lead for the first third of the show and tells a story of how his new business ascends.

It’s his story to lead. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: While the fam forget to celebrate new year, and the Doctor goes through prison routine, the A story is about the Trump-alike shoring up deals to get his Drones made.

He’s the lead. Which could be bold, but…I just didn’t want that. Not now. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: (By all means draw a line from Jack taking the hero role in prison, Robertson taking the lead role in the plot and Graham being urgently replaced with another middle aged white comedian. This is Chibnall reaching for his safe ground.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: But no, I don’t want the Trump stand-in being the most featured character today.

The Doctor never even meets the PM! Never faces down that corruption. The big arc is Robertson’s — he meets everyone, takes actions, and gets the ending with a bit of irony. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Why not *start* this story with the drones being revealed?

Because then it’d be about our gang working out why this had happened — the first time discoveries. Instead we watch a guy make it happen and then watch the gang play catch-up. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: You can see the show at war with itself. It reveals the drones on a leaked video…and then on TV moments later anyway.

It’s a pace-killer, this. It means scenes keep happening twice.
#tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Twice we get Robertson meeting with Harriet (like Harriet Jones? Why?!), saying ‘Now we *are* doing this corruptly, right?’

Twice the drones are revealed. Twice we follow the Doc for exercise. Two ‘look how many!’ reveals of the same tower of clones. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So the pace starts to flatten because of the repetition. Couple that with the ‘stop to talk’ bits — where urgency is replaced with ‘it takes the TARDIS four minutes to get there, may as well chat’ — and something vibrant and energetic withers. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: There’s also the non-tension of watching Daleks made with water canons and smoke.

Tricky this, but if we saw water canon Daleks on TV first, we’d worry they had other, secret weapons. Shown this way, we don’t: how could their makers miss lasers being added? #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: By taking the ‘see it all happen’ POV, the villain’s view, we FEEL the Daleks reduced to Drones.

We know the other shoe will drop, but worry less in the meantime. Tension is lessened, mystery is lower. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: And btw, what was the point of stealing CGHQ’s Dalek to do this?

They’re drones, made of earth metals and weapons. Literally the only part that’s Dalek is the shape until the Daleks sneak in their own tech.

So what part of the drone needs Dalek origins?! #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: The logistics all fall apart, of course. Apparently the system hired staff, then fed them to the Daleks.

But…who killed those people and turned them into food?

(I like the food idea, but it makes you ponder the logistics when clearly you shouldn’t.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Why is Robertson so anti a brand new life form that his company entirely owns?

The patents for medical use alone would make him billions! #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: So we get the faked globe-trotting again — this time Osaka where, briefly, we do see one Japanese person. Who doesn’t speak.

But It could have been anywhere — far too much store is being put in a drone shot and a massive caption to pretend scale. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Parking on Tower bridge is cute but…was that about all the Dalek face-off we saw? Those few, the rest described as happening off-camera?

We threw in a CGI Pting rather than fighting Daleks?!
#tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: ‘Mum’ thing with the truck driver didn’t work for me. It’s ‘wonder about this person’s backstory’ rather than ‘like this person for who they are…and mourn them.’

(And the Doc doesn’t know that person died — another murder she won’t ever care about.) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Robertson’s complicit in that murder and the Doctor never knows.

Harriet dies and the Doctor never met her, never confronted her for her actions

And she lets Robertson go. Again. When she could deal with him fairly in minutes: https://twitter.com/ellardent/status/1345141373511618560
#tweetnotes

https://twitter.com/ellardent/status/1345141373511618560

DW-ROTD: Robertson’s science guy — who naturally specialises in cloning as well as drones — is killed off once the plot is done with him. Rather than make an arc or connect him to the gang emotionally. Boy was he ever a soul to save. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Usual drippy use of Yaz. “How can we get a look at his operation?” Aren’t you a police officer?!

(Is she? What’s she been doing for money all these months?) #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: The Doctor’s been gone years and hasn’t changed at all, still locked in her Timeless Children state (minus, erm, the lesson Ruth gave her there). The fam have been gone a few months and have all changed.

I can’t decide if that’s deliberate irony or not. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Why is a Dalek made from mediaeval Dalek DNA less pure than ones around now? Did I miss set-up lines there? ‘We had to combine with human to complete?’

Weird moment where the Dalek is brought back to argue its case for its own purity. Not sure why. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Graham’s big goodbye calls back his apparently iconic pronouncement that “you don’t get aliens in Sheffield”

Which is really proving he never said or did anything memorable.

I can’t believe we went back to that sub-Casualty bike scene, too. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: But look, we had plenty of likeable bits too. The prison was thrown away, but rendered interestingly before it was.

We had easy to grasp villains, an easy to restate Jack. RTD style in the story. It’s efficient if nothing else. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: By my count there was only one thing that wasn’t on your checklist of expected things once the premise was established: use other Daleks to kill Daleks.

Everything else was rote. Which, for a special, isn’t a crime. It’s just not much more.
#tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Broadly a proactive Doctor once she left prison. That’s nice to see, just as a base standard, even if it fights the emotional arc being done.

I still think she could have just lured the first lot of Daleks into the same trap, though. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: The rare use of a decently set-up item to end the plot: a crunching TARDIS sure beats the microwave that did this job last year.

But wow, the Doctor’s people are gone forever (again) and she junks a rare spare TARDIS without a qualm?! #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: The 4K looked okay, I thought. Only the old Dalek clip from last year was ropey. Speaks well to what was achieved production-wise. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: John Bishop reveal was fine — a nice way to do it, actually, since it insists on being a Star Casting reveal.

I won’t mind Chibnall being in his wheelhouse again, beyond the spotlight he’ll steal from Yaz.

And Bishop was solid in Accused. #tweetnotes

DW-ROTD: Finally — it’s not a Revolution.

The Drones aren’t alive; no revolt there. The creatures are alive but aren’t subjugated. The pure Daleks are exterminating, but the new Daleks weren’t revolting against them, just defending themselves.

It’s not a revolution. #tweetnotes

No way they forgot. So either it was shot and cut in the edit to do differently next season, say. Or it was cut before shooting, maybe production issues prevented it being shot. #tweetnotes https://twitter.com/beeeeeeaan/status/1345374509612863491

https://twitter.com/beeeeeeaan/status/1345374509612863491

Utopia’s a big, but there’s also a scene in Bad Wolf that strongly implies a couple fo adventures in the gap after Boom Town. #tweetnotes https://twitter.com/RevAMol/status/1345374964229287937