Eve of the Daleks (TV story)

Eve of the Daleks was the 2022 New Year Special of Doctor Who. It continued from the end of The Vanquishers, which saw the Doctor's TARDIS still damaged from the Great Disruption. Attempting to reboot it, the Thirteenth Doctor accidentally traps ELF Storage and everyone inside it within a time loop. It also dealt with the consequences of the Doctor allowing the Dalek War Fleet to be destroyed by the Sontaran Empire in the final Flux event, with Dalek Executioners being sent to exterminate the Doctor in revenge.

Notably, the episode was the first to explicitly establish Yasmin Khan's feelings toward the Doctor as being romantically inclined.

Synopsis
Ten minutes until midnight and the dawning of 2022. With the Doctor's TARDIS out of action, the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan are forced to wait in an ordinary self-storage facility with only one customer. However, Dalek Executioners are on the hunt and a time loop forces the trapped allies to keep reliving the dying minutes of 2021. What has gone wrong with time? What do the Daleks want? As New Year's Day ticks ever closer, the Doctor's tactics will be pushed to the limit to break the loop and dodge extermination on a night where auld acquaintance can't be forgot.

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Dan Lewis - John Bishop
 * Sarah - Aisling Bea
 * Nick - Adjani Salmon
 * Dalek Operator 1 - Barnaby Edwards
 * Dalek Operator 2 - Nicholas Pegg
 * Additional Dalek Operator - Jon Davey
 * Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
 * Mary - Pauline McLynn
 * Karl - Jonny Dixon

The TARDIS

 * The TARDIS' Cloister Bell tolls when the Doctor initiates the self-reset.

ELF Storage

 * Prohibited items for storage in ELF Storage included stolen or illegal goods, humans, animals, tyres, cash, plants, food, cars, guns, ammunition, and toxic, hazardous, and radioactive materials.
 * Nick's unit is filled with items that belonged to his ex-girlfriends, which he kept in case they ever asked for them back.

Holidays and celebrations

 * The majority of the story is set on New Year's Eve, with New Year's Day dawning by the end.
 * Sarah's mother and friends are at New Year's Eve parties.
 * ELF Storage's entrance hall is adorned with Christmas trees and Christmas lights.

Individuals

 * Sarah recieves New Year text messages from Megan, Laura, and others.
 * Nick's ex-girlfriends included Simona, Lucy, and Nicole.
 * Mary claims that she met Sarah's father on New Year's Eve. They actually met on 7 January, which Mary claims to be "the same thing".
 * Sarah inherited ELF Storage from her deceased great-uncle Barry.
 * Sarah utters, "Oh, my giddy aunt", when annoyed by her mother calling her.

Technology

 * Sarah's mobile phone cannot be put on silent.

Popular culture

 * Nick puts a Monopoly game, which belonged to his ex-girlfriend, Simona, into storage.
 * The Doctor claims she and Yaz "would be so good on ''Supermarket Sweep".
 * Dan compares the time loop to Groundhog Day.

Romance

 * Dan notices that Yaz has romantic feelings towards the Doctor, even when both deny it.
 * Mary tells her daughter that New Year's Eve is the best time to meet a man.
 * Nick has "a lot" of ex-girlfriends, including Simona, Lucy, and Nicole. The sheer number of them, coupled with Nick's apparent obsessiveness over their possessions, prompts a worried Yaz to ask him if they're all "still alive", which Nick confirms.
 * Nick admits to Sarah that he's had a crush on her for three years.

Foods and beverages

 * One of Jeff's storage units is filled with shelves full of cans of Beef N Beans.

Micsellaneous

 * Dan says that he feels "proper deja vu" at the beginning of the second loop.

Story notes

 * This episode has the longest cold opening in the franchise, running just over 00:09:10. The previous episode to hold this title was The Return of Doctor Mysterio.
 * Unlike The End of Time: Part Two and Resolution, the endboard for this episode had the letters MMXXII, which is the correct year for the broadcasting date which was 2022. This also happened with Revolution of the Daleks which had the letters MMXXI, which is also the correct year for the broadcasting date of 2021.
 * When Jodie Whittaker first read the script for this episode and saw that the Doctor gets exterminated in the opening minutes, she genuinely believed that she had been written out of the show earlier than she thought she was going to be.
 * At one point, one of the Daleks says, "I am not Nick", an ironic joke due to them being voiced by Nicholas Briggs.

Ratings

 * Overnights: 3.21 million
 * Consolidated: to be added

Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * The Doctor resets the TARDIS to remove the corruption caused by the Great Disruption, specifically citing that the extra doors will be gone. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse)
 * The Doctor is briefly able to use her sonic screwdriver to interfere with the Dalek's gunstick, as she was previously able to do with the Reconnaissance Dalek's weaponry when it wasn't "fully in sync yet". (TV: Resolution)
 * Before she is first killed by the Daleks, the Doctor fearfully mutters, "Not like this." She had only recently been warned by the embodiment of Time that her "time [was] heading to its end". (TV: The Vanquishers)
 * The Doctor states her sonic screwdriver would take a long time to resonate concrete. (TV: The Doctor Dances)
 * Dan mentions that the Doctor saved the universe "last week". (TV: The Vanquishers)
 * The Daleks accuse the Doctor of destroying the Dalek War Fleet during the Flux, which she counters was a Sontaran plan that she had only hijacked. (TV: The Vanquishers) A Dalek assasasin squad had previously pursued the First Doctor with the intent of executing him for revenge. (TV: The Chase)
 * Dan notices that Yaz has romantic feelings for the Doctor, which Yaz hadn't realised was so obvious. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
 * Dan mentions Yaz watching the hologram of the Doctor during their four years trapped in the 1900s together with Eustacius Jericho. (TV: Survivors of the Flux)
 * Dan recalls his failed attempt to start a relationship with Diane. (TV: The Vanquishers)
 * The Doctor mentions not having seen "this much gunpowder since 1605", alluding to when she and Yaz saw Guy Fawkes' attempted destruction of parliament. (PROSE: Black Powder)
 * The destruction of ELF Storage is witnessed by Karl Wright. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)

Home video releases
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