Resolution (TV story)

Resolution was the first New Year Special of Doctor Who since The End of Time: Part Two in 2010. It was broadcast on New Year's Day 2019 and, according to Chris Chibnall, was a "de facto" conclusion on series 11, despite the previous story acting as a finale.

This episode featured the return of the Daleks, who were the first returning enemies since Chibnall took over as showrunner at the start of the series. As such, this was also the first encounter between the Thirteenth Doctor and the Daleks. The Dalek in this story notably features a new design, the first since the New Dalek Paradigm were introduced in 2010's Victory of the Daleks.

Resolution is also notable for introducing a new form of Dalek weaponry. Besides the gunstick and manipulator arm (here in the form of a claw, rather than the "plunger" design), this Dalek also demonstrated possession and use of multiple short-range missiles behind each of its orbs. It also marked the introduction of a new class of Dalek, the reconnaissance scout.

This story furthers Ryan's character arc by introducing his father, who had been referred to throughout the preceding season, and addressing the conflict between them.

Behind the camera, it marked the return of director Wayne Yip, who had previously worked on Doctor Who and Class during the Steven Moffat era. He was the first returning director since Chibnall became showrunner.

Notably, this episode broke the tradition of yearly Christmas specials, which had aired every 25 December since 2005.

Synopsis
On Earth, New Year's Day 2019, a long-buried creature is beginning to stir. The most dangerous creature in the universe, and it will stop at nothing to claim the Earth. Conquest in 9376 rels.

The Doctor must gather all her friends and resources to prevent another invasion. And if they fail... The Daleks are coming.

Plot
In the 9th century, a creature attacks the Earth. Three tribes of people come together to destroy it. After many deaths, they succeed and cut it into three pieces. The Three Custodians transport them to three distinct places around the world: Anuta Island, Siberia and Yorkshire. The third Custodian in England attempts to take his piece to Yorkshire but is killed en route by thieves, shot from his horse while in Sheffield. The man's final fragment remains unguarded for over 1000 years.

It's New Year's Day in 2019.


 * to be continued

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
 * Lin - Charlotte Ritchie
 * Mitch - Nikesh Patel
 * Aaron - Daniel Adegboyega
 * Police Officer Will - Darryl Clark
 * Security Guard Richard - Connor Calland
 * Farmer Dinkle - James Lewis
 * Mum - Sophie Duval
 * Teen 1 - Callum McDonald
 * Teen 2 - Harry Vallance
 * Call Centre Polly - Laura Evelyn
 * Sergeant - Michael Ballard
 * Voice of the Dalek - Nick Briggs

TARDIS

 * When the TARDIS is locked down, the Doctor asks Graham to get some peanut butter to grease the geo-feudal locks with.
 * The TARDIS is capable of bio-tracking, as well as holo-projection.
 * It can also triangulate mobile phone signals, track CCTV cameras, monitor satellite footage, and follow GPS and number plate tracking.

Daleks

 * The Dalek buried on Earth is a reconnaissance scout.
 * Removed from their casing, Kaled mutants can control humans, and use them as vehicles instead.
 * Kaled mutants can be restored to life by energy from ultraviolet lamps, even if they are split into pieces.
 * When possessing a human, the Kaled's hatred for life is felt.
 * A reconnaissance scout can laugh.
 * The reconnaissance scout's new casing features missiles - the Dalek uses one to destroy a tank while knocking one of the tank's own projectiles out of the air.

History

 * The Three Custodians were involved in the Battle of Hope Valley in the 9th century.
 * The Doctor takes Team TARDIS to 19 New Year's Eves in a row.
 * Graham's favourite was Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, which the Doctor says was the original.
 * Ryan's favourite was Sydney, 2000, where they watched the fireworks from the Harbour Bridge.
 * Yaz's favourite was 1801, when they discovered a dwarf planet with Giuseppe Piazzi.

Locations

 * The Three Custodians intend to bury the three pieces in remote places around the Earth. Two travel to Anuta Island on the South Pacific, and Siberia, Russia, while the third is killed in Yorkshire, England before reaching his intended destination.
 * Sheffield Town Hall is later built over the site of the third Custodian's remains. The site itself is in the sewers.
 * The Doctor wants to take her friends to Quantifer, a settlement on the edge of the known universe, for their twentieth New Year's Eve.
 * After discovering the mutant in the sewers, Team TARDIS visits Graham O'Brien's house.
 * Ryan and his father Aaron visit a café around the corner from Graham's house.

Organisations

 * The offspring of the surviving Three Custodians become the Order of the Custodians.
 * MDZ Research is a weapons research company.
 * The Dalek accesses the Black Archive on Lin's computer.
 * Lin is chased and then stopped by a Hallamshire Police car for speeding. She was driving at 103 miles per hour.
 * The Doctor calls the UK Security Helpline with Yaz's phone and asks to be transferred to Kate Stewart at UNIT.
 * According to Polly, UNIT operations have been suspended, pending review, following financial disputes and subsequent funding withdrawals.
 * The Dalek makes its way to the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and uses its relay dishes to contact the Dalek fleet.

People

 * Aaron Sinclair, Ryan's dad, previously worked as an oil rig engineer, and is currently trying out other income opportunities.
 * Richard, the MDZ security guard, has a boyfriend.

Objects

 * The TARDIS lands on Graham's wooden chair when the team arrives at Graham's house.
 * Lin constructs a new Dalek casing, welding it out of remnants of its old shell, as well as metals found at Dinkle's farm.

Clothing

 * The Doctor wears a long scarf during their New Year celebrations.
 * Lin dons a pink bathrobe, on the Dalek's command.

Weapons

 * The soldiers in the Battle of Hope Valley fight with swords.
 * The third Custodian is killed by an arrow on his way to the Yorkshire burial site.
 * Lin, controlled by the Dalek, retrieves its Dalek gunstick from the MDZ Research facility.
 * The newly designed Dalek casing has short-range missiles behind its sense globes.
 * The Army tries to destroy the Dalek with a tank, which it promptly blows it up with one of its missiles.

Technology

 * The Doctor thinks Graham's doorbell is an intruder alert.
 * The Dalek commands Lin to open her laptop, which it uses to assess Earth's military capabilities.
 * Aaron is trying to sell a Matsoki combination microwave and oven. The Doctor later uses the microwave oven to attack the Dalek.
 * Ryan mentions that you can buy a microwave online.
 * The Doctor follows Mitch's mobile phone signal.
 * Lin, controlled by the Dalek, shoots out CCTV cameras with her Dalek gunstick.
 * The Army sergeant thinks the Dalek is a drone.
 * There is a wind turbine near the site where the Army engages the Dalek.
 * In order to contact the Dalek fleet, the Dalek takes control of GCHQ's relay dishes, and syphons off power from the rest of the UK to aid in the transmission.
 * In doing so, the Dalek shuts down the Wi-Fi across the UK, as well as all telephone signals.

Vehicles

 * The Dalek drives Lin's car while controlling her. They proceed to steal Will and the other officer's police car.

Science

 * The Doctor takes Team TARDIS to see cosmic fireworks.
 * The TARDIS detects the Dalek mutant's attempt at a spatial shift.
 * The Dalek is brought back to life accidentally through ultraviolet light.
 * The Doctor opens the TARDIS doors to a vacuum corridor produced by a star going supernova, in order to flush the Dalek out of her ship.

Archaeology

 * Lin laments that they aren't digging up Alfred the Great.
 * According to Mitch, Richard III's remains were found at a car park in Leicester.

Medicine

 * The Doctor gives Lin medicine which will help her recover from her time under Dalek control. She warns her not to take it with alcohol, or she'll grow an extra head.

Zoology

 * Lin thinks the Dalek mutant looks like a massive squid.

Measurements

 * The Doctor can't remember how long a rel is.

Culture

 * When the Dalek shuts down the Wi-Fi across the UK, two teenagers lament that they cannot access Netflix.
 * A man in the café is reading a copy of the Sheffield Advertiser. The front page features the headline: "Local bus route may change".

Story notes

 * According to Darren Fereday, the concept artist, the Dalek in this episode was fully robotic and thus radio-operated, requiring no Dalek operator inside the casing. Three separate systems controlled the eyestalk, the gunstick and manipulator arm, and the lights. He also noted that the melted Dalek made use of practical LED lighting.
 * The underground sewer system was one of the biggest sets ever built for Doctor Who, according to Matt Strevens.
 * Before Resolution was announced, the 2018 Christmas Special was rumoured to have been skipped.
 * The copy of the Sheffield Advertiser which Graham is reading in the Series 11 teaser is the same he is reading in this episode.
 * Like The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Resolution lacks an opening title sequence and leaves the title card for the beginning of the end credits.
 * Like The End of Time: Part One and The Big Bang before it, Resolution takes place on the day it was broadcast: 1 January 2019.
 * This is the first television story in which Nicholas Briggs is credited as "Nick Briggs". It is also his first credit under Chris Chibnall.
 * Briggs revealed that he wanted to make this particular Dalek super arrogant and that he wanted it to sound as little as possible like the regular Daleks as it is sitting on Lin's back as it is speaking within its mind.
 * The Daleks' gunfire sound from Remembrance of the Daleks is reused in this story.
 * Following the Special, in which the Dalek attacked the GCHQ, the real-world establishment jokingly reported that they were back up and running once again.
 * To keep the return of the Daleks a surprise, Nick Briggs (Voice of the Dalek) remained uncredited both in Radio Times and on BBC iPlayer.

Ratings

 * 5.15 million (UK overnight)
 * 6.95 million (UK consolidated ratings)

Filming locations

 * Newton Beach, Porthcawl - Siberia
 * 36 Shrewsbury Road, Sheffield - Graham's house, front door
 * Cathays Llywodraeth Cymru offices, Cardiff - MDZ Research HQ, exterior

Production errors
to be added

Myths and rumours

 * The episode's full title was going to be Resolution of the Daleks. Resolution was the full title.

Continuity

 * The Doctor has been on Earth for the start of New Year 2000 before, in their second (PROSE: That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress), fourth, (COMIC: The Forgotten, PROSE: Millennium Shock) sixth (PROSE: Millennial Rites) and eighth incarnations. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * The Doctor has previously encountered Dalek mutants outside of their casing. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element, TV: Resurrection of the Daleks, Twice Upon a Time)
 * Ryan calls Graham "gramps". (TV: It Takes You Away, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
 * Ryan's dad, Aaron, appears. The Doctor mentions he missed Grace's funeral. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Arachnids in the UK)
 * The Dalek accesses the internet to research the planet's capabilities. (TV: Dalek) It accesses the Black Archive. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, et al.)
 * The Doctor calls Aaron Sinclair "Ryan's dad." Similarly, she called Najia Khan "Yaz's mum." (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
 * The Doctor again states that just one Dalek could take over the planet. (TV: Dalek)
 * The Doctor states she once learned to think like a Dalek. The Doctor's similarity to Daleks has been mentioned before. (TV: Dalek, Into the Dalek)
 * The Doctor mentions the TARDIS' dimensional transcendentalism. (TV: An Unearthly Child, et al.)
 * The Doctor requests for UNIT and Kate Stewart. (TV: The Invasion, The Power of Three et al.)
 * The Dalek predicts conquest in 9376 rels. Rels are a Dalek measurement of time. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine; TV: Doomsday, et al.)
 * The Doctor mentions that short hops in the TARDIS are difficult. (TV: Full Circle, State of Decay, Logopolis, The Bells of Saint John)
 * The TARDIS has shielding which can keep the Doctor and her allies in a protective bubble, safe from Dalek weaponry. (TV: The Parting of the Ways, Rosa)
 * The Doctor gives a final warning to her nemesis, allowing it one last chance to back down. The Tenth Doctor regularly gave his enemies one last chance to surrender. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, New Earth, School Reunion, The Poison Sky, The Next Doctor)
 * She cites her kindness as her reason for doing so. (TV: The Doctor Falls, Rosa)
 * The Doctor and her companions manually steer the Dalek. (TV: The Daleks, Journey's End)
 * The Doctor refers to her companions as her "extended fam". (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Arachnids in the UK, The Witchfinders, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
 * The Doctor opens the TARDIS doors with a switch on the control console. (TV: An Unearthly Child, et al.)
 * In the end, Ryan forgives his father for all he put him through. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Arachnids in the UK, The Tsuranga Conundrum)
 * Ryan mentions that he has dyspraxia. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, Kerblam!)
 * The Doctor states that the Earth is protected. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, The Eleventh Hour, et al.)

DVD releases
to be added

Blu-ray releases
to be added

Digital releases
to be added