{"id":152904,"date":"2021-01-05T14:26:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T21:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=152904"},"modified":"2021-01-05T14:26:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T21:26:01","slug":"revolution-of-the-daleks-was-daleks-but-not-at-all-revolutionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/05\/revolution-of-the-daleks-was-daleks-but-not-at-all-revolutionary.html","title":{"rendered":"“Revolution of the Daleks” was Daleks, but not at all Revolutionary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watched the Doctor Who Christmas<\/del> New Years Special<\/em> last night, and was once again reminded (after the long hiatus since the previous series) how much I like the characters\/actors in the current iteration, but how little I’m engaged by the plots they are written into in the Chibnall era.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(I’ll try to minimize the spoilers<\/strong> here, beyond what’s been clearly visible in the episode title and very available press materials.)<\/p>\n

So, up front, I continue to love Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor — she’s bright, caring, distracted, passionate, haunted. Whittaker is doing a brilliant job with her, and I’m quite sad at the rumors she’s leaving after the next series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The supporting cast — the Doctor’s “fam” + Cap’n Jack Harkness — are also great here. They are sometimes pushed through some clunky dialog, but it’s been a great, unconventional team.<\/p>\n

So that’s the good news.<\/p>\n

The bad news is that showrunner Chris Chibnall, after (with some decent justification, but with mediocre substitutes) intentionally benching the Doctor’s class rogue’s gallery during Thirteen’s first series, then completely (and audaciously, but clumsily) rewriting Time Lord and Doctor history in the second series, here gives us The Number One Most Hackneyed Plot in Doctor Who History: a Dalek invasion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He does so with a few twists, but, ultimately, it’s too derivative and just not well executed, hampered by cartoonishly stupid human villains and too-easily-manipulated alien villains. The most interesting element — the continuing Dalek debate about purity vs. survival — gets far too short shrift, in favor of pyrotechnics and mass slaughter of Brits.<\/p>\n

(Also, given that the Daleks have invaded Earth multiple times in the past, and are well-known in government circles — why does nobody<\/em> raise an eyebrow when they are “introduced” here? Or even give a lampshading, “Here we go again” comment? Answer: lazy writing.)<\/p>\n

It’s overall a mediocre outing, which is nigh-unforgiveable given the many months we’ve been without our Doctor fix. There are<\/em> some good moments — the Doctor’s life as a prisoner of the Judoon, discussions of what being in the Doctor’s circle of friends really means, lots of good character interaction — but the present action is little more than a Monster of the Week tale, and even the character work depended on too much backstory detail that the viewers needed to be forcibly reminded of.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ah, well — the next series is theoretically showing up sometime in 2021<\/a>. I look forward to more of Thirteen while we’ve got her.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great Doctor is hampered by a mediocre writer\/showrunner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,40],"tags":[238,152],"class_list":["post-152904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-tv-doctor-who","category-media-tv","tag-daleks","tag-doctorwho"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Doctor-Who-Revolution-of-the-Daleks.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37774,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/11\/who-let-the-daleks-out.html","url_meta":{"origin":152904,"position":0},"title":"Who Let the Daleks Out?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Jun-13 5:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Who? 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Still worth it for the humor.Reshared post from +Doctor Who^_^source:\u00a0http:\/\/hijinksensue.com\/2012\/09\/10\/predator-vs-aliens\/via +Tiffany Marshall\u00a0 #twt \u00a0 #Daleks \u00a0#DoctorWho\u00a0 Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127997,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/14\/doubled-doctor-descriptions-deemed-delightful.html","url_meta":{"origin":152904,"position":3},"title":"Doubled Doctor Descriptions Deemed Delightful","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Sep-15 12:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Some fun paired episode names there (vs \"X, Part 1\" and \"X, Part 2\").Only having a dozen episodes kind of sucks, of course, but better than than half a dozen or just a Christmas special.I'm not sure the world needs more Zygons, but it beat more Daleks. Except we're getting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/CO3o-5_WsAAsD_n5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/CO3o-5_WsAAsD_n5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/CO3o-5_WsAAsD_n5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11019,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/23\/doctor_who_series_3_arriv.html","url_meta":{"origin":152904,"position":4},"title":"Doctor Who Series 3 arrives in the US in July","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Apr-07 10:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Glee! 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