Doctor Who: Resolution Review

Whilst Doctor Who has done quite alot of Christmas specials since it first came back in 2005 there was a time when the show did abandon that tradition and move instead into doing yearly New Years specials instead. Whilst it could be very well be argued that The End Of Time Part 2 is technically a New Years Day special given that the first part aired on Christmas Day is does kind of fall into a grey area however the episode that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today is the first official New Years Day special as this episode did actually air on New Years Day itself back in 2019 and so then join me as I review the episode that sees The Doctor and her friends come up against an old and very deadly foe with the episode in question being called simply just "Resolution" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is when two archaeologists accidentally awaken part of a monster that was buried n Sheffield many years ago its up to them and The Doctor and her friends to save the say before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with alot of the plots from around this time in Doctor Who being noting more then OK at best and that is very much the case here as well as the plot doesn't really feel all that special and instead feels like just another episode of the show as there's nothing all that special about the plot of the episode with the episodes plot being at best thin as the episode doesn't really spend alot of time on focusing on it's plot with the episode instead giving us alot of time with Ryan and his dad and even then the episode doesn't really fully commit to their plot either but in saying this tho for a New Years Day special this is the kind of plot that does oddly work as it gives you everything that you'd want to see in an episode of Doctor Who and yet the plot of the episode does feel like that it's lacking that extra special something to make it work as a special episode of the show as the episode isn't campy enough to work as a special episode and yet it's not as serious enough to work as an episode of the show itself with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this episode is Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor ,  Bradley Walsh as Graham O'Brien and Tosin Cole as Ryan Sinclair. Also starring in this episode is Mandip Gill as Yasmin Khan , Charlotte Ritchie as Lin , Nikesh Patel as Mitch , Daniel Adegboyega as Aaron Sinclair , Darryl Clark as Police Officer Will , Connor Calland as Security Guard Richard , James Lewis as Farmer Dinkle , Laura Evelyn as Call Centre Polly and Nicholas Briggs as The Voice Of The Dalek.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With it being made clear as day that not only are all of this episodes characters perfectly well cast with ach of their respective actors brining something unique to there characters but that all of this episodes actors are having a blast with this episode with that fun coming through in their performances on screen and while the Jodie Whittaker era does rightfully get alot of flack for it's lack of actually good stories the one thing that alot of the episode in this era got right was it's acting and that is something that is also true for this episode as while it is expected that the main series actors would turn in a good performance what wasn't expected was for the episodes guest actors to be just as good as the shows main actors excluding of course Nicholas Briggs who is reprising his role as the voice of the Daleks as all of this episode actors are just so perfectly well cast that it is hard to picture anybody else playing these characters and while it would be easy to say that Jodie Whittaker is the episodes best actor as she really is on top form as The Doctor in this episode the best actor in the whole entire episode has to be Charlotte Ritchie as Lin as if you've seen her in the UK version of Ghosts then you'll know that she can do comedy and yet here in this episode she proves that she can do drama as well as she gets alot of the episodes more drama heavy scenes and she pulls them of so well and so effortlessly with the acting that's in this very episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.

Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at DNEG and REAL SFX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good as while the show has never really had good CGI in it even in the early 2005 series the CGI was at best wonky looking you can tell tho that in this special there was a huge budget given to it given the amount of effects that are in the episode as not only do we have standard effects of a Dalek blat and the TARDIS dematerializing and rematerializing but we also have a Dalek removing it's balls to reveal rockets inside it's casing and a Dalek taking off and while those are some decent looking effects the episode does have some really bad looking effects in it as well as they make alot of use of CGI sparks in the TARDIS which is something that does stand out a mile with even the effect of the Dalek flying looking pretty bad but that may be more due to the fact that the effect has aged badly as it is something that would have looked really good in 2019 and yet because of how fast the world of CGI moves effects from back then even great looking ones have started to show there age when it would have made more sense for them to the scenes with the Dalek flying practically as they have a practical Dalek in the episode so it wouldn't have been that hard to hang up either a blue screen or a green and put in whatever background was needed at the time as while Doctor Who will always be an effects heavy show that doesn't mean that you need to do everything in CGI as even tho alot of this episodes effects do look really good alot of them are things that could have been for real and they would have looked alot more better if they were done for real.

This episode is one that does carry on the tradition of having The Doctor face the Daleks with it just being the one scout Dalek this time around. With the Daleks getting a new design as they now look like they've been made out of spare bits and pieces that someone has found lying in their shed which is something that does make sense given the fact that this particular Dalek was sent on a mission to scout Earth during a war and the fact that he was destroyed by humans only to come back decades later which is a pretty good way of bringing them back without it feeling like that there just treading on the same grounds which is something that they very easily could have dine and even saving them for a special and not just a regular episode of the show does make there appearance feel just that special with the only thing that lets them down in this episode is the fact that they make The Doctor look dumb as this Dalek doesn't know that alot of other Daleks have been killed off by The Doctor and yet when this Dalek says that it will send a message out into space to tell more Daleks that Earth is ready for them The Doctor should have said that there are no more Daleks as alot of them have been killed and as far as this Doctor is concerned that would be true and yet she says nothing she just lets it continue with it's plan thus putting the Earth in more danger which is something that The Doctor wouldn't do granted she was pretty much blinded by rage which was most likely clouding her judgement but it is something that makes this version of The Doctor seem a bit dumb when it would have been in character for her to put the Earth first and tell the Dalek that there's no Daleks coming to help it.

There was one thing that was kind of missing in this episode and that's the fact that we don't get to see The Doctor get angry at the sight of there being another Dalek still alive and well. As while she does look kind of angry and shocked when she first finds out that the DNA that she's been scanning does infact belong to that of a Dalek she doesn't get outright angry or show really any kind of emotion towards the creature which is something that The Doctor should always do as this is the creature that killed billions of her own people and drove her to the point where the only way they she could end the time war was to blow up her own planet thus killing all known time lords and given the fact that alot of the previous Doctors in modern Doctor Who have always shown some level of anger towards a Dalek when they first see them it is something that would have worked really well with this version of the character as this is a character that is still carrying that guilt of what she did during the time war as don't forget she doesn't know if she saved Gallifrey or not so for all she could know the Daleks could still be on the planet killing them and she might have failed in her task of saving her own planet so she would get angry at the very thought of possibly seeing a Dalek and yet we get nothing from her even tho Jodie does try her best to put across that anger it's not something that the episode goes deep into and with her Doctor basically being the final Doctor to face the Daleks it would have been perfectly in keeping with her character if she did show some sort of emotion towards them as they are the ones that would demand the biggest emotional reaction from her due to all of the pain and suffering that they've caused her to go through. 

For one reason or another this episode basically has two different endings as they have the ending where the team think that they've destroyed the Dalek and then they have another ending on boards the Tardis where Ryan has to save his Dalek controlled dad from being sucked into a sun. With it being this second ending that really isn't needed as while yes it is very cinematic to look at it also does two things the first of which being the fact that it makes The Doctor look even more dumb as she willingly brings an out of its casing Dalek on board the Tardis and it also feels like a filler scene with that also being true for Ryan's subplot in this episode as all his plot is him trying to reconnect with his long lost dad and that's it and while that is great for the character that's also not something that needed to be seen in the episode as it adds nothing to the plot of the episode as if the makers of this shoe just ended this episode with the lone Dalek being defeated in the tower it would have been a perfectly serviceable ending and yet for one reason or another the makers of this episode felt like that they had to include another ending when they really didn't as while the stuff with Ryan and his dad was pretty good it's something to base your whole ending around as people would be waning to see The Doctor find a creative way to foil the Dalek's plan which is something that we already got in the original ending and by having her bring the Dalek on board the Tardis it makes The Doctor look dumb as now the Dalek could've just taken control of her and thus taken control of the Tardis sometimes doing less with your ending is alot better and that's something that the makers of this episode should have done they should have just stuck with the one ending which was really good and had some cool moments in it then stick on a pointless ending just to get this episode to over a one hour running time.

Now then this episode has / had a really exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and two seconds. Which to be fair to this episode is a perfectly solid running time for the episode to have with this running time pretty much being the running time for alot of the Jodie Whittaker era episodes with this episode having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first and yet this episode is one that really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the episode doesn't take the time that it needs to fully develop it's plot as it does feel like that things are just happening for the sake of happening and not because of the fact that they effect the main plot of the episode when the episode should have taken time away from the subplot with Ryan and his dad as that's mostly filler anyway and given to the main plot of the episode as by doing that the episode would then be able to reach that one hour long time limit with the episode not even taking the time to fully develop it's characters and while this wouldn't be seen as being that big of a deal if the main characters were developed in the main show the main main shoe itself doesn't take the time to fully develop it's characters with Yaz being the best example of this as we know just just as much about her coming out of this episode then we did coming in to the episode and she's a main character of the show heck the inside character guide in The Thirteenth Doctor comic books give us more information about her character then this episode and shoe did with even the episodes new characters getting nothing in the way of character development as well as we know as much about them coming out of the episode then we did coming into the episode but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With this episodes action being one of the best things about the episode as a whole as it's just that much fun to watch with it being made clear as day that the makers of this episode put alot more thought and effort into the episodes action then they did the actual writing and plot of the episode as this episodes action is just that fun to watch with them all having alot of really cool moments in them with the best action scene in the whole entire episode being the episodes third act as we get to see The Doctor an her friends work together to take out the singular Dalek in a really creative way with us even getting to see just how powerful that one singular Dalek is something that we have seen before but is always nice to see again and heck it's even during what should have been the episodes ending where we get to see The Doctor actually melt the Dalek casing which is just so cool to see and is perhaps the coolest moment in the episode due to the fact that we don't get to see that happen at all in the show and while the extra ending in this episode is pointless it also is a really cool action scene that is tense as Ryan does struggle to stop his dad from being sucked out of the Tardis and into a sun with all of the rest of this episodes action being really good as well as you can tell that the makers of this episode really did know how to create some really cool looking action scenes in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.  

Overall this episode is nothing more then the stereotypical Jodie Whittaker era episode and really nothing new then that as while the idea of having one love Dalek on earth is such a cool idea the episode does nothing interesting with that idea as it wastes what is a cool idea on an episode that could have been so much better then what it actually was as this episode is just that average in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Tardis . Wiki. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Tardis . Wiki really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Tardis . Wiki are also all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.