Doctor Who, New Year's Day Special: Resolution (2019)

This new show runner can please leave before this series is cancelled. Soon no one will be watching this tripe. Great show ruined by terrible scripts, gender, LGBT and race issue shouted at you and repeatedly rammed down your throat. No thanks. What a shame. Avoid.

Dull… It needs nothing else said…

Ignore the misogynistic whining from fanboys in their bedsits. The truth is, Jodie Whittaker’s first season has been far more fun and enjoyable than anything produced in the dismal Moffat years. And this is the best episode of the new season thus far. Of course, it helps that the Daleks (or Dalek) are back, but there’s something so original about the pepperpot this time round. If I’m honest, I could have done without all the mawkishness about Ryan’s dad, but it didn’t really detract from a great episode.

I found this to be the best episode so far from the current cast. I found the script more creative on this outing and the acting good. While I would not class this as amazing I did find it very good and hopefully a sign of greater things to come.

A dim distant echo of the last 10 seasons. But great if you have sleeping problems.

After a series which started with lots of promise but fizzled out under the weight of some misdirected worthiness (nothing wrong with issues driven drama, sci-fi or not, provided dialogue and action buoy the whole thing up, but the former often dwarfed the other elements) and truly poor creative decisions (underwhelming villains, frog-puppet pan-dimensional beings and atmosphere crushing cutsie-pie “monsters”) meant that this special had its work cut out. And it delivered, partly. The Dalek mutant creature was creepily done with a nasty talent for controlling humans: great; the junkyard casing it created was relevant to the narrative and impressive enough - but some other aspects, particularly the UNIT sideplot, clunky dialogue and continued unsatisfying character development (particularly of the regulars), were unnecessary distractions from the main action (the UNIT material, especially, must have baffled casual viewers who would have missed its relevance to the wider history of the series and simply became seen as political point scoring). All told, an improvement on the latter half of the previous series but a way to go before lost narrative ground and disenfranchised viewers are recovered. Overall, an improved ending to what felt - too often - like one of the most lacklustre run of episodes since Dr Who hit the buffers in the 1980s. Could and must do better.

Having bought and pre-ordered BBC Dr Who Christmas Specials for the past four years on iTunes I cannot stress enough how bad the delivery has been. Every year the pattern is the same and despite complaints neither BBC not iTunes sort it out. It goes: The trailer gets posted. People buy. The programme is shown. The iTunes episode doesn’t arrive. People write terrible reviews complaining. iTunes refund the money claiming there’s nothing wrong. Three days after release date the episode turns up on iTunes and you have to buy it again. Irrespective of what you think of the new series the delivery of the Christmas episode has not varied for the past four years. Each year has been a botched job. Add to this the awful, awful, awful nature of the new series of Doctor Who with its terrible scripts and naff Doctor and you’d be better off giving 4 quid to a good charity. Update: it took over a week this time. To solve the exact problem I listed above. It’s so predictable. It’s been on sale on rival companies for days.... Also having seen it via a company that managed to actually sell it on the release date I can say it’s not very good. The Dalek is defeated by a microwave and the Doctor does nothing but wave a sonic for an hour. Don’t bother.

Don’t make me laugh, BBC please get your act together and perhaps I’ll make a purchase when the price is corrected. Jodie is a fantastic actor let down by horrendous writing. Hiatus desperately needed or a total rethink in approach. Sci-Fi series, remember that...

Y66(6k is the way