Happy New Year, indeed! After sort of biffing it with the Flux finale, writer/showrunner Chris Chibnall kicks off 2022 with one of the best episodes of his era to date. It’s a distinction I’ve given to a few other hours before, including, most recently, the Weeping Angels installment of Flux. But “Eve Of The Daleks” almost plays like a best-of tribute to the highlights of the Chibnall era. It combines the quirky weirdness of “It Takes You Away” with the emotionally fueled pyrotechnics of “Resolution” and the sort of fantastic guest casting that elevated “Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror” and “Fugitive Of The Judoon.” Watching a stellar episode of Chibnall Who can be as frustrating as it is exhilarating because it makes you wonder why the show can’t just be this good all the time. But in the optimistic spirit of the New Year, let’s celebrate the present rather than dwelling on the past.
“Eve Of The Daleks” smartly realizes that a time loop provides a perfect metaphor for people who feel stuck in their lives—whether they’re bogged down by a job they hate, like storage facility owner Sarah (Aisling Bea). Or weighed down by an unrequited crush they’re too afraid to act on, like her sole customer Nick (Adjani Salmon). And while this episode likely still would’ve been a success if it had relied on its two incredibly charming guest performers to carry all the emotional weight, Chibnall elevates the hour by bringing the Doctor and Yaz into the fold too.
The Doctor is stuck in a loop of denial about the pain of the past and the consequences of her actions. Yaz, meanwhile, is finally explicitly revealed to be stuck in her own unrequited love story too—one she’s only just coming to realize herself. Like many a Doctor/companion pairing before them, Yaz and the Doctor are caught in that nebulous space of deeply felt but unacknowledged emotions. And that’s been coloring their actions for longer than either of them have been willing to admit.
It’s wonderful to see Doctor Who present a same-sex Doctor/companion romance as casually as it has with male Doctors and female companions in the past. Indeed, everything that unfolds in “Eve Of The Daleks” feels incredibly true to who the show’s characters are, which is a basic tenant of storytelling that Chibnall has really struggled with in the past. Thanks to the four years Dan and Yaz spent traveling the 1900s together in “Survivors Of The Flux,” he knows her as well as any two companions ever have (Dan is really more of Yaz’s companion than the Doctor’s). And coupled with his own experience being stuck in unrequited love with Diane, he becomes a much needed outside influence for forcing his two traveling partners to take stock of how they actually feel.