‘I’m the Doctor. I’m the one who stops the Daleks.’ This is the best of Chibnall’s episodes so far. The difference is in the way it’s written: effectively splitting up the Fam in the service of advancing the story and moving forward the characters, applying some discipline to the globetrotting, and doing some light political satire in a very RTD way. The end result falls short of being a masterpiece, but it’s a good New Year special and a satisfying coda to Series 12.

The characterisation is what stands out most strongly to me, largely because I want to give credit where it’s due and I’ve complained about the lack of characterisation at points during the past series. By structuring this largely as a dynamic series of double acts, Chibnall seems to have cracked the challenge of writing for this extended team. For example, the Doctor starts off at her lowest ebb, imprisoned in what looks like the custodial equivalent of the Shadow Proclamation alongside Ood, Sycorax, Pting, Silents, Weeping Angels – and Captain Jack Harkness, who’s spent 19 years working on breaking her out. In that time, the Doctor hasn’t had much to do but brood on the revelations from The Timeless Children – but Jack immediately recognising her for who she is, regardless of the face she wears, clues us in to the direction of this story.

Later, when Jack and Yaz head off to Osaka to investigate the mysterious facility there, the Doctor gets to spend some time with Ryan. They bond over beanie hats, and over Ryan’s growing realisation that his TARDIS travels are taking him away from the people that need him – a seed planted in Can You Hear Me? Finally, under some pressure from Ryan, the Doctor starts to talk about the Master’s Jackanory, and Ryan’s conclusion articulates what was implicit in Jack’s attitude: ‘You’re the Doctor, same as before, same as always.’ Even so, it takes the Daleks to provide the final clarity – reconnecting the Doctor to who she really is, as they have since her very first regeneration.

Throughout, many of the key scenes are two-handers (Yaz and Jack discuss what it’s like to be left behind by the Doctor; Robertson and Patterson plot her rise to power; Robertson and Leo discuss the remains of the original reconnaissance Dalek) which means far fewer instances of a large cast forced to stand about in the background. Coupled with a good grasp of the tentpole action sequences (the prison breakout; Dalek mutants escaping their tanks to hunt Jack and Yaz; Dalek factions battling on the Clifton Bridge), and moments of horror (Armen being assassinated; Leo revealing what happened to the Osaka scientists), the episode keeps its momentum without the frenetic changes of location and bloated cast of characters that undermined Spyfall, Praxeus and The Timeless Children. I’m a fan of the Doctor’s ‘nuclear option’ to fight fire with fire and call in the real Daleks – rather than pressing a button or doing something timey wimey – especially because it reemphasises the Daleks’ characteristic obsession with racial purity.

The lightly political elements are well handled too, and have even gained a bit from subsequent developments: Patterson’s the ‘Technology Secretary’ but to all intents and purposes seems a hang-‘em-flog-‘em-or-deport-‘em Home Secretary, desperate to hold onto her seat in what sounds like a Red Wall constituency. Her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tenure as Prime Minister, exterminated by its one big policy announcement, is totally Liz Truss. The focus on law and order automation (the defence drones, but also the Doctor’s mechanised prison) to keep the public under control was pertinent when this was filmed, but seemed even more pointed following 2020’s BLM protests (the drones’ initial victims are black or Asian).

Working against this being top tier: having brought back Chris Noth to play the episode’s other Jack, Chibnall doesn’t seem entirely clear what to do with him. His last-act pivot to sell out the Earth doesn’t go anywhere, and although the lack of personal consequence feels apt (well-reported bad behaviour never seemed to do Trump any harm), I think there would have been a more rewarding role had they either gone all-out in making this a US-set story with Robertson pitching for the presidency, or made Patterson the main baddie. There isn’t really room for both.

Our Captain Jack gets a better role (much better than he got in Fugitive of the Judoon), but then vanishes out of the story rather than getting a proper farewell scene – you can’t imagine RTD doing that. Ryan and Graham’s departures, while consistent with the trajectory of Season 12, are basically incidental to this story (it could have done with Ryan’s friend Tibo being involved in some way – maybe as an early victim of the security drones), and the over-indexing on the Doctor’s missing 10 months makes Ryan look a little bit petty. But those reservations aside, I think this is Chibnall’s strongest writing credit. Consider me re-engaged.

Next Time: Flux Chapter One – The Halloween Apocalypse