'Resolution' (Story Code 11.11) by Chris Chibnall

“There’s been a Dalek buried on the Earth since the Ninth Century. Waiting to revive.” – The Doctor

In Ninth Century Britain, an army of enemies formed an unlikely alliance to defeat a terrible foe at what became known as the Battle of Hope Valley. After vanquishing their adversary, the survivors split its body into three pieces, each to be buried in a separate place across the globe. But while two of the custodians entrusted with this important task successfully buried their packages - on Anuta Island in the South Pacific and in Siberia, Russia - the custodian travelling through Yorkshire on horseback was killed by bandits, who left the deadly package behind with their victim’s looted corpse…

On 1st January 2019, two archaeologists, Lin and Mitch, work at an ancient burial site located in the sewers under Sheffield Town Hall, where they have uncovered the remains of a human skeleton. Finding something buried under its bony hand, they bag up the item and leave it under a UV lamp; but this reactivates the remains – they teleport the remnants buried in the South Pacific and Siberia into itself, growing in size within the specimen bag… Elsewhere, the Doctor and her friends are celebrating New Year’s Day aboard the TARDIS watching ‘cosmic fireworks’; they are interrupted by an alarm from the console, warning of a non-terrestrial attempting a spacial-shift in Sheffield. At the dig, Lin and Mitch search for a missing specimen bag, believing it to have been taken by rats. Lin finds a huge, squid-like creature clinging to a sewer wall, just as the TARDIS materialises nearby. After meeting the Doctor, Ryan, Yaz and Graham, the astonished Lin tries showing them and Mitch the creature, but it has disappeared. After taking some slime for analysis, the Doctor and her friends send Mitch and Lin home and then return to the safety of the TARDIS; they take the ship to Graham’s house and then use the TARDIS’ systems to search the sewers for non-terrestrial life-signs. Ryan is surprised by a visit from his long-absent father, Aaron, and reluctantly agrees to a cuppa at the local café. Meanwhile, Lin returns home feeling ill; the squid creature has hidden itself under her coat, and having wrapped itself around Lin’s body it now controls her like a puppet. The squid uses Lyn’s laptop to hack into the internet and learn everything about the planet it is on… The TARDIS completes its bio-profile of the slime, identifying the DNA as that of the most dangerous creature in the universe: a Dalek; the Doctor grimly explains the threat to Graham and Yaz… The Dalek mutant forces Lin to drive her car, and when they are pulled over for speeding, it slaughters two police officers and uses its puppet to take their patrol car… At the cafe, Ryan watches disapprovingly as his dad tries unsuccessfully to sell a microwave oven to the owner. Ryan stands up to his dad, bravely reprimanding him for letting him down as a father. In the TARDIS, the Doctor, Graham and Yaz make a pitstop to pick up Mitch; questioned about the dig, the astonished archaeologist explains about the Order of the Custodians, the myth of the battle and what happened to the defeated foe. Realising that the UV light reanimated the dormant Dalek remains found at the dig, the Doctor becomes concerned for Lin’s safety and uses the TARDIS to triangulate Lin’s phone and the Dalek DNA; finding both at the same location, the Doctor realises the Dalek is using Lin to move about… After returning to Graham’s house to collect Ryan, the Doctor is shocked when the Dalek disables the TARDIS’ systems with a fold-back blast, something that only a Reconnaissance Scout can do… Driving the stolen police car to a warehouse, the Dalek/Lin kills a security guard and gains access to a storeroom containing a Dalek gun-stick; as the Dalek/Lin prepares to leave it receives a signal broadcast by the Doctor, a warning to release its prisoner. By urging Lin to fight back the Doctor distracts the Dalek long enough to reboot the TARDIS systems; the Doctor pilots the ship after her enemy, inadvertently leaving Graham behind with Aaron. After learning that the warehouse was used by a company collecting alien equipment on the black market, the Doctor tries tracking the Dalek through security cameras and satellite feeds – but the Dalek counters every attempt. The Doctor even tries calling Kate Stewart at UNIT for help, but the military organisation’s operations have been suspended due to a funding review – Team TARDIS are on their own… Graham shows Aaron all the items from his childhood kept by Grace, and encourages the man to grieve for his deceased mother… Arriving at a farm, the Dalek forces Lin to kill the farmer and then use his equipment to forge a new travel shell for itself; the work is hard, and when the Dalek starts to weaken, Lin fights back at her controller... Materialising the TARDIS at the farm, the Doctor and her friends find Lin lying alone on the floor; after ordering Yaz, Ryan and Mitch to take Lin into the ship, the Doctor searches for the missing mutant – but it soon finds her, the creature now inhabiting a makeshift travel shell built from spare parts. Using her sonic screwdriver, the Doctor blocks the laser signal of the Dalek’s weapon and prevent the Recon Scout from summoning an invasion fleet. Scanning its foe, the Dalek learns the Doctor’s identity; it immediately overrides the sonic’s signal and opens fire on its mortal enemy, the, flies up through the farm roof and away into the sky. The Doctor gives chase in the TARDIS, pausing only to pick up Graham and a gobsmacked Aaron. Flying across the countryside, the Dalek encounters a squad of soldiers; it massacres them with ease using its built-in laser and missiles, even obliterating a tank when it arrives on the scene. As the TARDIS follows the Dalek’s path of destruction, Mitch explains about the other sites used by the Custodian of the Dalek’s remains, and Aaron has an idea involving the microwave oven he brought along… The Dalek blasts its way into the Government Communications Headquarters, slaughtering a path to the control room in order to transmit a signal to bring the Dalek fleet to Earth; having realigned GCHQ’s transmitter dishes, the Dalek drains all power from the nation’s internet, Wi-Fi and telephone networks – forcing families across the country to start talking to each other again. Landing inside GCHQ’s control room, the Doctor extends the TARDIS force shields to protect herself and her friends. The Doctor gives the Dalek a final, final, final warning not to send its signal, but the creature refuses. Putting her plan into operation, the Doctor drops the shield and races towards the Dalek, evading its laser bolts while the rest of Team TARDIS approach from the other side; grabbing the Dalek, the gang attach the portable microwave oven device jury-rigged by Aaron, which fries the creature’s casing, causing it to explode. But while the Dalek’s signal has been prevented, its threat continues – as the creature takes over Aaron’s body and orders the Doctor to take it to its battle fleet. For Aaron and Ryan’s sake the Doctor agrees, and she allows the mutant inside the TARDIS; but instead of the Dalek fleet, the Doctor materialises her ship near a sun going supernova, and after activating the TARDIS’ shields she opens the doors and creates a squid-sized vacuum -corridor to suck out the Dalek mutant. As Aaron is pulled towards the doorway Ryan manages to reach out to his dad, grabbing him long enough for the Dalek mutant to be sucked out into space. With the threat to Earth over, the Doctor takes Lin, Mitch and Aaron back to Sheffield. Ryan enjoys an overdue hug with his dad, and then joins Yaz and Graham in the TARDIS as the Doctor promises to take them everywhere…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brian), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Charlotte Ritchie (Lin), Nikesh Patel (Mitch), Daniel Adeboyega (Aaron), Darryl Clark (Police Officer Will), Connor Calland (Security Guard Richard), James Lewis (Farmer Dinkle), Sophie Duval (Mum), Callum McDonald (Teen 1), Harry Vallance (Teen 2), Laura Evelyn (Call Centre Polly), Michael Ballard (Sergeant), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voice)

Directed by Wayne Yip
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
1st January 2019 @ 7.00 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz

*This New Year's Day special is sixty minutes long, and did not feature any opening title sequence