'Revolution of the Daleks' (Story Code 12.X) by Chris Chibnall

“How many people in the universe get to meet the Doctor? Let alone travel with her? We’re the lucky ones, Yaz. Enjoy the journey while you’re on it. Cos the joy is worth the pain.” - Captain Jack Harkness

In 2019, GCHQ was attacked by a resuscitated Dalek Recon Scout, which was quickly defeated by the Doctor and her Fam. The melted remains of the Dalek casing were put in a lorry destined for Depository 23, but en route the vehicle was hijacked and its cargo taken elsewhere… Months later, American businessman Jack Robertson meets with rising politician Jo Patterson, to give a demonstration of his company’s latest creation: new security drones modelled on the stolen Dalek Recon Scout. Built by Robertson’s CEO, Leo Rugazzi, these robotic drones are armed with a water cannon, CS gas and a sonic deterrent, and controlled by an A.I. interface. Responsible for providing the stolen tech to Robertson, Patterson immediately places a big order for delivery in one year…

79 billion light years away, the Doctor has been locked away in a high-security space prison, counting her time served by chalking tallies on her cell’s walls. Every day is the same: sleep, wake, eat, and exercise in a tiny enclosure surrounded by her fellow inmates, including a Weeping Angel, an Ood, a Sycorax and a Pting. Then one day, the Doctor hears a message tapped on the wall, coming from the neighbouring cell…

New Year’s Day, Sheffield: Graham and Ryan return to the TARDIS that rescued them from Gallifrey, its exterior still disguised as a house. Inside is Yaz, obsessed with finding the Doctor, who has been missing for the last ten months. When Graham and Ryan show leaked online footage of Robertson and his new ‘Security Drone’, Yaz recognises the Dalek for what it is, and agrees to help investigate… Patterson calls a secret meeting with Robertson and instructs him to bypass the security drones’ beta testing and start their immediate national rollout. Patterson reluctantly agrees and returns to his office, where he is intercepted by Graham, Ryan and Yaz; they question him about Daleks, but the businessman denies all knowledge of such creatures, and has his security team see off the nosy trio.

The Doctor starts another day in space prison. But when she goes to her exercise pen, she is surprised to learn that her new neighbour is none other than Captain Jack Harkness! He pulls out a ‘breakout ball’, an energy sphere that envelops him and the Doctor so that they can run through walls while time freezes for a few seconds. As they race through the prison, Jack explains that he committed some crimes to get into jail, and waited nineteen years to be moved next to the Doctor. The duo manage to reach Jack’s cell just as alarms start blaring - and with the aid of a smuggled vortex manipulator, Jack and the Doctor make their escape…

On Earth, the fast-tracking of the drones proceeds. Leo shows his boss his personal project: using organic remnants he found inside the original casing, Leo has cloned and grown an octopoid-creature that now resides inside a glass case. Learning that Leo has connected this monster to the company’s interneural network, Robertson is horrified, and orders it destroyed. But when Leo attempts to throw the creature into the factory furnace, the Dalek mutant takes control of the engineer’s body, making him its puppet…

After materialising inside her TARDIS, the Doctor brings Jack up to date with the Lone Cyberman and her subsequent capture by the Judoon. Having left her ship idle for decades, the Doctor reawakens the TARDIS and sets off to find her Fam. In his house in Sheffield, Graham sits with Ryan and Yaz reviewing information on the drones when they are interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS. But the reunion is not as happy as hoped, with the Fam cross that the Doctor miscalculated her return by ten months. After explaining space jail and the accompanying Captain Jack, the Doctor listens as her friends recount the return of the Daleks…

In Osaka, Japan, the Dalek has used Leo to visit a factory full of glass cannisters - each containing a Dalek mutant…

Ushering everyone into the TARDIS, the Doctor runs a search for Daleks while Jack explains his experience of Daleks and his immortality. Detecting a corrupted trace of Dalek DNA at a facility in Japan, the Doctor takes Jack and Yaz to investigate the site and then she, Graham and Ryan travel to Robertson’s office to confront him about the new Daleks. Still denying his knowledge of the aliens, Robertson shows his unwanted guests his production line: 3D printers produce thousands of the automated security drones, all controlled by a remote AI, and all devoid of any occupant.

In Osaka, Jack uses his square gun to enable him and Yaz to break into what appears to be an agricultural factory; inside, they discover the clone farm full of Daleks. While Yaz takes a sample from a feeding tube connected to the Daleks’ cannisters, Jack sets bombs around the building. The duo are attacked by Dalek mutant guards, but Jack manages to despatch the creatures with the aid of his square gun…

Now Prime Minister, Jo Patterson gives a live televised press conference from 10, Downing Street to unveil the Dalek drones, promoting them as her new nationwide security and safety solution...

As Robertson boggles at the TARDIS interior, the Doctor sets course for Osaka. Chatting with Ryan, the Doctor learns how her friend enjoyed being at home for the last ten months, and catching up with his dad and mates; she tells him about Gallifrey and the Master, and the revelations about her past. The TARDIS arrives in the Osaka factory, where the Doctor and her team are reunited and Robertson is horrified by the Dalek mutants. The Leo/Dalek appears and gloats how it manipulated the company network into buying the factory and building the clone farm; unplugging a nearby pipe, the Dalek shows how it has been feeding the liquified remains of the factory workers to its creations. While it explains how it plans to take over the planet by weaponizing the security drones, the Dalek changes the factory lighting to ultraviolet; this activates its mutant creations - which instantly teleport inside the drones’ casings all over the country. The Daleks immediately engage in a killing spree, exterminating people all over Britain - including the Prime Minister, who is shot down on camera.

At the Osaka factory, the Dalek kills Leo and teleports itself away. The Doctor and her friends race back to the TARDIS, where they debate a ‘nuclear option’ of destroying their enemies. The Doctor sends a message pod through the Vortex, which is quickly intercepted by a Dalek Death Squad inside their saucer ship; learning of the impure Daleks, they set course for Earth.... As Drone Daleks fly through cities across Britain destroying everyone in their path, a massive Dalek saucer appears in the sky over Bristol. The TARDIS materialises atop the Suspension Bridge, where the Doctor and Robertson disembark and watch as Death Squads fly off to intercept and destroy all Dalek Drones. Two factions of Daleks meet on the bridge below, but after detecting traces of human DNA in them, the Death Squad opens fire and destroys their impure counterparts. Seeing an opportunity to save his skin, Robertson leaves the Doctor and offers himself up as a useful ally to the Dalek Death Squad; promising to betray humanity, Robertson demands to be taken to the Daleks’ leader. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor commences Phase 2 of her plan, which entails blowing up the Dalek ship; Ryan and Graham join Jack in this mission, and together they travel by vortex manipulator to the Dalek saucer. As the trio place bombs throughout the vessel, their presence is detected by the Daleks; Jack hides from a patrol, and then overhears Robertson telling the Dalek leader about the Doctor’s trap. Now the only surviving Drone Dalek, the Recon Scout uses an emergency spatial shift to join the Daleks inside the saucer; however, its comrades no longer see it as pure, and the Scout is promptly exterminated. Jack contacts the Doctor to warn her that Robertson has sold her out; as the Doctor formulates a new plan, Yaz worries that her friend will leave her again. In the saucer’s control room, the Daleks detect the arrival of the Doctor’s TARDIS. All Death Squad Daleks converge and surround the TARDIS as it hovers in the sky; but the Doctor doesn’t seem to care, and invites them all to follow her inside her blue box. Aboard the saucer, Jack, Graham and Ryan grab Robertson, but Daleks appear and close in on them; Ryan thumbs the bombs’ detonator and Jack activates his vortex manipulator, transporting the group away as the Dalek saucer explodes. Inside the TARDIS the Dalek Death squad discover they have been duped: a hologram of the Doctor explains that she used her spare TARDIS’ chameleon circuit to make it look like her police box; this TARDIS follows its pre-programming, folding in on itself and then transporting its occupants into the Void, where they will be destroyed. Inside the real TARDIS, the Doctor and her friends turn on Robertson, who promptly tries to weasel himself back into favour…

A while later, Ryan and Graham watch Robertson on a television news report as he spins events to make himself into a hero. Ryan and Graham rejoin the Doctor inside her TARDIS, as she bids goodbye to Jack, who has decided to stay on Earth and look up his Torchwood friend, Gwen Cooper. The Doctor offers her Fam another trip in the TARDIS - but while Yaz wants to come, Ryan prefers to stay on Earth, and Graham decides to stay with him. After a tearful hug goodbye, the Doctor gives her departing friends a gift of psychic paper each, then she and Yaz watch Graham and Ryan leave the ship...

On the hills surrounding Sheffield, Graham helps Ryan in his attempts to ride his bicycle. After agreeing to use their psychic paper to start investigating reports of trolls in Finland and gravel creatures in Korea, they try a few more goes at mastering cycling before starting their own adventures…

In Liverpool, a builder named Dan sets off for work, unaware of the life-changing events awaiting him…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brian), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Chris Noth (Jack Robertson), Harriet Walter (Jo Patterson), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Leo Rugazzi), Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea (Armen), Helen Anderson (Rachel), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voice), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek), Sharon D Clarke (Grace), John Bishop (Dan)

Directed by Lee Haven Jones
Produced by Alex Mercer
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens and Ben Irving
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
1st January 2021 @ 6.45 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan, Yaz and Captain Jack Harkness, and introducing Dan

*This special episode is seventy-five minutes long

*John Barrowman was also credited in the title sequence, along with Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill

*The graphics for the title sequence and end credits were revamped to include more colour

*John Bishop was introduced in a post-credits sequence

*This story was the first 'Doctor Who' episode to be made available in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) on the day of its first transmission: viewers in the UK were able to watch it in 4K resolution and high dynamic range (HDR) colour via the BBC iPlayer