History Recap / DoctorWho2019NYSResolution

* XtremeKoolLetterz: The Doctor announces that she has "skillz. And, yes, that's with a zed."

This special first aired January 1, 2019. Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall.

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Whoa! That Dalek just shut down the whole of Britain's internet."
-->'''Graham:''' "What, on New Year's Day? When everything's shut and everyone's hung over?"
-->'''Ryan:''' "[[YouMonster What a monster!]]"

-->'''Dalek:''' ''[after hearing police sirens]'' "That sound is not rescue. It... is... combat!" ''(SlasherSmile)''

--->'''Fourth Doctor:''' "Many future worlds will become allies because of the fear of the Daleks."

-->'''Doctor:''' "[[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe What?]] No, it can't have been. UNIT is a fundamentally vital protection for planet Earth against alien invasion!"
-->'''Polly:''' ''(scoffing)'' "Yes, but when did ''that'' last happen?"
-->'''Doctor:''' "[[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder Now! Right now!]]"

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Me and the Dalek, it's personal."

--->'''Yaz:''' ''[alarmed]'' "Doctor... I don't like it when you go quiet."

* PutOnABusToHell: Kate Stewart and UNIT. The Doctor tries to call Kate, only to be informed that UNIT's operations have been disabled pending review because of funding problems caused by the UK's traditional partners pulling their support — and lack of any recent alien invasion to justify their existence.

-->'''Graham:''' "Does it have a name?"\\
'''The Doctor:''' "A Dalek."

Unfortunately, the creature is ''not'' in the sewers — it's attached itself to Lin, and, when she gets home, she tries to get rid of it, but it starts to control her, and forces her to use her computer to look up information on the current state of the Earth, data it can use to destroy the world. The creature eventually forces Lin to take to the road, eventually stealing a police car and uniform, to steal weapons and alien technology, specifically its ''own'' technology, the remnants at least. The Doctor and company only realize what they're dealing with after it's already started.

For the first time since 2005, the series forewent airing a Christmas special. Series 11's 10-episode length and October debut meant the obligatory special would simply tag along behind the new episodes, and there wouldn't be much of a cushion for the wait to next season. Chris Chibnall had been involved with the show long enough to see enough Christmas specials come and go, and as the newly-appointed showrunner, he wanted to spice things up a bit, so he went a slightly different route and went with a New Year's special.

In the ninth century, in England, three enemy armies fight together, at terrible cost, to defeat an incredibly dangerous enemy with powers beyond their imagining. To ensure the defeated enemy doesn't rise up again, its body is cut into three pieces, with each part entrusted to a custodian who is supposed to bury it in a remote corner of the world. Two of the custodians do their work, landing on a remote Pacific island and Siberia to bury their pieces and stay to guard, with their descendants still holding vigil in the present. But the third custodian is shot dead by a bandit in Yorkshire when his journey has barely begun, his burden left with him, forgotten in the dirt.

New Year's Day, 2019. Archaeologists Lin (Creator/CharlotteRitchie) and Mitch (Nikesh Patel) come in to their dig site underneath Sheffield City Hall, since they don't have anything else to do that day. They're digging up the body of the third custodian. Mitch has heard of the now half-mythical battle that the custodians survived, but Lin doesn't believe that it happened. And when the third piece of the creature is placed under a UV light, it begins to awaken, calling the other two pieces to it from across the world, making it whole again so it can proceed on its mission: the subjugation of Earth. When the "artifact" disappears, Lin goes to look for it while Mitch stays at the workstation, and in the tunnel stumbles upon a very familiar grey squid-like creature on the wall, which she reaches for out of a disgusted curiosity...

Unfortunately the creature is ''not'' in the sewers — it's attached itself to Lin, and when she gets home, she tries to get rid of it, but it starts to control her, and forces her to use her computer to look up information on the current state of the Earth, data it can use to destroy the world. The creature eventually forces Lin to take to the road, eventually stealing a police car and uniform, to steal weapons and alien technology, specifically its ''own'' technology, the remnants at least. The Doctor and company only realize what they're dealing with after it's already started, however, when the TARDIS informs her via a DNA test that some things are inevitable; in this case, this is the Thirteenth Doctor's first encounter with her ol' "mate", a casing-less Fell Saltshaker.

In the middle of all of this, Ryan has to deal with his estranged dad Aaron turning up, trying to repair their relationship. Oh, and UNIT's operations have been disabled pending a financial review, so there's no help from that angle. And this isn't a normal Dalek they're facing: the Doctor, analyzing what the mutant is doing with its hostage, Lin, deduces it's an even ''more'' dangerous type; a reconnaissance scout, the first Daleks to leave Skaro and search for new worlds to conquer. The Dalek eventually uses Lin's body to construct a makeshift new casing for itself, and after the Doctor confronts it, it gets away and sets off to contact the Dalek fleet so the Earth will be ''annexed'' into their empire. When oblivious soldiers confront what they assume to be a mysterious new drone, they are slaughtered as they try to flee — not even a tank has any effect as while the casing may be new, the Dalek gun is as effective as ever.

As the Doctor and her friends and new associates try to stop their enemy alone, she realizes it's heading for the UK's main communications centre to send that invasion signal to the fleet. As the Dalek slaughters its way through the communications centre and begins preparing the signal, causing a nationwide Internet and phone service outage (on New Year's Day, when most people are at home using those services), Mitch's old books about the ancient battle against the Dalek provide the key to defeating it, using a microwave oven Aaron is trying to sell: immobilizing the armour and heating it up to roast the mutant inside. They arrive just in time to prevent the signal from being sent, but the mutant jumps ship before its casing is immolated and takes control of Aaron, holding him hostage in exchange for being returned to the Dalek Empire. The Doctor accepts the deal… but instead pilots the TARDIS to a supernova, where, as Ryan makes sure his dad isn't sucked out via a vacuum corridor, the Dalek is burned up in the death of a star.

* ActionSurvivor: Lin turns out to be this, as she takes advantage of a moment of weakness in the Dalek to escape the (literal) clutches of its PuppeteerParasite powers.

* ArchEnemy: This incarnation of the Doctor comes into contact with her age-old enemy, who she calls the most dangerous creature in the universe. Likewise, once the Dalek learns her identity, it shoots blindly at her as the Doctor is the enemy of all Daleks.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Whoa! That Dalek just shut down the whole of Britain's internet.
-->'''Graham:''' What, on New Year's Day; when everything's shut and everyone's hung over?
-->'''Ryan:''' [[YouMonster What a monster!]]

** Graham is also very blunt when he tells Aaron that "You haven't done enough" in regards to being a parent and is more than a little smug at Aaron when he expresses shock at Ryan calling Graham "Gramps".

* BittersweetEnding: Sure, the Dalek scout is defeated and the Earth is saved, while Ryan renews his relationship with his father (formerly a DisappearedDad), and Lin and Mitch both survive to pursue their RelationshipUpgrade. On the other hand, the Dalek exterminated dozens, if not hundreds, of humans while on its brief rampage across the UK, and [=UNIT=] has been shut down for the foreseeable future (putting the Earth at even further possible risk of alien invasion).

-->'''Dalek:''' ''[after hearing police sirens]'' That sound is not rescue. It is combat! ''(SlasherSmile)''

* BrutalHonesty: The Doctor says what everyone's thinking to Ryan's dad. "You weren't at Grace's funeral. Ryan waited for you. You let him down."

** For the Daleks themselves, this is the first time one has been a major antagonist since "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice The Magician's Apprentice]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E2TheWitchsFamiliar The Witch's Familiar]]".

--->'''Fourth Doctor:''' Many future worlds will become allies because of the fear of the Daleks.

** The Doctor attempts to call Kate Stewart for help.
** The Doctor, when confronting the Dalek in the communications centre, redoes [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays Nine's exit from the TARDIS protected by a forcefield]].

* DismemberingTheBody: A group of opposing 9th century armies defeat a Dalek recon scout in an EnemyMine situation, hack up its body into thirds, and hide the fragments in disparate parts of the globe to make sure that it never has a chance of being resurrected. One carrier is killed before he can bury his piece, allowing a team of archeologists in 2019 to accidentally revive it. The piece then summons its missing two thirds to restore itself, kicking off the plot.

-->'''Lin:''' Who are...[[WhatTheHellAreYou what are you?]]\\
'''Dalek:''' I am your pilot now.\\
''(Lin struggles to pull the creature off her back, only for her hand to be forced back down)''\\
'''Dalek:''' Do not fight me. I have control of your body. All brain and motor functions are under my power.\\
'''Lin:''' Please, no...\\
'''Dalek:''' [[SilenceYouFool Silence.]] See how I control you. Turn. ''(Lin jerks round to face the mirror)'' Look. ''(It speaks through her mouth.)'' You are my prisoner now. You are my...puppet.

* FantasticFireworks: The Doctor celebrates the New Year by taking her human companions to see a gaseous nebula igniting.

-->'''Doctor:''' [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe What?]] No, it can't have been. UNIT is a fundamentally vital protection for planet Earth against alien invasion!
-->'''Polly:''' ''(scoffing)'' Yes, but when did ''that'' last happen?
-->'''Doctor:''' [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder Now! Right now!]]

* {{Forgiveness}}: To save his father from the Dalek's control to escape certain death, Ryan tells Aaron he forgives him.

** The two policeman who pull her over prove TooDumbToLive; one reads the newspaper instead of running a vehicle check and keeping an eye on her partner, while the other when faced by a woman talking like a looney on drugs just kneels down close to her and gets out his notebook.
** Apparently the U.K. government had a big bowl of stupid for breakfast as they didn't think keeping UNIT operating was important, meaning the Doctor and companions are all that stands between Earth and the Daleks. Not to mention that nobody from UNIT thought it was important to let the Doctor, '''the President of Earth''', know about any of this. As it's a potshot at Brexit, the UK government having a big bowl of stupid for breakfast [[RippedFromTheHeadlines is essentially what happened]]. It also carries echoes of the United States, which had recently threatened to pull its funding contributions to NATO pending a review of its effectiveness.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Me and the Dalek, it's personal.
* IWillFightSomeMoreForever: Averted. As soon as the commander of the soldiers realizes that the "unknown drone" is heavily armed and their weapons are useless, he orders his troops to run. It doesn't do them much good, but credit for making the right call under the circumstances. Not to mention he seemed willing to stay behind and provide covering fire for his troops (raising the rifle to fire while everyone else fell back), despite knowing that his rifle would do sod-all to the Dalek.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The Dalek diverts all the power in the UK to send a signal to the Dalek fleet, knocking out the internet in the process. We then cut to a BUFFERING symbol on the screen, as if the Dalek has managed to stop the episode as well (at least for those watching on their computers instead of TV).
* MeatPuppet: Lin and later Ryan's father Aaron serve as this to the Dalek via its MindControl powers, during the periods when the Dalek is deprived of its usual mechanical body. Fortunately, both Lin and Aaron survive the experience.

* MythologyGag: The last three Dalek stories in the classic series all had titles of the form "[Vaguely Religious Noun Beginning With R] of the Daleks" ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks Resurrection]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance]]"). This story would have restarted the pattern if the Dalek had been mentioned in the title.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In so far as the UK government is on the side of the protagonists, the offscreen [[ObstructiveBureaucrat decision to shut down UNIT]] leaves the regular military and local law enforcement completely [[OutsideContextProblem out of their depth]] in trying to stop the Dalek scout, which they consider an "unidentified drone" and which is, in the absence of similarly advanced weaponry (or the Doctor), effectively TheJuggernaut.

--->'''Yaz:''' ''[alarmed]'' Doctor... I don't like it when you go quiet.

* PutOnABusToHell: Kate Stewart and UNIT. The Doctor tries to call Kate, only to be informed that UNIT's operations have been disabled pending review because of funding problems caused by the UK's traditional partners pulling their support — and lack of any recent alien invasion to justify their existence (which, in the Whoniverse, is a laughable claim).

** The telephone operator informs the Doctor that UNIT has been shut down pending review. After all, when was the last alien invasion. Now, as it happens.

* RunOrDie: The commander of the soldiers sent to confront the "drone" ends up ordering his troops to run when he realizes they're seriously outmatched.

* TooDumbToLive: Subverted by Lin, who takes the usual RedShirt-esque course of action of wandering off on her own and touching the sinister alien thing — which no real-life archaeologist would ever do — and then turns up seemingly fine, though [[OutOfCharacterAlert acting visibly shocked]]. ''Then'' it turns out that she's under the control of a PuppeteerParasite.

-->'''Graham:''' Does it have a name?\\
'''The Doctor:''' A Dalek.
* WillReturnCaption: The credits begin with a caption announcing "The Doctor Will Return".

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: The Doctor's near word-for-word reaction to UNIT being shut down. A full explanation why comes two seasons later.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}} "Kevin".

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here we start the new year with an old "friend".

* ForWantOfANail:
** The plan of the ancient warriors to [[SealedEvilInASixPack split the Dalek's body into three pieces and bury them far away from each other]] fails because one of the custodians is killed by bandits while transporting a piece through Yorkshire. When modern-day archaeologists find its remains 1200 years later, they leave the piece of flesh under a UV light, giving it enough energy to summon its other pieces and regrow into a new Dalek...
** Also, the Doctor and company would have a much easier time dealing with the Dalek had UNIT not been defunded.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* XtremeKoolLetterz: The Doctor announces that she has "skillz. With a zed."

** Apparently the U.K. government had a big bowl of stupid for breakfast as they didn't think keeping UNIT operating was important, meaning the Doctor and companions are all that stands between Earth and the Daleks. Not to mention that nobody from UNIT thought it was important to let the Doctor, '''the President of Earth''', know about any of this. As it's a potshot at Brexit, the UK government having a big bowl of stupid for breakfast [[RippedFromTheHeadlines is essentially what happened]]. It also carries echoes of the United States, which had recently threatened to pull its funding of NATO pending a review of its effectiveness.

* FantasticFireworks: The Doctor celebrates the New Year by taking his human companions to see a gaseous nebula igniting.

* HitlerCam: "The Dalek Race Is Supreeeme!!!"

The one where we start the new year with an old "friend".

* HurlItIntoTheSun: Taken UpToEleven as the Doctor sends the Dalek mutant into a supernova to dispose of it.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: The Doctor's near word-for-word reaction to UNIT being shut down.

* CharacterDevelopment: The Doctor admits matter-of-factly that she learned to think like a Dalek long ago. Even Twelve, whose whole thing was trying to admit his faults and move on from the Time War, was never able to bring himself to admit this so bluntly. The Dalek still brings out the worst in Thirteen, but at least she can admit she has a problem.

** A brilliantly subtle example. Back in the 9th century, the Dalek was defeated by three separate armies who, up until that point, had been hated enemies of each other. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Guess the Fourth Doctor was right to spare the Daleks after all.]]

** The Doctor attempts to call on Kate Stewart for help.

* CutawayGag: Rather unusually for ''Doctor Who''. After realizing that the Dalek has caused a communications outage, we cut to a random family who finds that their Internet is down. The children and mother are horrified that they might have to actually talk to each other. The scene never gets brought up again.

In the ninth century, in England, three enemy armies fight together, at terrible cost, to defeat an incredibly dangerous enemy with powers beyond their imagining. To ensure the defeated enemy doesn't rise up again, its body is cut into three pieces, with each part entrusted to a custodian who is supposed to bury it in a remote corner of the world. Two of the custodians do their work, landing on a remote Pacific island and Siberia to bury their pieces and stay to guard, with their descendants still holding vigil in the present. But the third custodian is shot dead by a bandit in Yorkshire before his journey has barely begun, his burden left with him, forgotten in the dirt.

As the viewers immediately realize the writers are making up for Series 11 not having any of the Doctor's RoguesGallery, we're then onboard the TARDIS, where the Doctor and her companions have been repeatedly celebrating the New Year in various times and places when the ship detects something going on back in Sheffield, something dangerous. The Doctor duly steers the ship back to Earth, where Mitch gets a surprise when the time machine lands right in front of him. Mitch and Lin explain that one of the artifacts is missing, and Lin mentions the squid-like thing she saw on the wall. The Doctor collects some of the slime left behind on the wall to figure out what she's dealing with, and they think the creature has gone into the water of the nearby sewers, so it could be anywhere. They disperse, with Lin and Mitch sent back home since the Doctor declares the dig site quarantined, as the time travellers go to Ryan and Graham's house.

Unfortunately the creature is ''not'' in the sewers — it's attached itself to Lin, and when she gets home, she tries to get rid of it, but it starts to control her, and forces her to use her computer to look up information on the current state of the Earth, data it can use to destroy the world. The creature eventually forces Lin to take to the road, eventually stealing a police car and uniform, to steal weapons and alien technology, specifically its ''own'' technology, the remnants at least. The Doctor and company only realize what they're dealing with after it's already started, however, when the TARDIS informs her via a DNA test that some things are inevitable; in this case, this is the 13th Doctor's first encounter with her ol' "mate", a casing-less Fell Saltshaker.

In the middle of all of this, Ryan has to deal with his estranged dad Aaron turning up, trying to repair their relationship. Oh, and UNIT's operations have been disabled pending a financial review, so there's no help from that angle. And this isn't a normal Dalek they're facing: the Doctor, analyzing what the mutant is doing with its hostage, Lin, deduces it's an even ''more'' dangerous type, a reconnaissance scout, the first Daleks to leave Skaro and search for new worlds to conquer. The Dalek eventually uses Lin's body to construct a makeshift new casing for itself, and after the Doctor confronts it, it gets away and sets off to contact the Dalek fleet so the Earth will be ''annexed'' into their empire. When oblivious soldiers confront what they assume to be a mysterious new drone, they are slaughtered as they try to flee — not even a tank has any effect as while the casing may be new, the Dalek gun is as effective as ever.

As the Doctor and her friends and new associates try to stop their enemy alone, she realizes it's heading for the UK's main communications centre to send that invasion signal to the fleet. As the Dalek slaughters its way through the communications centre and begins preparing the signal, causing a nationwide Internet and phone service outage (on New Year's Day, when most people are at home using those services), Mitch's old books about the ancient battle against the Dalek provide the key to defeating it, using a microwave oven Aaron is trying to sell: immobilizing the armour and heating it up to roast the mutant inside. They arrive just in time to prevent the signal from being sent, but the mutant jumps ship before its casing is immolated and takes control of Aaron, holding him hostage in exchange for being returned to the Dalek empire. The Doctor accepts the deal … but instead pilots the TARDIS to a supernova, where, as Ryan makes sure his dad isn't sucked out via a vacuum corridor, the Dalek is burned up in the death of a star.

New Year's Day, 2019. Archaeologists Lin (Creator/CharlotteRichie) and Mitch (Nikesh Patel) come in to their dig site underneath Sheffield City Hall, since they don't have anything else to do that day. They're digging up the body of the third custodian. Mitch has heard of the now half-mythical battle that the custodians survived, but Lin doesn't believe that it happened. And when the third piece of the creature is placed under a UV light, it begins to awaken, calling the other two pieces to it from across the world, making it whole again so it can proceed on its mission: the subjugation of Earth. When the "artifact" disappears, Lin goes to look for it while Mitch stays at the workstation, and in the tunnel stumbles upon a very familiar grey squid-like creature on the wall, which she reaches for out of a disgusted curiosity...

New Year's Day, 2019. Archaeologists Lin and Mitch come in to their dig site underneath Sheffield City Hall, since they don't have anything else to do that day. They're digging up the body of the third custodian. Mitch has heard of the now half-mythical battle that the custodians survived, but Lin doesn't believe that it happened. And when the third piece of the creature is placed under a UV light, it begins to awaken, calling the other two pieces to it from across the world, making it whole again so it can proceed on its mission: the subjugation of Earth. When the "artifact" disappears, Lin goes to look for it while Mitch stays at the workstation, and in the tunnel stumbles upon a very familiar grey squid-like creature on the wall, which she reaches for out of a disgusted curiosity...

** Sure, Lin, go wandering off by yourself in the dark sewer and feel free to touch the sinister alien octopus. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The Dalek kills a lot of humans and knocks out the internet on New Year's Eve.

-->'''Graham:''' What, on New Year's Day, when everything's shut and everyone's hung over?