The ‘Revolution of the Daleks’ trailer has landed! This year’s festive special promises to be an action-packed, Daleky affair with an impressive guest cast – including returning companion (and Torchwood) star John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness. But what other nuggets of information did we glean from this minute-long teaser? Brainy specs at the ready.
‘1) Revolution of the Daleks’ will air on New Year’s Day
Yes, we finally have a transmission date for ‘Revolution of the Daleks,’ which is slated to air on BBC One on New Year’s Day, 2021. It’s being billed as a festive special, although there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly Christmassy about ‘Revolution of the Daleks.’ Unless mass extermination is your preferred form of yuletide celebration, which let’s face it is probably true if you’re a Dalek.
2) The Daleks might not be the actual Daleks
As you may have noticed, the eponymous villains have undergone a major redesign in ‘Revolution of the Daleks.’ They appear to be based on the ‘scrapyard variant’ that appeared in the 2019 special ‘Resolution,’ but it’s unclear how this plot point ties into the upcoming episode.
There are, however, some tantalising clues in the trailer. In one scene, guest artist Dame Harriet Walter (presumably playing the British Prime Minister) announces to the nation that they will see “new defence drones at work,” before unveiling a pair of glowing black Daleks. It could be that some human agency – having seen the scrapyard Dalek – has copied the design for their own nefarious purposes. In which case, these would not be the ‘actual’ Daleks, but imitations.
That being said, the trailer also shows what appears to be a genuine Dalek saucer, suggesting that the bronze originals could also be making an appearance. Plus, let’s not forget that the episode is called ‘Revolution of the Daleks.’ It could be that we see some rival Dalek factions fighting for supremacy in this episode – perhaps with the ‘human’ versions fighting the originals from Skaro.
3) ‘Revolution of the Daleks’ is a sequel to ‘Arachnids in the UK’
Of sorts. The trailer confirms the return of actor Chris Noth as the not-Donald-Trump character of Jack Robertson, who was last seen in Season Eleven’s ‘Arachnids in the UK,’ in which he battled a race of eight-legged freaks.
But his connection to the ‘Revolution of the Daleks’ plot is unclear. In the trailer, he claims “these machines are going to change the world,” whilst standing next a tank which appears to contain a large arachnid – or maybe a Dalek mutant.
In other clips, similarly-shaped tentacles are seen flying through the air and grabbing hold of people. Now we’ve seen a Dalek mutant behaving in a similar way in 2019’s ‘Resolution,’ but equally, the tentacles in this trailer could simply be ‘normal’ spiders. Or some horrendous spider / Dalek crossover. Could you imagine.
Interestingly, this is a concept that was originally mooted for the Doctor Who TV movie in 1996, with a number of CGI tests being conducted for so-called ‘spider Daleks’ that, alas, never came to fruition. Perhaps Chris Chibnall is picking up on this idea for ‘Revolution of the Daleks’? The forum meltdown starts here.
No doubt many other details will emerge in the run-up to New Year’s Day, when we’ll have had chance to conduct a forensic, frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer. In the meantime, are you excited for ‘Revolution of the Daleks’? And if so, what are you most looking forward to seeing? Let me know in the comments below.
The Thirteenth Doctor’s scarf – order now from the Lovarzi shop!
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