Doctor Who: Eve Of The Daleks Review - 9 Ups & 4 Downs

13. UP - A Solid Setup

The best thing about Doctor Who specials is the extended run-time, which gives stories room to breathe in a way that normal stories cannot, with each special feeling more like a cinematic mini-movie than your average Sunday night telly.

Eve of the Daleks takes full advantage of this by dropping a nine-and-a-half minute cold open on us which introduces the two guest stars and the premise of the episode. Thanks to the simple ‘bottle-episode’ style of this special, Eve of the Daleks can really take its time to build a connection between the guest stars and the audience, and set up a compelling mystery. It does both spectacularly, ending this cold open with the casual murder of the entire cast of the episode by a particularly bloodthirsty Dalek. This is how you open an episode, and it might just be Chibnall’s best start to an episode yet.

Also, just a small thing, but we really enjoyed the rainbow lighting in the TARDIS at the start of the episode, even if it made the gang look like they’d stumbled into the middle of a warehouse rave.