Doctor Who Eve Of The Daleks: 10 Huge Questions After The New Year Special
6. Why Should Sarah Trust Nick?
Even if we overlook the unlikelihood of Sarah’s storage business surviving with just one customer, with the facility on the other side of the street apparently getting all the trade, there are huge question marks over the dynamic that forms between her and Nick.
Nick is a disturbing character. If he is being portrayed as a misunderstood geek who we are supposed to sympathise with, then Chibnall is simply feeding into the unhelpful media portrait of fans as abnormal and socially awkward. Lovable, but odd and disturbed nonetheless. His behaviour raises all kinds of red flags, and would suggest that Sarah is best off keeping far away from him, even if he did save her life.
With Yaz being a police officer, it’s understandable that
she is the one to query the fate of Nick’s past girlfriends, but the point is
not pursued, and it’s strange to see Sarah who is reluctant to trust the Doctor
and her friends, so quickly fall for him. He fits the mould of the odd friend
in a Richard Curtis movie, not the hero of those kind of stories. If Chibnall
was wanting to subvert those stereotypes then fair enough, but this script
failed to do that.