Resolution

Resolution's greatest accomplishment is that it manages to do something new with Daleks and make one of them properly frightening for the first time on television since the Russel T. Davies era. Jodie Whittaker shines in her first encounter with the pepperpot menace, and the side story of Ryan and Graham figuring out how to deal with the sudden reappearance of Ryan's absentee father is nearly as successful. Both in terms of spectacle, and as a coda to the story at the emotional heart of Series Eleven, Resolution makes for a much better finale than did the actual series finale.

A bit of a shame this one. It wasn't as spectacular as a special needs to be, it needs to be big and bombastic, or at least I want it to be.
Spoilers from here.
The stuff with Ryan's dad was dull and really hit the pace and the microwave solution was silly.
I did however like the new dalek stuff. The controlling was pretty freaky which was good and I did quite like the rustic look (though it didn't appear to have the time to do anything like that complicated). And the dalek taking out the troops was terrifying and spectacular, the new extermination effect is superb. I do not even have a problem with the scout being taken out by the 9th century army, if there were enough of them and they had the right plan it could work though there would be a lot of sacrifice which the story implied but maybe not heavily enough. My only problem with the dalek was its stormtrooper aim, you cant have it take down soldiers them miss the Doctor because plot. Some may not have noticed but I did I'm afraid.
So overall it was OK but quite dull. Not what a special needs to be.

I want to like this story. I really do. There are a lot of good ideas here. A genetically unique Dalek scout that has abilities different from the standard pepper pot is pretty cool, maybe even the best development for the tired old for that we've seen in the new series. A Dalek that can hijack a human is reasonably within their powers, not a far stretch from their Robomen. A Dalek without a shell that has to rebuild it's armor in the field is also refreshing and makes for a great plot. Unfortunately, the execution falls short in almost every way. The Dalek's backstory of being divided and guarded for generations is laughably implausible. Having the peices teleport together upon one slice being subjected to UV light would have been laughable in the 60's and absolutely doesn't hold water today. The Dalek breaking into an alien weapon stronghold for parts is far too convenient and a missed opportunity to have it craft it's armor from Sheffield steel as a direct call back to the Doctor rebuilding her sonic screwdriver. Once rebuilt the junkyard Dalek seems far too top of the line in its capabilities as well. I could pick apart a lot of the dialogue and plot but will suffice it to say that I wasn't a fan of most of the writing and the side characters were shallow. And the "resolution" of the threat? Underwhelming is the only word that comes to mind. It's a silly romp and not objectively terrible by any means but it's more missed potential than anything else.

Now I didn't particularly like the finale for Series 11 so I may have gone into Resolution (of the Daleks) hoping for something to fulfill the itch the finale didn't scratch. The episode actually got very close to doing that: the Dalek itself while not the best design (yeah I know it is a one-off, but it just looks cheap and almost computer generated) was probably the best appearance of a Dalek since at the very least Into the Dalek. It felt amazing to have a Dalek being crafty and manipulative a la The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks as well as just plain killing people without a chance because Daleks are superior. Chris Chibnall did an excellent job writing a Dalek story, but there's a big problem with the episode which makes me give it a 5/10 instead of the probably 8/10 or 9/10 it would get: Ryan's dad. While the story arc around Ryan's father leaving and essentially not being there was built up for the story, this episode attempts to cover the lengthy process of patching up a broken relationship as such. The episode ends with Ryan and his father in a loving relationship again because he said he was sorry and Ryan saved him at the end. It only gets worse when you realize how much tension is broken throughout the episode when we cut back to Ryan and his father, instead of the more interesting Doctor Who style story of the Dalek invading Earth.

Still the main cast as always has been great with Whittaker and Walsh being stand outs (though can we stop with the damn goofy fam stuff please? It doesn't feel like the Doctor) and the direction is great. It also may be just me but it seems Briggs has gotten a new lease of life with these Daleks so that's a plus.