Doctor Who Season 13: Flux – Survivors of the Flux

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice stamping our mark on a 58-year-old English science fiction show. But finally, there’s light at the end of the Flux tunnel as this episode manages where others failed by successfully starting to weave together the series’ disparate narratives.

The ‘Doctor is an Angel’ narrative that stylishly ended last week’s episode is quickly resolved this week, as she’s de-statued in a room full of her captors (now fully able to speak telepathically) who turned her into Angel-kind for transport purposes – and, it appears, a laugh. Don’t tell me a Weeping Angel doesn’t know how to have fun. She soon arrives in a cavernous spaceship atrium with Tardis-like overtones but instead of the traditional console, there’s a huge blossoming tree stolen right from the set of the new Avatar movie. Pressing random buttons around it is Awsok, the mysterious lady from episode 3 who welcomes the Doctor to Division. That’s ‘Division’ without the ‘the’, so now we know. We also get a welcome explanation, as we’re told Division operates throughout the universe, above good and evil, originally a Time Lord invention but now a God-like institution ensuring that things happen the way that they want them to, as opposed to leaving it to the natural order. It also describes where they are, the base is in the division between the universes and it’s hightailing it out of our existing one. It’s official people, we’ve entered the multiverse.

Awsok tells the Doctor that her interference has caused Division to launch the Flux so that this universe can be wiped from existence. The Doctor has been recalled to Division in order to preserve her, bring her back into the fold and into a new universe. Awsok reveals herself as Tecteun, the woman who originally found The Timeless Child (now Doctor) and brought them to Gallifrey, giving the Time Lords the power of regeneration (the least said about that the better). Why she’s been listed as Awsok previously, other than for red herring purposes, I really have no idea. Anyway, despite finding the source of the information she has been seeking this whole time, the Doctor is not pleased and rages against Division and Tecteun herself, claiming that she had no right to take her as a child, stealing the life she was meant to have. Some nice character work here as the two go back and forth, with the Doctor’s adoptive mother sternly accusing her of doing the same thing, stealing people out of their lives and bringing them with her for her benefit – now this is the Doctor Who I’ve tuned in to see. The Doctor rails against the extinguishing of this universe, she wants to save the day but her reasoning that her friends are there feels a bit empty, faced with the enormity of the Timeless Child arc and coupled with her attitude to Yaz this series, I found that hard to swallow, although her moral reasoning sounded much more in character. At this stage, I have to wonder, after the damage done by the Flux and its various profiteers, is there much of a universe left to save?

But we have other storylines to check in on. Let’s start with Yaz and Dan, still in the early 1900s and now accompanied by Professor Jericho. Yaz is doing her best olde worlde Lara Croft, running rings around the men in an attempt at comedy that mostly falls flat. Most attempts at comedy with these three is clunky and forced. Yaz does manage to emote most effectively, set on a mission by the Doctor, who conveniently fearing that they would be separated, recorded a holographic message telling her to find out when the world is due to end and slipped it in her pocket. This message, as well as comforting to Yaz, also acts as a bit of an apology for the Doctor’s bitchy behaviour towards her in the series thus far, as she professes that she “probably misses her by now” in an almost sweet moment. The three are seen risking life and limb in their very own version of ‘80 Days Around the World’ as they leap from continent to continent looking for clues to this unknown cataclysmic event. Jericho has adapted somewhat better, perhaps that’s by virtue of being closer to the decade they find themselves in, but alas, the sheer pointlessness of Dan comes into sharp focus here. He’s bumbling, falling flat on his face repeatedly and being shoved under the bed – I’m even starting to feel sorry for John Bishop who isn’t winning any awards with this performance. 

The trouble that has plagued the Chibnall series – well, one of them – was the trio of Tardis companions that meant that we didn’t get to know any of them properly. Yaz, arguably the strongest companion of this era, was finally given the chance to be in the spotlight in this series, and here she finds herself one of three yet again. I don’t think there is anything that Dan’s brought to the table that couldn’t have been applied to Yaz (I’m including Karvinista in that – why can’t he be soul bonded to Yaz, she does have an admittedly negligent furry friend out there somewhere) and it might provide a bit more emotional investment in her character. As it stands in their team, she’s the daring adventurer, Jericho’s the methodical scientist and Dan, well, Dan’s the dog, ironically. He even sleeps on the floor.

Battling suicidal marauders and sarcastic holy men, and armed with a date (4th December, same as the series finale, see what they did there?) but no year, the three find themselves in Liverpool, exploring Joseph Williamson’s much-lauded tunnels and running into the man himself. Despite his constant state of anger, he’s glad to see them. Could it be that we’ve been misjudging him this whole time? He tells them he dug the tunnels to house the population of Liverpool from the impending doom that the Yaz and the gang are seeking and he’s been popping up throughout time and space (and episodes) as he’s uncovered some portals that he needs a hand with. Maybe he’s not a villain after all?

The cutest couple award winners Bel and Vinder are still combing the universe for each other. This week are heading to the same destination, following signals to an ugly looking space monolith where the poor saps were stolen by Azure and Passenger last week have been stashed. The two are on course to be reunited before being rudely interrupted by Karvinista who, realizing that one of his Lupari ships that have been shielding the Earth (what, still?), have dropped out of formation. They call back Bel’s stolen ship to replace it and have a good old shout at whoever nicked it. Vinder, in his non-Lupari ship, lands and is having a look about, spotting the Ravagers Swarm and Azure sucking the life out of the aforementioned saps to power their “time force”. It’s not long before Vinder is rumbled and sucked into the awaiting Passenger where he meets Di, Dan’s Museum date, who sounds like she wants revenge on her captors. Quite what she’s planning, we have no idea.

Meanwhile, Bel faces off against Karvinista, and they amazingly manage to miss each other in a volley of gunfire that would have finished off the Cybermen from episode three no trouble. I’ve never been overly invested in their star-crossed lovers’ story – I think it’s a waste of two good actors – but if these two turn out to be the Doctor’s parents (as is being floated online), that’s an origin story I could have happily lived without.

We’re not done with new plotlines, as a new one opens with the surprise return of Vinder’s old boss, the Grand Serpent (GS for short). He’s shooting grouse with Brigadier Farquar (played by the affable Robert Bathurst), the newly appointed head of Unit, a wonderfully upper-class toff who hasn’t a clue what he’s doing and so gladly accepts help from this mysterious visitor. This story zips along nicely, including a fabulous little nod to Pertwee’s Doctor who famously sojourned as Unit’s Chief Science officer back in the ’70s. GS poses as a Unit employee, working his way up the ranks throughout the years by killing anyone who gets in his way with some (pretty poor) CGI snake action. GS works his way to the top of Unit until he meets his match in the formidable Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (welcome back Jemma Redgrave), who sees right through him and escapes his snakey wrath.

It’s so good to see Kate Stewart again – as a legacy Doctor Who character who featured heavily in the 50th anniversary, this is the kind of continuity that rewards fans and has been sorely lacking for the last few series. It’s the GS who sets the first part of the episode’s finale in motion. He’s seen doing a deal with the Sontaran’s (little disappointed, can’t lie) who are once again going to take over Earth, busting through the Lupari ships as well as the tunnels in 1904 and putting pretty much everyone (except Division Doctor and Passenger-bound Vinder and Di) right in their path.

Back in Division, Tecteun’s doing her best to tempt the Doctor back onside, including showing her a fob watch containing her lost memories (see, we love a continuity throwback!). She’s interrupted, however, by Swarm and Azure, who stroll onboard having located the Doctor. Tecteun doesn’t put up much of a fight as she’s disintegrated with a single touch from Swarm, and wouldn’t you know it, next in line for disintegration is the Doctor herself. How’s she going to get herself out of this one?

That was the episode I’ve been waiting for. It wasn’t perfect, with Bel and Vinder’s story probably the weakest element, but the reintroduction of Unit, famously closed for business by Chibnall early in his tenure as showrunner, was very welcome and along with other more subtle callbacks (the fob watch, the Ood). I felt like I was watching Doctor Who again, for the first time in a good while. I could have done with more Tecteun, as I’m fascinated with her motherly dynamic with the Doctor, but maybe we’ll get more of that via flashbacks in next weeks finale. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not sure how much of the universe is left to save, so could this be the first time that the Doctor concedes defeat. Or, perhaps, will there be a big, red button marked ‘undo’ that’ll be pressed? This would possibly be the worst payoff to a series (and era) that has taken far too long to come to a satisfactory boil. Next week’s finale will set the scene for a year’s worth of Who and Whittaker’s departure, so Chibnall, with all that in mind, good luck and don’t f*ck it up.

The Good

• Thank god there appears to be an endgame and Chibnall isn’t pulling a ‘Lost’ on us (I hope). 
• Yaz is capable of so much more
• We got a little bit of that this week and we all deserve more. 
• Callbacks to classic Who and NuWho, I love that continuity!

The Bad

• I’m just perplexed as to how the Doctor hasn’t heard hide nor hair of Division up to this point, given their enormity and universal control. 
• Bel and Vinder in fact have a charmed life, despite their separation, they have more lives than a cat 
• Oh Dan. 

Graham does weekly deep dives of Classic Doctor Who on our Patreon

Doctor Who Series 13 – Flux: Survivors of the Flux

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