The start of the much-anticipated thirteenth series marks the beginning of the end for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and showrunner Chris Chibnall, but will the number thirteen prove unlucky for the controversial combo? This episode, the first of six, leaves viewers wondering what the flux is going on?

To try and do the story justice and get us through this review in one piece, I’m going to attempt to find a cohesive narrative within the chaos of this episode by following the main plot and addressing the subplots later. We open on what would be the climax of a normal Doctor Who episode, with the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and companion Yaz (Mandip Gil) hanging upside down and facing certain death at the hands of a mysterious adversary, the still thankfully masked Karvinista (Craige Els). The inevitability of their escape, propelled by this Doctor’s annoyingly pervasive self-belief really does suck the jeopardy out of any supposedly inescapable situation that she finds herself in so the extended CGI escape scenes that follow felt a little trite. She and Yaz escape unscathed via a previously undisclosed Tardis trampoline and head off after the perpetrator, whacking the Tardis with a mallet as they go. 

Meanwhile, on present-day Earth, viewers will recognize our well-advertised new companion, Liverpudlian Dan Lewis (played by comedian John Bishop, replacing comedian Bradley Walsh and doing his best to serve floppy-haired Disney prince energy). He’s in the process of being kicked out of the Liverpool Museum because he just loves his hometown so much he spontaneously breaks out in unauthorized tour guiding, the poor man can’t help himself. Cheeky chappy Dan does make a date with the actual museum guide who kicks him out (oh Dan, you cad, women love unauthorized tour guides, but we know you’re not keeping that date) before heading off to put a shift in at the local food bank to ensure the good people of Liverpool have sustenance on Halloween. Dan turns down the offer of a tin of soup as he leaves, even though we then find out his cupboards are bare, as he gives the last edible items in his house to trick or treating children. I think Formy-born Chibnall’s keen for us to know that Liverpool is awe-inspiringly amazing and that every man Dan is basically the best person who has ever lived. He’s even nice to a thirty-year-old trick or treater (with 12 perfectly good eggs in his hands, Dan must have been salivating) and then to Karvinista, who bursts through and destroys his kitchen door and reveals his true face – that of a large, bipedal, Shih Tzu terrier cross whose mouth only occasionally moves when he speaks with his amiable Northern English twang. 

Cutie pooch Karvinista kidnap’s Dan and goes walkies just before the Doctor and Yaz arrive outside, marvelling at the spectacle of Anfield in the background (are they bored of space? Are they being paid by Liverpool city council for all this promotion?). As yet we have no idea why the Doctor is so obsessed with chasing Karvinista across the galaxy and it’s even starting to annoy Yaz, who despite being taught to copilot the Tardis, appears not to have cracked that tricky exterior to become the Doctor’s confidant. The Doctor clearly hasn’t mentioned anything about being the Timeless Child, what happened with the Master and the Cyber Timelords (probably because it’s so ludicrous, even to her) so there’s some tension between them which is entirely down to this Doctor’s bad communication skills and secretive nature. She also hasn’t mentioned the mind flashes she’s experiencing featuring an invasive cloud called The Flux, destroying planets and people across the galaxy.

They are soon distracted by an invasion fleet of Karvinista’s species, the Lupari, waiting just outside Earth’s orbit. Catching up with that naughty boy, we finally discover that not only is he an agent of the Division, he’s also soul bound to Dan and attempting to rescue him from impending doom at the hands of The Flux, along with the rest of his species in orbit. It’s not explained how they know about the impending Flux and have mobilized a fleet of rescue ships, yet the Doctor has never heard of it. The temptation to ask where the hell the Lupari have been for the many times Earth has faced total destruction in the past is overwhelming. Regardless, it’s good Karvinista failed in his attempts to murder the Doctor because she comes up with a way to shield the Earth and protect everyone without requiring forceable kidnap – that’s kind of her thing, so killing her is an odd objective. The Tardis is compromised however and the episode ends with The Flux battling Artron energy spilling out of the Tardis console and into the Flux – will the Doctor, Dan and Yaz escape? I’m exhausted, confused and angry and I will be watching next week.

So now to the aforementioned subplots. There are five separate interjections into the main narrative – Victorian Liverpool tunnel building, evil rock-faced prisoner escaping, Claire and the weeping angel, Vinder in Outpost Rose and the Sontaran’s hatching a plan. These sections were short, confusing and wedged into the episode without context and while I understand that these will make up the six-part story arc, it’s bad storytelling just to plonk them in at random points. There was a little crossover with the episode proper – like River Song, Claire has met the Doctor before in her timeline. The rock-faced prisoner has a mind meeting with The Doctor in which he claims to have fought her before, her lack of memories assumed to be the result of the Division. These subplots come and go but with no exposition, we’re left none the wiser to their purpose and there are so many questions raised, I don’t even want to start asking. Of course, we’ll eventually get a payoff to these subplots as there are five episodes left and they’ll each get their own dedicated episode in this series – a theory backed up by next week’s title War of the Sontaran’s and be dispatched one by one rather than all weaving into an explosive finale. I should have more faith. 

If I was going to sum this episode up in one word, it would be busy. The pacing is manic, the story leaps around in a dizzying fashion and we’re overloaded with main plot points and subplots to the point where it becomes a blur and we’re left feeling disoriented. The Doctor, our usual anchor through the wibbley wobbly timey wimey, is just as adrift as the audience and it’s weird. It feels like a series created for the iPlayer audience – it appears to be designed for binge-watching, throwing everything at the viewer in episode 1, it’ll be interesting to see how many people are prepared to follow the story for six weeks to get the payoff, versus those who’ll wait for it to be available on-demand and devour it in six hours. 

The Good:

• A big welcome back to an actual story arc – you were missed 
• Yaz has finally found balls to call out the Doctor but not enough to leave a plainly one-sided relationship.
• The rock faced baddies design was great, skeletal and weird and scary. Money was spent.

The Bad:

• Karvinista, the cutest antagonist since the Adipose and even less threatening.
• Saint Dan of Anfield.
• I don’t think the Doctor even likes Yaz at this stage. 

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

Doctor Who Series 13 – Flux: Halloween Apocalypse

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