Flux
Story 297, Episodes 863-868, Series 13 Episodes 1-6
Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor
Companions: Kate Stewart, Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis, Vinder
Flux is one of the biggest Doctor Who stories of all time, a massive season-spanning storyline ending with a meeting with Time itself. A rollercoaster of overstuffed plot, it still manages to be a rip-roaring adventure.
The Review
Flux came to be out of necessity, a global pandemic leaving the show with less episodes to play with, so why not make them all one big story? There is so much going on it’s impossible to summarize, so here’s the gist: the Flux, a giant wall of antimatter is ripping up the universe. Earth only survives thanks to the Lupari race who encircle it with a shield. It turns out the Flux is the doing of Division, the secret force the Fugitive Doctor worked for, and is deployed by none other than Tecteun to destroy the universe because she thinks the Doctor’s meddling ruined her perfect plan for the universe so she wants a new one. To stop the Flux for good, the Doctor hijacks a Sontaran plan and has them, Daleks, and Cybermen take the hits. Surprisingly, we don’t learn too much more Timeless Child knowledge, just confirming that it was the Doctor.
There are villains galore, but three principal ones. First are the Sontarans, who get the whole second episode to themselves. Maybe the best straightforward Doctor Who episode written by Chris Chibnall, it has twin plots in present day Liverpool and the Crimean War with Mary Seacole and is a lot of fun. Next up, we have the Grand Serpent played by Craig Parkinson, an alien dictator that infiltrates UNIT’s history in a very fun sequence in the fifth episode. I’d love to see him return, Parkinson plays him with a fantastic relish and I enjoyed the character. Finally, we get the Ravagers, two crystalline foes of the Fugitive Doctor named Swarm and Azure on a mission to unlock time from its spatial bondings, an esoteric sci-fi concept we don’t get much of. One of my bigger disappointments is not getting more of the Ravagers in later episodes, they’re played with the right amounts of camp and are scene stealers. Swarm does get to kill Tecteun, but fails to free time from its bondings. Still, the Ravagers welcome annihilation at the sight of time. Oh, did I mention time itself speaks? More on that later.
There are two other villains, first off Tecteun, played by Barbara Flynn in an underutilized role. The moment of the Doctor meeting her is appropriately weighty, but she get unceremoniously dusted by Swarm. Then, in a real highlight, episode four is all about the Weeping Angels. Chibnall and Maxine Alderton have the Angels stage a relentless assault on a country home, throwing everything they can at the Doctor. Angels in dreams, angels in drawings, angels on fire, angels drawn out by lie doctors, angel arms bursting through stone, everything is on the table as the Weeping Angels descend on the village of Medderton. The two most successful episodes are the Sontaran second episode and the Angel fourth one as they are much more focused and know their job. The cliffhanger of the fourth episode of the Doctor turning into a Weeping Angel is an iconic image.
We meet five quasi-companions in this story, starting with Karvanista. Turns out ‘man’s best friend’ are a race of alien dogs called the Lupari who come to save Earth from the Flux. Karvanista is delightful, and his bantering with Dan, his assigned human, his always hilarious. A bit less successful I think are Bel and Vinder, the couple from the Grand Serpent’s planet. Both are played by good actors and are fun on screen, and have their best moments in the character driven third episode. Still, other than adding more pieces to the puzzle, there’s not much reason for their characters to be in this story at all. I think cutting them could’ve given more time for everything else to breathe, and we could’ve worked the Grand Serpent in still. Episode four introduces Kevin McNally as Professor Jericho, an old WWII vet studying psychic phenomena who is fantastic in that episode and a fun presence until his death in the finale. Finally, the psychic woman Claire possessed by an angel who isn’t quite as good as Jericho but a fun character.
One of the most unexpected pieces was the return of Kate Stewart. She doesn’t get to do much, but it’s nice to see her still out there. Kate gets to meet Joseph Williamson, the real life ‘mad mole’ of Liverpool who dug tons of tunnels under the city that end up linking throughout space and time. He was a fun through line in the story. All these characters are in the finale, and it’s impressive they’re juggled as well as they are, but it’s still not perfect, far from it in fact. For a story that ends with us talking to time itself, the frantic pacing and energy is always a blast even when Flux isn’t always working. I think I would’ve preferred to get a few more Division answers, seeing Tecteun is a big moment, but we still don’t really have answers into the Doctor’s past lives. Instead, Flux ends up being the biggest Sontaran story ever, which is fine and a welcome departure from Daleks or Cybermen but doesn’t quite satisfy all the hints dropping. There’s only three episodes left of the Whittaker era, and I worry the answers will be delivered unsatisfactorily.
Let’s talk companions! Yaz gets her most time to shine in the first episode where she is getting frustrated with the Doctor not telling her the truth about her hunt for Division. I was surprised at how little development it felt Yaz needed, she was the archetype of a veteran companion now and Mandip Gil played it well. Dan Lewis is introduced to us as a down on his luck handyman who loves the city of Liverpool dearly. John Bishop puts in a fun performance, but the story moves so frantically we never quite know who Dan is. Still, the silly scouser energy he brings is always fun. The last new character we haven’t mentioned is his friend Diane, who Dan wants to date but keeps letting down. Diane proves to be quite capable working with Vinder in the last episode, and I hope we see more of her even if she turns down Dan’s date. Still, with the crazy pace of the story, the companions feel underused among the tons of characters.
Finally, let’s talk Doctor. I think I found Jodie Whittaker’s weakness: she just isn’t great with the technobabble. Tennant and Smith excelled at this while Capaldi basically ignored it altogether, but Whittaker never sells it for me. However, she finds her best skills are sneering at overconfident bad guys, with highlight scenes confronting a Sontaran commander and the Grand Serpent. She is also hilarious flirting with herself when there are two of her around in the final episode. Those moments I really key into who the Thirteenth Doctor is, a confident woman who loves running circles around villains who don’t know who they’re dealing with. The third episode in a very successful sequence recounts the Fugitive Doctor’s capture of Swarm and Azure with the Doctor, Yaz, Dan, and Vinder playing her team of Karvanista and unknown people. Whittaker is more stern playing Jo Martin essentially, but no one beats Jo Martin when she makes a much welcome appearance. For all the chaos of Tecteun, multiverses, Swarm, Azure, we are long overdue for a proper episode with the Fugitive Doctor. In summary, Whittaker’s weakness are still apparent but the final episode has some of her best work despite the insane chaos of the episode not seen since Journey’s End.
So, what to make of this story? It’s crazy ambitious, definitely connecting some initial scripts for the season into one after the pandemic. There’s some great moments, some not so great moments, and approximately 157 plot lines culminating with the Doctor having a chat with the personification of time. I’m glad the show did it, I was entertained, but wish it was overall better paced. Even though Series 11 and 12 may end up with higher overall scores, they’re less than the sum of their parts. This certainly isn’t that.
8.25/10 The number one rule of this show is don’t make it boring, and Flux certainly never was that.
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