Doctor Who: Flux: The Vanquishers

December 6, 2021 7:18 AM - Season 13, Episode 6

In the final epic chapter in the story of the Flux, all hope is lost. The forces of darkness are in control. But when the monsters have won, who can you count upon to save the universe?
posted by mumkin (39 comments total)

Saw it. Hated it. Already forgot it.

Overcome with feels for Jodie Whittaker, who surely deserved better than the writing she got.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:35 AM on December 6, 2021 [12 favorites]

Incoherent. Inconsistent. Is there one Doctor phasing in and out of three different places, or three independently operating Doctors? Trick question, it's both, they change it in the middle of the episode!

At least we didn't get the Doctor's parents. Maybe they're saving that up for New Year's. It almost seems like Bel, Vinder, and the dog man were getting set up for the world's least appealing spin-off.

How long do you think that watch stays stuck in the dashboard? One episode, one Doctor, or it's gone forever and we'll never speak of it again?

Was I supposed to be reading some romantic subtext into that exchange between the Doctor and Yas, or is my gay agenda showing?

So the Flux was centered on the Earth, so that it would be destroyed last, and it appeared to get almost as far as Earth's atmosphere. Doesn't that mean, that, uh, the rest of the universe was destroyed? Like, even the rest of the Solar System? At the very least, there should be no stars in the sky afterwards. Was there any mention of resetting any of that? It doesn't seem like any of it got reset, since all the dog folk are still dead, wherever Bel & Vinder come from is still gone, all the Sontarans (and Daleks and Cybermen) are still dead, etc. I know this show is prone to having massive, world-shattering cataclysmic events that somehow everyone writes off as swamp gas or something the next morning, but at least there's usually some hand-wavy reset involved; it doesn't seem like there was even a nod towards that this time.
posted by jordemort at 7:57 AM on December 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

How long do you think that watch stays stuck in the dashboard? One episode, one Doctor, or it's gone forever and we'll never speak of it again?

Good question. "Time" seemed to imply that the Doctor now had no more regenerations now. So, maybe the TARDIS itself will have a role in generating new Doctors based on the information stored on the watch? Given that the watch contains information of the Doctor's past lives (pre-Hartnell), maybe they're setting us up for some kind of Tales of Doctors Past series, with a revolving cast of actors playing different Doctors from long, long ago. That could be interesting.

As for the Sontarans/Daleks/Cybermen being killed off, I'm sure there will be some "Those weren't their entire fleets" kind of excuse for them coming back.

Yeah, it was quite the mess. But, it's Dr.Who, so, you know ~shrugs~

Agree that Jodie deserved far better writing than she got, especially in this series.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:38 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Time" seemed to imply that the Doctor now had no more regenerations now.

See, this is what I thought first, but then I realized that what "Time" was talking about was the fact that everything eventually ends. They didn't mean "You are out of regenerations, Doctor," it was more like "none of your regenerations will ever result in your being immortal".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:31 AM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm reminded of the episode of The Good Place where The Bad Place came up with a body spray that makes you smell the way Transformer movies make you feel.

"Ugh! How do you smell loud and confusing?"
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:46 AM on December 6, 2021 [9 favorites]

Was I supposed to be reading some romantic subtext into that exchange between the Doctor and Yas

I'm not sure whether it was intended, but I was getting that too.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:47 AM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

I read that more of the Doctor being ashamed of what she did that shut Yaz out. Kind of a “you’re my companion and you deserve to be treated with respect” thing.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:07 PM on December 6, 2021

They wipe out Karvanista's race off screen, then he reveals himself to be one of the many companions The Doctor has abandoned. But at the end it's lol you're the family dog, dog-man, and these people live on your ship now.

I didn't clue in that Joseph Williamson was an actual person until afterwards. Everything we learned outside of "tunnels" was fictional and he was only in his own time for a minute in the first episode. But it does explain why they gave him the "you're so important" send-off speech while Jericho fumbled his transporter ring and died.

Diane saved the universe and is traumatized from the Passenger but she didn't want to date Dan so we'll never see her again.
posted by Gary at 12:42 PM on December 6, 2021

Based on my ten whole minutes of internet research it seems like the mystery behind the Williamson tunnels isn't that mysterious. The question people like to theorize on is: why did Williamson have them built? Was he just weird? Was he in a doomsday cult? Was he just charitable and hiring locals to work on the tunnels as a way of helping them learn marketable skills? Maybe weird, maybe charitable but the other theory sticks out like a sore thumb and seems like it has to be the core of any answer: the "strange, unfathomable tunnels with no discernible pattern" follow pretty clear sandstone veins, just like they would if, for instance, Williamson's crews were doing unlicensed, untaxed quarrying for materials to either build with or trade to other builders for bricks.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:31 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

That was... surprisingly anti-climactic, and one of the most rapid wrap-ups I've seen on the show in a long time. So much build-up ... for what?

If Karvanista was one of the Doctor's companions pre-Hartnell, does that mean he's also thousands of years old? Or from his perspective, was his time in Division only like 10 years ago?

They never answered how Bel could be still pregnant if the last time she saw Vinder was potentially years ago.

If the Luppari ships had completely surrounded the earth... how was it changing from day to night during the Sontaran occupation? Shouldn't the entire planet have been plunged into environmental chaos? Or was the shield just on one side, because the Flux can't figure out how to go around barriers?

And I'll say it one more time, because it is driving me crazy: HOW THE FUCK DID THE LUPPARI BUILD ALL THESE FLUX-PROOF SHIPS?! If the Flux is some sort of extra-universal anti-matter, how the fuck could anything from within THIS universe block it? I mean, the Doctor doesn't even know what the Flux is made of until this episode. Are Luppari scientists the smartest beings in the history of the universe to figure this shit out? THEN WHY DID THEY ALL GET KILLED BY THE SONTARANS IN LIKE FIVE MINUTES?!

Ahem. Excuse me.

There seemed to be a lot of mystery built up around the Grand Serpent's identity, which I thought might be a set-up for him to be revealed as the Master, but he didn't really do or say anything particularly Master-ish. I mean, he was more concerned with revenge on Kate Stewart for defying him than anything else; his interactions with the Doctor were really more about him getting to Kate. Time (I think?) did say to beware the Master of the forces massing against the Doctor; the Grand Serpent did help the Sontarans, but he didn't have anything to do with the plans against the Daleks or Cybermen. Again, his main concern seemed to be recreating his petty dictatorship on Earth. Plus, the Doctor was reacting to the heat in the torture chamber, but he wasn't, so that points to different species. So, I'm 75% sure that he won't turn out to be the Master.

Then again, he didn't recognize Vinder at the end, which could just be because Vinder was a nobody to him that he hasn't seen for years, or it could be because he's not the real Grand Serpent... but then why take that disguise to infiltrate Earth? And does that little asteroid he got stranded on have an atmosphere? And without food or water, he's just going to die in a few days, unless he has some special alien metabolism or something. Not really exile, Vinder, just killing the dude slowly. And, if the universe has been destroyed... where the hell is he?

Teaser for the New Year's Day episode featured the Daleks. Wow! Chibnall managed to retcon one of the major events of his own storyline before the credits were even over.

BTW, did anyone think the Doctor's plan to kill off all the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans with the Flux was maybe a bit bloodthirsty for a character who almost always tries to save lives, even those of her enemies?

Trick question, it's both, they change it in the middle of the episode!

See also: the location of the Final Flux Event (I guess there were multiple Flux events then?). Various characters go back and forth in this episode saying it will center on Earth and that it will center on Atropos. So, unless there's some reveal about Earth also being Planet Time, or they occupy the same space in different temporal registers or something, that's another stupid inconsistency.

Incidentally, Atropos was one of the three Fates -- or Moirai -- in Greek myth. (don't know if that's been mentioned)

Was I supposed to be reading some romantic subtext into that exchange between the Doctor and Yas, or is my gay agenda showing?

It was definitely an intimate, emotional scene, and I think those often read as sexually charged.

Doesn't that mean, that, uh, the rest of the universe was destroyed?

I didn't notice anything about a cosmic reset, but it sot of seemed assumed at the end. Like, where are Karvanista, Bel, and Vinder going to go? Where is the Doctor going to take Yaz and Dan? T

Maybe they're setting us up for some kind of Tales of Doctors Past series, with a revolving cast of actors playing different Doctors from long, long ago.

Seems too risky an idea for the BBC. Plus, I think we probably would have heard about it, given that we already know RTD's coming back.

"Time" seemed to imply that the Doctor now had no more regenerations now.

I just assumed Time was saying that this particular regeneration was about to die. But I could see them doing some sort of thing where the current Doctor is killed "for reals" but somehow manifests in Bel & Vinder's impossible baby.

Diane saved the universe and is traumatized from the Passenger but she didn't want to date Dan so we'll never see her again.

What was the point of her whole inclusion and storyline? Just to give Dan a reason to bail on the Earth with the Doctor at the end? Don't get me wrong, I liked the character, basically, but her wrap-up was wack. Does she blame Dan for being "late" the night she was abducted by the Ravagers?

But, at least we have one very awesome thing to look forward to in the New Year's Day special:
AISLING BEA!!!!!!!!!
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:30 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Plus, I think we probably would have heard about it, given that we already know RTD's coming back.

I wonder if having RTD's company, Bad Wolf Productions, take over production means they might actually be able to keep anything secret at all. It's hard to avoid Doctor Who spoilers when the BBC announces every casting decision months in advance. Perhaps they could even have "next time" trailers that don't give away the mid-episode twist.
posted by Gary at 4:24 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

They never answered how Bel could be still pregnant if the last time she saw Vinder was potentially years ago.


This could be so many things. Longer gestational period; a society where a female partner can get pregnant by anyone; some technological solution which slows or suspends gestation; self replication; easy sperm storage, etc etc.
posted by biffa at 4:36 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Right -- I expected them to offer some explanation, but they just lazily ignored it.
posted by Saxon Kane at 4:44 PM on December 6, 2021

The Doctor splitting into three and helping each other was fun. Well, I guess some nonsense had to happen to give them all something to do.

Swarm and Azure finally gave some motivation but weren't very convincing about it. For people who want to end complex life or matter or whatever they seem unusually content to have thoughts and deliver rambling speeches and have elaborate head prosthetics and pursue vendettas.

Tamagotchi baby is probably gonna have "The Doctor" for a middle name, but at least it won't be The Doctor.

I'm assuming the ship-shell just had some big lights on the inside to provide a day/night cycle.

Anyway, for a thing so important that it gets into the show title, the Flux resolution was extremely slapdash. So everything was destroyed except what was inside the ship-shell, which was... planet Time, Karvanista's ship, and the TARDIS? The Passenger agreed to help with absorbing the antimatter cloud because... it was bored? And that didn't kill all the people in it because... They'd already disappeared for no particular reason? And the Flux is now antimatter instead of a cosmic zip file that can be decompressed? And massive antimatter-matter annihilation next to you is fine as long as the antimatter doesn't touch you (OK, this one is allowable under the don't-touch-lava rule)? And the Earth was not in the ship-shell and no-one mentioned decompressing Flux-destroyed stuff or any other kind of reset button this week? But the Earth's still there on the 6th of December so people can visit museums and not date each other? I don't, what?

anyway chibnall is really keen on sontarans, huh
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 5:15 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

I like to try to say some good and some bad things, because I've been watching Doctor Who for decades. There was a sense of an ending for the most part, which I was worried wouldn't sort of happen, so that's good. The cast and characters were good, as was a lot of the costuming and makeup. The direction and design however was pretty bland - most places lacked any real distinction - a real problem with all the hopping about - except perhaps the black and white weird house. I liked the three Doctors idea, but again, I wanted a stronger sense that they were in different places, doing different things with different perils and different people.

But yeah, its just SO TALKY, and the impact of that talking just doesn't seem to be thought about. Things are just said, and then its move on time. The various villains' motivations seem very opaque, all they seem to do is kill characters to show that they're baddies - and why should we trust anything they say? There are large and dramatic statements that don't make much sense or are inconsistent with a lot of what we think we do know. There don't seem to be proper consequences or even reflections on what's occurred.

I wrote a few episodes ago something along the lines that Doctor Who is at its best when its consciously reflecting the cutting edge of television and dropping the Doctor and friends into developing genres, and I've been trying to get a sense of where Flux fits in. Modern video games, perhaps?
posted by jjderooy at 5:47 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

And that didn't kill all the people in it because... They'd already disappeared for no particular reason?

I think it was the Passenger that had Diane and Vinder; Diane said that all the other occupants had been taken and destroyed by Swarm/Azure. So it was empty, but also had... infinite matter, because, reasons? It's one of those situations where the solution is WAY more complex and impressive than the insurmountable threat, but everyone just treats it as if it's commonplace.*

the Flux resolution was extremely slapdash

I wonder if over the last 3 episodes to air in 2022, Chibnall will retcon most of this story (and its resolution) away, perhaps even revealing some of it as an illusion or hallucination by the Doctor. Maybe the neat wrap-up was just the Doctor's fantasy, or a false reality with some unseen complication that the Doctor has to sacrifice herself to correct, thus Regeneration and as-yet-to-be-named New Doc.

Doctor Who is at its best when its consciously reflecting the cutting edge of television and dropping the Doctor and friends into developing genres, and I've been trying to get a sense of where Flux fits in.

First-draft fan-fic by a somewhat toxic fan?
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:42 PM on December 6, 2021

I think this whole "space vs. time" nonsense isn't finished, which, ugh, I don't know. On the one hand, it desperately needs some pay-off to redeem the, ahem, time spent. On the other hand, it's so poorly thought out and juvenile that maybe it's best to toss it into the TARDIS-hole and move on.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:45 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

This was a mess, but I didn’t dislike it as much as some of you did.

I thought the Sontaran plan was on brand. I liked Jodie Whittaker acting with herself -I got the impression she had fun.

I still don’t understand quite who the Hellraiser twins were or what their plan was, but that was very effective makeup (and acting) for Dr. Who.

I’ve watched worse.
posted by wittgenstein at 7:42 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

Man, that was a lot of genocides for one episode of TV. And that's not even counting whatever percent of the universe were killed by the flux and/or the Crystal Skull people. The Doctor has genocided her enemies before, but still.

It's kind of wild how the Doctor was thrown by the mention of the Master, considering everything else. You are meeting the personification of Time itself after the entire universe has mostly been Fluxed to pieces, and the Master is what worries you? Compared to Division, he's kind of small beans. Division destroyed the most of the universe to spite you specifically.

I feel like "oh yeah, raging antimatter clouds killed a large but unspecified proportion of the entire known universe" might go remarked upon before they all left for their further adventures, but apparently not. Plenty of universe still left; it's only mostly Fluxed. I guess?

Are Luppari scientists the smartest beings in the history of the universe to figure this shit out?

I must say I've never seen an entire race of aliens engineered specifically to be deus ex machinas. Keep in mind this is a race that has spent its entire history as Man's Best Friend. Despite never showing up before, this time they show up just in time. Of course they're also Flux-proof. Sadly not Sontaran-proof, which was a weird detail to just lob in there at the last minute. Not only Does The Dog Die, but one dog_person per human was spaced in the skies above Earth. That's dark, even for this show.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:12 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Sadly not Sontaran-proof, which was a weird detail to just lob in there at the last minute

Saves the showrunner being asked why another Lupari hasn't shown up each week for the rest of time.
posted by biffa at 1:56 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I liked some parts of this episode. I thought, unlike the Victorian epsiode where the Sontarans were just super goofy, they came across as a little more impressive (although ultimately easily defeated when needed). I actually thought the moment where Karvanista discovered he was the last of his race was quite moving, until he did the howling thing, and then everyone kept making jokes at the expense of the only survivor of a genocide.

The conclusion was... ok. Using the Passenger against the flux is I guess an OK solution, although it seems like a tardis or any other kind of time lord technology would also have done the job? If the flux was just anti matter, why didn't anyone know what it was? But as others have noted, this is a pretty terrible conclusion. Chibnall is actually really bad about thinking about planets other than Earth; he did the same thing in Season 12, where 4 planets were already destroyed, but we were meant to only care about Earth being saved. The implication seems to be that the majority of the universe has been destroyed.

Also the resolution relies on Azure and Swarm just... watching the Doctor wander around, and not restraining her, or indeed the Ood. If they had just held her in place none of the plot could have happened!

And once again, Chibnall gets the Doctor who apparently hates violence to just casually commit genocide against three species without a moments thought. I mean, we all know they're all going to be back, but still.

And lots of threads that are set up are just gone. Apparently the Division was just Tectun and the ood... and I guess the weeping angels? And where did they go?

Urgh, only a bit more and we will be done with Chibnall.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 5:20 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am so so tired of the Daleks and the Cybermen being Destroyed For Good, only to return. Just... stop. Or turn it into an actual running joke. Oh my God, they genocided the Daleks!
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:23 AM on December 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

Oh my God, they genocided the Daleks!

Those bastards!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:33 AM on December 7, 2021 [7 favorites]

Looking back, I don't know what the BBC even saw with Chibnall.

"You know that rip-roaring sci-fi show that entire families love? Let's give it to the guy who write that sad-ass Broadchurch show with all the child murder and the crying. Don't worry though: he has sci-fi experience, he also wrote several of the worst recent episodes of Who. He also wrote that ridiculous ass 'Cyberwoman' episode for Torchwood!"

I wanted to root for him, because I did like Broadchurch. But it was a weird fit.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:41 AM on December 7, 2021 [6 favorites]

Who should they have gotten to take over Who instead of Chibnall? No idea. At the time, I'd have said Toby Whithouse, but his show Noughts & Crosses was so boring and overwritten, I never finished the first episode.

I hope they're coming up with a better plan for who will eventually succeed RTD. Nida Manzoor directed one of the better episodes of 13's run, "Fugitive of the Judoon." She also wrote and created We Are Lady Parts, which was awesome. Maybe they could give her some more work on Who and see how that goes. She also directed
"Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" though and (checks notes) that one bored the shit out of my entire family.

Who are the great lights of British sci-fi right now?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:50 AM on December 7, 2021

I think Chibnall's idea of sci-fi is the equivalent of two bratty kids playing some imaginary cops & robbers type game trying to outdo each other:

"I shoot you with my laser gun!"

"Well I've got laser-proof armor that reverses your shot and blows your gun up!"

"Well I use my rocket boots to dodge the explosion and fire a heat-seeking missile at you!"

"Well I shoot your heat-seeking missile with a freeze ray!"

"Well then I summon my giant robot army to attack you!"

and so on.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:06 PM on December 7, 2021 [11 favorites]

It's just wild that on the one had, you have the (unseen) Time War, that was mined for all sorts of stuff over several seasons, and you have Flux, which canonically killed a large amount of the universe and appears to have next to no emotional impact on anyone. On to the next adventure.

The only interesting bit at the end was the Doctor leaving the fob watch closed. Which was then immediately undercut with "unless I really ask for it back." Either opening the thing or destroying the thing would have been important to the character! The Doctor deciding to let go of her old lives and move on would have been at least something.

But it seems like Chibnall can't close a door on exploring them because he thought it was a very clever idea.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:53 PM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I've been enjoying TV writer Andrew Ellard's critiques on twitter. This episode here.
posted by Coaticass at 2:11 PM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

After the Timeless Child I rage-quit this fandom but some friends persuaded me back in, and it has been mostly worthwhile. Thought episodes 2 and 4 were terrific and the others all had their moments. Sontaran-based comedy always a plus. (Do potatoes and chocolate really go together though? Maybe I should try it.)

Ravagers of Time(TM). They had style I guess.

Then Time shows up and does some... Master-baiting?

Yaz and 13 definitely seem like they might be an item, but what would I know, my gaydar is probably broken ... does yours go ding when there's stuff? What about that double bed they fell onto in the first episode? (I don't really understand couples in real life either, does anyone? LOL) Anyway personally I am quite a fan of platonic friendship and always felt SF was a good place to look for it. Your parsec-age may vary.

"I left my hearts in Science Fiction"
posted by Coaticass at 2:26 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks, I hate it.

Here's Chibnall taking "tell, don't show" to a whole other level - explaining Flux in an interview.
posted by crossoverman at 1:49 PM on December 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Ugh, that interview...

No wonder I stopped enjoying it after episode 2. I don't want to see the Doctor go on an emotional journey! I don't want universe-threatening plots; I don't want Time to be personified; I don't want gibberish like "We are Time and you are Space"; I definitely don't want to see the Doctor respond to "I'm the person who found you as a helpless baby, abandoned at the end of a wormhole" with "well, you should have just left me there, what kind of monster are you?". I want to see the Doctor solving interesting puzzles by being knowledgeable and clever. At a small scale. Puzzles involving one church, or one spaceship, or one village, or one alien planet.

What a disappointment.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:03 AM on December 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

I don't actually object to the Doctor facing threats to the universe, the galaxy, or earth, she does that more or less every two years. Sontarans in the Crimean war, angels setting up shop in a village, split doctor, antimatter eating the universe, a personification of time, even "time is broken and everyone's hiding in bits of their past" are perfectly timey-wimulent ideas (lupari are not on this list). Antimatter eating the universe could even be a two-parter. It's just that wedging them all together and stubbornly insisting that apparently irrelevant side-plots had to be advanced in every episode stifled the fun parts of the episodes. Worse, when they were all pulled together in this finale the resolutions to the series's main conflicts were too rushed and nonsensical to make those side-plots retrospectively worthwhile.

I think this is a fundamental conflict between Doctor Who as a concept and the serialised TV format. She thrives on outlandish situations and handwavey solutions in service of character development and gradual worldbuilding, but dwelling too long on one situation:
- allows the suspension of disbelief to crumble as the inconsistencies pile up, making the resolution less satisfying,
- leaves less enjoyable aspects of a story on the table for much longer than standalone episodes,
- locks too much of the worldbuilding in place, leaving less room for future stories to explore.

Setting aside what I enjoyed or not, I think Chibnall's one good decision for this mess of a series was dropping the divison memory watch into long-term storage as closure for the Timeless Child arc. That's there for future showrunners to engage with if and only if they want to (and can figure out how to make it not shit).
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 6:27 AM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Setting aside what I enjoyed or not, I think Chibnall's one good decision for this mess of a series was dropping the divison memory watch into long-term storage as closure for the Timeless Child arc. That's there for future showrunners to engage with if and only if they want to (and can figure out how to make it not shit).

You really think he's going to leave it there? He's got three more specials, including one that coincides with the BBC's 100th Anniversary in 2022. That fob watch is coming back next year, no doubt about it.

"You keep it away from me unless I really want it" is the most ridiculously anti-dramatic piece of text. I trust Jodie could have said "You keep it away from me" and imply that she will want it back some day. But Chibnall overwrites everything, so he made her say the subtext as well.
posted by crossoverman at 7:46 PM on December 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

You really think he's going to leave it there?

He'd better.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 11:51 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

But Chibnall overwrites everything, so he made her say the subtext as well.

BBC needs to hire an editorial overseer for Chibnall who follows just one rule: Cut the last line from every character's dialogue; even if they only have the one line, cut it. Let the actors act the fucking story, not recite it.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:36 AM on December 11, 2021 [7 favorites]

He'd better.

Ever since he dropped The Timeless Child into his first season, he's talked about that being Jodie's Doctor's arc. He talks in that interview I linked earlier that each Doctor should have an emotional arc. This is his for her, no doubt about it. He's got three episodes left. I don't think he's doing to leave it unaddressed.
posted by crossoverman at 8:50 PM on December 11, 2021

"Well I shoot your heat-seeking missile with a freeze ray!"

Exactly. Chibnall does well enough writing realistic situations but his run on Doctor Who has mostly been an extended game of Calvinball. I'm glad he had fun. It would have been nice if more of the audience had fun as well.
posted by johnofjack at 5:48 AM on December 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Hello from 18 months in the future.

This series is even worse second time around; I noticed even more nonsense.

The Sontarans plan to lure the Daleks & Cybermen in front of the Flux so that their matter would counteract its antimatter... but how did they know it was anti-matter? No one knew that until this episode when the Doctor learned it. Just especially clever Sontarans, I guess? And if it was so easy for Karvanista to take out all the Sontarans in the Luppari craft with one shock from their internal security, how the hell did the Sontarans manage to take them all over? Pretty sloppy, Luppari; not even one of you could hit the alarm?

The Grand Serpent is such a pointless multi-episode Big Bad. Why was his story even in there? Nothing to do with him or the reunited Vinder & Bel is ever developed in the remaining Chibnall eps, so unless RTD is going to pick it up (hah!) what the fuck was the bother with any of it? God, this was such a mess.

However, I will give one positive, that I hadn't noticed the first time 'round, and that's the scene when the Grand Serpent is trying to torture the Doctor, and she just tees off on him, nailing every one of his secrets before he can get a word in, and he's obviously humiliated. I cannot recall any other time in Chibnall's run with Jodie Whitaker that the Doctor has been so competent and in charge of a situation or of an antagonist.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:12 PM on March 10, 2023

I bailed out of Doctor 13's season 1 and 2 because the writing seemed infantile and nonsensical to the extent that the show was painful to watch. Nevertheless, I thought I'd give the "Flux" season a try. I must say, the production design is really nice. But I agree with all the comments above about things just not making sense. There were too many moving parts. I liked the bit where the Weeping Angel hijacked the Tardis; I thought that was the most enjoyable episode because it focused on one location and one threat and was creepy and told an actual story. Remember when a Doctor Who story could be just the Doctor, a monster, and a few humans stuck in a lighthouse? There should be a list of writers' rules for Doctor Who which includes, NO threat shall be so big that it threatens the universe. I mean, the part of the universe we can see is 90 billion light years in diameter and includes hundreds of billions of galaxies (and many of those galaxies contain hundreds of billions of stars), all separated by unimaginably vast distances. The part of the universe we can't see is maybe two hundred times as large as the part we can see. But I guess all that got eaten up by purple glitter. Oh well.
posted by jabah at 9:29 AM on January 26