Doctor Who Flux: Chapter Five: Survivors Of The Flux by Chris Chibnall (a review in progress).
- Own up. Who blinked? Am I facing a load of statues petrified as to what comes next? If not you, then it must be them. Damn. Can’t get rid of that 1.
This is a complex episode, following four different threads and all potentially spoiler, so be careful if you haven’t seen the episode yet. Go away and watch it before reading further.
Did that? Good. Are you still confused? Yep. So let’s look at some of the ramifications and I’ve watched it twice to make sure I haven’t missed anything or questions that need asking but not answered. Not helped by the fact that we are jumping all over time.
We have Yaz and Dan with Professor Jericho seeking out artefacts to determine the end of the universe over the decades. You would have to wonder where was the best archaeologist in the universe, a certain River Song wasn’t drawn into all of this?
Then there is the alien Prentice…excuse me the Grand Serpent (actor Craig Parkinson) who guides the creation of UNIT, disposing of its various leaders along the way. Considering his alieness is revealed by one of their devices, you would also have to ask where is Torchwood, which co-existed at the same time and had similar devices.
I suspect the device to detect aliens was destroyed or it would have been used when UNIT came across the Doctor in one of his earlier regenerations.
Vinder is having problems with those two alien creatures with their own agenda.
Finally, there is the Doctor, who finds herself at Division headquarters in the presence of an Ood and Awsok (actress Barbara Flynn), who claims to be the Time Lord’s stepmother and robbed him of his memories. If she’s so powerful, why doesn’t Awsok just do it again?
Presumably, showrunner Chris Chibnall wanting to complete his origin of the Doctor in his tenure. However, closing the dots and then thrown away at the end seems to be a waste of a build-up.
Granted that there is only so much that can be put into a single episode, this one alone could have been extended to a couple episodes. I do suspect this was the episode where Jack Harkness was going to return until actor John Barrowman had a little problem with his messing around a decade previous raising its head last year.
Even so, had this been a Torchwood instead of a UNIT connection, we would have even more problems. I mean, Harkness has been through the same time period several times, admittedly at least one of them in a grave so he didn’t meet himself or interfere but as one of himselves was never involved, then he would have at least got involved.
Herein lies the problems of reviewing a story in motion. Hopefully, Chris Chibnall is going to make sense of all he has laid in here in the final episode, even if he might be spreading it into the three specials that are to follow.
I can’t help but feel someone has been lying throughout all of this or we aren’t seeing the whole picture.
GF Willmetts
28 November 2021
