Doctor Who hasn’t had the best couple of years. Chris Chibnall’s time as showrunner has garnered a lot of criticism and not a lot of fans. With the impending return of Russell T. Davies to the show, as well as the arrival of a new Doctor, Doctor Who: Flux had the unenviable task of catching Whovians’ attention and delivering a triumphant final season for the Thirteenth Doctor. And although Flux is probably Chinball’s strongest season to date, it’s still rife with a variety of problems.
Two ancient villains, Swarm (Sam Spruell) and Azure (Rochenda Sandall) free themselves just as an all-encompassing cloud of destruction called the Flux ravages the universe and heads for Earth. The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) race to protect Earth, but they are thrown across time, and the Doctor discovers a Sontaran invasion that’s happening at multiple points in time.
There’s a lot going on in Doctor Who: Flux. The pacing is breakneck enough that you keep watching through to the end, but by the time you’re done, you wonder if you’ll remember any character or plot point the next day. This season also advances the overarching story about the Timeless Child, but it leaves the resolution dangling after teasing a reveal. Maybe it’s being saved for the New Year’s special or the eventual final episode of the Thirteenth Doctor.
Still, there are nice elements and ideas. The Sontaran gambit was clever, and the Lupari race also seemed interesting, but they were treated mostly as a plot device and then were unceremoniously disposed. Some mysteries, such as the time-tunneller Joseph Williamson (Steve Oram) and the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson), are intriguing, but their reveals get swept under the main urgency of the Flux.
Doctor Who: Flux has a lot of immediacy and energy to it, which definitely sets it apart from the previous two seasons.
The new companion, Dan (John Bishop) is a welcome addition to the cast, and his blend of wit and melancholy is a nice contrast to the confident, whip-smart Yaz. Unfortunately, he doesn’t share a lot of dialogue with the Doctor. Karvanista (Craig Els) is a nice foil and almost perfect as a secondary character who stands out despite being given very little to do.
In fact, that might be a larger flaw of the season: there are so many characters that not all of them have things to do by the time the climax rolls around.
There is a clever twist with the Doctor that does introduce some novelty to the finale, but it quickly becomes almost impossible to follow her through the concurrent plot lines. Also, her response to the Sontaran threat seems a bit too genocidal for her character post-Time War. The Ravagers, Swarm and Azure, also turn out to be paper tigers. They do a lot of posturing and monologuing, but their early menace dissipates to nothing by the end of the finale.
It’s going to be interesting seeing how Doctor Who progresses towards the start of the Fourteenth Doctor’s journey.
If there’s one good thing coming out of Flux, it’s Dan joining the TARDIS crew. As for whether or not the consequences for the season will stick, that’s harder to say. Apparently, one of the factions that seemingly got wiped out in the finale is coming back in full force for the New Year’s special, so that’s not a good portent of things to come. Hopefully, the last few Chibnall Doctor Who stories will be closer to this season than the ones that came before.