Doctor Who

Tripwire’s Man In Los Angeles Reviews Doctor Who: Flux Episode Six

Published

5 years ago

December 7, 2021

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Out Of Time

Tripwire’s man in Los Angeles Robert Cave grabs his TARDIS key and takes a look at the sixth episode of Doctor Who: Flux…

Writer: Chris Chibnall
Director: Azhur Saleem
Chapter Six: The Vanquishers

Well, a lot of things certainly happened this week! It was almost like a Christmas carol, there was so much going on. Four great civilisations (seemingly) destroyed, one of them entirely off-screen. Three Doctors, although they were all fractions of the same incarnation, and all played by Jodie Whittaker. Two parents, Vinder and Bel (Jacob Anderson and Thaddea Graham) of a baby who may or may not grow up to be someone significant withing the show at some point. And one supreme sacrifice by Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally). I wish we knew him better, but at least we got to know him at his best.

And there was a whole lot more, too. The Flux was finally explained and disappointingly it turns out to be dangerous technobabble from another universe. Couldn’t we have been told that in Chapter One? The Ravagers are apparently defeated by… um, an incarnation of Time? And it turns out Swarm (Sam Spruell) modelled his appearance on Time when he first escaped his prison way back at the beginning of this series. Or maybe not, because Time seems to be able to change their appearance at a whim, even taking on the form of the Doctor, but with a darker coat. Earlier this series it was implied that the dark coat indicated a previous Doctor whose exact identity had been concealed and was probably Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor. Or maybe that was a double bluff, or a triple bluff, or something else entirely. Whichever way you squint at them, there are still plenty of mysteries yet to be revealed, and still a couple of episodes to come from this Doctor/showrunner team in which they may or may not be wrapped up into a neat little package.

In many ways, the success or failure of this six-episode mini-series of Doctor Who was always going to come down to the final episode and how it has paid off on everything that had come within it. Did this instalment serve as a satisfying ending to the story? For me, although it had a lot of positive points, The Vanquishers didn’t really coalesce into the fitting conclusion I had hoped for. Too much was hinted at but left unsatisfyingly unresolved. The whole was somehow less than the sum of its parts, which is pretty amazing considering that the stuff I’ve mentioned so far is merely a fraction of the parts this episode actually contained. It really is bigger on the inside.

Sticking with the positives, the visual effects really sparkled. How many Who fans haven’t secretly yearned to see massive fleets of Sontaran, Dalek and Cybermen spacecraft together at the same time? The closest we had seen up to now was in The Pandorica Opens. I realise it is not particularly in-keeping with the ethos of the show but, considering how easy it is to copy and reuse digital assets, it is probably just a matter of time before we get to see a truly spectacular space battle on the show.

Dan (John Bishop) might not have got the date with the incredibly capable Diane (Nadia Albina), but he does get to hop into the TARDIS as a full companion and, with that, now has the opportunity to appear in a 1001 Big Finish audio adventures at some point in the future. Yaz (Mandip Gill) was great, as ever, although she didn’t get nearly enough screen time this week, what with the gargantuan amount of plot there was to get through. But poor Karvanista (Craige Els) had it so much worse. Not only was his entire race wiped out (again, off screen!) when attempting to protect the humans, but it appears he has a device in his brain that will kill him if he divulges any information to the Doctor about her mind-wiped past. Surely, the Doctor should be capable of disarming or otherwise removing said device from her furry former friend and companion?

While, the chocoholic Sontaran didn’t quite work for me, I would still have to admit that showrunner Chris Chibnall has put considerable thought into reconciling their seemingly contradictory serious and comedic sides, as witnessed in their previous portrayals on the show. Their love of combat and willingness to torture, witnessed in The Sontaran Experiment, their outsized ambition, as displayed in their attempt to conquer Gallifrey in The Invasion of Time, and their bumbling incompetence, seen most often in Strax (Dan Starkey), are all on display here. There was even a lovely moment of the Doctor licking her lips Sontaran-style as she prepares to take down her enemies.

All the stuff with the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson) was fun enough, but his character did feel a little superfluous among everything else that was going on. Are we going to see him again before the end of Chibnall’s run? I’d like to think so, if only because I’d like his origin to be more than a bit of speculation from the Doctor while she is being tortured. I guess this also comes back to how much has been packed into these episodes. Enough plot for a ten-part season packed into the space of six. So much that would have worked better as “show” was relegated to mere expository “tell”.

Perhaps part of this is also down to the costs and constraints of Covid filming protocols. The more action and plot points that can be obviated with a line of dialogue, the further of the scant time and money in the budget will stretch. But it is a testament to the production team, cast and crew that viewers can pay so little mind to the restrictions of filming a complex and demanding sci-fi series in the middle of a pandemic. You could scarcely tell there were any production problems at all from what’s on screen.

Ultimately, the episode’s greatest weakness is probably that, despite being touted as a six-part storyline, its final instalment didn’t feel like a conclusion. It didn’t wrap everything up. Instead, it went out of its way to tease a wider story in which the Doctor appears to be on the precipice of a confrontation with the living embodiment of Time. That is, if I followed that bit well enough, it was a little confusing. Wasn’t the Temple of Atropos meant to be on a planet called Time? Is there a link between the incarnation of Time that dispatched the Ravagers and the Planet called Time? Was that all explained by a line of dialogue I just missed? The Ravagers did mention some kind of conflict between Time and Space a couple of episodes back. I hope all this gets resolved before Russell T. Davies returns for his second stint as showrunner.

And speaking of resolutions, the end of the episode sees the Doctor now in possession of a device in the shape of a simple fob watch and which apparently contains memories about her past incarnations apparently wiped from mind. She asks the TARDIS to look after it for her and not return the device to her unless she really needs it. Yet another plot point I hope to see reach fruition before Chibnall’s time as showrunner comes to an end.

Will this come to pass? Who can tell? All I do know is that the next new episode of Doctor Who is already in the can and awaits transmission on New Year’s Day. It is set to star the Daleks (so, I guess they weren’t entirely wiped out in this episode, then) and apparently involves some Groundhog Day-style shenanigans. I look forward to it. See you then.

Read his first, second, third, fourth and fifth episode reviews here