Doctor Who

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

Published

5 years ago

November 30, 2021

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Things Still In Flux

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

Writer: Chris Chibnall
Director: Azhur Saleem
Chapter Five: Survivors of the Flux

I love it when a story comes together, and this week’s episode felt like the series-long story was finally coalescing – just as well, too, since the whole thing is (hopefully) set to wrap up next week! When presented with the difficulties, and increased production costs, of filming a new season of Doctor Who in the time of Covid, showrunner Chris Chibnall elected to lean into the tumult and craft a massive overarching narrative that, while still split into standard (post-2005) length episodes, unified the series into a single story. It was a gutsy approach that necessitated juggling the competing needs of single-episode tales and longer-term storytelling, but it seems to be paying off.

Picking up from last week’s cliffhanger, The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) was apparently not transformed into a Weeping Angel, but rather was merely made to look like one as she was quantum-locked for transport outside of the universe and into the clutches of her adopted mother, Tecteun (Barbara Flynn) and her faithful servant Ood. It’s old Tecteun that is apparently behind the destructive Flux, and apparently her plan to destroy the old Doctor Who universe and replace it with universes more to her liking. She’s also recently taken personal control of the Time Lord temporal intervention agency, the Division or, as it seems to be now, simply Division.

Tecteun really looked set to be a bigger baddie than Rassilon, Omega and the Master combined. Time Lord society is, apparently, chock full of terrible people. (Maybe Time Lord malevolence is more of a feature than a bug?) It’s a pity that she appears to have been so swiftly despatched by Swarm (Sam Spruell) and Azure (Rochenda Sandall) before the credits roll. Part of me hopes we haven’t seen the last of her, but does the show really need something as mundane as an ongoing tense adoptive mother/child relationship? This feels like something that really jars with the sense of mystery that has haunted the show’s protagonist for the past 58 years.

And on the subject of Swarm and Azure, it seems the gruesome twosome are harvesting flux survivors for their spatial/temporal energy as a weapon against Division. Is it just me or does it seem like the temporal compression caused by the Flux might have been at least partially responsible for weakening Swarm’s prison, enabling him to escape back in part one? If so, Division might not exactly be ready for the Premier League…

Away from the Doctor, Team TARDIS is trotting the globe in the early 20^th century, with Yaz (Mandip Gill), the longest-serving companion at this point, taking on more of a surrogate Doctor role. Her police experience and willingness to embrace a leadership role is a large part of what makes her my favourite companion of recent years (although she does seem to be a little bit too eager to surreptitiously dispose of the body of a would-be assassin.) Dan (John Bishop) and Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) are both enjoyable and entertaining presences – I really hope nothing bad happens to them before the season is out. It does seem like the Williamson (Time) Tunnels are destined to help the gang reunite with the Doctor next week.

And then we come to the U.N.I.T stuff. Again, Chibnall seems set on upsetting the apple cart of what we think we know about the organisation, weaving the malevolent presence of the alien known as the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson) into its origin story ahead of the reintroduction of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and an imminent Sontaran invasion. It’s fun just as-long-as you aren’t too invested into the precise ins and outs of exactly when the various U.N.I.T are supposed to take place. If it is any help, I have an ominous feeling that the Flux is about to hit a big reset button/some kind of temporal decompression event, that will render much of this discussion moot anyway. We shall see.

Elsewhere Vinder (Jacob Anderson) gets swept up into a Passenger prison, like a big idiot while his life-partner Bel (Thaddea Graham) gets herself into a fight with Karvanista (Craige Els Craige Els) as her stolen ship is dragged into the Lupari defence of Earth. Something I don’t give the show enough credit for is how spectacular the visual effects are these days, particularly when it comes to the spaceships. They are absolutely gorgeous. Very expensive too, no doubt, which is why we see them so infrequently, probably.

The stage seems set for an epic and visually stunning confrontation next week with the Sontarans taking on all comers while Swarm and Azure put the final elements of their plan into action. There is an element of a card trick to writing Doctor Who. You need to know where all the major characters/vehicles are supposed to be at any given moment for the acts of misdirection to have any real effect. As such, it is worth noting that the current Doctor’s TARDIS appears to be in U.N.I.T hedquarters where it will likely play a key role in next week’s series finale. We also have a lot more revelations about the Doctor’s past to come, a foreboding Chameleon Arch, and perhaps some more of Jo Martin’s wonderful Fugitive Doctor. And then just beyond this series’ finale we have the new year episode. How closely will it all be connected? I suspect only time will tell. See you next week.

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