This is the start of the 6 part Flux story. Up to this point I had been a big defender of Chibnall and Jodie, begging other fans to give them a chance and look for positives. Sadly, this was where it went horribly wrong for me as Flux made me feel Chibnall was totally out of his depth and the significant flaws of his era were now getting worse not better. Ironically some fans find Flux fun and an improvement in its attempt to do Moffatt style spectacle and convoluted storytelling but in my view it failed badly.
I find the opening scene of the Doctor and Yaz trying to escape Karvanista embarrassing. I cringed all the way through it. Just silly nonsense. The only marginally funny bit (in a corny way) was the voice activation "release" working when the Doctor says "what a relief". The rest was dire.
The second scene with Joseph Williamson begins one of the many pointless threads of the story. The whole Williamson Tunnels subplot is not needed and scenes like this just add to the confusion for no gain.
The third scene with Dan and Di would be ok if the subplot of Di's involvement ended up being worthwhile but once you see all of series 13 you realise Di was just thrown into the mix without any sense behind the idea. It is great to include a good actor with a 'disability' but not if there is no logical reason for the character to be involved. It smacks of tokenism.
The fourth scene with Swarm escaping imprisonment is mostly great. Swarm is fascinating and looks good with clearly menacing power. But why is he suddenly able to escape after eons of imprisonment? And why wasn't this the opening scene? His "happy halloween Doctor" line was surely meant to lead into the opening titles. Why was the silly Karvanista scene chucked onto the start? But also, why does an alien from another world recognise that the time travelling Doctor is going to be experiencing Halloween? Lol. Despite these reservations, the scene of Swarm escaping is a plus point of the episode.
The leaking TARDIS aspect is totally weird and is never really explained.
John Bishop quickly establishes Dan as a good hearted guy and a potentially good companion. But the scene with the adult trick or treater is a waste of time with no point and I didn't find it funny. The rest of his introduction is fine.
Karvanista's appearance scene with Dan has a bit of decent humour but is pretty daft and the design of Karvanista looking like a dog (like a second rate Chewbacca or a bipedal version of Dagget from Battlestar Galactica) is not a great idea in my opinion. Neither is Karvanista leaving a laptop behind and shrinking Dan's house. Just done for show. Not a big negative but this all adds nothing for me.
Why does Karvanista kidnap Dan anyway? If the plan is to protect Earth/humanity then kidnapping one human at a time (with some difficulty) is an unconvincing plan.
What is the point of Azure being hidden as a human in a research facility? This goes nowhere and has no purpose.
These are all early signs of the hot mess of half-baked ideas that characterise almost all of the Flux story.
The only good bits in the first 25 minutes are Swarm seeming an intriguing and menacing villain and Dan being a decent new companion.
The next good addition is Claire (very well acted by Annabel Scholey) and her intriguing introduction which leads to the only bit of Flux that ends up being brilliant - Village of the Angels. After another clunky scene of dialogue between the Doctor and Yaz we get a great, chilling scene of a Weeping Angel attacking Claire which adds more mystery and a real thrill. The way Chibnall uses Weeping Angels this series is better, in my view, than they were used in most Moffatt era encounters and this is the one big plus of Series 13.
Then we get the introduction of Vinder. He is well acted but by the end of Flux we we see there isn't any reason for his inclusion in the story. Him and Bel are just randoms.
We see visually impressive scenes of the Flux phenomenon which ultimately (in Chapter 6) turns out to be a throwaway threat with an inadequate resolution so the whole Flux threat feels weak when rewatching.
We then get further unimpressive scenes of Azure being inexplicably converted back from a human plus the Doctor talking mumbo jumbo to Yaz and confronting Karvanista in a way that attempts to go for comedy rather than drama.
Vinder tries to escape the Flux and Dan is rescued and then yet another thread is thrown into the mix as Sontarans prepare for an attack. The new retro look of the Sontaran design is good and at this stage it appears they will be a strong adversary. Sadly later in Flux the Sontarans are turned into a joke even more than they were in Moffatt's era.
The final scenes are a mix of good and bad. Good bits of dramatic cliffhanger elements are provided with the Flux threatening the TARDIS and Swarm threatening the Doctor. However, Azure taking Di is weird and has no logical reason. Meanwhile, the Doctor's split-second ability to formulate a plan of creating a magically perfectly fitting barrier of conveniently, and inexplicably Flux immune, Lupari ships is just silly.
The one bit of this which stands up really well on rewatch are the Angel scenes with Claire which are superb. There is also a suitably dramatic bit of setup for the next episode which feels quite epic so I will give credit for that too.
I must also praise the decent acting, great music, great visual effects and filmic quality look of it all.
Story-wise, though, it is a jumble of what mostly turns out to be nonsense. So, although it had some potential on first viewing, it ends up very disappointing for me when rewatching with knowledge of how it all ends. All style and no substance.
My rating: 4.5/10.
Series 13 Episode Ranking: 3rd out of 6.
I find the opening scene of the Doctor and Yaz trying to escape Karvanista embarrassing. I cringed all the way through it. Just silly nonsense. The only marginally funny bit (in a corny way) was the voice activation "release" working when the Doctor says "what a relief". The rest was dire.
The second scene with Joseph Williamson begins one of the many pointless threads of the story. The whole Williamson Tunnels subplot is not needed and scenes like this just add to the confusion for no gain.
The third scene with Dan and Di would be ok if the subplot of Di's involvement ended up being worthwhile but once you see all of series 13 you realise Di was just thrown into the mix without any sense behind the idea. It is great to include a good actor with a 'disability' but not if there is no logical reason for the character to be involved. It smacks of tokenism.
The fourth scene with Swarm escaping imprisonment is mostly great. Swarm is fascinating and looks good with clearly menacing power. But why is he suddenly able to escape after eons of imprisonment? And why wasn't this the opening scene? His "happy halloween Doctor" line was surely meant to lead into the opening titles. Why was the silly Karvanista scene chucked onto the start? But also, why does an alien from another world recognise that the time travelling Doctor is going to be experiencing Halloween? Lol. Despite these reservations, the scene of Swarm escaping is a plus point of the episode.
The leaking TARDIS aspect is totally weird and is never really explained.
John Bishop quickly establishes Dan as a good hearted guy and a potentially good companion. But the scene with the adult trick or treater is a waste of time with no point and I didn't find it funny. The rest of his introduction is fine.
Karvanista's appearance scene with Dan has a bit of decent humour but is pretty daft and the design of Karvanista looking like a dog (like a second rate Chewbacca or a bipedal version of Dagget from Battlestar Galactica) is not a great idea in my opinion. Neither is Karvanista leaving a laptop behind and shrinking Dan's house. Just done for show. Not a big negative but this all adds nothing for me.
Why does Karvanista kidnap Dan anyway? If the plan is to protect Earth/humanity then kidnapping one human at a time (with some difficulty) is an unconvincing plan.
What is the point of Azure being hidden as a human in a research facility? This goes nowhere and has no purpose.
These are all early signs of the hot mess of half-baked ideas that characterise almost all of the Flux story.
The only good bits in the first 25 minutes are Swarm seeming an intriguing and menacing villain and Dan being a decent new companion.
The next good addition is Claire (very well acted by Annabel Scholey) and her intriguing introduction which leads to the only bit of Flux that ends up being brilliant - Village of the Angels. After another clunky scene of dialogue between the Doctor and Yaz we get a great, chilling scene of a Weeping Angel attacking Claire which adds more mystery and a real thrill. The way Chibnall uses Weeping Angels this series is better, in my view, than they were used in most Moffatt era encounters and this is the one big plus of Series 13.
Then we get the introduction of Vinder. He is well acted but by the end of Flux we we see there isn't any reason for his inclusion in the story. Him and Bel are just randoms.
We see visually impressive scenes of the Flux phenomenon which ultimately (in Chapter 6) turns out to be a throwaway threat with an inadequate resolution so the whole Flux threat feels weak when rewatching.
We then get further unimpressive scenes of Azure being inexplicably converted back from a human plus the Doctor talking mumbo jumbo to Yaz and confronting Karvanista in a way that attempts to go for comedy rather than drama.
Vinder tries to escape the Flux and Dan is rescued and then yet another thread is thrown into the mix as Sontarans prepare for an attack. The new retro look of the Sontaran design is good and at this stage it appears they will be a strong adversary. Sadly later in Flux the Sontarans are turned into a joke even more than they were in Moffatt's era.
The final scenes are a mix of good and bad. Good bits of dramatic cliffhanger elements are provided with the Flux threatening the TARDIS and Swarm threatening the Doctor. However, Azure taking Di is weird and has no logical reason. Meanwhile, the Doctor's split-second ability to formulate a plan of creating a magically perfectly fitting barrier of conveniently, and inexplicably Flux immune, Lupari ships is just silly.
The one bit of this which stands up really well on rewatch are the Angel scenes with Claire which are superb. There is also a suitably dramatic bit of setup for the next episode which feels quite epic so I will give credit for that too.
I must also praise the decent acting, great music, great visual effects and filmic quality look of it all.
Story-wise, though, it is a jumble of what mostly turns out to be nonsense. So, although it had some potential on first viewing, it ends up very disappointing for me when rewatching with knowledge of how it all ends. All style and no substance.
My rating: 4.5/10.
Series 13 Episode Ranking: 3rd out of 6.