The first time I watched this I was nervous and had major doubts that it would bring the Flux story together but I still had some (naive) hopes that it could. I was sadly wrong to still have hope because Chibnall, in my opinion, crashed and burned the whole Flux story. For me, only Village of the Angels really stands up on rewatching it. That is a jewel amidst the mess of the rest of the story.
I felt utterly betrayed as a viewer having invested in the story only to find it didn't lead towards satisfying conclusions especially as I had defended Chibnall against criticism from other fans. Some fans were too extreme and prejudiced in their attacks on his era so I stand by my view that there was good stuff in Chibnall's era, that him and Jodie deserved a chance and did not deserve personal abuse. However, essentially I am sad to say there was a lot of truth in claims that his writing was not good enough.
This review is going to sound like an utterly negative rant I'm afraid but please bear in mind I always try to enjoy episodes, try to look for positives, try to be fair and open minded. Two episodes earlier I scored Chapter 4 as a 9.5/10 showing I was very open to appreciating quality when it appeared in this series and era. I gave this story an equally open minded chance but after due consideration this one is just one of my least favourite episodes ever, sorry.
I feel Chibnall tries to dazzle us with lots of tricksy editing together of complicated, supposedly epic storylines in Flux in an attempt to copy Moffatt's popular style. It actually worked for some fans who say Series 13 was Chibnall's best. They are entitled to that different taste but for me it is easily his worst and one of the 2 worst seasons of Doctor Who, just above Season 24 of the classic era thanks to Village of the Angels dragging up the average. I think it demonstrated Chibnall was out of his depth as showrunner.
It looks great, has good music, is well acted and has good effects. That is all it has, really, in my view.
I am very sorry to those who love it but I feel it all turns out to be lacking any substance or internal logic and has some utterly nonsensical content that leads the whole story to fall flat:
The Joseph Williamson story was all for no purpose. You could have had the whole Flux story without Williamson and it would not deduct even the slightest from the story. It would just reduce the needless confusion by removing one convoluted aspect.
The Vinder and Bel story also goes nowhere. They are just cipher characters to carry a pointless plot. Their journeys to find each other has no impact on any of the rest of the story. Theories were widespread that they must have significance, perhaps as the Timeless Child's parents or another mysterious importance. But no they just were two random add-on companions. Well why didn't Chibnall just split up the TARDIS team and give Yaz and Dan the roles taken by Bel and Vinder, trying to find each other and find the Doctor? Oh, I forgot, they DID get split from the Doctor and had a quest. So why do that same plot with 2 side characters as well and make it seem like it was leading to a revelation when it went nowhere? Giving Yaz and Dan more valuable character time would have made more sense than shoving in this whole needless arc. Giving Jericho and Claire, whose characters had more meaning and impact in the plot, more screentime instead of introducing Bel, Vinder and Di would have been better too I think.
The whole Flux threat gets solved by Di the museum guide! How does she have the scientific solution that the Doctor fails to see?! And it is a convenient easy deus ex machina getout anyway with no clever aspects and seemingly leaving most of the universe destroyed?! And why did the Ravagers even kidnap Di? How did it serve their plans? Everything Di said and did could again have been done by one of the more significant characters instead to better effect or she could have been a far better written character if they cut out lots of the excess messy plot threads and concentrated on making her story work.
The idea of Time as a powerful being is dumb, illogical, uninteresting and pointless to me. It is mind boggling to suggest that Time is a sentient power in battle with space and far too big an idea to just throw in casually before disappearing again. Why did Chibnall bother with this aspect?
The setup of Tecteun as a vital part of new lore is thrown away as she gets wiped out suddenly. All that build-up and apparent importance is gone in a moment with nothing resolved.
The setup of Swarm and Azure as powerful, menacing villains is equally thrown away by them also being wiped out suddenly. What a waste and why even have 2 of them. They ultimately were again just random elements with no satisfactory journey or destination.
The pocket watch of memories is literally thrown in the bin. The stories of the Timeless Child, Division, the Fugitive Doctor and the visions of a mysterious Lungbarrow type house just gets dismissed casually and left hanging. Why did he meddle with lore so controversially if he didn't have a plan to deliver a meaningful conclusion?
The Doctor being split into 3 makes no sense and is a total gimmick to make the Doctor be where she is needed. Another unnecessary element thrown in that adds to the messiness of it all. All the flitting around in timelines is for no purpose and is just confusion for the sake of it. Who are the Fugitive Doctor's companions? Why do people appear with the wrong faces? Just because, it seems!
The so called comedy scenes with Sontarans have some of the most cringe making, unfunny bits of dialogue ever in the show for my tastes. The Sontaran groaning "choc-o-late" as he is tempted to betray military secrets for candy is, perhaps, the lowest point of Doctor Who in my opinion. It is ridiculous and makes Horns of Nimon look like Shakespeare. Some may see it as a "bit of fun" but my kids didn't laugh or smile and I certainly didn't. It is just embarrassing.
The Sontarans look good and have an extremely powerful military presence that potentially made them great villains again but it all gets thrown away to use them as comedy stooges as if it is an episode of The Simpsons!
The Grand Serpent does nothing, wasting yet another large element of the build-up episodes and he is inexplicably dumped on a rock in space which, bizarrely, apparently has an atmosphere and gravity?! What?!
I hate being so negative about an episode of my beloved show. But honestly, on my second rewatch this dropped into the running to be one of the worst single episodes of Doctor Who ever for me because it is such a car crash of unfulfilled ideas. It is certainly in my bottom 3. It left Flux as a whole story feeling to me a totally ill-conceived mess and the lack of good endings spoiled my view of a lot of the previous 5 chapters. Really really sad.
My Rating: 3/10.
Series 13 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 6.
Overall Flux Story Average Rating: 4.75/10.
I felt utterly betrayed as a viewer having invested in the story only to find it didn't lead towards satisfying conclusions especially as I had defended Chibnall against criticism from other fans. Some fans were too extreme and prejudiced in their attacks on his era so I stand by my view that there was good stuff in Chibnall's era, that him and Jodie deserved a chance and did not deserve personal abuse. However, essentially I am sad to say there was a lot of truth in claims that his writing was not good enough.
This review is going to sound like an utterly negative rant I'm afraid but please bear in mind I always try to enjoy episodes, try to look for positives, try to be fair and open minded. Two episodes earlier I scored Chapter 4 as a 9.5/10 showing I was very open to appreciating quality when it appeared in this series and era. I gave this story an equally open minded chance but after due consideration this one is just one of my least favourite episodes ever, sorry.
I feel Chibnall tries to dazzle us with lots of tricksy editing together of complicated, supposedly epic storylines in Flux in an attempt to copy Moffatt's popular style. It actually worked for some fans who say Series 13 was Chibnall's best. They are entitled to that different taste but for me it is easily his worst and one of the 2 worst seasons of Doctor Who, just above Season 24 of the classic era thanks to Village of the Angels dragging up the average. I think it demonstrated Chibnall was out of his depth as showrunner.
It looks great, has good music, is well acted and has good effects. That is all it has, really, in my view.
I am very sorry to those who love it but I feel it all turns out to be lacking any substance or internal logic and has some utterly nonsensical content that leads the whole story to fall flat:
The Joseph Williamson story was all for no purpose. You could have had the whole Flux story without Williamson and it would not deduct even the slightest from the story. It would just reduce the needless confusion by removing one convoluted aspect.
The Vinder and Bel story also goes nowhere. They are just cipher characters to carry a pointless plot. Their journeys to find each other has no impact on any of the rest of the story. Theories were widespread that they must have significance, perhaps as the Timeless Child's parents or another mysterious importance. But no they just were two random add-on companions. Well why didn't Chibnall just split up the TARDIS team and give Yaz and Dan the roles taken by Bel and Vinder, trying to find each other and find the Doctor? Oh, I forgot, they DID get split from the Doctor and had a quest. So why do that same plot with 2 side characters as well and make it seem like it was leading to a revelation when it went nowhere? Giving Yaz and Dan more valuable character time would have made more sense than shoving in this whole needless arc. Giving Jericho and Claire, whose characters had more meaning and impact in the plot, more screentime instead of introducing Bel, Vinder and Di would have been better too I think.
The whole Flux threat gets solved by Di the museum guide! How does she have the scientific solution that the Doctor fails to see?! And it is a convenient easy deus ex machina getout anyway with no clever aspects and seemingly leaving most of the universe destroyed?! And why did the Ravagers even kidnap Di? How did it serve their plans? Everything Di said and did could again have been done by one of the more significant characters instead to better effect or she could have been a far better written character if they cut out lots of the excess messy plot threads and concentrated on making her story work.
The idea of Time as a powerful being is dumb, illogical, uninteresting and pointless to me. It is mind boggling to suggest that Time is a sentient power in battle with space and far too big an idea to just throw in casually before disappearing again. Why did Chibnall bother with this aspect?
The setup of Tecteun as a vital part of new lore is thrown away as she gets wiped out suddenly. All that build-up and apparent importance is gone in a moment with nothing resolved.
The setup of Swarm and Azure as powerful, menacing villains is equally thrown away by them also being wiped out suddenly. What a waste and why even have 2 of them. They ultimately were again just random elements with no satisfactory journey or destination.
The pocket watch of memories is literally thrown in the bin. The stories of the Timeless Child, Division, the Fugitive Doctor and the visions of a mysterious Lungbarrow type house just gets dismissed casually and left hanging. Why did he meddle with lore so controversially if he didn't have a plan to deliver a meaningful conclusion?
The Doctor being split into 3 makes no sense and is a total gimmick to make the Doctor be where she is needed. Another unnecessary element thrown in that adds to the messiness of it all. All the flitting around in timelines is for no purpose and is just confusion for the sake of it. Who are the Fugitive Doctor's companions? Why do people appear with the wrong faces? Just because, it seems!
The so called comedy scenes with Sontarans have some of the most cringe making, unfunny bits of dialogue ever in the show for my tastes. The Sontaran groaning "choc-o-late" as he is tempted to betray military secrets for candy is, perhaps, the lowest point of Doctor Who in my opinion. It is ridiculous and makes Horns of Nimon look like Shakespeare. Some may see it as a "bit of fun" but my kids didn't laugh or smile and I certainly didn't. It is just embarrassing.
The Sontarans look good and have an extremely powerful military presence that potentially made them great villains again but it all gets thrown away to use them as comedy stooges as if it is an episode of The Simpsons!
The Grand Serpent does nothing, wasting yet another large element of the build-up episodes and he is inexplicably dumped on a rock in space which, bizarrely, apparently has an atmosphere and gravity?! What?!
I hate being so negative about an episode of my beloved show. But honestly, on my second rewatch this dropped into the running to be one of the worst single episodes of Doctor Who ever for me because it is such a car crash of unfulfilled ideas. It is certainly in my bottom 3. It left Flux as a whole story feeling to me a totally ill-conceived mess and the lack of good endings spoiled my view of a lot of the previous 5 chapters. Really really sad.
My Rating: 3/10.
Series 13 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 6.
Overall Flux Story Average Rating: 4.75/10.