Doctor WhoBrought It All Together… For This?

Dr. Who ’s latest season hascome to an endwith the finish of Flux , a storyline that started off weird and found little footing as it continue these preceding six weeks . But while “ The Vanquishers ” did its damndest to enwrap things up nicely , its conclusion did little to show that this was an experiment deserving see .

Perhaps the most fascinating — and altogether damning — idea in “ The Vanquishers ” is that there wereso many lingering secret plan linesbuilt up over the last five sequence of Flux that the only direction to coherently address them all , and not turn this final hour of the season into a repeat of the first , was to literally split Jodie Whittaker ’s Doctor into three selves , and let her be involved with all the conflict of the hebdomad . First , she require to escape theclutches of Swarm and Azurein the Division base ; secondly , she necessitate to lay aside Earth from Sontaran occupation ( again ) ; and third , she needs to reunite with Yaz , Dan , and Professor Jericho , especially now that they ’ve discovered that the Williamson Tunnels and their Lord are a massive series of complect doorway across time and outer space .

This make for a merriment , and at least somewhat more clear path connect the disparate plot arcs of Flux than we ’ve previously gotten , because one of the rare highlights of this season has been Jodie Whittaker ’s performance as the Doctor . Her strong showings aid haul Flux ’s episodes to the finish line , albeit often in a shattered state of matter . But it also undoes whatever potential good will Flux had while itset up so manylingering question and arcs , because everything needs to be dealt with now , no matter our investment in it , so most of the patch argument just straight up hiss out .

The Doctor faces down all the threads of the Flux.

The Doctor faces down all the threads of the Flux.Image: BBC

Why did the Sontarans need to invade Earth ? Well that one ’s easy , they ’re Sontarans , it ’s what they do . Taking reward of the devastation of the Flux to draw the Cybermen and the Daleks to its final spot , play a joke on them into reciprocally assured destruction , would leave the Sontarans as the mightiest warrior leave behind in a existence that is … basically just Earth at this point , considering the Flux will have destroy everything else . Also , why is the Grand Serpent here ? We never really get to find out , and instead of the schoolmaster - contriver ally to the Sontarans we saw work up up last week , he mostly just gets to be very bad at torturing the Doctor until he ’s shoved into a time threshold never to return .

That ’s kind of the running game theme of “ The Vanquishers ” across these three major arcs — it would n’t be untrue to say that things are reason out , yes , but it would be very false to say they ’re reason out with a sense of satisfaction that wait six weeks for answers made worthwhile . Even the Flux itself is treat more as an divagation than the cosmos - ending threat it was ramp up up to this season , wet-nurse off into a Passenger form and just left as - is .

Adding another two versions of Jodie Whittaker into the mix to lick all these threads expands Doctor Who ’s roving cast of Hero — already bulked out by the addition of Jericho to Yaz and Dan — even more when Kate Stewart gets involved , and Joshua Willamson and the returning Claire — and makes for a compelling chance for Whittaker to have some fun literally with herself . But it also means that a raft of the story conclusion here is the Doctor explaining to everyone else what is going on , and then neatly wrapping up a plot ribbon by herself .

Image: BBC

There is a small moment where Yaz , Dan , and the Doctor reunite that is emotionally well craft , but it ’s immediately undone by the fact that they take the back seat to both the Doctor and this flesh out Team TARDIS , making it experience like there ’s little in the way of narrative satisfaction to their arc in Flux . Dan , at least , gets to have a nebular reunification with Di once she is freed from Azure ’s rider conformation prison house ( which … just happens by Vinder shooting a door ignition lock , making it feel otiose the Passengers were built up in the first place ) . Yaz in particular is entrust on the wayside as the three medico go about their business organisation of checklisting what still require to be addressed .

And when that checklist in the end catch to what should ’ve been the striking conclusion of Flux — the Doctor reclaim her Gallifreyan fobwatch fill with memories from her life well before William Hartnell stole a TARDIS and ran away — well … that just sort of ends too . Swarm and Azure , who drop much of the instalment torturing the Doctor by break in her apart and reconstituting her , hope to offer the Doctor up to Time itself , return the three of them to Atropos as the Flux is about to devour all the remnants of the universe of discourse . Time , attest as a serial publication of blue particles that then just become a transcript of Swarm ( thanks , Doctor Who budget ) , quickly chastises the duo for let the Doctor split herself across points in the timeline , making it impossible for Time to hoover her up as - is , and choose to or else “ ascend ” Swarm and Azure , disintegrating them . That ’s it . All the set up of why Swarm and Azure were doing what they were doing is cast aside as dim-witted vengeance for their imprisonment , there ’s no dramatic numeration , they just … abide there and shoot . And then Time manifests itself as The Doctor — because there were manifestly not enough Jodies Whittaker in the episode already — to basically say the Doctor that she ’s about to die , only to peace out when the Doctor starts intend about asking a dubiousness . Tune in next year !

This variety of nebulous , half - hearted swathe - up becomes most frustrating when the Doctor is left momentarily alone in the TARDIS at the ending of “ The Vanquishers . ” The day is saved , her Friend are back aboard the TARDIS , and she has the fob observe full of her old memories . The search for these retentiveness has repel so much of the Doctor ’s personal arc over the course of Flux , pushed her to emotionally dark places as the desperation to make love anything of her yesteryear made her heady and distant from the people close-fitting to her . But instead of reckoning with any of that , or even open us the Doctor reaching some kind of peace with not knowing , but having access to , her past , “ The Vanquishers ” sees her chow the watch chain watch into a trap on the TARDIS console , down into some impossibly removed part of the ship , unless she really wants to ascertain it in the hereafter . And that ’s it ! Flux ends there , yes , but it does n’t end . It ’s just much as it was for these past six episode : A sea of vamp to a weak conclusion that only run to more tease of what ’s to get on New Year ’s Day and beyond .

Image: BBC

Image: BBC

The big problem Flux had across its political campaign was to keep enough tale center on its bones to feed all the conflicts it created . We had old villains and exciting new one to research , the continuation of last time of year ’s major mystery , a Modern comrade , and a chance for an old one to build her arc . Instead of running with any of that , we got fleeting asides and half - chalk out estimation that looked like they would be explored , but just peter out out . Flux ’s most interesting dramatic evolution were either clip or give on the ‘ still - to - be - conclude ’ pile .

Time has fly the coop out for this time of year of Doctor Who to do anything about that , but there ’s still a New Year ’s special star Jodie Whittaker ’s Doctor that could help make this time of year feel like it was worth our time . Time will tell if Chibnallused those final hourswisely . In the here and now we ’re leave question if Flux was really deserving rive apart the universe .

Assorted Musings

So at the death of the installment as the Doctor say good-by to Claire and Kate , everyone ’s just … fine ? The Earth is fine ? The Universe is all right ? We did n’t get to see it restore , but we ’ve spent much of the last five episodes before this being tell apart that the Flux has , at this point , destroy almost the entirety of the universe . And it ’s just fine ! ! ! ! It was always plump to be , but I feel like Doctor Who should ’ve show us the population being made fine again . That ’s an important particular to show !

Speaking of authoritative details : what happened to the million of people immobilize in Azure ’s Passenger variant ? Di implied that the one she was being kept in was empty save for her until Vinder evidence up , and now it ’s full of the Flux itself , so I really trust there was no one inside it . But there were multiple Passengers , so I hope someone got those people out off - screen at some dot . Once again , an important contingent to show !

One of the most frustrating thing about this finale was Yaz feeling like she ’s been stuck in the same loop with the Doctor since she joined team TARDIS . After coming into her own last episode to show what she ’d find out , to end her and the Doctor ’s discharge with once again make a promise to countenance Yaz in just feels like a cyclical permissive waste — specially when Yaz cease up feeling like one of the most sidelined fibre of the sequence . Even Jericho gets more to do , thanks to his heroic sacrifice !

Image: BBC

Image: BBC

Shout out to pitiful Karvanista though , who get a substantial rough go of it here when we get to hear that not only did Division put a toxicant - releasing bomb in his principal should he ever talk to the Doctor about their past tense together , but that the Sontarans pull genocide to take control condition of the Lupari fleet ’s shield wall , pass on him all alone in the universe … until Vinder and Bel decide to hang out with him . If there ’s one thread from Flux we pick up on next year before Chibnall and Whittaker expiration the series , it ’d be nice to see those three again . Maybe we ’d actually get to find out what the Grand Serpent ’s muckle is !

Even when they ’re now slotting themselves into the “ custom ” ofshowing up for New Year ’s Day special — as you could see in the trailer for “ Eve of the Dalek ” below — did we really postulate the Daleks show up ? Or the Cybermen ? Feels like appearing for the rice beer of it , really . It does n’t really help that their appearance is hinge on the entire Sontaran stratagem , either , making them feel like an accessory excuse to work in the other classic monsters .

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Image: BBC