As Doctor Who Flux reaches its halfway point, we are no closer to knowing what’s going on. But we’re at least better informed. Much like the series premiere, “The Halloween Apocalypse,” “Once, Upon Time” jumps around and introduces us to new characters and plot points. It doesn’t do much to answer any questions, but it may help ask the right ones.
After two episodes, you may have begun to think you may understand what was going on with The Flux. Well, showrunner and episode writer Chris Chibnall sets you back a step or two by starting this episode by ignoring last week’s cliffhanger. Instead, we start with a completely new character, Bel (Thaddea Graham). Bel narrates her story as a letter to some unknown person she is looking for, in a universe devastated by the Flux. In this post-apocalyptic remnant, survivors are hunted by Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans, and other forces warring over the scraps of reality. And if that wasn’t enough, there is also a strange phenomenon that flits about consuming everything in its path. Like the flux, but on a smaller scale, and just as devastating to whatever it touches.
And just as we start to engage in this new storyline, we suddenly find ourselves back with the Doctor, with Yaz, Dan, and Vinder. Snatched from certain death, the Doctor finds them all floating in the timestream. Then, one by one, they get spirited away. And like us, they find themselves confused, reliving moments in their past. Moments that are slightly altered by the presence of one or more of the others in places they couldn’t have been. The Doctor realizes it’s the Mouri who’s been hiding her friends in their own timelines. Hiding them in plain sight, where they are supposed to be.
The memories seem random at first. But perhaps not. Vinder’s memories in particular help give us a better understanding of who he is and how he got to where we met him back in Part One. His memory is different because Yaz has stepped into the role of his commander, but only partially and with no clear reason why. Dan relives memories of his friend Diane (Remember her? She was kidnapped by the Ravagers back in Part 1.) Yaz remembers hanging out with her sister and being a copper. But the Doctor pops in briefly replacing her sister and coworker, trying to let her know what’s going on. But the Doctor isn’t the only strange thing in her memories. A weeping angel also appears.
The Doctor finds herself in a memory she doesn’t know. It quickly becomes apparent this memory comes from one of her forgotten ‘Timeless’ lives. Even though she finds herself with her friends Yaz, Dan and Vinder, she is not with them. Like Yaz in Vinder’s memory, they are actually other people and not her companions. Where and when is she? Well, it seems like she is still on Atropos fighting the Ravages, Swarm, and Azure. But this is not the Doctor’s memory but that of the Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin), who is acting as an agent of the mysterious Division.
These glimpses into her lost past help the Doctor figure out what she has to do to defeat Swarm. However, they also raise more questions for her. She needs to know more and begs the Mouri to let her see more of her lost past. They refuse and send her back to the present, but the Doctor doesn’t go back directly. She finds herself confronted by a strange woman. (We don’t even get a name, until the credits, Aswok, played by veteran actress Barbara Flynn.) This woman knows the Doctor and everything that is happening. She tells the Doctor that everything is ending because of her. The Flux, the Ravages… it is all because of the Doctor.
Ok – so what does all this mean?
By the end of the episode, we do get a few answers. We find out who Bel is and what she is looking for. We also know now that Flux is not a random force of nature. It is a coordinated attack on reality. But why? That’s the question. Why does the universe have to end? What or who is Aswok? Is she part of Division? Why did the Ravages take Diane? What is up with Swarm? Why does he look so different in his past but Azure is the same? Did he regenerate? Are they connected to the Timeless too?
Halfway through the story and we still have way more questions than answers. I am finding myself worried that we may not get all the answers we want by the end of this season. If that happens, it may take through the planned 2022 specials and the regeneration to the 14th Doctor before we know everything. And that might be dragging this arc out longer than it deserves to go.
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Next time on Doctor Who – The Angels Have The Phonebox… Again
Doctor Who Flux Part Four: The Village of the Angels airs Sunday, November 21, on BBC America and The BBC.
