Who Review: Flux Chapter Three: Once, Upon Time

Sometime in the future, Flux-ravaged planets are facing invasion from a variety of claimants including Daleks and Cybermen. One survivor, Bel, records a message while on the run, dodging Daleks and bright blue bugs that appear to devour anything that moves in seconds. Meanwhile, the Doctor manages to insert herself and Dan into the places of Mouri in the Temple of Atropos just as Swarm snaps his fingers. Using her sonic screwdriver, the Doctor transports herself, Yaz, Dan, and Vinder into the time storm. She hopes that by inserting them into their own time streams she can hide them while she finds a way to try and save them and deal with Swarm, Azure, Passenger, and the Flux…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

Chapter three of Flux introduces us to Bel, a new character played by Northern Irish actor Thaddea Graham. As with much of the episode, her inclusion seems a bit random. In fact, unless you’re willing to stick with the chapter for a while, it all seems like a hot mess with the Doctor, Vinder, Dan, and Yaz appearing in each other’s time streams at odd points and in strange ways. Very weird, but that’s what happens when you mess with time, as the Doctor will discover.

For Dan, Vinder, and Bel, the scenes of them in their time streams afford opportunities for character exposition. We learn that Dan had been engaged at one point in his life. And we eventually discover that the message Vinder had been sending at the beginning of the first chapter was intended for Bel, who in turn has been recording a message for Vinder. He’s the one she’s trying to find.

Perhaps the biggest criticism I have of this episode is that you have to be invested enough in the show to pay close attention to what’s happening and keep track of who’s who, where, and when. This chapter does make sense if you do that, but given Who’s recent ratings I think it might be a bit optimistic of Chibbers to assume his audience of “oh, okay, I’ll give it one more shot” viewers won’t throw their hands up and change stations after ten minutes.

So, what on earth was going on?

The Bel storyline is fairly straightforward. She’s a survivor of the Flux trying to find her beloved (i.e., Vinder). Through flashbacks into the past, we learn that Vinder was a whistleblower and was banished to the outer reaches of the universe for his efforts. As for the Doctor, Dan, and Yaz, they are transported back in their timelines or versions of their timelines. In his Liverpool timeline, Dan goes on a date with Diane but then she gets taken by Passenger. Yaz plays a video game in her timeline but is interrupted by a Weeping Angel on the screen. She throws the game console on the floor to get rid of it. Earlier, Yaz was sitting in a police car in full uniform when she saw a Weeping Angel in the rearview mirror. So it seems the Angels are chasing her in her timelines.

Navigating the various timestreams, the Doctor assures her friends that they are hidden there for their safety. For some reason that doesn’t make sense to me, Dan, Vinder, and Yaz also make appearances in the Doctor’s timestream. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey?

The Doctor visits the Temple of Atropos in a past timestream of hers where she discovers she was working with the Division for some reason. And one of them, the one who looks like Dan, is a dog. While there, the Division deals with Swarm and Azure. The Doctor she sees in her past is the “Fugitive” Doctor–the pre-Hartnell Doctor introduced last season, which ended up giving us the Timeless Child retcon. Swarm has various “Passenger” vessels storing many life essences. The Fugitive Doctor has stored six Mouri priests in them which she releases. The current Doctor asks the Mouri to send four Mouri to her present time to save her friends, which they do.

However, the Doctor is then informed that the Flux was created because of her meddling in all these timestreams. The Doctor has to return to the present, but she wants to stay a little longer so she can discover more about her past self and what happened to her. Why can’t she remember this past life? Her protests are to no avail and she, along with Dan, Yaz, and Vinder arrive back in the present. This time, the Mouri from the past occupy the places where the Doctor’s friends had stood.

Before taking their leave, Swarm and Azure tell the Doctor that they were behind everything that happened, disrupting time just as the Flux had messed with space. The Doctor takes Vinder back to his home planet where he chooses to stay. Meanwhile, back in the TARDIS, a Weeping Angel has followed Yaz in her phone and has now manifested itself in the TARDIS, taking control of the ship…

Does that help? As I said, if you’re willing to engage with the story, it does make some sense. However, there’s really not a lot of story there. We can boil it down to the Doctor hiding her friends in their timestreams, then getting the Mouri to send replacements to the future, fixing the broken and missing Mouri, and restoring control to time. In the meantime, we learn some character backstory and get the setup for next week’s chapter.

The return of the Fugitive Doctor probably disappointed those who were hoping that Chibbers had dropped the whole Timeless Child storyline. No, no, no. The Doctor still wants to know about her past and is ready to risk her friends and the universe to find out more. This was probably the worst part of the story for me. It shows the Doctor to be self-centered in a way that is uncharacteristic, especially when she’s risking everything just to know herself better. Even if we accept the Timeless Child retcon, it doesn’t change anything about the present Doctor. The Doctor has been traveling the universe for nearly 60 years oblivious to her “true” past, and she can continue to do so completely ignoring this pointless rewriting of Who history. IT DOESN’T MATTER. Just let it go, Chibbers. Let it go.

To sum up, yes this was a weird story, but it does make sense if you squint a bit. We have some strands that will no doubt be picked up again (Vinter and Bel, Diane, the Doctor with the Division and, presumably, Karvanista at the Temple, and I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of Swarm and Azure), and we’re now on the edge of our seats to find out what this Weeping Angel could possibly want with the TARDIS. Not a terrible story, but probably the worst of the three so far.

Did you see this episode? What did you make of it? Let us know in the comments!