Doctor Who: Flux
Chapter Three – Once, Upon Time
(1 episode, s13e03, 2021)
A story that covers a lot of ground only to go full circle.
This chapter starts with a woman named Bel and her story in the aftermath of the Flux. On the run from Daleks, she’s trying to make sense of corruptions in time and space. As a swarm of blue particles consumes a pair of survivors she vows to find the one she loves.
Back at the Temple of Atropos, the Doctor tries to save Yaz and Vinder by pushing Dan on a pedestal as she leaps into the heart of the time storm. The others vanish as a Weeping Angel appears, then she’s swept away. A flashback follows to the Seige of Atropos where the four are commandos with the Doctor in charge.
Dan has his own vision where he gets coffee with Diane in Liverpool. Yaz has a similar vision where she’s on patrol with her police supervisor. Vinder has a vision where he receives an award and a promotion. All of them are aware of the irregularities in their scenarios as the Doctor flickers in and out.
The Doctor’s vision continues as her team infiltrates the Temple of Atropos in search of the Ravagers. She’s returned to the time storm where she stands before three giant Mouri. She’s returned to the temple where she discovers she’s reliving a moment from the Fugitive Doctor’s life. To save her friends, she needs to survive the encounter.
Dan ends up in tunnels where he encounters Joseph Williamson holding a laser weapon. After an encounter with the blue swarm, he returns to Liverpool where a vision of the Doctor tells him not to disappear while she tries to convince the Mouri to help.
Bel’s story continues after stealing a Lupari ship and flying to a new sector dominated by Cybermen. She consults a device called Tigmi before pushing onward.
Vinder’s memories continue as he serves the Grand Serpent. Yaz lives a memory of playing video games with Sonya, learns the truth of their predicament from the Doctor, and discovers that her timestream is being corrupted by the Weeping Angels.
At the Siege of Atropos, the Doctor faces the Ravagers (including Azure and an older version of Swarm). She learns about the Passengers – an endlessly large living prison with five of them holding hundreds of thousands of beings – and captures the Ravagers after they destroy two of the passengers. The Doctor reveals that one of the Passengers belongs to Division and contains the Mouri. The Doctor convinces the Mouri in the time storm to replicate the same infiltration.
Bel escapes from the planet but her ship is invaded by Cybermen. She narrowly survives by shooting all of them only to learn that all of the surviving villains are fighting for the scraps of the universe.
Vinder’s service to the Grand Serpent reveals that his commander is corrupt. When Vinder reports the Grand Serpent’s actions, he is exiled to Observation Outpost Rose. He is allowed to record only one message to his family.
The Doctor finishes her mission on Atropos, learning that one of her cohorts was Karvanista. She is swept to a station where she meets an old woman named Awsok who tells her that the Flux and Ravagers were introduced intentionally to destroy space and time. It was designed to stop the Doctor.
Yaz, Dan, Vinder, and the Doctor emerge in the modern-day temple as Mouri are restored. Swarm and Azure summon the blue Time Force particles and gloat that they have already won, taunting Dan with an image of Diane trapped in a Passenger. The villains teleport away and the team returns to the TARDIS, which Vinder easily recognizes.
Bel sits beside a campfire and listens to Vinder’s message. She promises to find Vinder and reunite him with his unborn child. Meanwhile, Vinder returns to his home planet and finds it ravaged by the Flux. He stays behind to search for Bel as the TARDIS moves on.
Peace on the TARDIS is shortlived, however, as a Weeping Angel appears on Yaz’s phone. It soon emerges and takes control of the ship.
The Angel has the TARDIS.
On the one hand, this story provides a ton of backstory for Vinder and the Doctor, particularly for the latter as a small slice of the Fugitive Doctor’s life is explained. It ties the Doctor to the temple and the Ravagers and provides a thread for the future about the Flux and its engineered impact on the universe. It also provides another plot thread as Bel searches for Vinder.
On the other hand, this chapter spins in a circle, ultimately going where Dan and Yaz went, which is nowhere. In fact, Dan and Yaz are effectively sidelined in safe pockets of time while the Doctor figures out a solution.
The story itself is the most chaotic of Flux so far, ping-ponging to and fro and ultimately resulting in a loss for our heroes. They didn’t achieve anything concerning saving the universe, though, to their credit, they did gain new information by following the path the enemy laid out.
It’s an interesting concept, but the execution felt frantic and anxious. Instead of ramping down at the end, it crashed to a halt with a cliffhanger. Thankfully, though, this intrusion into the TARDIS actually made sense since Yaz brought the Angel with her from the time storm.
Rating: 3/5 – “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”
UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Flux – Village of the Angels
The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.
