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Forgive me, a lot of this is very stream-of consciousness, but it’s all I’ve managed to put together while my son and I have rewatched the end of Thirteen’s run in an effort to actually remember what happened before we transition into the new series on Saturday!
I enjoyed Flux a LOT more this second time round. I think a lot of that was due to feeling less overwhelmed by the complicated storylines and manic pace of it all – partly because this time we watched the episodes in fairly quick succession (apart from a week out while we were performing at the theatre every night) and partly because I’m a lot less overwhelmed in general now. When this originally aired in late 2021, I was beyond exhausted from 18 months of pandemic stress, my dad’s declining health and eventual death in early 2021, stress about my mum wearing herself out looking after my dad and then of course getting over his death… It was not a good time for me. Now isn’t really much better, since I’m now going through a divorce, but I seem to have a lot more brainspace to process things than I did then!
Below are my thoughts as I noted them after each episode.
One general thought about the Lupari: whilst I really enjoyed Karvanista himself, I thought the whole idea of the Lupari really silly. An entire race who just happens to have exactly the same number of (adult?) population as the Earth, and one spaceship each, who for some unknown reason have made it their purpose to protect humans? Why? Why not take more than one human on each ship, as they seemed quite spacious? If they each took one human to evacuate, what did they do about conjoined twins? How did they know exactly how many humans were going to be on Earth when they were needed? How did they know their ships would fit together exactly as a shield around the Earth, considering I believe the original plan was to evacuate the humans?
And where are their children? Are they now orphans? Were they on the ships, each with one of their parents? Or perhaps they’re a clone race like the Sontarans?
So many questions. It bugs me. I did like Karvanista though, and hope he pops up again one day.
Anyway, back to my thoughts recorded after each episode…
13.1 The Halloween Apocalypse
20 October 2023 (2nd viewing)
Just begun our first rewatch of Flux on our attempt to catch up with rewatching the whole of Thirteen’s run before the 60ths anniversary trilogy begins on 11 November!
I believe I watched this episode twice in 2021 but I don’t seem to have any notes for it. But that indicates I found it interesting enough to rewatch before the second episode. Or perhaps it was just that it was so jam-packed with *stuff* that I had to rewatch to try and make sense of it?
Still didn’t manage to make a lot of sense this time given that we haven’t rewatched any of the rest of it at all in the last two years since it aired, but at least I’m vaguely aware of some of it, like Karvanista being from the Division, and Claire being in the episode with Weeping Angels. I’d also completely forgotten Vinder existed.
But anyway, despite still feeling hit over the head by too many apparently unconnected storylines, we did rather enjoy it this time. I’m definitely finding that going into every episode with really low expectations leaves plenty of room for being pleasantly surprised…
13.2 War of the Sontarans
7 October 2021 (notes from 1st viewing here: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/370990.html)
Nothing to add except that I still enjoyed this second time around.
13.3 Once, Upon Time
31 October 2023 (2nd viewing)
This one is where I feel Flux started to fall apart.
At least it made more sense on second viewing, now I knew that our main cast were filling in for the original characters, although I don’t really understand why, in-story at least. From outside, it’s obvious – to stop us realising too soon that the Doctor was actually the Jo Martin Doctor, and Dan was actually Karvanista, and from having to show us who Yaz and Vinder actually were. That reveal was actually kind of cool, and to my mind by far the best bit of the episode.
But I felt this episode could have been so much more! It should have been a really interesting look into the characters’ lives, expanding on their characters, and it was for the Doctor (and obviously her story provided the solution for the current story), but the rest? Dan, I don’t feel it really told us much we didn’t already know. Vinder, okay, useful expansion on his character, but the whole Grand Serpent story could have been got through much faster. As for Yaz, what did any of that tell us? Nothing new, except the mystery of the Weeping Angel coming after her.
Oh, and Bel. Darned cute, but what is the point of her? Oh, according to TARDIS wiki, “Bel's storyline in the episode also highlights the Flux's impact on the wider universe, with many worlds overtaken, and provides an anchor for the audience to understand what the Great Disruption has done to local time.” I really didn’t get that. Apparently this time distortion thing that Swarm and Azure started was also responsible for the time issues with the Sontarans in the last episode, and for the TARDIS having problems and oozing black stuff.
So I don’t know, this episode wasn’t terrible, but I just felt that if it was going to whizz around like that being so confusing, it could have been a lot tighter and done a lot more with what it had? Stopped wasting so much time on unimportant stuff and instead made it clearer what the cause and effect of things were.
13.4 Village of the Angels
12 November 2023 (2nd viewing)
I enjoyed this more, I think, than the first time round, even though I remember that the amazing cliffhanger with the Doctor turning into an Angel doesn’t pay off. (I seriously can’t remember any more than that feeling of disappointment, and I don’t appear to have made any notes.)
I liked Claire and I liked Jericho, and the episode was quite enjoyable – nice to see the Angels being more of their traditional threat than they were in the various Eleventh Doctor stories.
Apparently the Angels arrived via meteorite in 1901.
13.5 Survivors of the Flux
14 November 2023 (2nd viewing)
Literally the only thing I remembered about this episode was that the cliffhanger of the Doctor becoming an Angel was a misdirection and that she didn’t stay an Angel for long. Oh, and that Yaz and Dan and Jericho spent a long time in the early 20th century. I have to say, I loved their adventures and would be quite happy to see more of them. Perhaps Disney Plus could do a spin-off of this?
As for the rest, the Doctor and Tecteun – well. Barbara Flynn, yay, because she’s always cool, ever since Beiderbecke. But otherwise pretty meh. Same goes for Vinder, Swarm and Azure, and for the Grand Serpent/UNIT stories. I assume we’ll learn what the Grand Serpent had planned next episode, because I’m darned if I can remember! Something to do with Sontarans, presumably, going by the trailer…
Also, presumably, the Grand Serpent is a time-traveller? Unless he’s somehow been displaced by the time shenanigans that were apparently instigated by Azure and Swarm?
Note: according to TARDIS Wiki, the photo of a building in the early UNIT scenes was Holly Tree Lodge, the orphanage Clem came from in TW Children of Earth.
I have to say, the whole idea of Tecteun destroying the universe just because the Doctor might save it (instead of, say, destroying the DOCTOR) seems more than a little ridiculous.
Another note: Tecteun does actually confirm here that it is the Doctor who was the Timeless Child. So it’s not just the Master playing with her…
Another other note: why did the Doctor tell Yaz (via a hologram left in her pocket that would reactivate after 2 weeks) to look for the date when the world would end, and does this actually get resolved? Also why did the hermit in Nepal tell them to fetch their dog, leading them to paint a huge sign to Karvanista telling him to get them in 1904? Does he have time-travel?
Note: Den of Geek: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who-flux-episode-5-review-survivors-of-the-flux/ - "The question is – why? We’ve established that getting home again isn’t Yaz’s main concern; they’re looking for information regarding future events because that’s what the Doctor told her to do. And as Karvanista himself complains, he hasn’t got a time machine, so the entire ‘find the prophecy’ sub-plot just kind of… fizzles out. It feels like a remnant of an earlier draft where the companions really were just searching for a way to get back to the 21st century, rather than for information, which would have ultimately led them organically to Joseph Williamson’s time tunnels.
As it is, Williamson himself has to randomly wander into Yaz’s cabin for their story to suddenly spin off in a completely different direction. We don’t even find out who was trying to kill them, although my money’s on the Grand Serpent. It’s a shame, because the characters had so much more agency this episode, some good jokes, and Kevin McNally fits in so well he could shine as a full-time companion."
13.6 The Vanquishers
16 November 2023 (2nd viewing)
That wasn’t actually bad. Enjoyable at least whilst watching, even if I felt a little caught up in a whirlwind. The whole series would have been so much better if it had been spread over a few more episodes and allowed to breathe.
The three Doctors things was interesting and entertaining, although there seemed no point once two of the Doctors were in the same place, unless it was a deliberate call-back to Journey’s End.
Diane was awesome. Claire was pretty cool as well, and so was Jericho. I felt bad for Jericho going like that, though at least after all that he felt was worth it.
Vinder and Bel were kind of cute (even if I still don’t understand what, exactly Bel’s Tamagotchi thing is – the consciousness of her baby? An AI childminder?).
I also liked Yaz and the Doctor’s reunion. I liked that the Doctor actually realised how strong Yaz had been and actually *saw* her.
One thing I did note is that, considering that Flux was filmed between November 2020 and August 2021 (just about the most locked-down period of COVID after the initial lockdowns), on rewatch I didn’t notice any oddness to the filming, no obvious spaces left between people or anything. Thinking about it, there were a LOT of scenes with only a couple of characters, and mainly on sets rather than location, but there were also some big crowd scenes like the Crimean episode (apparently shot in November 2020) and Bel not getting put into a Passenger. This, at least, was well disguised.
Now to the negatives.
The biggest mis-step, I feel, was the Sontaran general telling Karvanista that he’d just killed all the Lupari. There was absolutely no drama to that moment at all. No build-up, no tension, no shots of other Lupari looking worried (have we even seen any other Lupari?) or even of Karvanista looking worried. And thus absolutely no dramatic pay-off. It didn’t lead to Karvanista taking any kind of action. In fact, he seemed remarkably okay with it all.
Also, how was there daylight on Earth when the Lupari ships were completely enclosing it?
What was the point of the Grand Serpent?
And how was the Doctor okay with letting the Flux destroy all the Sontarans? And, um. What happened to the rest of the universe? Did they somehow manage to rewind it, as Azure was planning to do (her plan being to end the universe and then rewind to watch it all over again and again and again)? I assume this is something that got left out due to the number of episodes being condensed but it’s a kind of important something that really should have been left in!
Postscript: someone on one of my DW Facebook groups said the Doctor managed to get the Flux sucked into the Passenger just at the moment where Swarm and Azure where rewinding it all to enjoy it all over again. I have to say I did not notice this at all but it would at least make the best sense of why no-one seems concerned that the rest of the universe isn’t there any more…
13.7 – Eve of the Daleks (2022 NY Special)
My original review here still stands: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/372237.html
13.08 – Legend of the Sea Devils (2022 Easter Special)
2nd viewing 23/11/2023
Thought this was just as crap as the first time round. Mainly because it just *looked* so fake, and I say this as someone who normally really doesn’t care about special effects. Perhaps because it’s all so HD these days, it’s more noticeable? But it kept on throwing me out of the story by how dreadful it looked – the sky in what was obviously studio scenes, the Sea Devils (honestly they looked better in the original 1970s serial!), the fight scene on the ship (ditto), and just generally it felt really awkward. I vaguely remember seeing a comment that the awkwardness was due to social distancing etc. when filming but I didn’t notice any of that in Flux!
I did actually enjoy some of it. Some of it felt like a proper rollicking Doctor Who adventure, and I actually liked Jodie more in this, and Yaz too. I liked their dynamic together, until the Doctor started talking about not being able to be fixed to anyone and then I just wanted Yaz to say, to hell with that and grab what she could have had like Rose would have done/did! Dan was cool too, and Madame Ching definitely so.
The only episode left is Power of the Doctor and we’ve run out of time to watch that again before Saturday, but at least we watched that twice and I have a few notes already posted in my insta-reaction here: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/375060.html. I did make some other notes which I might try and put into some kind of order at some point… we’ll see. If not, here’s looking forward to Saturday and the Fourteenth Doctor!
I enjoyed Flux a LOT more this second time round. I think a lot of that was due to feeling less overwhelmed by the complicated storylines and manic pace of it all – partly because this time we watched the episodes in fairly quick succession (apart from a week out while we were performing at the theatre every night) and partly because I’m a lot less overwhelmed in general now. When this originally aired in late 2021, I was beyond exhausted from 18 months of pandemic stress, my dad’s declining health and eventual death in early 2021, stress about my mum wearing herself out looking after my dad and then of course getting over his death… It was not a good time for me. Now isn’t really much better, since I’m now going through a divorce, but I seem to have a lot more brainspace to process things than I did then!
Below are my thoughts as I noted them after each episode.
One general thought about the Lupari: whilst I really enjoyed Karvanista himself, I thought the whole idea of the Lupari really silly. An entire race who just happens to have exactly the same number of (adult?) population as the Earth, and one spaceship each, who for some unknown reason have made it their purpose to protect humans? Why? Why not take more than one human on each ship, as they seemed quite spacious? If they each took one human to evacuate, what did they do about conjoined twins? How did they know exactly how many humans were going to be on Earth when they were needed? How did they know their ships would fit together exactly as a shield around the Earth, considering I believe the original plan was to evacuate the humans?
And where are their children? Are they now orphans? Were they on the ships, each with one of their parents? Or perhaps they’re a clone race like the Sontarans?
So many questions. It bugs me. I did like Karvanista though, and hope he pops up again one day.
Anyway, back to my thoughts recorded after each episode…
13.1 The Halloween Apocalypse
20 October 2023 (2nd viewing)
Just begun our first rewatch of Flux on our attempt to catch up with rewatching the whole of Thirteen’s run before the 60ths anniversary trilogy begins on 11 November!
I believe I watched this episode twice in 2021 but I don’t seem to have any notes for it. But that indicates I found it interesting enough to rewatch before the second episode. Or perhaps it was just that it was so jam-packed with *stuff* that I had to rewatch to try and make sense of it?
Still didn’t manage to make a lot of sense this time given that we haven’t rewatched any of the rest of it at all in the last two years since it aired, but at least I’m vaguely aware of some of it, like Karvanista being from the Division, and Claire being in the episode with Weeping Angels. I’d also completely forgotten Vinder existed.
But anyway, despite still feeling hit over the head by too many apparently unconnected storylines, we did rather enjoy it this time. I’m definitely finding that going into every episode with really low expectations leaves plenty of room for being pleasantly surprised…
13.2 War of the Sontarans
7 October 2021 (notes from 1st viewing here: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/370990.html)
Nothing to add except that I still enjoyed this second time around.
13.3 Once, Upon Time
31 October 2023 (2nd viewing)
This one is where I feel Flux started to fall apart.
At least it made more sense on second viewing, now I knew that our main cast were filling in for the original characters, although I don’t really understand why, in-story at least. From outside, it’s obvious – to stop us realising too soon that the Doctor was actually the Jo Martin Doctor, and Dan was actually Karvanista, and from having to show us who Yaz and Vinder actually were. That reveal was actually kind of cool, and to my mind by far the best bit of the episode.
But I felt this episode could have been so much more! It should have been a really interesting look into the characters’ lives, expanding on their characters, and it was for the Doctor (and obviously her story provided the solution for the current story), but the rest? Dan, I don’t feel it really told us much we didn’t already know. Vinder, okay, useful expansion on his character, but the whole Grand Serpent story could have been got through much faster. As for Yaz, what did any of that tell us? Nothing new, except the mystery of the Weeping Angel coming after her.
Oh, and Bel. Darned cute, but what is the point of her? Oh, according to TARDIS wiki, “Bel's storyline in the episode also highlights the Flux's impact on the wider universe, with many worlds overtaken, and provides an anchor for the audience to understand what the Great Disruption has done to local time.” I really didn’t get that. Apparently this time distortion thing that Swarm and Azure started was also responsible for the time issues with the Sontarans in the last episode, and for the TARDIS having problems and oozing black stuff.
So I don’t know, this episode wasn’t terrible, but I just felt that if it was going to whizz around like that being so confusing, it could have been a lot tighter and done a lot more with what it had? Stopped wasting so much time on unimportant stuff and instead made it clearer what the cause and effect of things were.
13.4 Village of the Angels
12 November 2023 (2nd viewing)
I enjoyed this more, I think, than the first time round, even though I remember that the amazing cliffhanger with the Doctor turning into an Angel doesn’t pay off. (I seriously can’t remember any more than that feeling of disappointment, and I don’t appear to have made any notes.)
I liked Claire and I liked Jericho, and the episode was quite enjoyable – nice to see the Angels being more of their traditional threat than they were in the various Eleventh Doctor stories.
Apparently the Angels arrived via meteorite in 1901.
13.5 Survivors of the Flux
14 November 2023 (2nd viewing)
Literally the only thing I remembered about this episode was that the cliffhanger of the Doctor becoming an Angel was a misdirection and that she didn’t stay an Angel for long. Oh, and that Yaz and Dan and Jericho spent a long time in the early 20th century. I have to say, I loved their adventures and would be quite happy to see more of them. Perhaps Disney Plus could do a spin-off of this?
As for the rest, the Doctor and Tecteun – well. Barbara Flynn, yay, because she’s always cool, ever since Beiderbecke. But otherwise pretty meh. Same goes for Vinder, Swarm and Azure, and for the Grand Serpent/UNIT stories. I assume we’ll learn what the Grand Serpent had planned next episode, because I’m darned if I can remember! Something to do with Sontarans, presumably, going by the trailer…
Also, presumably, the Grand Serpent is a time-traveller? Unless he’s somehow been displaced by the time shenanigans that were apparently instigated by Azure and Swarm?
Note: according to TARDIS Wiki, the photo of a building in the early UNIT scenes was Holly Tree Lodge, the orphanage Clem came from in TW Children of Earth.
I have to say, the whole idea of Tecteun destroying the universe just because the Doctor might save it (instead of, say, destroying the DOCTOR) seems more than a little ridiculous.
Another note: Tecteun does actually confirm here that it is the Doctor who was the Timeless Child. So it’s not just the Master playing with her…
Another other note: why did the Doctor tell Yaz (via a hologram left in her pocket that would reactivate after 2 weeks) to look for the date when the world would end, and does this actually get resolved? Also why did the hermit in Nepal tell them to fetch their dog, leading them to paint a huge sign to Karvanista telling him to get them in 1904? Does he have time-travel?
Note: Den of Geek: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who-flux-episode-5-review-survivors-of-the-flux/ - "The question is – why? We’ve established that getting home again isn’t Yaz’s main concern; they’re looking for information regarding future events because that’s what the Doctor told her to do. And as Karvanista himself complains, he hasn’t got a time machine, so the entire ‘find the prophecy’ sub-plot just kind of… fizzles out. It feels like a remnant of an earlier draft where the companions really were just searching for a way to get back to the 21st century, rather than for information, which would have ultimately led them organically to Joseph Williamson’s time tunnels.
As it is, Williamson himself has to randomly wander into Yaz’s cabin for their story to suddenly spin off in a completely different direction. We don’t even find out who was trying to kill them, although my money’s on the Grand Serpent. It’s a shame, because the characters had so much more agency this episode, some good jokes, and Kevin McNally fits in so well he could shine as a full-time companion."
13.6 The Vanquishers
16 November 2023 (2nd viewing)
That wasn’t actually bad. Enjoyable at least whilst watching, even if I felt a little caught up in a whirlwind. The whole series would have been so much better if it had been spread over a few more episodes and allowed to breathe.
The three Doctors things was interesting and entertaining, although there seemed no point once two of the Doctors were in the same place, unless it was a deliberate call-back to Journey’s End.
Diane was awesome. Claire was pretty cool as well, and so was Jericho. I felt bad for Jericho going like that, though at least after all that he felt was worth it.
Vinder and Bel were kind of cute (even if I still don’t understand what, exactly Bel’s Tamagotchi thing is – the consciousness of her baby? An AI childminder?).
I also liked Yaz and the Doctor’s reunion. I liked that the Doctor actually realised how strong Yaz had been and actually *saw* her.
One thing I did note is that, considering that Flux was filmed between November 2020 and August 2021 (just about the most locked-down period of COVID after the initial lockdowns), on rewatch I didn’t notice any oddness to the filming, no obvious spaces left between people or anything. Thinking about it, there were a LOT of scenes with only a couple of characters, and mainly on sets rather than location, but there were also some big crowd scenes like the Crimean episode (apparently shot in November 2020) and Bel not getting put into a Passenger. This, at least, was well disguised.
Now to the negatives.
The biggest mis-step, I feel, was the Sontaran general telling Karvanista that he’d just killed all the Lupari. There was absolutely no drama to that moment at all. No build-up, no tension, no shots of other Lupari looking worried (have we even seen any other Lupari?) or even of Karvanista looking worried. And thus absolutely no dramatic pay-off. It didn’t lead to Karvanista taking any kind of action. In fact, he seemed remarkably okay with it all.
Also, how was there daylight on Earth when the Lupari ships were completely enclosing it?
What was the point of the Grand Serpent?
And how was the Doctor okay with letting the Flux destroy all the Sontarans? And, um. What happened to the rest of the universe? Did they somehow manage to rewind it, as Azure was planning to do (her plan being to end the universe and then rewind to watch it all over again and again and again)? I assume this is something that got left out due to the number of episodes being condensed but it’s a kind of important something that really should have been left in!
Postscript: someone on one of my DW Facebook groups said the Doctor managed to get the Flux sucked into the Passenger just at the moment where Swarm and Azure where rewinding it all to enjoy it all over again. I have to say I did not notice this at all but it would at least make the best sense of why no-one seems concerned that the rest of the universe isn’t there any more…
13.7 – Eve of the Daleks (2022 NY Special)
My original review here still stands: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/372237.html
13.08 – Legend of the Sea Devils (2022 Easter Special)
2nd viewing 23/11/2023
Thought this was just as crap as the first time round. Mainly because it just *looked* so fake, and I say this as someone who normally really doesn’t care about special effects. Perhaps because it’s all so HD these days, it’s more noticeable? But it kept on throwing me out of the story by how dreadful it looked – the sky in what was obviously studio scenes, the Sea Devils (honestly they looked better in the original 1970s serial!), the fight scene on the ship (ditto), and just generally it felt really awkward. I vaguely remember seeing a comment that the awkwardness was due to social distancing etc. when filming but I didn’t notice any of that in Flux!
I did actually enjoy some of it. Some of it felt like a proper rollicking Doctor Who adventure, and I actually liked Jodie more in this, and Yaz too. I liked their dynamic together, until the Doctor started talking about not being able to be fixed to anyone and then I just wanted Yaz to say, to hell with that and grab what she could have had like Rose would have done/did! Dan was cool too, and Madame Ching definitely so.
The only episode left is Power of the Doctor and we’ve run out of time to watch that again before Saturday, but at least we watched that twice and I have a few notes already posted in my insta-reaction here: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/375060.html. I did make some other notes which I might try and put into some kind of order at some point… we’ll see. If not, here’s looking forward to Saturday and the Fourteenth Doctor!
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