Flux

The first full series to be made after the first waves of the COVID pandemic (and the last full series for Jodie Whittaker) was to be one multi-part story which brings to mind the last time such a task was attempted. Although, unlike in 1986, Doctor Who's future is very much assured, the fact that it is not gaining the viewing figures it used to, immediately make one think of the end of the Colin Baker era. Flux is only about 30 minutes shorter than The Trial of a Time Lord, but is closer in structure to its '60s predecessor, The Daleks' Master Plan, in that it is one narrative that has some episodes that form discrete individual stories. Those 20th Century four bears have very different reputations, so to say that Flux falls between the two in terms of quality, is not very helpful! Flux is, however, very much Chris Chibnall's final statement on how he sees Doctor Who, so here we go.

The good news is that Flux contains some of the best episodes yet of the Chibnall era. "The Halloween Apocalypse" sets up things very well, with a wealth of memorable scenes and dizzying concepts and in its follow-up, "War of the Sontarans", we have a fun little alternate history/reality distortion story, where Russia has been replaced by a Sontaran bridgehead, resulting in the Sontarans being the masters of Earth, making the Crimean war a very different conflict. A fortnight later, we were given the pinnacle of Jodie Whittaker's tenure, "Village of the Angels". This story is lesser to the Weeping Angel stories written by their creator, but only by comparison, and is a tense, scary joy from beginning to end and proof that it is possible to make a fresh and surprising base-under-siege story, a story that ends with one of the best cliffhangers in the show's history (not affected by a bizarrely placed mid-credits scene). The remaining episodes are purely part of Flux's narrative. Of these, "Once, Upon Time" is a mind-bending puzzle box but, crucially, expands on the characters with some deft writing and performances that sets up what could be an intriguing finale . However, in the final two episodes, "Survivors of the Flux" and "The Vanquishers" that is not quite what we are promised. Although Chibnall's solution isn't the cuniculus ex capellum plot contrivance that I was fearing, there is the sloppiness in plotting that has been all too common. It seems that Chibnall is sometimes lacking confidence in his own creations; the Passengers are never sold as what they feel like to the viewer – an evil version of the TARDIS, which would have made the solution far more resonant. In addition, as I said, many, many moons ago in commenting on the resolution of "Last of the Time Lords", Doctor Who should be grounded on a contemporary Earth that is relatable to the viewer. Whilst it seems we have this, there is no indication that the effects of the Flux have been reversed. We are left with a universe of only a handful of galaxies and we are explicitly shown the destruction of Jupiter – something that would have cataclysmic effects on the movement of everything orbiting the Sun.

However, something that goes a very long way to compensating for the plot problems is the best character writing Chibnall has done to date. The Doctor's allies are a very appealing cohort. Chibnall has always been keen to bring back more of the educational aspect of Sydney Newman's vision (for history that is; the less said about the science, the better!) and we have appearances by Mary Seacole and, most wonderfully, Joseph Williamson, a person of whom I had not heard, but is integrated into Doctor Who better that any historical figure to date. An outstanding performance by Steve Oram surely resulted in a spike in hits to Williamson's Wikipedia page.

Characters like Bel and Vinder would usually be ciphers in previous Chibnall stories, but they are used well in the plot and brought to life by likeable performances by Thaddea Graham and Jacob Anderson. More sketchily written is Claire, but her plot is fascinating and she is effectively played by Annabel Scholey. Unlike with the previous returnee actor from a 1984 story, it would have been a miracle if this had not been the best Doctor Who story that Kevin McNally had appeared in. Professor Jericho is a truly wonderful character that I am sorry could not have remained as a proper companion. Then there is Karvanista the Lupar. The prosthetics indicate a fun alien, like the Cats of New Earth, but Craig Els makes him so much more. The expression of fury and despair on Karvanista's face when he learns of the genocide of the Lupari is all the more impressive in that it is delivered by an actor wearing a dog mask. I really hope that Karvanista remains a permanent fixture on the programme. Speaking of which, Jemma Redgrave makes a long-overdue return as Kate Stewart and fits into this new era like a glove.

Flux is blessed with easily the most charismatic villains of the Chibnall era, in the shape of the Ravagers, Azure and Swarm. Rochenda Sandall and Sam Spruell thoroughly command the screen helped by the nightmare-inducing prosthetics that they have been given. The Sontarans are back, with a more rugged look, but still with the brilliant Dan Starkey as the lieutenant. Strax became too beloved a character for Starkey to be in command, but we have Jonathan Watson performing admirably in those roles. Hovering between tertiary and quaternary villain status is Craig Parkinson's Grand Serpent, whose louche style always makes for interesting villains.

I love the Fam, but, it must be said that Yaz really shines on her own, and Mandip Gill gives one of the all-time great companion performances. this is helped by the fact that Yaz never states verbally something that has just been shown on screen - a very annoying trait of Chibnall's in earlier episodes. As I am only really familiar with him as a comedian, I was very pleasantly surprised by how effective John Bishop was as Dan and Chibnall cannot be faulted in any way in writing his character arc; of especial notice is Dan's relationship with Di, which is totally convincing and is given a very real conclusion. As with the Fam's Sheffield-ness, the Liverpudlian aspect is really well emphasised, and is brought to a hilarious crescendo, when Dan and his parents are discussing woks, a word that doubles its syllable count in a Scouse accent. Jodie Whittaker is playing against historical figures, malevolent primordial entities, other people inhabiting her form and two different versions of herself and is thoroughly spellbinding throughout. I look forward to seeing what remains of this new TARDIS line-up.

The production has been kicked into overdrive with some spectacular imagery although some cracks show (notably where the Doctor has her astral conference with the Mouri, which is not significantly better than a 70s CSO scene). However, the scenes with the Flux itself are spectacular and directors Azhur Saleem and Jamie Magnus Stone helm a very talented cast and production team. The freeing of Swarm is a masterpiece of teatime horror and there is a refreshing 3-dimensional quality to the space shots – too many films and tv programmes forget that space is infinite in all directions.

Cryptically suffusing this new Whoniverse, is the Division. We are again given a few more scraps of the Doctor's hidden lives and Chibnall provides us with startling snapshots, and a great role for Barbara Flynn as Tecteun, but it's unclear if he will give his rewriting of the mythos the power that it needs; it has the potential to be as existentially diquieting as the theory exemplified as Liu Cixin's Dark Forest. Also intriguing is the concept of the struggle between Time and Space (which brings to mind Sapphire and Steel) but, again, i have some concerns as to whether Chibnall can pull off this conceptual turn.

Despite being considerably better in almost every respect, like Colin Baker's swansong, Flux is less than the sum of his parts. However there is simply too much good stuff to dismiss it in the same way and I keep my fingers crossed for the remainder of this era.

NEXT: "Eve of the Daleks"