What The Flux?

[IndigoPrime]

5 wasn’t as bad as 1–3, but 4 was the only highlight of this series. Him doubling down on rewriting the entire canon of the show before he buggers off really grates as well. RTD’s said he won’t revert either.

[von Boom]

I predict a story that says Whitaker was not the 'real' Doctor only a being that somehow confused either own identity with the Doctor's when s/he regenerated. Instant reset.

[Richard]

That would still be complicated, since we watched Peter Capaldi turn into Jodie Whitaker. They should just never mention it ever again.

[IndigoPrime]

Perhaps they can ret-con this mess away by making the entire thing a nefarious Master plot. Although that serves Jo Martin particularly poorly. Bah. Chibnall really has made a horrible mess.

[von Boom]

That would still be complicated, since we watched Peter Capaldi turn into Jodie Whitaker. They should just never mention it ever again.

True. I still think the Dallas shower/dream option is best.

[Dandontdare]

There is no need to retcon the plot - the idea of the doctor having past lives in service to some Gallifreyan black ops unit is valid and interesting - I just wish the execution wasn't so fucking awful.

[Colin YNWA]

Tell you want half watching this is the way to go. Family watched episode 4, I stayed in the room and half watched and it was entirely entertaining, while I was entirely not engrossed! The ending was dead good in that context too.

So my advice is half watch the thing while doing a jigsaw (or similar) - works a treat!

[Leigh S]

Indeed - I made the mistake of eatching it all again and making mental note of all the plot points  that didnt as yet make sense, with the belief at least some of it would be answered, however unsatisfactorily...

Tell you want half watching this is the way to go. Family watched episode 4, I stayed in the room and half watched and it was entirely entertaining, while I was entirely not engrossed! The ending was dead good in that context too.

So my advice is half watch the thing while doing a jigsaw (or similar) - works a treat!

Instead.... Shocking

Can anyone explain what any of it was about - even something as simple as the FLux itself was not explained in any consistent way and the resolution?  The best I coould piece togetehr is the  Flux was defeated becasue the Flux is Anti-Matter... so eating matter slows it down.... so it takes eating a few thousand spaceships to stop it, but all those planets and stars didnt count as matter?

Is that really what we got?  How did this ever make it off the first page?

That;s before we get to the cosmic coincidences of why di was important to the Swarm (but also not as she got left behind), why the Grand Serpent was interested in UNIT (and was also a big part of Vinders past), why TEcteun was also in charge of the Division which consisted of an easily persuaded Ood....

It's just bogglingly bad! Didnt ANYONE in the production say "this makes no sense, Chris", from Producers to actors?

AS my wife said when the Doctor wwas gving some none explanation -= "If you have to explain it, it's shit"

[pauljholden]

That was like Chibnell brainstormed as many interesting things he could think of then tried to stuff them all into a turdugin and then forgot to let us know why we should care. Even the episodes I enjoyed, were despite the flux plot rather than because. (though I did thoroughly enjoy all of the silly comedy stuff, but like, I still don’t know - nor care - who swarm or azure are.)

[Richard]

I didn't bother to watch it this week, after the crappy episode last week.

They might as well just cancel this series now, it's run its course.

[Richmond Clements]

I love Doctor Who. I think Jodie is/was incredible in the role... but I have no idea what was going on in that final episode. What a mess.

[wedgeski]

That was...pretty terrible.

I liked the splitting of the Doctor into three. That would have made a decent frame for the whole arc IMO, with the Doctor working in three or more timelines simultaneously. I mean, it's been done in the past I'm sure, but it might have worked here and could have been a vehicle for explaining some of the nonsense going on.

As far as we could tell the Flux hasn't been reversed, as such, just... consumed by the Passenger, so... all the universe except Earth remains destroyed? Is that right?

And no origin story that I could tell for Swarm...or that stupid planet that somehow controls Time...or that Time appears to be an entity and a bit of an asshole at that. Any one of those could have been the basis for an arc but to just lob them into the blender here...sheesh.

That said, Liverpudlian tunnel gent would and should have made a fine standalone episode. Was Bel's little Tamagochi thing her actual baby communicating with her? If so, love that.

Overall, what a bunch of shite.

[Richmond Clements]

Although on the plus side, it was nice to hear a Belfast accent in the future.

[Proudhuff]

all of the above!

[Leigh S]

The frustrating part is that there is potenitally a coherent story in there somewhere

The story continually progressed in a way that made no sense based on what was established up to that point. 


If yoThe resolution the Sontarans stumble upon is one that hangs on two vague references to a "final flux event/waves" about halfway into both ep 5 and 6. 


If they had established explicitly that the Doctor had stopped the Flux using Vortex energy in part 1 (we are told it did nothing at that point), then you get some drama.  Tecteun suggests that it DID slow the Flux down, but with no more detail to allow the viewer to understand what is happening or planned to happen with teh FLux at that point).  They needed to establish that a second event would need to be created from scratch (not a "final wave" which suggested it was just the flux that was already there rolling onwards.  Then the Sontarans plan to choke it off while it was tiny "might" make sense.  But none of that is established except if you take a few vague references and devise your own narrative.  This isnt about being spoon fed (becaue God knows, Chibnall does enough of that), its about etablishing the dramatic stakes so that the viewer can understand the action and its consequences

Its just indicative of his writing style

End of Episode 3:
Tecteun: "Don't try and find Division"

End of Episode 4:
"We're bringing you back to Division"