2nd Opinion, Take 2 “Survivors of the Flux” – Peak Fluxing Chibnall

JC’s take on the fifth episode of Series 13.

Following last week’s much more positive outing, things reverted to peak Chibnall with “Survivors of the Flux”. And I don’t mean that as a positive…

The stunning cliffhanger of the Doctor being turned into a Weeping Angel is undone with some incredible ingenuity from the Doctor. Just kidding! The Doctor is simply not stone any more. These Angels have done their part now as a glorified delivery service for the Division and are then hastily removed from the plot. OK, we might as well just have every episode starting with “And it was all a dream” at this point, for all the value the cliffhangers have had.

Bafflingly, we then pick up with Yaz, Dan and Jericho in Mexico, 1904. What?! Wasn’t the Devon village the trio were last seen at quantum-extracted into outer space? How did they escape this predicament and get to Mexico exactly? The story also jettisons both Peggy and Claire off-screen without any clue as to what has happened to them. Was the little girl just left to fend for herself? Is Claire stuck with the Angels? Is it too much to hope Chibnall will explain any of this in the finale? Probably.

So Yaz, Dan and Jericho journey across continents over time, and Chibnall does his best attempt at Indiana Jones. These sections were an odd shift of tone for a penultimate episode where the stakes are meant to be high. I found it all incredibly silly. Laughable assassins with bombs that might as well as have been out of Looney Tunes. Chibnall’s attempts at humour also misfired. The hermit scene in particular reminded me of the bit in The Simpsons where Homer and Apu go to India to seek the head of Kwik-E-Mart, except it all felt so laboured here. The only part I enjoyed about any of these segments was Kevin McNally again as Jericho. Though you could tell he was thinly sketched without Maxine Alderton’s input.

The Doctor’s scenes played out like a rerun of “The Timeless Children”. Jodie stands there whilst another character exposits info to her. But this time an Ood is there too, because nostalgia (he doesn’t do much else). So it’s revealed that Aswok is actually Tectuen, the Doctor’s “mother” (sigh) and now the de facto leader of the Division. There are only two good things about this revelation. Tectuen is rightfully portrayed as evil now rather than the visionary explorer/scientist/biologist she was shown as before, despite murdering countless children, and Barbara Flynn was great again in the role.

Apart from that, the rest feels like a meta moment for the show, with Chibnall sticking a finger up to long-time fans that objected to his massive retcon of the Doctor and the Time Lord’s established history. Many had theorised that the Master could have been lying about the Timeless Child, and assumed either Chibnall, having seen the massive negative reaction, might have some actual good graces to undo it. Or leave a way out for a future showrunner, but it appears it won’t happen on Chibnall’s watch. He only wants to solidify things. But why am I even surprised? How does Tecteun even know what the Master told the Doctor anyway?

Chibnall rubs things in his detractor’s faces further by hinting again at possibly 1000s or more Doctors before Hartnell. How many times do fans have to say it, Chibnall? William Hartnell is the only true first Doctor. The show has always been about the mystique of the Doctor. It’s called Doctor WHO after all. We never needed, or cared to know much about the Doctor’s origins. I will give Chibnall credit if this is all a giant troll, but at this point I think it’s grasping at straws. Chibnall can make it as hard as he likes to undo all this, but if a smart future showrunner chooses to get rid of it, they will find a way.

The other unexpected plot line concerns UNIT. I always thought it was odd Chibnall got rid of the military organisation so flippantly back in “Resolution”. He was the person that requested Kate’s return in his Series 7 episode “The Power of Three”. While it was fun to go back to UNITs earlier days, It’s tainted by Chibnall’s meddling with the past once again. UNIT already had infamous dating issues, now it’s got more. We now have another TARDIS sitting around during Pertwee’s time and the Brig’s military rank confusing things. Kate was shown so prominently in the promotional material, but sadly she’s barely in the episode. In was nice to see Jemma Regrave’s steely performance again regardless. Hopefully she’ll have more to do in the finale.

At least the Grand Serpent made for a decent villain and Craig Parkinson was much better here than his previous episode, but I have to question if he was really necessary this late in the game. And the ultimate reveal that he is working with the Sontarans was anti-climatic to say the least. I had my fill of them with episode two. Now they’re going to be taking away more time from what will be a (very likely) overstuffed finale.

Last and definitely least, there’s Bel and Vinder’s latest escapades. Look, I’ll be honest, I really am struggling to care about these star-crossed lovers. Bel meets Karvanista and the pair have a terrible-aiming-down-a-narrow-corridor competition because of their plot armour. The only mildly interesting thing was Vinder bumping back into Swarm, who seems to have taken more of a backseat in these last two.

Next week, after what happened in “The Timeless Children” and this episode just doubling down on it, I’m dreading what “treats” Chibnall will have in store…

Asides

• Dan has been really pushed to the sidelines in these few episodes. A poor showing for a new companion.
• While it was nice to see the visual passage of time with Dan and Jericho’s beards, it would have been good to also see how they afforded travelling around, and how being stuck affected the trio.
• I get that Yaz, as one of the best police officers ever, might have seen a body before, but the nonchalant way in which Dan and Jericho disposed of a corpse was bizarre.
• I can’t have been the only one thinking Grand Serpent = return of the Snake Master?
• The Division’s base was a very cool design.
• You can tell Tectuen is full evil now because she pulled the old villainous favourite, “We’re not so different, you and I”.
• She also told the Doctor all her plans. And has ONE Ood “guard” her most feared adversary.
• Finally, some revelations on Joseph Williamson. Woo-hoo, it only took five episodes.
• Diane isn’t even remotely emotionally traumatised following her captivity. Instead, this average museum attendant is immediately ready to go full Rambo. OK then.