Doctor Who “Flux Chapter Five: Survivors Of The Flux”

Wait, did the show just mostly explain everything?  Because it sure looks like they mostly explained everything.

And as has become a tradition for me the last few posts, can I add one more frustrating aspect to many of the Thirteenth Doctor’s adventures:  she never really seems to know what’s going on.  I don’t expect the Doctor to be all-knowing, but she seems to ask what’s going on to a lot of people, and she’s often given an answer like “Figure it out” or “Don’t you remember?”  It’s frustrating.  I just feel like she should be explaining things to the audience and not learning stuff as she goes.

Regardless, I finally know most of what’s happening.  Oh, there are still too many characters, but I have some answers.  I know what Division is.  I know most of what Swarm and Azure are up to.  I even know more or less what the Flux is and where it came from.

So, here goes:  Division head Aswok, originally Tecteun, is the old woman the Doctor briefly encountered during that weirdness in the Temple of Atropos.  She’s the Division’s founder, and also the Time Lord who found the infant Doctor by a wormhole and took her home, teaching the Time Lords regeneration in the process.  When the Doctor rebelled, her memory was wiped and put into a fob watch, not the craziest thing I have ever seen since the Tenth Doctor and the Master each did something like that once.  But the Doctor’s efforts to be the Doctor led Tecteun to get a bit frustrated, so she and the rest of Division created the Flux to destroy the universe.  Why?  She figures the Doctor ruined the old universe, and that was the only way to guarantee a brand new universe where the Doctor won’t keep causing problems.  And Division will work with any alien species to preserve things the way Division likes, including the Weeping Angels, here charged with bringing the Doctor to Aswok, and since Aswok was in another reality, the only way through was to temporarily transform the Doctor into a Weeping Angel.

That…actually makes a lot of sense.

I even more or less get what Dan, Yaz, and the fairly awesome Professor Jericho are up to.  They’re looking for a way to get back to the Doctor from 1904.  That involves, eventually, finding a wiseass Hindu hermit on a mountaintop who enjoys teasing people but doesn’t get the opportunity to do so very often.  Really, for as frustrating as I often found this era, when it did go for silly or humorous stuff, I was generally a lot happier.  The hermit’s idea?  Go fetch the dog.

That would be Karvanista.  But he doesn’t have time travel.  He has to deal with a missing Lupari ship.  Bel has it.  They don’t seem to get along right away.

Oh, and the 19th century old man digging tunnels under Liverpool is one Joseph Williamson, an actual historic figure famous for digging a bunch of tunnels for no known reason under Liverpool.  Dan knows of the guy, and it turns out his tunnels all lead to different points in time and space which is why Williamson kept popping up everywhere.  Once people listen to him and believe what he has to say, he’s a lot friendlier.

So, that’s what I get.  What don’t I get?  What Vinder and Dan’s love interest Diane are going to do from inside a Passenger.  What Swarm and Azure want since they were taking Flux survivors and using them for fuel to get to Tecteun.  What Vinder’s old boss, calling himself the Great Serpent, wants since he infiltrated UNIT from the beginning and used his position to eventually let the Sontarans invade Earth again.  At least Kate Stewart recognized him for what he was and managed to not get killed in the process.  Then again, he may also have the TARDIS.

I did like the way Kate said she would, if necessary, call in a favor.  Nice idea.  Too bad the Doctor is busy.

So, did the story need the Sontarans of all things?  Probably not.  Same with Bel and Vinder, and I like both characters, and the Sontarans aren’t bad adversaries.  But it’s just so typical of this era:  there’s too much stuff going on, and it took the Doctor until nearly the end to even begin to know what’s going on.

But hey, at least Swarm took out Tecteun.  That’s one less thing to worry about.