Okay, it's time for the last episode of Flux!

I haven't seen it yet because America, but I think it's already finished airing in the UK. At least, spoilers seemed to abound online. I'll be interested to see how this all wraps up, though I'd admit, I'm kind of anticipating an unsatisfying ending. There's a lot to tie up, and I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't tie up entirely.

Of course, there are three specials after this. Next one is apparently on 1/1/2021, and it's called "Eve of the Daleks". Nothing says a new year like Daleks. We don't really need a remake of Genesis of the Daleks, tho', and that's the vibe I'm getting off of the title. Not sure we really needed another 13th Doctor dalek story, really. Couldn't we have gotten the Rani or the Mara or the Black Guardian or something? Maybe a good old fashioned "the Master tries to take over the Earth while miniaturing people, hypnotizing them, and wearing flimsy disguises" story?

Eh, maybe it'll be good.

As usual, discuss the new episode here. I'm doing this for every episode, so don't worry, eventually this we'll get to discussion threads for RTD2 era stuff...

--Sweetie Belle

So that was a lot! I enjoyed it, but I don't know where to start with the review. Or, wait, yes I do, the chocoholic Sontaran was literally just me.

I love that this technically counts as a multi-doctor episode, and I loved watching Whittaker flirt with herself, that was fabulous.

The Division Station!Doctor plot was probably the weakest of the three Doctors, in my opinion, but that's probably because she was mostly just sitting around getting psychically and physically tortured. The imagery was bananas, but I didn't feel like there was much moving forward there. I did love to see the Ravagers getting hoist by their own petard, and Whittaker as Time was really cool as well (and, oh my, namedropping the Master? I look forward to whatever special Dhwan is going to be in), but there just wasn't a ton there for me other than the Ravagers being sadistic.

The Sontaran Base!Doctor plot was pretty good, I loved how she was just bantering at the Grand Serpent all while being tortured, and then just shutting down his snake attack thing? Excellent. I wish that we had some more explanation of who the Grand Serpent actually is, or where Bel and Vinder are from, or any more backstory on what their whole deal was. I'm also not sure what was going on with the genocide of the Lupari, it seemed to set Karvanista up for some kind of major character beat but... didn't, really. Sure, there was the revenge thing and the whole Sontaran plot, but it seemed like he was going to sacrifice himself or spill all the beans to the Doctor or something, and then he didn't. "Fetch Your Dog", sure, and then what? And, holy hell, this takes the 'does the dog die' question to an entirely new dimension.

The TARDIS!Doctor plot! Holy shit. Apologies? Hugs? Talking about feelings? The Doctor has had some kind of breakthrough on this one. I am very upset about Jethro dying, because he was Yaz and Dan's friend for three entire years. I feel like they could've done a bit more with Kate, honestly, and I'm really not sure what putting the Grand Serpent on a little asteroid was meant to accomplish character-wise. The whole 'doors' plot seems neat, but underutilized. (So, uh, Big Finish, Mad Mole spinoff when?) Di and Vinder clicked surprisingly well together and Bel and Vinder's reunion was very sweet.

And then, the end. Di dumps Dan, which is understandable, given all the stress she's just been through, even if it's a bit unreasonable to put the blame on him. And now Dan's become a proper companion! Yay! I do like him, even though the way he bumbled into Yaz and 13's conversation at the end was downright homophobic. They really are going for 'yearning' with the Thasmin crowd, huh. And the refusal of the memories -- well, it couldn't have gone any other way, could it. Not without drastically changing the Doctor as a character. Still, the possibility remains up in the air. I feel like it might have been better off as some kind of sacrifice than a simple refusal, but this way worked out alright too.

And the 'next time' trailer looks incredible -- Daleks and time loops and Aisling Bea, oh my! I was a bit skeptical of the inclusion of the Daleks, again, but it looks like an absolute banger, not gonna lie.

So, even though there's still some loose ends to be wrapped up, such as, for example, the fact that something like 90% of the universe appears to have been annihilated, we have reached the end of the Flux storyline proper. Overall, I'd give it a nice 8.5/10 -- there were some slow moments and a few hanging threads, but overall I'd say this was a banger of a season, 13's finest.
-6&7

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Glad you enjoyed it. My opinions may change, but I'm feeling a bit ... about it right now.

I did very much enjoy the multi doctor part of the episode. Having a multi doctor episode where all the doctors were the same doctor was great.

I also liked the part where Time took on the Doctors appearance.

I already wasn't in love with returning to the Sontarans, because we already dealt with them in episode two. Of course, in that episode, she was upset about trying to wipe them out, whereas this episode was more like "Two genocides? Make it three! I love me a good genocide.". Though we also got a fourth genocide in this episode of the lupari that wasn't the Doctor's fault, which I felt was totally unneeded.

I'm not very happy about Professor Jericho's death, though I was kinda expecting it. He was a good character who absolutely didn't need to be left with the Sontarans in the first place. Chibnall always kills off the characters I think have a lot of potential, though.

And, um, 95% of the universe is still destroyed? What's the plan, just earth stories, or all space stories are time travel to before everything died? Maybe we'll explore that other universe? And how are we even having a Dalek story next episode after wiping them all out (again)?

And was it me, or did the Vinder/Bel subplot just fizzle out anticlimactically? Though that's how I feel about a lot of this. Maybe I'll feel better after the specials or after everything processes more, but while I do love Jodi's Doctor, I'm kinda ready for the RTD era...

--Sweetie Belle

I absolutely adored Professor Jericho, and my newest headcanon is that instead of being eaten by the Flux, he was thrown backwards even FURTHER than 1903, to the 1600’s to be imprecise about it, and took on the name Joshamee Gibbs, because I can just see him taking one look at Jack Sparrow and going “yeah that’s about as close as I’m gonna get to the Doctor nowadays.”

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I'm assuming they are going to do something to make it so that a large portion of the universe isn't destroyed, and I'm going to try to warp that into saving Professor Jericho as well.

While a spinoff show for him seems unlikely, Big Finish stories seem a good deal more likely to me. Admittedly, they'll probably be Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho go on adventures together from 1901-1904, but it'd be nice if he could have other adventures as well. I know Jago and Litefoot got audios...

I also did think that Jodi had great chemistry with Jodi and Jodi. I very much enjoyed those scenes, even if I was down on the episode as a whole.

--Sweetie Belle