Doctor Who: Flux Review: Chapter 5: Survivors of the Flux (Season 13 Episode 5)
Coming up on the end of Doctor Who: Flux, the penultimate episode Doctor Who: Flux Season 13 Episode 5, “Chapter 5: Survivors of the Flux,” brings multiple parts of the story together in a way that could prove to be satisfying.
Picking from where Doctor Who: Flux Season 13 Episode 4, “Chapter 4: Village of the Angels,” left off, the Doctor is being transported somewhere while her companions are marooned. The timelines shown throughout this episode work together to help bring into focus the events presented on Doctor Who: Flux Season 13 Episode 1, “Chapter 1: The Halloween Apocalypse.”
With Jericho, Dan, and Yaz traveling the world in 1904, we get a bit of comedy and adventure as they try to find a way back to the Doctor. While it all ultimately comes down to Dan’s knowledge of Liverpool, it does let us get to know the three companions without the Doctor and an overly complex time travel plot.
This is a great addition to this series because, in the middle of the flux, we haven’t really gotten the chance to know Dan. In such an action-packed season it’s hard to introduce a companion and get a connection.
Dan has a lot of potential and seems to have a lot to offer, but his background has gotten lost in the multiple subplots of episodes. Perhaps, this is one of those cases where binging it will help, but watching it week-to-week makes the bits we’re given feel a little disconnected.
In another season, it’s easy to imagine that “Survivors of the Flux,” would have been a Doctor-light episode.
Not only would it have given us a chance to sit with these characters a bit, but it would have also given us a chance to explore the emotion of what it feels like to be left by the Doctor. Especially since you have a seasoned companion and a new companion together. Plus, there’s enough there that the plot could be expanded to fill an hour.
However, there is only one more chapter to tie up the whole story; and we need some answers.
For those bits, we need the imprisoned Doctor and Tecteun.
The flux is about to destroy the universe, and it’s about time that the story delivers some answers as to why it exists. This season has focused on the flux, but it has also been about the Doctor searching for answers to who they were and how she was connected to Division.
“Survivors of the Flux,” gives us those answers, but it also presents the ultimatum that the series needs to bring this story home.
Ever since Doctor Who Season 12 Episode 10, “The Timeless Children,” the Doctor has been questioning what the Master told them. The realization that there was a whole other part of their life that she didn’t know about and that part had been wanted by the Judoon gave the Doctor’s story many places to go.
With the flashbacks on Doctor Who: Flux Season 13 Episode 3, “Once, Upon Time,” it seemed like the arc would unearth something darker in the Doctor’s past.
It still feels like the plot will go that way, with the appearance of the fob watch containing all the Doctor’s old memories. It’s hard to imagine what that watch may contain and how a sudden addition of hundreds or thousands of new selves may change the Doctor as we know them.
Techteun gives the Doctor an interesting ultimatum, dangling these answers against the survival of her friends and her adopted home.
For as long as we’ve known the Doctor, they have protected earth. They always choose Earth when the chips are down.
As much as it feels like the choice should be simple, we have a connection to this character and we want them to have the answers they seek.
Since “The Timeless Children,” the Doctor isn’t entirely sure they are who they always thought they were and that’s disorienting and confusing.
DOCTOR: You denied me my life!
TECTEUN: I GAVE you a life. Everything you are is because of me. But I understand. You think you could have been something else. Someone else.
Anyone who has questioned who they are can understand the Doctor’s pain here. There’s something disheartening about not being to trust your own memory and who you think you are.
This is someone who lived hundreds of years already and who had this formed image of who they were and what they were supposed to do in the universe.
This identity crisis could prove interesting especially since we also learned that there are other universes at work.
While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen parallel worlds on Doctor Who, the flux does seem to change things. If the Doctor throwing the Tardis in front of the flux caused problems with its execution then maybe it changed the rules of how parallel worlds and universes work within the series.
Given that it’s unlikely the Doctor is going to choose themselves over Earth and their friends, it would make sense to set up another way to give them the answers they’re looking for.
That might look like some “what if” incarnations from other universes, but if it can provide answers then it may be worth it.
In the end, “Survivors of the Flux,” pulls many threads together, but still leaves us wondering how this outing is going to affect the series as a whole. As it stands, the December 5th battle feels like it will shape up to be the epic conclusion this chapter of Doctor Who needs.
Stray Thoughts:
- The Grand Serpent plot is the one bit I am the most confused about. While I get that he was tied to Unit and Kate had sussed him out I don’t see how he’s tied to the flux. He seemed to be tied to Vinter and Bel’s past and that was it. Definitely going to need that answered on the next episode.
- Is it fair to expect Kate to come back for the finale? She escaped The Grand Serpent so she must have a plan, right? No way she’s gonna take that assassination attempt lying down.
- I’ve got to say, “Survivors of the Flux” is a horrible name for this episode. It’s less about surviving the flux and trying to figure out details of the flux.
- The message the Doctor left for Yaz feels a little like the Doctor’s message to Sally Sparrow way back in Season 3. Just more personal and less of a jigsaw puzzle that Yaz has to put together in 1904.
- Painting a message to Karvanista to “fetch your human” is probably the funniest moment from the episode. It’s a bit like the Ponds driving through the cornfield to try to get the Doctor’s attention because Eleven never answers his phone.
What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who: Flux? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Doctor Who: Flux airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.