Doctor Who: Flux Review: Chapter 6: The Vanquishers (Season 13 Episode 6)
After six chapters, Doctor Who: Flux comes to an end. In many ways, Doctor Who: Flux Season 13 Episode 6, “Chapter Six: The Vanquishers” leads us to an end that’s predictable, but a good kind of predictable.
We know that the Doctor will prevail over Swarm and Azure and that they will stop the Flux. It’s not a question of if it will happen but how.
The last five chapters of Doctor Who: Flux set up a multi-modal story that requires the viewer to be invested. While it presents the viewer with interesting ideas, it never lets the story breathe enough so that they can process what’s going on.
As a result, “Chapter 6: The Vanquishers” is cluttered with technobabble and small comedic moments. While this adds to the tone of the season, it also makes the final episode very noisy.
This isn’t helped by the trisected Doctor. Yes, it’s a necessary evil to have the Doctor be in three places at once, however it comes at the cost of the narrative holding its shape.
It’s hard to remember which version of the Doctor we’re with, and what the goal is because it feels like there are just too many of them to keep track of.
While each little subplot has its moment and we are able to see how it ultimately ties up, but it feels like, in the end, it was ambitious for six episodes.
I say that with the fact that I watched week-to-week in my mind, and I think that maybe this season will play a lot better when it’s binged back to back. Just because the story has a lot going doesn’t mean it’s incomprehensible, it may just mean it’s highly rewatchable.
In fact, it’s only when the narrative finally lets up and gets a chance to breathe that the gravity of the story we’ve been watching hits the audience.
When the Doctor comes face to face and has her reckoning with time on Atropos we get a vague callback to when the Tenth Doctor was leaving.
Jodie Whittaker’s exit has similar circumstances to David Tennant’s in that they filmed a final season and then over the course of a few specials tied up the story culminating with a regeneration.
Thirteen’s reckoning with time has similar undertones to that moment. Time issues a warning and it’s clear that that’s going to play out over the course of the 2022 Doctor Who specials.
One of the highlights of “Chapter 6: The Vanquishers” is when the Doctor has a moment with her Tardis as she drops the fob watch down a shaft.
Thirteen’s run never had the same connection to the Tardis as previous incarnations. We’ve seen other Doctors talk to their Tardis and reason with it.
Thirteen has never had that type of plot. It’s always been very every external and her adventures always took her outside of the Tardis. She also seemed to spend more time separated from her Tardis too, which made this moment stand out this season.
It’s also the first time since the end of Season 12 that we really get to see the Doctor wrestle with if they want to know about their past lives. We know that once the Doctor opens the fob watch and the memories are restored there is no going back.
Having the watch in their possession gives them control over the situation, but it doesn’t remove the larger question.
In the end, Doctor Who: Flux ends up being an amazing adventure, but it’s really just set up for the end of Jodie Whittaker’s run.
Stray Thoughts:
- So, we’re gonna see Karvanista again right? The parallels between The Last of the Time Lords and The Last of the Lupari are not lost on me. Can we please see this Lupari fam thriving in the real of space?
- We never find out what the Passenger form actually is despite a lot of online speculating. We’re gonna find out eventually right?
- I am really curious to know everyone’s final thoughts on Dan? It makes sense that after Flux he wouldn’t end up with Diane, because then how would he travel with the Doctor. However, do we ever really get to know him like we do other companions? It also seems like he’s gonna be “the new guy.”
- Did anyone else get older Rose from Titanic vibes from that final scene in the Tardis?
- Do the writers really expect us to believe that the Doctor isn’t going to regenerate?
What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who: Flux? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Doctor Who will return on New Year’s Day at 8/7c on BBC America.
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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.