Doctor Who Flux: Series 13 Review

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13th Doctor, Cybermen, Daleks, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Flux, Eve of the Daleks, Jodie Whittaker, John Bishop, Karvanista, Mandip Gill, Sontarans, The Halloween Apocalypse, Village of the Angels, War pf the Sontarans, Weeping Angels

Doctor Who: Flux: Series 13 Review

Review by Paul Bowler

Doctor Who Flux blasted onto our screens this Halloween staring Jodie Whittaker as the 13th incarnation of the Time Lord, along with Mandip Gill as Yaz, and new travelling companion Dan played by John Bishop.  This series will also feature Game of Thrones actor Jacob Anderson as Vinder, and a host of monsters including the Weeping Angels, Sontarans, beings known as the Ravagers and many, many more! Series 13, or Doctor Who Flux as its subtitled, is the first time modern Doctor Who has told a single story across the space of a whole series (a move necessitated in part by logistics and COVID restrictions), but given Chris Chibnall’s history with serialised drama – most notably ITV’s smash-hit Broadchruch – its perhaps no surprise this format would have been adopted at some point during his tenure as show runner anyway.

Each of this seasons six episodes have been written by Chris Chibnall, apart from episode four which has been co-witten with Maxine Alderton who wrote 2020’s The Haunting of Villa Diodati. The workload behind the camera has been split between two directors as well, with Jamie Magnus Stone (Spyfall Part One, Ascension of the Cybermen and the Timeless Children) handling episodes one, two and four, with newcomer Azhur Salee on episode three, five and six. 

The new series kicks off with the appropriately Halloween themed season premier, The Halloween Apocalypse. Its Halloween time all across the universe, and horrifying forces are awakening. Everywhere, from an industrial excavation in Liverpool 1820, to the Artic Circle, and the void of deep space an ancient evil imprisoned since the dawn of the universe is starting to break free! Back on present-day Earth, in Liverpool, the life of Dan Lewis will soon change forever after he’s hijacked by an alien and propelled into an adventure with the Doctor and Yaz in the TARDIS. 

Doctor Who Flux certainly starts with a bang with The Halloween Apocalypse, plunging the 13th Doctor and her companions into what can best be described as season finale level action and intensity right from the outset, with the Time Lord hot on the trail of the canine looking alien called Karvanista (Craig Els) who has worked for the Division – the mysterious Time Lord cabal behind Series 12’s ‘Timeless Child’ reworking of the Doctor’s origins. Jodie Whittaker is assuredly confident in her role now as the 13th Doctor, with the Time Lord pushed to the edge as the TARDIS starts to malfunction just as she’s attempting to unravel the mysterious enigma known as the Flux.

Mandip Gill has also come into her own as Yaz since the end of Series 12, she’s not afraid to challenge the Doctor when it’s clear the Time Lord has been keeping secrets, and she’s adept enough with alien technology now to enable her to help Dan escape from his cage on Karvinista’s ship. Comedian John Bishop makes a welcome addition to this TARDIS team as Dan Lewis, a  fun everyman style character. Bishop brings a delightful sense of warmth and Liverpudlian humour to Dan, a classic audience associative figure, who gets kidnapped by Karvanista on Halloween, and ends up being rescued by Yaz and the Doctor – leading to Dan’s priceless reaction to stepping into the TARDIS for the first time. Jacob Anderson also debuts in the first chapter of Flux as Vinder, who is based on the intriguingly named Observation Outpost Rose in deep space, and is the first character to witness first hand the destructive power of the Flux – a cataclysmic force that’s sweeping across the cosmos.

Chibnall  is clearly setting up major aspects of Doctor Who Flux with the introduction of the Swarm.

With old enemies of the Doctor kicking around in the background waiting to make their move and an armada of Karvanista’s species spaceships on their way to Earth, it seems we are only scratching the surface of the forces gathering against the Time Lord. Sam Spruell’s ghoulish turn as the Swarm may prove to be one of the Doctor’s scariest and deadliest foes yet. Chibnall  is clearly setting up major aspects of Doctor Who Flux with the introduction of the Swarm, a former archenemy of the Doctor in their life as Division agents before their memories were wiped, whose his psychic connection to the Doctor leads to some of this episodes most dramatic moments, and chillingly he knows the Time Lord but the Doctor is left complexly on the back foot as she has no idea who he is. The Swarm also travels to Earth in a hauntingly creepy scene to revive his sister, Azure (Rochenda Sandall), who is hiding in human form in a remote house near the Artic circle. The Halloween Apocalypse is chock full of scary moments. The Swam is frighteningly powerful, seemingly draining his victims body and soul as he renews himself. The creepiest scenes though had Annabel Scholey’s mysterious character, Claire, who claims she’d taken “the long way round” (a phrase closely associated with the Doctor’s own journey to find Gallifrey), and has a frightening encounter with a Weeping Angel on her doorstep!

So, with the Doctor bewildered and the TARDIS on the run from the Flux, seemingly immune to even a face-full of time vortex energy shot from the time machines leaky crystalline central console, and seven billion spaceships from Karvanista’s dog-faced Lupari species about to prove they may actually be man’s best friend after all The Halloween Apocalypse proved to be a resounding success. I had to keep pausing the episode to answer to the door to trick-or-treaters, but other than that I thought it was a great action-packed series premier, with an epic scale, and a menacing new adversary to boot. All that and we got a doozy of a cliffhanger too, with the Doctor confounded by the Flux, and the warmongering Sontarans returning as well. The Halloween Apocalypse felt like proper old-fashioned Doctor Who again at last!

The Cloister Bell rings out in the ominous aftermath of the TARDIS being engulfed by the Flux as War of the Sontarans transports the Doctor and her companions into an unexpected encounter with one of her oldest and deadliest foes, the Sontarans, who have become a new faction during the Crimean War! This exciting second chapter of Doctor Who Flux marks a dramatic change of pace as Chris Chibnall sends the Doctor, Yaz and Dan off on three separate adventures – with the Doctor teaming up with renowned nurse Mary Seacole (Sarah Powelll) for the historical portion, while Dan returns home to contemporary Earth where Liverpool docks have been turned into a Sontaran ship yard, and Yaz finds herself transported to a mysterious temple on a planet called Time along with Vinder. 

Even though the Flux is rapidly obliterating the universe the Sontarans have eagerly seized the chance to use the Crimean War as a staging ground for their temporal assault on Earth’s history. The militaristic clone race of the Sontarans positively relish the chance to engage in what they perceive as a glorious conflict. Skaak / Sontaran Commander Riskaw, brilliantly played by Jonathan Watson, is the ruthless Sontaran leader who confronts the Doctor on the field of battle, Jodie Whitaker excels here as the Doctor intervenes spectacularly, and Dan Starky (who has played a number of Sontaran’s in the past, most notably Strax of the Paternoster Gang) stars as the injured Sontaran Svild who has hilariously suffered the indignation of been captured by the British and nursed by Mary Seacole. This is the first time we’ve really seen the Sontarans en masse like this since The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky (2008), and the battle sequences in War of the Sontarans mark a truly spectacular return to form for them.

War of the Sontarans is an action-packed, exciting and fun run-around for the 13th Doctor and her companions.

Jodie Whittaker really gets some great material to sink her teeth into with this episode as the Doctor struggles to prevent the British army going into battle against the Sontarans. The 13th Doctor is still desperately playing a game of catch up, with the TARDIS continuing to malfunction alarmingly, and even the Sontarans frustratingly seeming to know more about the Flux than she does. Whittaker’s Doctor and Sarah Powelll’s excellent turn as Mary Seacole makes for an inspired historical team-up with the Time Lord, the compassionate Mary Seacole’s moving words of wisdom about the futility of war resonate powerfully with the stories darker elements, and the Doctor’s disgust with General Logan (Gerald Kyd) after he blows up retreating Sontarans is perhaps one of the most ‘Doctorish’ moments of Whittaker’s era so far.

Dan Lewis is rapidly becoming one of my favourite NuWho companions, and John Bishop almost steals the show in this episode. We briefly meet Dan’s parents after he’s displaced back through time to present-day Earth, before he sets off to find a way to stop the ‘potato head’ aliens that have taken over Liverpool docks armed only with a wock and his wits! Fortunately Karvanista shows up just in tine to pull his fat out of the fire, the dynamic between Bishop’s and Craig Els’s characters is great fun, and one of the highlights of this episode. 

Yaz, who has also been displaced in time like Dan, ends up in the Temple of Atropos along with Vinder from Observation Outpost Rose. Mandip Gill gets to do all the fun exploring bits in War of the Sontarans as Yaz ventures into the temple (blagging her way through mystery and danger no doubt in part thanks to an ingenious note she’s written on the palm of her hand during an inspired note-to-self moment between adventures), and bizarrely encountering one of the Liverpool industrialists from 1820 before meeting a curious triangular automated Priest (voiced by Nigel  Richard Lambert) that asks if she can help repair the damage the Flux has done to the temple and the Mouri – silent quantum locked women held in stasis that miraculously maintain the very flow of time. Yaz also meets Jacob Anderson’s Vinder here, there’s clearly an instant chemistry between them, but Vinder’s character still remains a frustratingly unknown quantity at this point. 

The fear factor gets ramped up to the max when the Swarm and his sister, Azure, enter the Temple of Atropos. Sam Spruell and Rochenda Sandall’s scenery chewing performances continue to impress, although this time their characters are accompanied by a mysterious newcomer – the Passenger (Johnny Mathers). While the Sontarans are brutish, bloodthirsty and not the smartest aliens on the block, this trinity of terror are clearly seeking to capitalise on the damage caused by the Flux. Chris Chibnall masterfully juggles storylines and characters, providing just enough hints and revelations about the Flux and the Swam’s plans to keep us guessing and on the edge of our seats – especially given that chilling finger-snapping cliff-hanger!

War of the Sontarans is an action-packed, exciting and fun run-around for the 13th Doctor and her companions. The corruption of the TARDIS by the Flux, with even time itself seemingly damaged, has certainly raised the bar in terms of the sheer scope and scale of the danger the Doctor faces. With its stylish blend of historical and sci-fi action, awesome battle scenes, and callbacks to the Sontarans first appearances in 1973’s The Time Warrior, War of the Sontarans is easily one of Series 13’s best, and indeed the modern series’, most standout episodes.

After two bombastic scene-setting episodes, Once Upon a Time allows the 13th Doctor a chance to explore the events behind the universe spanning peril this Flux mini-series has set in motion. Time has been disrupted in the aftermath of the Flux and is running wild. The Doctor throws herself into the heart of the Time Storm in a desperate bid to save her friends from the Swam’s trap, and together they find themselves simultaneously lost and working collectively as they journey through their memories of the past, present and future while time unravels all around them.

The third chapter of Doctor Who Flux is at times both bewildering and brilliant, it reaches  for greatness, and ends up falling into the cracks somewhere between the two. We do finally start to get some answers though, especially concerning the nature and cause of the Flux phenomenon. Jodie Whittaker spots a reversed coat version of her iconic costume as the Doctor explores her unknown past and history with the Division on the planet Time as the Fugitive Doctor, alongside Yaz, Dan and Vinder who experience the Siege of Atropos with her as the Division’s ancient battle with the Swarm and Azure comes to a head. Jo Martin, who first appeared in Fugitive of the Judoon (2020), makes a welcome return as the Fugitive Doctor, another incarnation of the Time Lord, and her scenes offering sage advice as the reflection of Jodie Whittaker’s startled 13th Doctor provides some of the episodes most riveting moments.

Once Upon a Time focuses heavily on the Doctor’s time displaced companions as well. Mandip Gill gets some great scenes, with Yaz’s job as a Police Officer and home-life leading to some especially scary moments with the Weeping Angels, and relations between Yaz and the Doctor continue to feel the strain as the Time Lord’s obsession with recovering secrets from her past seems to threaten to drive a wedge between them. We also learned that Dan was once going to be married during a somber interlude with his would-be girlfriend, Di (Nadia Albina). Bishop really excels in these quieter, emotional scenes, and there’s a perplexing encounter in the 1820’s between Dan and Steve Orman’s Joseph Whilliamson that gets thrown into the mix to keep that unusual plot element spinning in the background as well. 

Most intriguingly though, we actually get some backstory to Jacob Anderson’s character, Vinder, in this episode. It seems Vinder was some kind of intergalactic whistleblower who exposed the throughly unpleasant Grand Serpent’s (Craig Parkinson) dealings and was excelled to Observation Outpost Rose for his troubles, whereby his forlorn messages to his nearest and dearest have been relayed to the newly introduced character Bel, played by Thaddea Graham.

Bel’s narration and story nicely distracts from the more complex aspects of the episode that has time playing games with everyone and the Doctor furiously negotiating with the etherial supersized Mouri. Bel and Vinder’s heartfelt journey in Once Upon a Time seemingly runs along parallel lines across time and space, Bel’s mission parameters knowingly tug at the heart-strings as Vinder’s true love while she single-handedly survives the apocalyptic aftermath of the Flux, evading Dalek patrols and becoming a one-woman army as she battles Cybermen – not bad for an expectant mum-to-be.

The monsters are out in force in Once Upon a Time, with Daleks, Weeping Angels, and the Cybermen all getting a piece of the action.

Sam Spruell’s and Rochenda Sandall’s double act as the gloriously evil Swarm and Azure didn’t really have much to do other than relish being menacing on the sidelines for most of this episode – despite sidekick Passenger actually being a living prison and far more crucial to the plot than expected. Matthew Needham returns again for the role of Old Swarm during the flashbacks to the era of the Fugitive Doctor’s adventure in the Temple of Atropos, however, he’s no match for Spurell’s gleefully villainous addition to the modern series’ pantheon of ‘big bad’s’. Fortunately Spurell is back on hand as Swarm by the end to ramp up the mystery and danger quota just in time for the next episode.

The monsters are out in force in Once Upon a Time, with Daleks, Weeping Angels, and the Cybermen all getting a piece of the action. It was an unexpected surprise to see the Daleks appear during Bel’s monologues, and it was great to see the Weeping Angles again. Although used sparingly, the Weeping Angels had probably the greatest impact, appearing in the Time Storm with the Doctor and creeping up on Yaz in the mirrors of her Police Car, and later striking at her again via a video game she was playing. The Cybermen also returned in force; battling with Bel in her spacecraft. These action-packed scenes were really exciting. However, as they’ve always been my favourite Doctor Who monster I was a bit disappointed that the Cybermen’s appearance related to little more than a cameo and didn’t really contribute  all that much to Once Upon a Time – especially considering how heavily the Cybermen’s presence was promoted for this episode.

If all those Moffat-style time-twisting highjacks Cibnall utilises wasn’t enough it also became apparent that Karnavista’s Lupari species must be extremely long lived, as events in this story surprisingly reveal they were hanging out with the Fugitive Doctor during her time with the Division. Vinder got to have that classic Doctor Who moment of entering the TARDIS for the first time as well (although curiously he seemed to know what a TARDIS was), even though his journey home ultimately ended up being one tinged with sadness, and Barbara Flynn made her first appearance as the enigmatic ‘Awsok’.

The term ‘Temporal Haze’ is bandied about a lot in Once Upon a Time, which probably best surmises what will probably become the Marmite episode of Doctor Who Flux. Covid  filming restrictions also clearly impacted on how some scenes were framed, the plot positively groans under the weight of its often incomprehensible narrative at times, and the scatter-shot dialogue made the episode feel more like the frenetic middle act of a MCU movie than a Doctor Who episode. Despite all that Once Upon a Time still managed to deliver enough shocks and surprises to gloss over most of its shortcomings. Jodie Whittaker’s engaging performance as the Doctor continues to keep everything on an even keel, her incarnation of the Time Lord seems to thrive amidst the chaos, and we also got a super scary cliffhanger with a Weeping Angel in the TARDIS to boot as well!

The Weeping Angels take centre stage for Village of the Angels and bring some good  old-fashioned behind the sofa scares to the fourth chapter of Doctor Who Flux. Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton craft a wonderfully creepy tale here with an eerie gothic horror vibe – a genre that Doctor Who has often drawn its influences from with great success in the past – and the episode provides lots genuinely chilling thrills as a result. After a Weeping Angel hijacked the TARDIS and brought them to the village of Medderton in Devon, November 1967, the Time Lord and her friends split up, with Dan and Yaz investigating the mystery of a little girl who has gone missing, while the Doctor meets Professor Eustace Jericho (Kevin McNally) who has been conducting psychic experiments with the help of Claire Brown (Annabel Scholery) – the same woman ambushed on her doorstep by a Weeping Angel in The Halloween Apocalypse. Medderton, or “The Cursed Village” as it is known, is a place haunted by Weeping Angels, where dark secrets lurk in the shadows, and in the graveyard there seems to be one gravestone too many.

Village of the Angels showcase the great dynamic evolving between Yaz and Dan. Mandip Gill and John Bishop are effectively dealt a two-hander by the scrip which sees their characters marooned in 1901 after a frightening encounter with a Weeping Angel. Yaz gets to use her Police skills and Dan gets all the best lines as they come to terms with being trapped in Medderton in the past along with the young girl, Peggy (Poppy Pollynick). It was also tragically sad how Mrs Hayward (Penelope McGhie) turned out to be an older version of Peggy, who’d been ridiculed for years for trying to warn everyone in the village about what happened there when she was ten years old. Poppy Pollynick’s reaction as the young Peggy to the horrific demise of her elderly carers Gerald (Vincent Brimble) and Jean (Jemma Churchill) in 1901, where the village has been taken out of time and space by the Angels, was another of this episodes most disquieting and standout moments. 

The Weeping Angels return with a vengeance in Village of the Angels.

The supporting cast are also superb, especially Annabel Scholey as the psychic Claire and Kevin McNally’s stalwart scientist and war veteran, Professor Eustace Jericho. Their scenes help establish and built the haunting atmosphere that permeates every aspect of this episode, with Jericho’s EEG printing out the image of an Angel, and Claire hallucinating that she has stone wings in one particularly disturbing moment. Claire’s precognitive abilities establish how she was able to know about and find the Doctor in the first episode and how she also knew so much about the Weeping Angels. From this point Village of the Angels goes into full on classic Doctor Who base under siege territory, with Weeping Angels surrounding the Professor’s house, and the Doctor, Claire and Jericho barricading themselves in the basement.

Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor positively excels in this environment, fending off the Weeping Angels, and desperately trying to keep Jericho and Claire safe. It is only when the Doctor telepathically enters Claire’s mind that she uncovers the terrifying truth. Claire has a Rogue Weeping Angel hiding inside her mind, the other Angels are a quantum extraction squad sent to find her, and what’s more, the Angels are working for the Division!

After the revelation in the Timeless Children it would seem the secret Time Lord organisation is still very much present and active in the universe. Jodie Whittaker gives a commanding performance as her Doctor has to grapple with peril on all sides, whilst trying to stay one step ahead of the Angels, and come to terms with the secrets of her past.

The Weeping Angels return with a vengeance in Village of the Angels. Ever since their first appearance in the highly acclaimed episode Blink (2007), the Weeping Angels have become one of the modern series’ most popular monsters. Village of the Angels plays out like a greatest hits of their scariest moments: from dust in the eye, to lurking in graveyards, with Claire’s torn-up drawing of an Angel notably reassembling as it projects itself into the room and then bursts into flames when the Doctor sets the sketch alight, there’s an underground tunnel with Angels growing out of the walls, and perhaps most unnervingly of all they use Professor Jericho’s own voice to play on his insecurities in an attempt to make him lower his guard.

Bel’s voyage to find her soulmate continues in a brief interlude to the main action, with Thaddea Graham’s character travelling to a barren world where she saves Namaca (Blake Harrison) when Azure and Passenger show up to rescue refugees that have gathered on the planet in the aftermath of the Flux event. Sadly Swarm didn’t appear in this episode but we did get to see Passenger’s powers in action. Jacob Anderson also featured during a brief mid-post credit scene, where Vinder discovers Bel is still alive after Namaca leads him to a holo-recording that she’d left for him. 

This episode had it all. Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor even got to utter the 3rd Doctor’s (Jon Pertwee) iconic catchphrase “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow” at one point! With the Rogue Angles dire warnings about what the Doctor will soon find out about herself Village of the Angels races towards its nail-biting cliffhanger. With Dan, Yaz, Peggy and the Professor trapped in 1901, they can only watch on helplessly across the divide of time to 1967 where the Doctor slowly turns to stone, wings growing on her back, as she is imprisoned as an Angel to be ‘recalled’ by the Division.

As cliffhangers go, this one was right up there with the  best, and it rounded off this brilliant episode in jaw-dropping style. Village of the Angels is the undisputed jewel in the crown of Doctor Who Flux, as riveting as it was scary, and easily one of the best episode of the 13th Doctor’s era.

In the penultimate episode of Doctor Who Flux the Doctor, Yaz, Dan and Professor Jericho must face their most perilous journey of all. Survivors of the Flux sees their quest to save the universe confounded by circumstance and insurmountable odds at nearly every turn. As the Doctor confronts her Weeping Angel captors while in transit to the Division, her stranded TARDIS team go tomb raiding in 1904 in order to decrypt an ancient text that can help them find their way back to the Doctor. 

Chris Chibnall skilfully manages to bring numerous plot threads together in Survivors of the Flux, with the Doctor’s opening monologue rapidly connecting the dots for the audience, and numerous characters story-arcs dramatically intersecting with one another as Flux races towards its conclusion. Of course, any enjoyment of this episode and its impact on the Doctor’s legacy depends very much on whether you liked the Timeless Child arc which set-up the Division as a secret means for the Time Lords to meddle indiscriminately with the development of the universe, and revealed that the Doctor was also the Timeless Child.

Survivors of the Flux reintroduces Barbara Flynn’s character, now called Tecteun, along with an Ood  (Simon Carew) servant, when the Doctor arrives at Division HQ’s bizarre vessel on the fringes of the multiverse. Here the mysteries of the Flux finally begin to unfold as the Doctor learns the Division has expanded across all of time and space, recruiting countless alien species, and now they want to take their mission to other universes – burning ours on their way out. What’s more the Division caused the Flux to prevent the Doctor uncovering the truth about their organisation and Tecteun was the Gallifreyan who found the Timeless Child and stole its genetic ability of regeneration for the Time Lords. She was also responsible for wiping the Doctor’s memories – memories which now tantalising reside in a fob watch. Jodie Whittaker gives a towering performance in this episode, running a gauntlet of emotions during her powerful exchanges with Tecteun, and Barbara Flynn is wickedly chilling as the Doctor’s cold-hearted ‘adoptive mother’.

Survivors of the Flux was a really ‘Ood’ and exciting episode.

One of the most fun aspects of this episode through was the light-hearted Indiana Jones style adventures in 1904 that Yaz, Dan and Jericho’s embarked upon. Mandip Gill really stood out here as Yaz has clearly taken charge of this TARDIS team in the Doctor’s absence, and calls all the shots throughout their globetrotting quest. The moment where Yaz watches the adaptive hologram recording the Doctor managed to secretly make for her was especially moving too.

Kevin McNally’s Jericho was another great addition to the team, gleefully sharing the comedy spotlight with John Bishop’s cheeky Dan Lewis, and proving to be the perfect foil to mix-up the dynamic between Yaz and Dan as bit as well. There were some brilliant moments as they encountered a hilarious Hermit in Nepal, Karnavista’s reaction to their attempt to get a message to him was priceless, and they also got to meet Joseph Williamson as the mystery behind the industrialists haphazard appearances throughout the 19th century in Doctor Who Flux were finally made clear at last.

Another surprise was seeing Craig Parkinson’s Grand Serpent return in a far more villainous capacity, this time on Earth under the alias of Prentis. It would seem this mysterious character has been manipulating UNIT since its formation, and has been present throughout the organisations illustrious history of dealing with extraterrestrial threats. I thought it was wonderful to see these early years of UNIT explored during this episode, with knowing call-backs to that ‘Post Office Tower business” from the 1965 Hartnell story The War Machines, and of course it was lovely to hear the voice of the late Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier when a snippet of dialogue from part four of Terror of the Autons (1971) rang out in the background. To top everything off Jemma Redgrave also returned as UNIT boss Kate Stewart and almost completely stole the show out from everyone in the process! All in all, it was fantastic to see UNIT back in Doctor Who again, especially that tense confrontation between Kate Stewart and Prentis. Mind you, I think having the 13th Doctor’s TARDIS in UNIT HQ during the 1960’s is bound to cause a few temporal hiccups!

While the supporting cast is slightly sidelined events in this episode do lead to some decidedly unexpected team-ups, with Bel and Karnavista’s missions becoming chaotically linked at the worst possible moment for them both, coragerous soldier Vinder and feisty modern-day scouser Di also find themselves in trouble when they inadvertently discover what the Ravagers have planned for the missing citizens of the universe. 

Tecteun’s scheme to burn our universe to cover up her own machinations possibly makes her the most monstrous person we’ve encountered so far in Doctor Who Flux. Everything builds towards a magnificently pitched cliffhanger, with the Lupari shield breached as the Grand Serpents allies – the Sontarans – attack Earth, while the Swarm and Azure show up to enact their revenge on Tecteun and destroy the Doctor. The special effects were outstanding as well, especially the backdrop of countless Weeping Angels featured during the Doctor’s conversion and the cosmic scale of Tecteun’s heinous plans for our universe. Survivors of the Flux was a really ‘Ood’ and exciting episode. Unlike the time twisting Once Upon a Time, Survivors of the Flux juggled all of its timey-wimey threads with consummate ease, every character and throw-away line was relevant to the overarching narrative, and it provided a fantastic set-up for the series finale as well.

All hope seems lost in the explosive final chapter of the Flux. The Vanquishers sees the Ravagers insidious campaign against the Division and the Doctor has come fruition as the forces of darkness take control. The monsters have won. Swarm and Azure are hellbent on unleashing a constant destructive loop as the Flux consumes the universe, Earth has fallen to the Sontaran empire, Kate Stewart is leader of the resistance against the Sontaran occupation, and the Doctor is tempted to delve into the lost memories of her past as the fate of her companions and the universe hangs in the balance! The Vanquishers strikes a fine balance between being both a stand-alone adventure with the Sontarans using Earth as a staging ground for their conquest of the universe and providing a conclusion to the six part Flux story arc. For the most part Chibnall succeeds in this by ingeniously turning the episode into a multi-Doctor story – of sorts – by splitting the Doctor into three personas across multiple time zones and locations. The Time Lord even saves herself form being tortured by Craig Parkinson’s intriguingly double pulsed Grand Serpent at one point, before reuniting with friends and allies alike. Claire (Annabel Scholey) returns to throw a proverbial psychic spanner into the works of the Sontaran Psychic Command and the Odd in Division HQ plays a pivotal role in helping to weaken the  effect of the Flux. Jacob Anderson and Thaddeea Graham’s star-crossed lovers Vinder and Bel also get a happy – if somewhat underwhelming – ending as well.

Chibnall really hit the landing with this one.

Jodie Whittaker’s amazing central performance and multiple portrayals of herself is the driving force of this complex episode. Her Doctor’s warmth and endearing personality makes light work the exposition heavy moments and keeps the narrative engaging. The Vanquishers showcases the 13th Doctor like never before, especially when ‘big bad’s’ Swarm and Azure taunt her with the mysteries of her past, but it is the quieter moments where her incarnation really shines. There are emotionally charged scenes with Yaz in the TARDIS as the Doctor finally admits she’s been keeping secrets from her, Steve Oram’s Joseph Williamson gets a moving farewell  from the Doctor, we also have 13’s first meeting with Jemma Redgrave’s tough-as-nails Kate Stewart (who fittingly also sends the Grand Serpent packing), and perhaps most heartrending of all is the scene where Whittaker’s Doctor realises Craig Els’ grumpy space-hound Karnavista once travelled with her during the Fugitive Doctor’s era.

The Sontarans are as ruthless as ever, invading Earth, exterminating the Lupari and even  luring the Daleks and Cybermen fleets into a trap – although I’m surprised either of these intergalactic superpowers actually fell for it but it certainly made for some spectacular special effect sequences as the Flux closed in. The Sontarans plans quickly came unstuck after Karnavista turned the Lupari ships against them, Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) met a noble end, Di’s (Nadia Albina’s) inspired idea of using Passenger to absorb the Flux also helped save the day, while Swarm and Azure were fittingly vanquished, and the Doctor got a reckoning with time itself to round everything off. Even though the multi faceted resolution and drawn out coda got a tad convoluted, Chibnall really hit the landing with this one. So, with Karnavista, Vinder and Bel setting out on their own and a Masterful portent about the Doctor’s impending fate looming Doctor Who Flux concluded with the tantalising prospect. Namely that of the fob watch containing the Doctor’s forgotten memories being squirrelled away in the depths of the TARDIS for safekeeping by the Doctor, and best of all John Bishop’s character Dan joined the TARDIS team for more adventures in time and space.

Chris Chibnall delivered a truly epic saga with Doctor Who Flux. I really like how Chibnall drew influences from so many eras of Doctor Who and included plenty of fan-pleasing callbacks to the shows past. Although the Timeless Child reboot of the Doctor’s origins is no doubt still a dealbreaker for many, given its context post Flux it arguably complements the Time Lords legacy now rather than detracting from it. The entire cast, crew and production team clearly pulled out all the stops to make this series under the most difficult of circumstances during the pandemic – a commendable feat in itself. Doctor Who Flux had some outstanding episodes, high production values, and stunning visual effects. The reduced episode count and serialised approach offered a more concisely structured narrative, and with a veritable army of popular returning monsters to endanger the universe it got Doctor Who firing on all cylinders again – both creatively and dramatically.

Jodie Whittaker’s outstanding performance as Doctor was another major highlight of this mini-seres. Her incarnation of the Time Lord has come a long way since Whittaker’s bright and breezy debut in 2018’s The Woman Who Fell To Earth, and the 13th Doctor became an all-commanding presence that has positively flourished here during the crisis of the Flux. Mandip Gill has also excelled as Yaz, with the character finally shrugging off the trope of being the underdeveloped third wheel of the TARDIS team, and John Bishop was absolutely brilliant as new companion Dan Lewis.

Overall I think Doctor Who Flux turned out to be an extremely good season, one that was actually much better than I expected to be honest, and minor quibbles aside I throughly enjoyed it. I also took the decision to write a series overview of Doctor Who Flux this time around rather than individual episode reviews. It was nice to try out a new format, I’ve really enjoyed just chilling out watching Doctor Who Flux, and taking a step back from the treadmill of individual episode reviews for a change. 

Well, Doctor Who Flux might be over but the 13th Doctor will return to kick off 2022 in a New Year’s Days Special: Eve of the Daleks. This will be the first of three Doctor Who Specials airing in 2022, with the second arriving in the Spring, and Jodie Whittaker’s final feature-length Special (where the 13th Doctor will regenerate), to be shown during the autumn of 2022 as part of the BBC’s Centenary celebrations before Russel T Davies takes over from Chris Chibnall as the new Doctor Who show runner to usher in the programmes 60th Anniversary in 2023.

IMAGES BELONG BBC

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About The Author

Hi, I’m Paul Bowler, blogger and reviewer of films, TV shows, and comic books. I’m a Sci-Fi geek, a big fan of Doctor Who, Star Trek, movies, Sci-Fi, Horror, Comic Books, and all things PS4.You can follow me on Twitter @paul_bowler,or at my website, Sci-Fi Jubilee, and on YouTube and Facebook

Doctor Who Series 5 The Time Of Angels / Flesh & Stone Review

Tags

11th Doctor, Adam Smith, Alex Kingston, Amy Pond, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Series 5, Flesh and Stone, Karen Gillan, River Song, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Time of Angels, Weeping Angels

The Time of Angels & Flesh and Stone

Review by Paul Bowler

The Doctor (Matt Smith and Amy (Karen Gillan) visit the Delirium Archive, a museum in the distant future, where they find a rather odd exhibit – a flight recorder inscribed with old high Gallifreyan symbols. After discovering it is actually a message from Dr River Song (Alex Kingston), who is currently travelling on the spaceship Byzantium 12,000 years in the past, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to save her before the ship crash lands on the planet Alfava Metraxis.

Right from the spectacular opening scenes, where River sends the Doctor a message back through time “hello sweetie” before opening the air lock on the Byzantium, sending her hurtling through space and into the TARDIS, it’s clear that this is going to be very special adventure. The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone (2010) are the fourth and fifth episodes from Matt Smith’s first season as the 11^th Doctor, written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Adam Smith. These episodes from Series Five also feature the return of Steven Moffat’s most frightening creations, the Weeping Angels, from his Series Three story Blink (2007). Here they return in force in an action packed storyline that makes them seem even more terrifying than before.

While Amy gets acquainted with River Song, and her uncanny relationship with the Doctor, who still doesn’t know who she really is at this point because they both keep meeting at different points in his time stream, River tells the Doctor that the Byzantium’s cargo is a deadly Weeping Angel – a quantum locked stone creature that can only move when nobody is looking at it. As they survey the wreckage of the ship, River sends a message to a squad of military clerics in orbit, commanded by Father Octavian (Ian Glen), who beam down to help secure the Angel before the radiation leaking from the ship restores its full strength.

As the Doctor and River check out a book written by a madman about the Weeping Angels, which states: “That which holds the image of an Angel, becomes itself an Angel,” Amy suddenly gets trapped inside the trailer in the cleric’s base camp where security footage taken of the Angel inside the Byzantium is still running on a continuous loop. They rush to help her but find the door is locked. The Doctor warns Amy not to look into the eyes of the Angel, because they are the doorway of the soul that will allow the Angel to enter there. Amy manages to deactivate the video loop and switch off the screen, just as the Weeping Angel begins to emerge from the screen into the room. Together they set off with Octavian’s troops to reach the Byzantium, but in order to get there they must first find a path through “The Maze of the Dead”, a dark and foreboding labyrinth full of eerie looking humanoid statues built by an ancient race, where Amy begins to feel something in the corner of her eye…

Alex Kingston makes a very welcome return as River Song in this story, bursting back into the Doctor’s life once more, River’s still always inexplicably able to keep one step ahead of the Time Lord, though tragically – as we would later discover in Series Six – she’s also always moving one step further way from him as well. The complex nature of their relationship is a joy to behold. They behave like an old married couple at times, teasing and trying to get the better of each other, which in hindsight all seems rather apt now. With her trademark “spoilers” and TARDIS diary, River is a brilliant character, and here we get to enjoy what I feel is perhaps Kingston’s best performance in the role. Free of the continuity of things to come, River Song is a vibrant and unpredictable character. Later that sheen would diminish a little, but here she is both gloriously mischievous and mysterious in equal measure. I also like how River gets to fly the TARDIS and quickly forms a strong bond with Amy; and the two of them delight in winding the Doctor up – although he still manages to win over River’s uses of the blue “boring” switches by simply taking in the atmosphere outside the TARDIS to identify the planet they’ve landed on.

The long journey through The Maze of the Dead takes a sinister turn when some of Father Octavian’s forces begin to go missing. As the Doctor and River talk about the ancient two headed race that built the statues, they suddenly notice how all the statues only have one head and must really be Weeping Angels! The slow, gnarled creatures begin to take shape, stalking them through the shadows, communicating with them by using the voice of the Cleric Bob (David Atkins), who they have slain. The Doctor has to help Amy after she believes her hand has been turned to stone, preventing her from moving, she is being influenced because she looked into the eyes of the Angel on the screen in the camp, so the Doctor bites her hand to convince her otherwise.

Having been forced to the highest point in the maze by the misshapen Angels, they find themselves directly below the crashed ship. The Doctor shoots the gravity globe which allows them all to jump up into the Byzantium and escape the Weeping Angels momentarily, but the Angels quickly follow as they flee to the ships oxygen factory – a forest within the ship itself. After noticing a familiar crack in the wall of the secondary control room, the same one from young Amy’s bedroom in The Eleventh Hour (2010), the Doctor suspects the Angels are trying to feed on the time energy.

Matt Smith is already settling into the role of the Doctor, bringing lots of his distinctive characteristics to the fore, which will become a mainstay for his incarnation of the Time Lord during his tenure. There is a lot of humour as well, particularly when he makes the TARDIS landing noise after River “parks” the ship. He also has to save Amy from the Angels, his fear for her is almost palpable when she is walking blindly through the forest, and his rage when trapped before he uses the gun to save them during the cliff-hanger of The Time of Angels is quietly restrained, and almost menacing in the intensity of Matt Smith’s delivery of his lines (Despite an animated banner trailing the BBC’s Over the Rainbow programme notoriously appearing on screen too early and spoiling this dramatic moment during the original UK transmission of the episode). I think this is what made Matt Smith’s 11^th Doctor so good, right from the start his performance is more measured, and the way his Doctor often speaks very quietly to make his point is a marked change from his predecessors.

When it becomes clear Amy has begun counting backwards, the Doctor quickly stops her, instructing Amy to keep her eyes closed to starve the Angel that’s gotten inside her brain and prevent it from killing her. With Amy unable to move, the Doctor, River and Octavian go to find the main control room, the Doctor learns that River is actually a prisoner who has been released into Octavian’s custody, offering her help in return for a pardon. Octavian is later killed by the Weeping Angels. Meanwhile the crack in time continues to grow, swallowing up the Clerics guarding Amy in the forest. Now terrified and alone, Amy must then carefully follow the Doctor’s instructions to reach the control room. But as Amy blindly makes her way past the Weeping Angels she stumbles and falls, revealing her blindness, and they begin to turn on her. Fortunately, River is able to teleport Amy to the control room before the Angels can kill her.

Once the Angels have drained the ships power they gain access to the main control room, but they have overlooked the gravity of the situation. The Doctor uses this to his advantage as the vessels artificial gravity systems fail, sending all the Weeping Angels plummeting into the glowing rift, eventually sealing it while the Doctor, Amy, and River cling onto the controls. With the Angel now erased from her mind Amy quickly recovers, the Doctor says goodbye to River before she teleports back to the Clerics ship, but she tells him they will meet again soon when the mysterious Pandorica opens, which the Doctor dismisses as nothing more than a fairy tale. On their return to the TARDIS, Amy asks the Doctor to take her back to the night they left Earth. Amy explains that she’s actually getting married in the morning, showing the Doctor her wedding dress and ring. Suddenly she tries to seduce the Doctor, but he backs away, having noticed that the date of Amy’s wedding, 26^th June 2010, is the same as the time explosion he believes is responsible for the cracks that have been appearing across time. So he takes Amy away so that he can try and figure out what is happening…

This is also a great story for Karen Gillan, who really gets to earn her stripes as a resourceful companion as she literally comes face to face with the Weeping Angels. Amy manages to switch off the security footage of the Weeping Angel, but she has inadvertently looked into its eyes, and allowed the creature to imprint itself on her brain. There is horrific moment when she rubs her eye and dust pours out as they are exploring the Maze of the Dead, and later her hand seems to turn to stone. Perhaps most chilling of all though is the countdown Amy does without even noticing she’s doing it; as the Angel continues to attack her from inside her own mind. Steven Moffat has crafted these scenes perfectly, as viewers it’s almost as if we are stumbling though the forest with Amy as she blindly struggles to escape only to disturb the Angels who slowly begin to turn around and notice her.

In Series Five the crack in time on the young Amelia’s bedroom wall plays a pivotal role in the events leading up to the series finale. In Flesh and Stone the Doctor begins to realise how the rift on the Byzantium is linked to the crack in Amy’s wall, which has begun to appear throughout time and space, erasing anyone from time that it comes into contact with, and is somehow linked to a massive time explosion. Although these plot threads are left unresolved for now, while the main story arc begins to focus more on Amy and Rory, the events linking the cracks in time would eventually fall into place – particularly a conversation between Amy and the Doctor in the forest in Flesh and Stone – during the complex series finale: The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang (2010) when all of the Doctor’s enemies unite to imprison him in the Pandorica.

The Weeping Angels themselves are as fabulously unnerving and creepy as ever. From the moment we see the Angel moving on the screen towards Amy, growing ever nearer, until it begins to emerge from the screen, much like the ghostly entity in the film, The Ring, they are always lurking in the darkness and ready to strike. The statues in the Maze of the Dead begin to come to life and turn into Angels; these lumpy, misshapen things are absolutely horrific as they stalk the Doctor and his companions. When the Angels use the voice of the Cleric, Bob, to taunt the Doctor, it offers an even more gruesome aspect to the Angels powers. On the ship they become full Weeping Angels, caught in the muzzle flash of gunfire, they advance relentlessly, before cornering Amy in the forest – a chilling scene in which the unsettling concept of actually seeing the Weeping Angels moving also becomes a reality. It is only really in the closing moments, when the Angels are sent tumbling into the rift that some of the tension is lost, and it feels like they were defeated a little too easily.

Looking back at The Time of Angels & Flesh and Stone now, this exciting action-driven story by Steven Moffat is ingeniously constructed, it successfully broadens the mythology of the Weeping Angels established during their debut story, Blink, and slots perfectly into the ongoing story arc of Series Five while also remaining immensely enjoyable as a stand alone story in its own right. The special effects are also outstanding: from its exciting opening moments in space, to the brooding menace of The Maze of the Dead; through to the final showdown on the Byzantium, director Adam Smith’s work on these episodes is exceptional.

The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone are both thrilling episodes, with some terrific performances all round, together with the return of the Weeping Angels, this exciting two-part story is a real highlight of both Series Five and Matt Smith’s first year as the Doctor.

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Doctor Who The Time of the Doctor Review

Tags

Clara Oswald, Cybermen, Daleks, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Christmas Special, Jenna Coleman, Matt Smith, Orla Brady, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, Tasha Lem, The Doctor, The Silence, The Time of the Doctor, Trenzalore, Weeping Angels

The Time of the Doctor

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The 50^th Anniversary of Doctor Who draws to a close as Matt Smith takes his final bow and hands over the key of the TARDIS to his successor, Peter Capaldi, in the 2013 Christmas special: The Time of the Doctor. The 2013 Christmas special, the ninth since the series returned in 2005 is also the programmes 200^th episode, and it’s a seasonal spectacular packed with monsters and adventures where the Time Lord must face his darkest hour.

The fall of the eleventh is nigh and the clock is already ticking twelve’s as the Doctor (Matt Smith) arrives to whisk Clara (Jenna Coleman) away from her family Christmas diner for one last adventure, to answer the call to a distant backwater world, where the Doctor meets his old friend Tasha Lem (Orla Brady), and his deadliest enemies have also arrived having been drawn to this planet by a mysteriously indecipherable signal echoing through the depths of space.

The Doctor must discover what this signal heralds for his fate, and that of the universe itself, as their journey takes them to the planet below, Trenzalore, the place where it is foretold the First Question will be asked and the Doctor will ultimately fall. The snow covered streets will lead to the Doctor‘s final battleground. Soon the trap is sprung, as the Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and the Silence, begin to attack, the Time Lord stands defiant and becomes a hero to the people of this small town. The Siege of Trenzalore has begun and the Doctor; his many lives now all but spent, must make his final stand and confront the inevitability of his own mortality…

The Time of the Doctor is the third adventure in a broadly linked trilogy of stories, that began with The Name of the Doctor, and then continued spectacularly in the 50^th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. The Time of the Doctor also marks a return to Trenzalore, the planet first mentioned in The Wedding of River Song (2011), which has since often been spoken of in hushed whispers and dark prophecies. We know Trenzalore is where the Doctor will die, his body is buried there, and in the Name of the Doctor he even saw his own tomb in the future. Dorium Maldovar told of the question that must never be answered, a religious order called the Silence are determined to ensure this never happens, and even the Great Intelligence knows the Doctor’s time was almost up.

Having linked a severed Cyberman head “Handles” to the TARDIS console to decipher the signal coming from the unknown planet, that has left half the universe in terror, the Doctor is first confronted by the Daleks before being attacked by Cybermen and escaping in the TARDIS as the Cybership attacks, when the he suddenly gets  a call from Clara on Christmas Day. She needs help cooking the Christmas dinner for her family, so the Doctor makes a quick detour to lend a hand. After helping with lunch and meeting Clara’s family: Dad (James Buller), Linda (Elizabeth Rider), and gran (Sheila Reid), the Doctor offers Clara a respite from the festivities while the turkey cooks, and together they set off to investigate the signal coming from the planet where his enemies ships are gathering, which Handles bizarrely identifies as Gallifrey. The TARDIS is intercepted by a giant vessel of The Papal Mainframe, where they are taken aboard and greeted by the Doctor’s old friend, Tasha Lem, and her troops, Colonel Albero (Mark Brighton) and Colonel Meme (Sonita Henry). At the behest of Tasha Lem, the Doctor and Clara set out to explore a town called Christmas on the planet below, which is blanketed by a truth field, where they encounter Abramal (Rob Jarvis) and Marta (Tessa Peake Jones), and a young boy called Barnable (Rob Jarvis).

Some of the Doctor’s most feared enemies have also heeded the call to Trenzalore, gathering together on this remote world to oversee the demise of their greatest adversary. The Daleks are as formidable as ever, stalking the Doctor until the bitter end, while the Cybermen introduce a wooden upgrade to counteract the effects of the Time Lords defences. The Weeping Angels are more ruthless than ever, lurking in a snow storm, they will stop at nothing to prevent the Doctor’s escape, and  we will finally lean why the Silence is so determined to ensure that the question they have protected so incessantly is never, ever answered.

The issue of the Doctor’s remaining regenerations is also tackled in The Time of the Doctor as he approaches the end of his natural lifespan. It is well known fact that Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times, a rule established by the 1976 story The Deadly Assassin, which over the course of a number of stories, has subsequently become so engrained in the mythology of the series that it is now the one, indefatigable rule that cannot be ignored. However, as well as the 10^th Doctor’s somewhat truncated regeneration in Journey’s End (2008), since the events of The Day of the Doctor, it is the quandary posed by the introduction of the War Doctor (John Hurt), an incarnation that existed during the Time War between the Doctor’s 8^th and 9^th regenerations, that has now actually made  Matt Smith’s 11^th Doctor the Time Lords final incarnation.

The Doctor and Clara teleport to the planet, they arrive in a town called Christmas, where the Doctor discovers a crack in time, the same one that originally featured in Season Five, where the message is being transmitted from. The message is the same question repeated over and over: “Doctor Who?” It is the question that must never be answered, it is from the Time Lords of Gallifrey – who were transported into a pocket dimension in The Day of the Doctor – and if the Doctor speaks his name they will know this is the place where they can try and return.  But if this should ever happen the alien forces circling the planet will burn this world, a world Tasha Lem informs him is Tranzalore, and that the Time War will start all over again. The Siege of Trenzalore will begin and untold chaos and destruction will be unleashed throughout the universe. The Doctor then tricks Clara and sends her back home in the TARDIS, while he remains to defend the town and enforce the stalemate.

The Time of the Doctor starts out as a fun Christmas adventure for the Doctor and Clara, before events quickly take a darker turn, when the Doctor explains to Clara that he has no more regenerations and his time is almost up.  There are some fun moments to be had though, especially with the Doctor helping Clara to cook Christmas dinner, and meeting her family, but once the TARDIS arrives on Trenzalor a brooding air of menace begins to pervade this bizarre winter wonderland as the Doctor’s enemies prepare to strike. Tasha Lem is a very intriguing character, a being with an uncanny knowledge of the Doctor, played by  Orla Brady who gives a great perforce as the strange alien. We discover that Tasha Lem is the supremely powerful Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe, an old friend of the Doctor, she knows him very well and is extremely loyal to him.. However, her friendship with the Doctor later proves crucial, as her will alone is strong enough to resist Dalek conditioning, especially with a little help from the Doctor and Clara after the Dalek reinforcements have arrived.

Fortunately with Clara Oswald around, the past, present, and future never  seems to be set in stone, as the Impossible Girl stubbornly refuses to be sent home, gripping the sides of the TARDIS, she forces the Time Machine to return her to the Doctor, now an old man, who has been defending Christmas and its population for over three hundred years. The Doctor explains to Clara that he has reached his final regeneration. They are transported back to the Papal Mainframe, where they learn the Silence are really genetically engineered priests, and that it was the Kovarian chapter who broke away from the Papal Mainframe to prevent the Doctor ever reaching Trenzalore by destroying his TARDIS (The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang) and engineering a child, who would grow up to be River Song (The Impossible Astronaut / The Day of the Moon / A Good Man Goes To War / Let‘s Kill Hitler / The Wedding of River Song), to assassinate  him. It seem that the Daleks have returned, Tasha and her crew have been taken over and transformed by the Daleks, but she manages to resist and helps the Doctor and Clara escape, before Clara is tricked again by the Doctor into going home for a second time.

Back in her flat with her family after Christmas lunch, Clara hears the TARDIS return. She rushes out only to find that it was Tasha flying the TARDIS, she does not want the Doctor to die alone, and together they return to Trenzalore where Clara is reunited with the Doctor, now extremely old and facing the end of his life. He still refuses to release the Time Lords, only the Daleks now remain to oppose him, and the Doctor has been fighting them with the aid of the Silence. As the Doctor goes to the Clock Tower to face the Daleks attack, it is then that Clara desperately appeals to the Time Lords of Gallifrey through the crack in the wall, she begs them to reach out and help him as she speaks his name.

The crack in time vanished from the wall before suddenly reappearing in the sky above Trenzalore as The Time Lords bestow the Doctor with the energy of a new regenerative life cycle, which he then unleashes on his enemies to destroy them as his 13th regeneration begins. After the battle Clara goes back inside the TARDIS to find the Doctor is young again. He begins to see images of the young Amelia Pond as he waits for his regeneration and new life cycle to begin. The adult Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) appears to greet her raggedy man in his final moments. Clara watches in awe as the Time Lord rapidly regenerates into the new Doctor (Peter Capaldi), who quickly says “kidneys, I‘ve got new kidneys!” before turning to her as the Time Machine lurches in flight and asking her is she knows how to fly the TARDIS.

Matt Smith is superb as the Doctor in this story, looking positively Troughtonesque in a new variation of his costume, delivering a show stopping performance that is simply brilliant. You get a real sense of the Time Lords plight as he is faced with the certainty of his impending death as he begins to age over the course of the episode. This time there is no more running, and nowhere to hide. Ever since Matt Smith’s gangly tweed clad, fez loving, 11^th Doctor burst onto our screens with a cry of “Geronimo” he has charmed us with his carefree spirit of adventure, bow ties, jammy dodgers, and fish fingers and custard. His adventures have been some of the most complex and timey wimey in the shows history. The companions were many, Amy and Rory, River, the Paternoster Row gang, and finally Clara, were all swept up in the Doctor’s adventures. Matt Smith also managed to convey the Doctor’s great age and more alien eccentricities, enthusiastic and almost frivolous one moment, his steely gaze held centuries of wisdom that belied his youthful appearance.

Jenna Coleman is also excellent as  Clara Oswald, her journey as the Doctor’s companion has seen her life become entwined with the very fabric of the Doctor’s time line, she has meet all of the Doctor’s incarnations at one point or another, saved him on many occasions, and played a significant role in helping the Doctor remember the promise he made when he took his name so he could find another way to save Gallifrey during the Time War. I have really begun to warm to Clara as a character now, to begin with it sometimes felt like we were always meeting Clara for the first time, only to have her snatched away again before we could even get to know her. Fortunately when Clara became a full time companion in The Bells of St John (2013), we finally got to know the Impossible Girl a lot better. Jenna Coleman also had great chemistry with Matt Smith’s Doctor, her character still has plenty of potential, and it will be interesting to see how Clara adjusts to Peter Capaldi’s new Doctor.

Steven Moffat brings the 11^th Doctor’s era to a rousing, if highly complex, close with The Time of the Doctor, bringing together various plot threads, some of which reach as far back as The Eleventh Hour (2010) itself, including revelations about the Silence, the Seal of the High Council which he took from the Master in the Five Doctors, as well as revealing what the Doctor saw in The God Complex (2011) when he looked into room 11, and even the question that must never be asked is finally revealed. Director Jamie Payne skilfully balances the darker elements of the story, interspacing them with a couple of very funny moments – when the Doctor and Clara have to cook the turkey and when she later finds him naked in the TARDIS – as well as some particularly emotional scenes for the Doctor and Clara, and the final showdown is explosive and shocking. I do feel that The Time of the Doctor is a tad overlong, the regular episode length would have probably been sufficient, and the story effectively reboots the series – paving the way for an entirely new era of the show to being. Peter Capaldi also makes a strong debut as the new Doctor, the rogues gallery of monsters bring added menace to this Christmas episode, and Matt Smith’s heartrending final moments as the Doctor will resonate long after the credits have rolled. The Time of the Doctor is a brilliant Christmas special, it rounds off the 50^th Anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who in fine style, and provides a triumphant finale for this youngest ever incarnation of the Doctor.

Images Belong To BBC

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The Angels Take Manhattan

Tags

Arthur Darvill, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith, River Song, The Angels Take Manhattan, Weeping Angels

The Angels Take Manhattan

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Angels Take Manhattan takes full advantage of New York’s famous landmarks

The Angels Take Manhattan opens in the shadowy streets of 1930’s Downtown New York as Sam Garner (Rob David) narrates the darkest day of his life. Garner has been given the task of investigating an old apartment block, Winter Quays, by an odious collector called Grayle (Mike McShane). When Sam arrives at the run-down building he explores its dark corridors, where he is shocked to discover a version of himself as a dying old man. His older self urges him to escape but before he can flee Sam is attacked by the Weeping Angels…

An idyllic moment of happiness for the TARDIS crew

We join The Doctor, Amy, and Rory in present day New York as they enjoy a relaxing day in Central Park. The Doctor has been reading aloud from a pulp-fiction novel that he has found, although his companions don’t quite share the Time Lords enthusiasm for the adventures of private detective Melody Malone. But this idyllic moment of happiness for the TARDIS crew soon gives way to horror when Rory goes to fetch them all some coffees, only to be hunted by a cackling stone cherub near a fountain that transports him back to 1938 where he is reunited with Professor River Song before they are both captured by Grayle’s henchmen.

The new “Cherub” Angels with their mischievous giggling are particularly unsettling

The Doctor and Amy must travel back to Manhattan 1938 to save Rory, as the Weeping Angels begin to unleash a wave of terror from within Winter Quays, but as The Doctor and River race against time to help the Ponds escape, the time has come for Amy and Rory to make the ultimate sacrifice…

The Angels Take Manhattan sees The Doctor faced with an almost impossible situation. Matt Smith is excellent in this episode, giving his most emotive performance yet as he effortlessly walks the fine line between the Time Lords turbulent eccentricity and menacing gloom. Indeed, Matt Smith has done some remarkable things with The Doctor’s character this season, nevermore so than here – when the stakes have been raised so high – do we get to see the strength and humility that makes The Doctor such a universal force of nature.

Amy and Rory’s lives are ripped apart by the Weeping Angles

As this is the last story to feature Amy and Rory as The Doctor’s companions, it is perhaps all the more poignant that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are to depart just as the Ponds are at the height of their popularity. Steven Moffat’s incredible script for The Angels Take Manhattan sees the Ponds lives ripped apart by the Weeping Angles as their plot to ensnare the Time Travellers draws them inexorably towards the episodes tear-jerking climax. This is an episode full of fraught emotions: even the stoniest heart will melt when Rory tries to get Amy to push him off the roof of Winter Quays, and you’ll be dismayed as River Song is forced to allow fate to take its course, but nothing will prepare you for The Doctor’s heartrending cries of despair as Amy valiantly stands her ground against a Weeping Angel to be with the man she loves.

Steven Moffat’s quantum locked creations are utterly remorseless and without mercy

Ever since their first appearance in Blink (2007) The Weeping Angles have gone on to become one of the series most popular monsters. Here they are at their horrific best, lurking amongst the shadowy halls of Winter Quays, ready to strike from the dark without warning, and the startling new “Cherub” Angels with their mischievous giggling are particularly unsettling when  Rory is trapped with them in Grayle‘s basement. Steven Moffat’s quantum locked creations are utterly remorseless and without mercy, predators of time who feed on the timelines of sentient beings in order to survive. After their apparent destruction in The Time of Angles / Flesh and Stone (2010), the Weeping Angels are back with a vengeance, gorging themselves on the latent energy of “the city that never sleeps” to feed their relentless hunger: turning every stone statue, monument, and gargoyle around Winter Quays into Weeping Angels. Even the Statue of Liberty itself becomes a twisted monstrosity as it silently stalks its prey across the Manhattan skyline.

Matt Smith and Alex Kingston have some great scenes together

Alex Kingston makes a welcome return as Professor River Song, making her most timey wimey entrance yet as she inveigles her way back into the Time Lords life from the very pages of the Melody Malone novel he’s been reading. The Professor River Song we meet in The Angels Take Manhattan is as vivacious as ever, and still flies the TARDIS better than The Doctor, but the woman that Alex Kingston portrays here seems more akin to the River Song we first saw in her fateful encounter with the 10^th Doctor (David Tenant) in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (2008). There are some great scenes between Matt Smith and Alex Kingston in The Angels Take Manhattan: when River is trapped by Grayle’s chained Weeping Angel we learn she has been pardoned for her crimes and that all knowledge of the man River was imprisoned for killing has been wiped from every data bank in the universe; which perhaps explains what The Doctor has been up to while the Ponds decided to remain on Earth between adventures. The Doctor now dwells within a mysterious veil of anonymity, even the Daleks don’t seem to know who he is anymore, leaving only River Song to weave the last remaining threads of his past, present, and future to form the unequivocal testimony of the woman who killed Doctor Who…

Amy know the risks inherent when The Doctor travels alone for too long

River may have been able to help Rory after he got transported back to 1938, whilst able to keep one step ahead of Grayle and his sinister plans, but even her incredible foreknowledge is no match for the power of the Weeping Angels. The Melody Malone novel holds even more secrets than River’s diary, binding them all too future events that cannot be changed once they are read. She lies about breaking her wrist to escape Grayle’s prized exhibit, the chained Weeping Angel, but the Doctor uses his regeneration energy to heal her – which leaves River none to impressed with The Doctor. A brief interlude between River and Amy after they’ve escaped Grayle’s building also foreshadows the gathering storm that will soon engulf them all. When River warns her mother never to let the Time Lord see the damage he does, adding that The Doctor“doesn’t like endings”, which is especially poignant as they both know the risks inherent when The Doctor travels alone for too long.

Grayle’s prized exhibit, the chained Weeping Angel

Mike McShane’s villainous collector has foolishly imprisoned a Weeping Angel. He needs River Song to help him find out what the creature is, but is unprepared for the full extent of their terrible power. Having tortured the latest addition to his collection, it is perhaps fitting that when the Weeping Angels come for Grayle, their revenge is sure and swift.

Nick Hurran’s lavish cinematic direction elevates this episode to a whole new level; the location filming in New York looks absolutely stunning. The impeccable attention to the period detail of the scenes set in the 1930’s also help Hurran to strike the perfect balance between the two time zones. The Angels Take Manhattan takes full advantage of New York’s famous landmarks: Tudor City, Central Park, Times Square, and The Brooklyn Bridge, all play a part in Doctor Who’s most ambitious transatlantic adventure to date. Hurran also filmed some key scenes in Cardiff: locations that range from Cardiff University, The Glamorgan building in Cathays Park, and Box Cemetery in Llaneli are all flawlessly enhanced by the magic of CGI to give them the distinct look and feel of the high rise buildings of New York.

The Doctor and Amy must travel back to Manhattan 1938 to save Rory

Murray Gold’s score for The Angels Take Manhattan is as equally spellbinding, enhancing every key emotional moment as the Ponds exit draws near; no doubt leaving many fans reaching for the tissues as we say goodbye to Amy and Rory for the last time.

Steven Moffat promised that Amy and Rory’s departure from the TARDIS would be truly heartbreaking, and he is true to his word. From the moment you see the black swirling vortex of the title sequence – and the Doctor Who logo wickedly tinged in green – you are propelled into one of Moffat’s most labyrinthine scripts ever as he effortlessly ties everything up, even finding time to include a lovely coda for the young Amelia Pond’s very first story: The 11^th Hour (2010.

Amy And Rory decide to face their destiny “together, or not at all”

The weeping Angels have been feeding off the residents of Winter Quays, using them like a battery farm, but when The Doctor, River, and Amy catch up with Rory at Winter Quays they find he has discovered an old man – and just like Sam before him – Rory is confronted by the fully horror of his elderly self dying in a bed. Rory and Amy witness the older Rory die as The Doctor and River look on, soon the Weeping Angels begin to come for Rory, determined to send him back in time again and feed off him like the other residents. But Amy has other ideas, leaving The Doctor and River to cover their escape, they plan to leave and cause a paradox – the only thing powerful enough to destroy the Weeping Angels. Trapped on the roof by a giant Weeping Angel, Rory decides to jump to his death to create the paradox. Amy refuses to let him, instead joining him on the ledge, and as Ponds decide to jump from the roof and  face their destiny “together, or not at all” they sadly find that the last page of their story has already becomes set in stone; and not even The Doctor can save them.

A Weeping Angel has survived and catches Rory unawares as he finds his own gravestone

As the Paradox wipes out the Weeping Angles it returns Amy and Rory safe and well to the Graveyard to rejoin The Doctor and River in the present – where we caught a glimpse Rory’s grave earlier. Tragically a lone Weeping Angel has survived and catches Rory unawares as he finds his own gravestone. As Rory is catapulted back into the past a distraught Amy confronts the Weeping Angel, ignoring The Doctor’s warnings, she turns and says goodbye to her “raggedy man” and fades away to be together with Rory in the past. As the wailing Time Lord sinks to his knees Amy’s name appears alongside Rory’s on the gravestone. River leads The Doctor back to the TARDIS, where The Doctor asks River to travel with him. She agrees, at least to joining him at some point in the future, as right now she has a date with history and a novel to write…

So as the credits roll and we leave the girl who waited and the last centurion to their fate, the brief teaser for the Christmas Special will at least go some way to easing the pain of Amy and Rory’s final adventure with the mad man in a blue box. The Angels Take Manhattan is one of the best episodes so far this season, full of grand spectacle and fantastic scenery; it also offers a thrilling finale for Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. Together they have found a place in our hearts, they will be fondly missed, and their time during the 11^th Doctor’s era will be forever in our thoughts.