Timestamp #311: The Power of the Doctor

June 26, 2024July 19, 2024 Michael Falkner1 Comment

Regeneration, degeneration, and regeneration again.

The Cybermen attack a cosmic bullet train and Team TARDIS responds to the distress call. The train’s guards apparently kill the intruders, but these are the CyberMasters so they regenerate. The Doctor, Yaz, and Dan board the train using a metal ladder but the Cybermen send a team to the roof to counter them. The Doctor deactivates the magnetic field holding the Cybermen to the roof and they fly into the depths of space. Dan takes a blaster bolt to his spacesuit’s helmet but survives once the team enters the train.

The Cybermen are searching for cargo on the train. While Dan slows the train and Yaz tends to the wounded, the Doctor confronts the CyberMasters. They find the cargo is a young child and the CyberMasters escape with him.

Wait, are we trafficking people now?

In Siberia, 1916, a messenger arrives at Father Grigori Rasputin’s home with an urgent request. Tsarevich Alexei has taken ill and Rasputin has been summoned to the Winter Palace.

In London, 2022, Ace studies an empty wall in an art gallery. The curator insists that the missing painting has been taken for restoration, but Ace is not convinced. She calls Tegan, who is in Romania looking for missing seismologists, and notes that fifteen famous paintings have gone missing. Tegan is further confused by a Russian stacking doll containing a tiny Cyberman and a note from the Doctor.

Tegan hasn’t heard from the Doctor in four decades. Ace hasn’t heard from them in three decades.

The TARDIS arrives at the former site of Dan’s house in the modern day, and Dan announces that he’s leaving the TARDIS after his brush with death. The Doctor understands as she and Yaz say farewell. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and receives a message from a renegade Dalek offering information about a plot to end humanity and a promise to help destroy the Dalek race. Yaz returns as the TARDIS locates the child from the train, leading them to 1916.

There is also an extra planet in the solar system.

St. Petersburg, 1916: Rasputin confers with Tsarina Alexandra about her son’s hemophilia and the appearance of a second moon. Rasputin is really the Master; he hypnotizes the tsarina and Tsar Nicholas II, convincing the family to leave so the Master can control the palace.

The TARDIS materializes on the mysterious moon, revealing it to be a Cyber-converted planet. They spot another TARDIS in the distance, but it is corrupted, tethered to the planet, and is connected to the missing child. That child is really a Qurunx, a rare sentient energy being disguised as something that someone would want to protect. When Cybermen arrive, the Doctor and Yaz barely escape into the TARDIS before being summoned by Kate Stewart.

They fly to UNIT HQ and learn about the missing scientists and paintings. The Doctor is reunited with Ace and Tegan, and while Ace approves of the new face, Tegan holds a grudge. The team finds that each of the paintings has been defaced with the Master’s Rasputin face. The team also receives a message from the Master that he’s holding a conference in Naples, so the Doctor leaves with Yaz after touching each of her former companions. The touches are literally shocking.

The Naples conference reveals that the Master has killed the seismologists. His disguises and dealings are grandstanding to attract the Doctor’s attention. Today is the day that the Doctor is erased from existence forever. Despite the threat/promise, UNIT soldiers arrest the Master and force him into the TARDIS to be held under armed guard.

Adding a complication, Vinder arrives on the Cyber-planet in search of the Qurunx. Unfortunately, the wormhole destroys his ship and strands him on the planet.

The Master is taken to a high-security bunker. En route, he taunts Kate, Tegan, and Ace. Meanwhile, the Doctor takes off to find the renegade Dalek. Yaz expresses her frustration at being kept in the dark, but the Doctor admits she doesn’t understand how everything connects. The Doctor also taps Yaz with the same static effect.

The TARDIS arrives inside a volcano in Bolivia and the Doctor meets with the Dalek. Meanwhile, Yaz discovers a much larger group of Daleks operating heavy drilling machinery.

Ace and Tegan watch a CCTV feed of the Master’s cell, but he addresses them, revealing that he sent the miniature Cyberman and the note from the Doctor. The doll returns to normal size and disgorges several Cybermen and Ashad (mysteriously returned to life). Tegan and Ace take cover with firearms, but the gold bullets prove ineffective. The Cybermen have leveled up.

UNIT is under siege from the Cybermen. The Master is set free.

The Doctor is ambushed by the Daleks. The traitor was set up and the Doctor is forced into the traitor’s casing. Yaz rushes to the TARDIS and tries to pilot it as the Doctor is teleported to 1916. There, the Master gloats about the Master’s Dalek Plan, in which he plans to force her to regenerate using Gallifreyan technology meshed with the Cyber-planet’s power. He taunts her by dancing to Boney M’s Rasputin while the plan is set in motion.

Vinder contacts the TARDIS with his special communicator just as the Master opens a channel to taunt Yaz. Yaz locks on to the signal and lands in the Winter Palace, but she’s too late. The Master has regenerated into the Doctor, clothes and all. The Master-Doctor compels Yaz to follow as his companion while he steals the TARDIS.

Kate, Tegan, and Ace gear up to defend the building. Kate initiates a lockdown while Ace and Tegan run for the roof with parachutes. Ace also digs out her classic bomber jacket and metal bat. Ace escapes but Tegan refuses to jump and remains behind in the locked building.

As the Master-Doctor fights for control of the TARDIS, he outlines his plan to erupt every volcano at once, destroying humanity while turning the planet into a foundry for Cybermen and Daleks. Meanwhile, he will travel the universe and tarnish the name of the Doctor throughout time and space. He starts by ending a civil war by destroying both combatants, all the while clad in a distorted amalgam outfit of the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Tenth, and Thirteenth Doctor’s trademark clothes. Yaz pushes him out of the TARDIS and dematerializes, so the Master-Doctor awaits her return with a tune on the Second Doctor‘s recorder.

The Thirteenth Doctor awakens on an endless rocky vista. Near a telegraph pole, she meets a figure in Gallifreyan robes who morphs between the First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctor‘s forms. The figure is the Guardian of the Edge, an overseer of the Edge of Existence where the Doctor passes upon regeneration. Since she hasn’t yet passed this milestone, the forced regeneration can be reversed, so she develops a plan.

Inside the TARDIS, Yaz encounters a holographic message from the Doctor. The shocking touches implanted emotional receptors in the companions so that this AI program could interact with them. Yaz outlines her plan to the AI, including rescuing Vinder. The hologram replies that they only have one chance to reverse the forced regeneration.

Tegan returns to Kate and explains that she needs to help stop the Cybermen. Kate reveals the only plan is to destroy the building and entomb the threat. Kate offers herself to the Cybermen with the promise of information, leaving Tegan to find the manual self-destruct activator.

Outside, Ace jumps off the building and is immediately shot at. Luckily, the TARDIS scoops her out of the sky. Ace approves of the new TARDIS and Yaz’s plan to drop her into the Bolivian volcano. Yaz retrieves the Master-Doctor and seemingly apologizes. Vinder hides nearby with his armed blaster.

As Tegan navigates UNIT HQ, her hologram activates as the Fifth Doctor. It wishes her good luck and promises that the Doctor never forgot her after she left the TARDIS. He offers her a “brave heart” and lets her continue her mission.

Inside the volcano, Ace meets the hologram as the Seventh Doctor. She’s ready to attack the Daleks with her new Nitro-999. The Doctor AI apologizes to Ace for how they parted ways. Ace is happy to make up with the Professor, who tells her that they’re more than good: “We’re ace!” She meets Graham O’Brien and the two hit it off immediately.

Ashad and the Cybermen find Kate hiding behind a laser shield. After a bit of stalling, she offers herself and her knowledge in exchange for the lives of her soldiers. The Cybermen accept. Meanwhile, Tegan descends an elevator shaft and is detected by Ashad.

The Master-Doctor returns to the Winter Palace and orders the Daleks to commence their plan. Volcanoes begin to erupt around the world, but Yaz distracts the Master-Doctor long enough to activate the AI. The Fugitive Doctor enters the room and traps the Cybermen in their own crossfire. Vinder and Yaz force the Master-Doctor into the regeneration chamber and harness the regeneration energy from the CyberMasters to degenerate the Time Lord.

The Thirteenth Doctor returns, astounded at her wardrobe and circumstances. She then gets to work. After changing clothes, she makes a plan for the volcanoes and the Cyber-planet. Meanwhile, Ace and Graham attack the Daleks and destroy the device with the Nitro-999. The Doctor arrives just in time to rescue her companions.

Ashad attempts to convert Kate into a Cyberman, but Tegan reverses the energy flow and disables the Cybermen. The two women sprint out of the building as it self-destructs, then join the Doctor the TARDIS as she pilots to the Cyber-planet. She quickly repairs Vinder’s ship and sends him home with love for the family. She then uses the TARDIS to jump-start the Master’s TARDIS, linking the two time capsules together so she can jump the Cyber-planet from 1916 to 2022. From there, she uses the power to freeze the erupting volcanoes into steel. With the planet saved, she frees the Qurunx and begins destroying the Cyber-planet.

The Rasputin form of the Master crawls from his pod and finds his way back to his TARDIS. As he dies after the trauma of forced degeneration, he shoots the Doctor with the Qurunx’s power. She is mortally wounded, but Yaz rushes to save her as the planet crumbles. The extended family gathers around as the Doctor passes out.

When the Doctor wakes up, she finds that Yaz has dropped everyone off in Croydon. The Cloister Bell rings and Doctor begins her regeneration. Despite wanting more time, she offers Yaz one final trip. They later eat ice cream while watching the Earth from the roof of the TARDIS. The Doctor eulogizes about the time they spent together because it was special. Instead of saying goodbye, the Doctor takes Yaz home and they share one last longing look. The Doctor leaves as Yaz reunites with Graham and Dan.

The trio arrives in a meeting room with a support group of former companions. They admit that, since returning from their travels, they’ve never been able to talk about what they experienced. Graham, Dan, Ace, Tegan, and Kate are joined by Jo Jones, Mel Bush, and even Ian Chesterton. They swap stories and make friends. They’re going to be okay.

The Doctor lands on a seaside cliff and asks the TARDIS to look after the next Doctor while she takes in a final sunrise. She says a fond farewell to her current incarnation before welcoming the Fourteenth Doctor. In a burst of explosive energy, she regenerates.

Her body changes. Her clothes change. But instead of someone new, the Doctor’s new form is someone familiar.

The final adventure of the Thirteenth Doctor is an amazing one. It ties off the CyberMasters storyline (which still irritates me, so it’s still effective) and fulfills the prophecy from The Vanquishers. It’s chock full of connections and callbacks, which is standard for an anniversary special, and it’s (surprisingly) well-written.

The end of the CyberMasters is well-crafted, spending the regeneration energy the Master stole from Gallifrey to restore the child the Time Lords pillaged to achieve immortality. I still have hope for the restoration of Gallifrey, but this is poetic justice.

The Master’s plan is diabolical and brilliant. Attacking the people the Doctor loves and handing the planet over to their greatest enemies is one thing, but taking the Doctor’s form and discrediting them throughout time and space is next level.

I also like how the franchise keeps playing with regeneration. While forced regeneration was established in 1969, the modern era has experimented with a “vanity” half-regeneration, transfer of regeneration energy, extending lifetime limits, jump-starting regeneration, and tests of loyalty. The classic era also experimented with Romana trying out different bodies. Here we add the ability to reverse a regeneration, but only under special circumstances that require a large infusion of regeneration energy.

It is in that regeneration/degeneration cycle that we find a fascinating mindscape to represent the Doctor’s continual transitory nature. The Edge of Existence, guarded by the past incarnations, marks the Doctor’s own river Styx. In Greek mythology, the river Styx separated the living souls from the dead souls of the Underworld. The river was guarded by Charon, the boatman who ferried the dead across. Funeral rites included low-value coins with the corpse which would be paid to Charon, and those who couldn’t pay wandered the shores for a century before being allowed across. It is fitting that the essence of the Doctor serves as the Guardian of the Edge, ensuring that each incarnation is truly ready to move on after death.

I kind of want a Tales from the Edge anthology. Who greeted the First Doctor? Were the Second and Tenth Doctors ready to accept the end? How would the Watcher figure in? Why does the Eighth Doctor despise the Gallifreyan robes so much?

The final thing I really like is the companion support group. While I dislike Ryan’s absence (particularly since he was among the first companions in this era), I love the concept of former companions swapping stories and bonding over their adventures. I have often wondered what happened to companions when they returned to their normal lives, and now I wonder why this idea took so long to arrive.

That brings me to the big friction point I have with this regeneration.

On the one hand, it was a necessary evil. What should have been a triumphant era in Doctor Who‘s history was plagued by lower budgets and declining viewership driven by substandard writing and plotting. Episode orders were cut, including for the Flux event and the follow-on specials. The show was nearly cancelled (again). Bringing in the most popular Doctor and the most popular showrunner leading into the 60th anniversary was a brilliant marketing move. It was a necessary marketing move, designed to tell the skeptics that The Powers That Be were serious about the longevity of the franchise.

On the other hand, it gave the most toxic members of fandom exactly what they wanted. Since Jodie Whittaker was announced as the Thirteenth Doctor, social media, YouTube, and places like 4chan were flooded with complaints and doom-mongering: Missives about how a female Doctor ruined representation for male fans and emasculated the fan base; How the show was becoming “woke” and feminist; How the next Doctor should be David Tennant and the years since his departure should be “decanonized” and cast aside as a fever dream.

Yeah, the vocal toxic minority wanted to erase the Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker eras. So when David Tennant appeared as the Fourteenth Doctor, it felt like Russell T. Davies was giving them exactly what they wanted. By burning away the Thirteenth Doctor’s face and clothing (which hadn’t been done since Hartnell’s regeneration) and replacing it with a copy of something twelve years past, it felt like RTD was erasing Whittaker’s legacy.

It took a while to come to terms with RTD’s assurance that he wasn’t doing that, but symbolically that’s how it looked, and it added a sour note to what is otherwise an amazing, fun, and fitting send-off for the Thirteenth Doctor.

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

UP NEXT – Series Thirteen and Thirteenth Doctor Summary

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #310: Legend of the Sea Devils

June 19, 2024July 19, 2024 Michael Falkner1 Comment

A spell of swashbuckling with Sea Devils.

A coastal Chinese village is under assault. The year is 1807 and a pirate queen stalks through the village, intent on smashing the statue at the center. A man named Ying Wai confronts her, telling his son Ying Ki that destroying the statue will unleash something inconceivable. The pirate chips away at the statue and green energy pours from the cracks. The statue explodes, revealing a Sea Devil that kills Ying Wai.

The Doctor, Yaz, and Dan arrive on the beach. The Doctor and Yaz are in period-specific clothing, but for a visit four centuries off course. Dan, however, emerges from the TARDIS in a pantomime Western pirate outfit. Yaz has been having fun with him. The tone changes when the Doctor finds a localized geomagnetic disturbance, and the team follows screaming voices to the village.

The Doctor and the companions confront the Sea Devil as it rampages through the village, but it is rescued by a large airborne pirate ship. The villagers’ wounds are marked with hexo-toxic poison, and the Doctor meets Zheng Yi Sao, better known as Madame Ching, the pirate queen. She was seeking the lost treasure of Flor de la Mar when the Sea Devil attacked.

Speaking of the Sea Devil, he is the Chief of the group, and he summons the Hua-Shen sea monster to do his bidding. That critter snacks on an innocent fisherman for fun.

Madame Ching returns to her ship as Dan joins Ying Ki to sneak aboard. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Yaz try to track Dan as the latter learns about the Sea Devils. The Sea Devil ship has cloaked, so the Doctor decides to talk to Madame Ching. But first, she decides to travel to 1807 and find the lost treasure.

Dan and Ki are captured as stowaways. They’re shocked to find the ship empty aside from Madame Ching, and the pirate queen offers to spare them if they help her find the treasure. The Doctor and Yaz travel to 1533 and watch as captain Sin Ji-Hun forces his crew to jump overboard. The captain is soon joined by the Chief Sea Devil, for whom the captain has emptied his ship for the Sea Devil’s use. The Sea Devil betrays the captain, and the travelers run for the TARDIS as the ship begins to sink. The travelers move 274 years in the future and land on the ocean floor. In a spectacular view, the Doctor jokes about being a good date (which rattles Yaz) before noting the lack of a shipwreck.

The TARDIS is taken by the Hua-Shen as the ocean floor crumbles beneath it.

Madame Ching, Dan, and Ki try to navigate toward the treasure, but the compass and the stars keep moving inexplicably. Ching explains that her entire crew (including her two juvenile sons) have been captured and will be executed unless she returns with the treasure. They are attacked by Hua-Shen, which can throw cannonballs back when it is shot at.

Hua-Shen dropped the TARDIS at the Sea Devil base. The Doctor and Yaz confront the Chief Sea Devil. The Doctor babbles about the technology around them as she thinks, but the Chief calls her bluff. He reveals that Ji-Hun’s ship is their flying craft and that he needs a Keystone, so the Doctor offers it in exchange for a tour of his ride. The Keystone is a gem of extraordinary power and will lead the Chief to the treasure. The Chief has also kept Ji-Hun in stasis since betraying him, and the Doctor learns that the captain was trying to trick the Chief to save his crew and safeguard the Keystone.

The Chief Sea Devil is alerted by the Hua-Shen that the Keystone is on the surface, so he threatens the Doctor’s life before she forces the ship to surface. Yaz, the Doctor, and Ji-Hun swing over to Madame Ching’s ship as the Chief Sea Devil materializes on deck. Ki has had the Keystone all along, holding it as a family heirloom passed down from Ji-Hun’s trusted second-in-command. The Chief takes it and returns to his ship, forcing the Doctor and her team to follow.

The Doctor confronts the Chief, uncovering his plan to flip the planet’s magnetic poles and flood the planet. The Sea Devils want to reclaim the Earth. A swordfight ensues between the two crews and Ji-Hun kills the Chief, an act that upsets the Doctor. She submerges the ship and asks Dan to watch Ching and Ji-Hun while keeping the Sea Devils at bay. The Doctor and Yaz head to the control core and try to disarm the flooding mechanism.

Ji-Hun sends Ki and Ching to retrieve the treasure while Dan carves through the Sea Devils. Meanwhile, as the Doctor and Yaz work, the former confides (with mention of River Song) that if she was going to commit to anyone, it would be Yaz. But she cannot commit because time always runs out. As they start the process, Ji-Hun offers to sacrifice himself to stop the flooding mechanism. The rest of the team boards the TARDIS and ends up on Ching’s ship as the Sea Devil base is destroyed.

Madame Ching offers Ki a place on her crew as she takes the treasure to save the rest of them. The travelers take a well-deserved break, including a phone call to Diane to patch things up. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Yaz talk about their previous conversation. After what is essentially a “it’s not you, it’s me” discussion, the Doctor makes a simple wish behind a sad smile:

“I wish this would go on forever…”

While the Sea Devils’ return is welcome, this story primarily works as setup for Jodie Whittaker’s finale: The evolving dynamic between the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz, the budding relationship between Dan and Diane, and the discussions of what happens to companions after the Doctor moves on… all of it sets the stage for the next adventure. Who knows if they’ll ever find that beach vacation.

That said, it’s a pleasure to see the Sea Devils again. They’ve been in two major stories since 1972 – The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep – and a few minor appearances including Frontier in Space, Dimensions in Time, The Eleventh Hour, and The Timeless Children. Much like the Sontarans in Flux, the costumes that nod to the classic era were fun.

The swashbuckling doesn’t come without a price as the heroes (especially Dan) are a bit bloodthirsty. The Doctor hangs the lampshade with her disapproval of the Chief’s death, but the Sea Devil body count is pretty high. It’s not the greatest look.

On the other hand, I like Ki’s change of heart from vengeance to gratitude as he realizes Madame Ching’s motivations. She offers him a family after his responsibility to guard the Sea Devil Chief is absolved, and that is precisely what he needs. It was great character development in the span of one episode.

This was the second Easter special in franchise history, joining Planet of the Dead in that elite rank. Much like its predecessor, it comes in the home stretch of its Doctor’s run, but it wasn’t nearly as popular. Regardless, it does pose a good stride toward the finish line as the Thirteenth Doctor prepares to say goodbye.

Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor

Timestamp #309: Eve of the Daleks

June 12, 2024July 19, 2024 Michael Falkner2 Comments

A fun holiday murder romp!

It’s New Year’s Eve 2021 and Sarah is angry. She’s the owner of ELF Storage and her business partner Jeff has failed to show up once again. She’s also perplexed because regular customer Nick arrives and asks for a list of items that cannot be stored in his storage unit. Luckily, his Monopoly game does not fit this category.

Nick is kind of adorable if a little lovesick.

The Doctor and her team arrive in ELF’s basement, but they were aiming for the sentient beaches of San Munrohvar. They don’t get another shot because the TARDIS is rebooting to clear the Flux debris. In place of a party, they find a temporal disturbance.

That disturbance includes Daleks, which promptly exterminate poor Nick. The Doctor and her friends find his body while Sarah takes a call from her mother. The Dalek emerges behind her and opens fire. The travelers try to confront it but the Dalek exterminates them as well.

Press reset – Let’s do the time loop again!

Nick and Sarah do the routine but recognize that something is odd. The TARDIS crew do the same and try to stop Nick’s death but find nothing there because Nick has returned to the lobby to save Sarah. Sarah finds a force field surrounding the building, so she heads for Jeff’s storage unit to see if he’s hoarding any weapons.

Nick arrives in the lobby and is exterminated. Sarah finds that Jeff has stored his stuff across an entire floor rather than in one unit, but her frustration turns to fear when she is exterminated. Team TARDIS finds the forcefield and the dead bodies, and the Dalek informs them that a time malfunction has resulted in a repeat of the last few minutes. They are exterminated again.

Let’s do the time loop again! Except this time, it starts at 23:53, one minute later than the last cycle. Nick is already at his unit, Sarah sees the Dalek arrive on the CCTV, and Team TARDIS runs for Nick. Everyone collects on the first floor and seek refuge in Nick’s unit, which is full of items belonging to ex-girlfriends just in case they want it back. Unfortunately, there’s only one exit and the Dalek burns through it. The group agrees to meet on the fifth floor before they are exterminated.

Let’s do the time loop again! Starting at 23:54, Nick and Sarah decide to ignore the Doctor’s plan since they blame her for their predicament. They go the basement while Team TARDIS head for the fifth floor. After the Doctor detects a second Dalek signal, Dan splits off at the lobby as a distraction, which he does until he’s exterminated.

Nick and Sarah find the TARDIS and a second Dalek. Nick confesses that has an “embarrassing” crush on Sarah and comes in every New Year’s Eve because she’s guaranteed to be there since Jeff always lets her down. After the touching moment, Nick is exterminated, Sarah finds a door that is not shielded by the forcefield, and then Sarah is exterminated.

The Doctor and Yaz explore Jeff’s storage units and find a room full of dangerous weapons. The Dalek arrives and reveals that a squad was assigned to kill the Doctor for her role in destroying the Dalek war fleet using the Flux. They also learn that the TARDIS created the time loop. Both women are exterminated.

Let’s do the… well, you know. Starting at 23:55, Team TARDIS heads for the lobby and berates Sarah for breaking the agreement. Sarah tries to save Nick, thinking that since he dies at five minutes to midnight, he might not make it to the next loop. Nick survives by luring the Daleks into a trap where they kill each other. The Doctor finds him and they return to the lobby. The group make a plan to bounce their lifesigns around the building while they look for a way out, including asking Sarah’s mother to call ten seconds before midnight. The team is exterminated when three Daleks materialize in the lobby.

Resetting at 23:56, Sarah is immediately killed when the Daleks destroy the elevator. Nick is promptly killed when the power goes out and he is ambushed. The Doctor rushes into the darkness while Yaz and Dan discuss the former’s romantic feelings for the Doctor. The Daleks exterminate them and then hunt down the Doctor.

Resetting at 23:57, Team TARDIS finds Jeff’s stash of illegal fireworks. Yaz goes to the fifth floor while Dan tells the Doctor about Yaz’s feelings, pointing out that the Doctor pretends otherwise. Yaz retrieves Sarah and Nick and the Doctor explains that the next loop is a decoy to hide their true intentions. They are exterminated.

Resetting at 23:58, Sarah rushes to the 5th floor and calls her mother, telling her she loves her. When she emerges from the elevator, she is exterminated. Nick sets up a distraction with his stuff and is exterminated. Team TARDIS lounges in Nick’s storage unit apartment before being exterminated.

Resetting at 23:59, the team takes Nick’s hazardous materials to the basement. The Doctor sets up the trap while the humans run for the door. The Doctor joins them as Sarah’s mother calls, triggering the explosion when the Daleks shoot the phone. ELF Storage collapses in a brilliant fireworks display.

Having survived the Dalek trap, the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan find the rejuvenated TARDIS while crane operator Karl Wright films the fireworks show. Later on, Nick and Sarah embark on a trip around the world. As they start their new life together, the TARDIS arcs through the sky behind them.

All told, this was a fun story that acted like a coda to the Flux storyline. The TARDIS needs to recover and the team needs to come to terms with what they faced, and one of their enemies wants revenge.

The fact that the Dalek squad was dispatched indicates that something of the Dalek fleet survived the Sontaran strategy, and that makes sense since the Doctor’s enemies (and their Master) will be her end. It seems the destruction wrought by the Flux will be a matter of plot convenience going forward.

We get some hints of lore – Dalek assassins figured heavily into The Chase, and the use of sonic screwdrivers on concrete was a small part of The Doctor Dances – but otherwise, this one is light, quirky, adorable, and fun.

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils

Timestamp #308: Flux – The Vanquishers

June 5, 2024July 19, 2024 Michael Falkner4 Comments

The end of a story with little resolution.

Picking up immediately at the cliffhanger from Chapter Five, the Doctor dodges Swarm’s attempt to disintegrate her and rescues the Ood to find a way out. The Doctor nearly escapes from the Void, but is lured back by Swarm and Azure as they hold the Doctor’s fob watch. Swarm touches the Doctor as the Ood finds a way home for her, forcing her to materialize on Karvanista’s ship where a pitched battle is underway. Unfortunately, the Doctor is phasing.

Meanwhile, Yaz, Dan, Jericho, and Williamson are under Sontaran assault in the tunnels under Liverpool. Yaz lassos the door labeled “Death Rays” – a sort-of Chekhov’s gun hung upon the mantle in Chapter Five – and kills the invaders. The team rushes through the tunnels, trying various doors that transcend time, before entering one labeled December 5, 2021. The team finds Kate Stewart and the TARDIS as she leads a human resistance against the Sontarans.

The Doctor appears in the modern-day tunnels and meets the team (with a hug for Yaz) before bouncing back to the Division station. Swarm and Azure are pleased with their inadvertent results as the Doctor flashes to Karvanista’s ship and flies into Stenck’s command ship with Karvanista and Bel.

Sontaran Commander Stenck calls on the Cybermen and Daleks to join his assault on Earth. Stenck and the Grand Serpent defeat the Doctor’s assault as she offers Bel the chance at a covert mission. As the Doctor flashes back to Division, Azure opens the fob watch but the Doctor refuses to absorb the memories. Swarm begins shredding the memories, which inflicts pain on the Doctor.

Flashing to Liverpool, the Doctor investigates the tunnels and learns about Williamson’s and Stewart’s efforts. The group decides to send undercover operatives into the Sontaran ships, exploiting a weakness thanks to the invaders’ fascination with corner shops. It turns out that Sontarans are obsessed with sugar, and the Doctor bargains with Commander Shallo to trade chocolate for an operative. The team travels to 1967, picks up Claire, and enlists her psychic abilities for 2021.

The Doctor flashes to the Sontaran command ship in 2021 where she’s in a cage with Karvanista. She asks him about his time in Division, but he cannot talk about it due to a device in his brain that will kill him if he discloses his secrets. She flashes back to Division where Azure restores her to consciousness. Azure and Swarm plan to move the final Flux event from Earth to the planet Time, releasing the physical embodiment of Time and using it to replay the universe’s destruction in an endless loop, forcing the Doctor to witness it for eternity as revenge for their incarceration.

Flashing to the Sontaran ship, the Doctor meets Stenck and the Grand Serpent. Stenck reveals that they killed all of the Lupari, leaving Karvanista as the last of his kind. The commander takes the Doctor for interrogation as Karvanista howls in sorrow for his people.

Taking a detour to the Passenger form, Diane and Vinder search through endless landscapes and realize they are alone in their vast prison. Everyone else was used as energy but Diane was determined to be insignificant. Diane reveals she’s been busy exploring the bioform’s systems and defenses, and they use her knowledge to escape to the real world.

Jericho and Claire are taken to Stenck’s ship and tasked with determining the time and place of the final Flux event. The psychic work is intrusive and painful. Meanwhile, the Grand Serpent interrogates the Doctor about Kate Stewart’s location. She taunts the Grand Serpent and he tries to kill her with his serpents, but because the Doctor is split across three locations, the effort fails. The Liverpool Doctor fragment arrives in the TARDIS with Dan and Yaz, incapacitates the Grand Serpent, and rescues the Sontaran Doctor fragment. They also rescue Karvanista and Bel and make contact with the psychic agents.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor fragments witness the Sontaran message to the Daleks and Cybermen, then make telepathic contact with the third fragment and learn how the Flux is made of antimatter. Meanwhile, Claire finds the data about the final Flux event and Stenck recalls his troops. The Grand Serpent uses artron energy readings to find Kate Stewart.

The Doctors receive messages from Vinder and Kate, and they decide to split up to tackle each problem. Vinder and Diane are pulled back into the Passenger form, the tunnel doors fluctuate due to Flux effects, and Williamson returns home while he has time. The Doctor pilots the TARDIS inside the Passenger form and rescues the prisoners, resulting in a reunion between couples Vinder and Bel and Dan and Diane.

The Doctor also figures out that the Sontaran peace treaty is a trick: They plan to use the Dalek and Cyberman fleets to counteract the Flux event, leaving the universe as the Sontaran playground. The Doctor hatches a plan to save the universe as her Division fragment is taken to Time by Swarm as a sacrifice.

Claire escapes using a transmat ring, but Jericho is stuck on the Sontaran ship. The Dalek and Cyberman fleets are destroyed by the Flux, but the Sontarans are left outside the Lupari shell when Karvanista reprograms the fleet. The Doctor tries to save Jericho, but he’s unable to escape as the Sontaran fleet is consumed. Finally, Diane summons the Passenger form which traps the rest of the Flux.

Last stop is Atropos. The physical form of Time manifests as Swarm and reveals that the Flux has been defeated. Time consumes Swarm and Azure for their failure, then takes the Doctor’s form as the Time Lord retrieves her fob watch. Time teases the end of the Thirteenth Doctor at the hand of the forces that mass against her and their Master, then restores the Doctor by combining her fragments. Now in the TARDIS, the Doctor sets course to take everyone home.

In the tunnels, the Grand Serpent confronts Vinder and Kate Stewart but ends up stranded on a tiny asteroid forever. Vinder and Bel decide to travel with Karvanista, and Claire remains in 2021 with Kate as the Doctor expresses her hope of seeing both of them again.

Sometime later, Dan returns to the museum where he meets up with Diane again. Diane turns down his offer for a drink as she processes the adventure she just experienced. The Doctor and Yaz offer him a spot on the TARDIS. As Dan settles in, the Doctor finally apologizes for her secrecy. Yaz leaves to help Dan navigate the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor to hide her fob watch in the TARDIS console.

She instructs the time capsule to keep it safe and only give it back when she really asks for it.

This frantic episode shares Chapter Five‘s issue with a fast pace that doesn’t offer much room to breathe. Thankfully, it slows down near the end, offering some space leading into the disappointing ending. Why is it disappointing? I don’t like the Doctor running from knowledge.

So much of Doctor Who concerns a quest for learning and doing good in the universe, yet this epic story ends with the Doctor running away from her own history. The answers are right there, yet she hides them instead of facing them.

If I had three words to tell her, they would be “Brave heart, Doctor.”

The other disappointing part of the finale is the lack of resolution. Multi-part stories and episodic seasons should have an overall resolution, but this one leaves the universe in a state of flux (pun intended) with immeasurable destruction wrought throughout. We have no idea how much of the universe is left standing, let alone how much of the local solar system. The whole thing is just passed off as the new status quo with hardly a mention.

Say it with me, now: Chris Chibnall has a problem with endings. It’s been apparent since he started, and even though I thought it might be better with long-form narratives, this proves that it’s not. I like the Planet of the Ood and Planet of the Dead-style warnings for the Thirteenth Doctor’s impending regeneration. They’re just cryptic enough to make you wonder what’s coming, but it’s only a lonely spark in what should have been a lovely fireworks show.

Concerning the Lupari, I like the drama created by the Sontaran genocide of Karvanista’s people, but it would have been more emotionally involved had we seen it instead of being told about it. Karvanista’s mourning howls are heartbreaking but somewhat hollow. It is fitting, however, that Vinder and Bel become his new family in the end.

I had similar thoughts about the TARDIS materializing inside the Passenger form. It just happens and the story moves on. No discussion aside from a one-liner about how the TARDIS doesn’t like it, and no tie-in to the TARDIS’s currently warped and/or broken state. Is that even still a thing at this point, or did that magically get resolved?

Flux was a ride, but it could have been more.

Rating: 3/5 – “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks

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