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In Flux
This is a bit late, but I wanted to get some time to digest the newest season of Doctor Who and get away from the inevitable fandom discourse in order to get some perspective on it that wasn't super clouded by external chatter. Overall, I really liked this season, and I thought this serial was, more or less, successful in what it set out to do. I also thought this was probably the strongest overall season of the Thirteenth Doctor's run, owing at least partially to not having a low-tier episode like The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos or Orphan 55 to pull down the average.
I do think there was some rough parts in regards to the pacing - and evidence suggests that two episodes ended up getting shaved off due to COVID-related production issues, which could explain a lot of that. Had the likes of "Once, Upon Time" and "The Vanquishers" been given more room to breathe they probably would've flowed better and wouldn't have needed to tie up certain plot threads so hastily. (Though the non-reactions to Jericho's death was a weird oversight the likes of post-Earthshock that I really can't understand.)
I love Dan Lewis, and I thought Yaz got a lot of great material this season but I wish more of it was with the Doctor. I have more mixed feelings about the likes of Karvanista and Bel, but I suspect that they, along with Vinder, will be back for Thirteen's swan song next year when the outstanding bits are tied up. Speaking of which, I think a big reason I've seen people feel let down is that they expected Flux to answer everything from last season's The Timeless Children (which I never expected them to do here) and for there to be some major overhaul like the Doctor moving to a different universe (which would've been stupid and I'm glad they didn't do that). I thought the character and narrative beats they landed on were the right ones, I just wish they had the breathing room to marinate in them a bit more.
My only real disappointment is the kind of anticlimactic way that Swarm and Azure were dispatched at the end, but this kind of thing isn't really a new problem for Doctor Who. It feels like there are endless stories that have the villains die in a similar way in order to keep the Doctor from having to kill anyone - and it's only ever really been avoided by utilizing characters such as The Brigadier, Jack Harkness, or River Song in a more morally gray way. I also think some of the dialogue continues to feel clunky, and I wish Chibnall leaned on his writing staff more for that rather than taking it on himself. (What could "Beware of the forces that mass against you, and their Master" possibly mean??? A mystery box if I've ever seen one.)
My favorite episode of the bunch was probably "Village of the Angels". It managed to utilize the Weeping Angels in a creepy way without robbing them of some of their mystique like many of their post-Blink appearances have. While there wasn't an episode I didn't enjoy, "Once, Upon Time" probably landed at the bottom of my list just because there was so much it had to do, to the point where it verged on confusing. It was great to see Jo Martin again though, however briefly.
I'm really looking forward to the three specials next year and see how this era all comes together. My hope is that the first two specials will be more traditional, stand-alone stories (and it looks like Eve of the Daleks will be) while the feature-length final story will take on more of the main story elements that have been built up over the past few years. It both feels like this era just started and like it's been going for several years (which it has) and, honestly, it feels nice to feel so excited for new Doctor Who on the horizon 0 Chibnall era and beyond.
I do think there was some rough parts in regards to the pacing - and evidence suggests that two episodes ended up getting shaved off due to COVID-related production issues, which could explain a lot of that. Had the likes of "Once, Upon Time" and "The Vanquishers" been given more room to breathe they probably would've flowed better and wouldn't have needed to tie up certain plot threads so hastily. (Though the non-reactions to Jericho's death was a weird oversight the likes of post-Earthshock that I really can't understand.)
I love Dan Lewis, and I thought Yaz got a lot of great material this season but I wish more of it was with the Doctor. I have more mixed feelings about the likes of Karvanista and Bel, but I suspect that they, along with Vinder, will be back for Thirteen's swan song next year when the outstanding bits are tied up. Speaking of which, I think a big reason I've seen people feel let down is that they expected Flux to answer everything from last season's The Timeless Children (which I never expected them to do here) and for there to be some major overhaul like the Doctor moving to a different universe (which would've been stupid and I'm glad they didn't do that). I thought the character and narrative beats they landed on were the right ones, I just wish they had the breathing room to marinate in them a bit more.
My only real disappointment is the kind of anticlimactic way that Swarm and Azure were dispatched at the end, but this kind of thing isn't really a new problem for Doctor Who. It feels like there are endless stories that have the villains die in a similar way in order to keep the Doctor from having to kill anyone - and it's only ever really been avoided by utilizing characters such as The Brigadier, Jack Harkness, or River Song in a more morally gray way. I also think some of the dialogue continues to feel clunky, and I wish Chibnall leaned on his writing staff more for that rather than taking it on himself. (What could "Beware of the forces that mass against you, and their Master" possibly mean??? A mystery box if I've ever seen one.)
My favorite episode of the bunch was probably "Village of the Angels". It managed to utilize the Weeping Angels in a creepy way without robbing them of some of their mystique like many of their post-Blink appearances have. While there wasn't an episode I didn't enjoy, "Once, Upon Time" probably landed at the bottom of my list just because there was so much it had to do, to the point where it verged on confusing. It was great to see Jo Martin again though, however briefly.
I'm really looking forward to the three specials next year and see how this era all comes together. My hope is that the first two specials will be more traditional, stand-alone stories (and it looks like Eve of the Daleks will be) while the feature-length final story will take on more of the main story elements that have been built up over the past few years. It both feels like this era just started and like it's been going for several years (which it has) and, honestly, it feels nice to feel so excited for new Doctor Who on the horizon 0 Chibnall era and beyond.