Review of Flux: The Halloween Apocalypse
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’m never quite sure what to expect from a new series—even more so this year, when I haven’t even bothered to watch the trailer. I always go in with cautious optimism, trying to give myself the chance to like (or even love) an episode before the analytical part of my brain catches up and starts picking holes in everything. Sadly, this time around I’m mostly just tired.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2021 BBC

As I mentioned before, I don’t seem to have a lot of enthusiasm to spare these days. What energy I do have for viewing has gone almost exclusively into watching various Korean or Chinese (or occasionally Japanese) dramas, depending on what I can find and what strikes my fancy. Oddly enough, I think that puts me in a better place to watch Flux than I might’ve been otherwise.

The pre-credits sequence is all about the Doctor and Yaz getting themselves out of a seemingly hopeless situation. It’s over-the-top, implausible, and exactly the kind of thing that belongs in Doctor Who. (It’s also rich with fodder for fanfic writers, especially the shippers.) But the audience’s introduction to Karvanista, a member of the doglike Lupari species, is just the first of the eight distinct plot threads I counted.

Granted, several of those plot threads intertwine almost immediately, and we can predict how some of the others will eventually come together to be part of a larger whole. But the pace at which we need to flip between them to get everything set up can be a bit dizzying. Aside from Karvanista, we have the 19th-century “gentleman” Williamson, our new Companion Dan and his apparent love interest Di (whom I love just because there is zero mention of her physical difference; it’s just her), the Swarm, the pair at the Arctic Circle, Claire and the Weeping Angels, Commander Vinder at Observation Outpost Rose, and the Sontarans. I can see how some viewers would find all that setup off-putting; there was a lot going on in The Halloween Apocalypse, and not a lot of payoff.

This is what I was getting at when I mentioned my recent viewing habits, though. I didn’t find an episode chock full of plot seeds the least bit objectionable (at least not on that count). The stories I’m used to these days span ten hours of run time at the minimum; more often they run in the twenty-to-forty-hour range. Having a story that is set to run four-and-a-half to six hours or so still feels quick to me right now.

And it’s not like I can’t imagine ways the currently least connected threads might match up. I surmise Claire’s encounter with the Angel will have her crossing paths with Williamson; that Vinder’s first-hand observations of the Flux in action will provide the Doctor with some key piece of information; and that Di’s abduction by the Swarm and his “sister” (Azure, if the captions are to be believed) will be used to pressure Dan, and therefor the Doctor, into doing something dangerous and detrimental.

There are plenty of long-game hooks, too. Ever since RTD brought the show back in 2005, we’ve become accustomed to some sort of series-long arc, so this at least should feel familiar to the modern audience. The Swarm claims that he and the Doctor have battled each other across the universe, but she doesn’t recognize him. “They were so efficient,” he purrs in delight. “There’s not a tiny corner of you that remembers.” With the Lupari and the Sontarans apparently already in the know—at least about the existence of the Flux—the “Why does everyone but me know what’s going on?” feeling the Doctor gets seems somewhat reminiscent of the Pandorica.

We also have a couple of potential Easter eggs that I’m sure a certain corner of fandom has already leapt all over. To begin with, the fact that the station Vinder has been staffing is called “Observation Outpost Rose” will not have escaped the Rose Tyler fans. Nor will the fact that the Doctor’s first words to Dan echo one of the first things she said to Rose back in the day: “Nice to meet you, Dan. Run for your life!”

While the episode did feel almost frenetic at times, I didn’t feel any disappointment at a lack of resolution (though I suspect some of the audience would disagree). Rather, I take it as a sign that there is a lot to pack into this less-than-six(?)-hour story, and a promise that the complexity will pay off in the end. We’ll see how many more weeks my cautious optimism can last.