We’ve got sixty minutes to save the universe, so everybody get in…
Recap
The Doctor dodges Swarm and manages to take off her conversion plate before he reaches her, splitting her being into three across space-time. At Division HQ, the Doctor is tortured by Swarm and Azure, who keep opening the fob watch containing her missing memories and threatening to destroy them while she can feel a connection to them. When she gets the chance, she asks the Ood to aid her in slowing the Flux. She tries to argue with Azure about what they’re doing, but Azure explains that the destruction and anti-life stance they bring with them is their belief system, and that they have as much right to their faith as she does. They will destroy the universe, ending with Atropos and Time (which they consider to be their deity), then rewind and force the Doctor to witness it repeatedly on a time loop.
In present day, the Doctor is on the Lupari ship with Bel and Karvanista, and pilots the thing out of the ship shield and into a Sontaran ship on the planet below, intentionally captured so that Bel can run about gathering information. The Doctor talks to Karnvanista again and admits that she got back a memory with him in it. She asks if he used to be her companion, but Karvanista explains that Division put an implant in his brain that would detonate if he tells her anything about her past. The Sontarans arrive to drag the Doctor away for the Grand Serpent’s interrogation, and tell Karvanista that all his people were killed.
Yaz, Dan, Jericho, and Williamson stop the first wave of Sontarans in 1904 with a little lightning, then hurry through one of the tunnel doors to find themselves in the present day tunnels—where Kate Stewart is hiding out to resist the Sontarans. The third split of the Doctor appears there, gives Yaz a hug, and gets everyone aboard the TARDIS after telling Williamson that his work is done and he can finally go back to his time and relax. She pops back to 1967 to grab Claire, and preps both her and Jericho for a mission: she wants to offer them up as psychic human bait to the Sontarans while she enacts their plan. The Doctor goes back to the present and offers a Sontaran a lot of chocolate in exchange for hooking Jericho and Claire up to their psychic matrix that they’re using to find out where the final Flux event will take place. She then rescues herself from the Grand Serpent’s interrogation, putting two Thirteens on the TARDIS at once.
On the Passenger, Vinder and Diane figure out how to briefly exit the form and send out a signal to get picked up. The Doctor comes to find them, reuniting Bel with her partner and Dan with Diane. Bel also uncovered a Sontaran transmission encouraging the Daleks and Cybermen to come witness the finale Flux event with them as the start to a brand new “alliance.” The Doctor realizes that it’s a trap to destroy both armies by feeding the Flux what’s needed to slow it down (because it’s antimatter and they’re matter), while they stay safe behind the Lupari shield. This way, Sontar comes out the ultimate universal victor.
Karvanista is able to lay waste to that plan by regaining control of the Lupari fleet and reforming the shield behind the Sontarans, allowing the Flux to consume all the fleets. The Doctor manages to get Claire off the Sontaran ship using a transmat ring, but Jericho’s is damaged, and he tells the Doctor that he’s made peace with the outcome of the journey, dying with the Sontarans. Diane suggests using the Passenger to absorb the rest of the Flux because of the abundance of matter within it, allowing the two to cancel each other out. Swarm and Azure bring the Doctor to Atropos with the intent to sacrifice her to their god (who takes on the form of whoever it comes into contact with). But Time is displeased because Swarm and Azure failed their mission once the Flux was stopped. Time cannot be freed, so it destroys them, releasing the Doctor. It warns her that her end is coming regardless, with no regeneration to save her, and that she should beware her enemies and their… master.
Kate and Vinder strand the Grand Serpent in space; Bel and Vinder go off traveling with Karvanista; Diane refuses a redo date with Dan in light of everything that’s happened. The Doctor and Yaz arrive to offer Dan a trip on the TARDIS. He agrees, and the Doctor takes a moment to apologize to Yaz for not letting her in. Then she takes the fob watch containing her previous memories, opens a console panel, and asks the TARDIS to hide the watch where she’ll never find it—unless she really asks.
Commentary
Two things.
First off, this wild ride actually all came together at the end, so I have to hand it to them on that.
Second… the universe is still mostly destroyed, right?
Obviously, the Doctor is capable of traveling in time, so that would mean that she could go back to when most of the universe existed to continue adventuring, but there’s no talk of unmaking the damage the Flux has already done. It’s possible that the Doctor will use those final specials toward fixing that little problem, but until then, it would seem that the universe in present day is much smaller than the one the Doctor used to. As a sidenote, I’m guessing some people are gonna be annoyed with how the Passenger was used to defeat the waning Flux, but it was extremely clever, mostly for the sake of that visual we got, which was stunning.
Wait no, third thing, if the “master” of the Doctor’s enemies doesn’t turn out to be the Master, I riot. Give back Sacha Dhawan.
Okay, so back to the first point, this basically delivered on its premise and tied a lot of things up with extremely well-seeded emotional asides throughout. Let’s page through those:
Jericho’s death was extremely affecting? (Still worried about Peggy in 1904, though, who wound up raising that kid.) They set him up very well as the sort of man who would do the noble sacrifice play, put him in position for it, then have him accept the fate with undo grace and kindness. Kevin McNally does a beautiful job of it, and then they have the gall to give him a Peter Pan exit—Pan is the one who tells Hook that to die would be an awfully big adventure, and here is Jericho echoing that sentiment moments before his own demise.
The explanation for Swarm and Azure’s actions work because they give Azure that momentary aside with the Doctor. What is being done with the Ravagers is very similar to what Thor: The Dark World tried (and failed) to do with the dark elf Malekith, insofar as creating an antagonist who views life and existence as antithetical to their belief and understanding of the universe. It makes them more effective villains because they’re suddenly not simply menacing to menace; they’re doing it because it is a deeply-rooted faith within them.
The reveal that Karvanista used to be the Doctor’s companion is heartbreaking, and I’m glad that he’s got Vinder and Bel now, but I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from it. Remember that infamous episode of Futurama that shows how Fry’s dog waited for him to come back until he died? This is kinda like that, only the dog can emote like a human now. Why would they do this to us. And then have him survive genocide. That’s a lot for six episodes of television.
On the other hand, the whole plotline with Joseph Williamson turned out alarmingly adorable, like this weirdo eccentric man just dug tunnels to try and save the Earth, and then he kinda did, and the Doctor sent him home to drink tea. Also, I’m glad that they took the opportunity to have this Doctor meet Kate Stewart because she deserves a break from the monologuing man Doctors. (Though I do imagine that leaving the Grand Serpent out there will come back to bite everyone.)
And we finally get a moment where the Doctor properly apologizes to Yaz for shutting her out, and is a fraction of a second away from sobbing all her feelings into Yaz’s lap, when Dan comes back in because he can’t follow directions—bro, I love you, but you’re bringing me down right now, read the room. Still, it’s a start? Maybe they can keep getting better at it.
The only thing that doesn’t sell here is Diane refusing to go on the date with Dan. I can understand having been through it and needing some time, but she seemed like she was largely enjoying herself, which makes turning Dan down feel too hand-of-the-plot in needing to give him a reason to step aboard the TARDIS. And honestly, it seemed to me that she would have come along on that trip anyhow… couldn’t she have run off with Karvanista’s crew? Vinder said she should have been a teacher at his academy. They did such a wonderful job throughout the season in casting an actor with a visible disability without any commentary about it whatsoever. All television should aspire to that, but also, now they’ve got this great actor and they should keep using her.
Really do love the conceit of the Doctor dropping the watch into the TARDIS and asking the ship to keep it safe until she calls for it. I don’t know if they’re going to bother with that soon, or leave to a later showrunner, but either way, it was a right call for right now.
Of course, the Doctor gets the hint/threat from Time about her inevitable demise, and the claim that regeneration won’t be an option here. Which is all well and good, but I was also thinking about how this is a New Who thing, making such a big to-do of each Doctor’s death. While I don’t mind some pomp around the baton-passing, there’s something hilarious about the fact that the last fifteen plus years have made every single regeneration into an Event with wild lead-ups and denouements, when Classic Who dropped the Fourth Doctor off a radio telescope dish and moved right along. *insert shrug emoji*
Stuff and Things
- Wait, the over-sized Tomagachi that Bel has been carrying around is an interface with their baby? That is great?? I mean, I’ve still got a lot of questions, like is the baby currently growing inside her, or do they grow them elsewhere, because she’s not showing so that baby would be far too young to have even emoji-based comprehension about things yet, but it’s super cute. She and Vinder and Karvanista deserve their own series, though. Bel and the Boys?
- There are some particularly goofy errors with the Lupari shield around Earth that they never really bother to explain, namely, how is the planet getting any light while covered in spaceships, and also wouldn’t it start to freeze without heat from the sun as well? Seems like kind of a big thing to forget to plot handwave with some technobabble.
- Give all Sontarans an inadvisable amount of chocolate. (Also, I really do appreciate that all Doctors seem to have a very British appreciation for “little shops.”)
- It’s all well and good to make “Dark Energy Camera, Chile” a location where things are going down, but I feel like that needed some explanation because I’m sure plenty of people don’t realize that’s a real place—they’ll just assume it’s some cool scifi words strung together and never clock that there’s a real dark energy camera in Chile.
- The Doctor rarely gets along with other regenerations of themselves, but they do always seem to like themselves very well, as evidenced by Thirteen’s immediate crush on herself. Stop flirting, you… you.
That’s it for Thirteen’s final season! We’ve got a few more specials before her regeneration, starting with New Years Day’s “Eve of the Daleks.” See you in the new year!
The end didn’t hang together especially well for me. I just never bought into the idea that an entire universe was worth destroying just to stamp out the Doctor.
I figured they’d thrown a lot at the wall to see what would stick, and that we’d never get details filled in, and that’s more or less what we got. I mean, it was given the Doctor Would Be Clever and somehow stop the flux, but not bothering to restore most of the universe seems like a glaring oversight. And after all the run up she doesn’t even open the watch and “Time” just tells her “OK Boomer, have a terrible day” and fades away. Not sure what it was all for.
I don’t know if this has any meaning, but I was watching that episode with closed captions on, and I the scene when the Doctor is speaking to Time, the word “Master” was written with a capital M each time. I don’t see any reason why they would do it… unless it is foreshadowing the return of the Master.
Azure and Swarm have also said they feed off the energy from the destruction so they are gaining as much as their god. Plus, they intend to torture the Doctor with a destruction loop. Those guys sure can hold a grudge.
If anyone deserves to be a companion, it’s Diane. She was awesome. Dan is a follower whose primary method was messing bad guys’ things up. Trade him for her.
I loved the Sontaran getting drunk on chocolate because why not? He was also hitting the sugared drinks pretty hard, too.
The story finally pulled together toward the end, but it was too little, too late, for me. Chibnal was dancing around going “I’m the cleverest thing ever” when he should have been making some sense for the first three episodes.
Jericho was speaking as much about his past few years with Yaz as he was the great adventure of death so I don’t see your problem. He’s from a Christian period, too, so that’s a correct mind set.
I have a feeling that this story was in Chibnal’s mind before he and JW decided to call it quits. Time’s interaction with the Doctor which should have been interesting turned into the standard set up for the next regeneration.
Both this season and the whole season have some wonderful moments and some flat and muddled bits. Some parts lived up to their setup – Vinder and Bel’s adventures and their reunion (massive coincidence though it was), Jericho and his death, and the tunnels (though even there there were allusions to more – weapons and hiding places – that didn’t show up). But many things also didn’t pay off.
I loved Division and some of the way it was portrayed – what a real Time Lord paramilitary service should be like, with terrifying weapons and capabilities. On the other hand, their entire staff that they’re re-locating to another unvierse is one director and one Ood? Villains can just wander in and take over? And they believe blowing up the universe is a good response to the Doctor getting twitchy?
The Flux went from universe-ending to stopped by eating some spaceships after the Ood turned it down a little – that’s fairly typical Doctor Who science so I can live with it – but lots of the universe is still destroyed?
Kate Stewart is my absolute favorite supporting character, and it was lovely to see her being sharp and competent in Episode 5 – then in Episode 6 all she gets to do is convey some exposition, and point a gun. It feels like there should have been a lot more to her story. Who was the teenager who knew how to find her? Why was the Grand Serpent so obsessed with her? Would there have been more UNIT vs Sontarans but it got cut? The Sontarans just leave Earth when they get the information they wanted.
I wonder if there were bigger plans that got cut due to COVID complexities – what would this have been like with 8 or 9 episodes and funding for a slightly larger cast?
The Daleks turning up to get destroyed felt out of character for them. Their response to a Sontaran offer of alliance ought to have been more like, “Fuck you, we got this ourselves.” (Cf. their response to the Cybermen offer of alliance back in “Doomsday”.)
Yes, most of the universe is destroyed, but there are still a couple of dozen galaxies left. Even one galaxy is plenty of space to set stories in, really. Some unknown portion of the universe got destroyed in “Logopolis” and nobody has really cared about that.
@@.-@ bmac:
“Kate Stewart is my absolute favorite supporting character, and it was lovely to see her being sharp and competent in Episode 5 – then in Episode 6 all she gets to do is convey some exposition, and point a gun. It feels like there should have been a lot more to her story.”
I agree. There were a number of things I liked in this last episode, but it kind of felt like an episode was missing between 5 and 6. Hope she turns up in one of 13’s final specials. Was so happy to see her again.
I mostly agree with this and was mostly satisfied with the episode. A lot of things got resolved, a lot of questions didn’t get answered and possibly never will, and a few things are definitely being set up for the future. Flux dealt with: Check. Swarm and Azure dealt with: Check. (I wasn’t as impressed by their “motivation” as some but I was past caring by that point.) Sontarans dealt with and allowed to play a bigger part in the canvas than just invading Earth: Check. Most if not all Daleks and Cybermen wiped out as a throwaway moment: Um, check?
I am very very torn about the fate of Jericho. I’d been hoping for three episodes that they’d resist the temptation to kill him, and they didn’t. If they were going to kill him, then that was a decent way to do it: Brave and charming to the end, facing the Sontaran commander unflinching as they both get blown up. But I’m not sure why he deserved to be the token sacrifice instead of being allowed to go back to his life and enjoy the memory of his adventure longer.
Also not sure that the Lupari (the entire race bar Karvanista or just a huge chunk of them?) deserved to all be murdered by the Sontarans off screen like some sort of narrative housekeeping. Less bothered about a big chunk of the universe dying: I did wonder if Azure’s claim the Flux could be reversed would play a part, but as has been said, there’s a precedent for that with “Logopolis”.
A lot of holes where the Grand Serpent’s involved. I did think for one second when he did the “You can call me…” schtick that he might turn out to be the Master after all, but apparently not. We still know very little about him or how he went from a galactic emperor to hiding out on Earth as the Sontarans’ lackey. Did Vinder’s report see him exposed and deposed? It would be typical bureaucracy if the regime that replaced him decided to send Vinder to some backwater: Whistleblowers are great when they’re getting rid of your rivals, but governments don’t want to keep them around to expose their own dirty dealings.
No way is that fob watch not going to turn up next year. Chris Chibnall’s set this plotline up, he’s not going to leave it to Russell T Davies or whoever to do what they want with it.
I’d somehow got it in my head that Dan was going to be a one-season companion, so very glad to see him jump back aboard the TARDIS with the Doctor and Yaz at the end.
Okay, I’ve seen this interpreted differently elsewhere so I checked again to make sure I hadn’t misremembered the line. Time says “Nothing lasts forever. No regeneration. No life.” Especially with the way Jodie Whitaker delivers it (yes, she’s playing both parts at that point, keep up), I do not interpret that as “You’re not going to regenerate.” I heard it as “This current regeneration of yours is going to end soon.”
I try so hard not to play “If I Were An Evil Overlord” while watching Who, but great good gravy, folks, death is not too good for your enemies! If the problem of the Doctor requires destroying the whole universe – all of it? Really? REALLY? Adams’ comment about space being “really big” leaps to mind – why did no one think “Hey, we’ve imprisoned her in the form of a Weeping Angel: anyone got a black hole handy? Or a sledgehammer? No? Welp, guess we’ll take her out and MWAH HA HA at her for a bit, on with the destruction”. Honestly, apart from Tecteun’s other failings, letting her adopted child out long enough for a round of “We’re each as bad as one another/Together we can rule the universe as mother and daughter”? With that child’s stored memories just out on the bloody shelf, instead of having been shot into the aforementioned black hole? She deserved to get dissolved.
Kate, Kate, why for the love of the planet you’re on are you telling the bad guy that you are on to him? Would the Brig have done that?
Diane got a fantastic character arc and at the end of it – went back to the museum. I can see needing a minute to regroup, but she kept a way to keep in touch, yeah? She should absolutely be teaching at the academy . . . if it still exists . . . and folks are still in a mental space to toodle ’round looking at exhibits after a planetary invasion? Was that rewound? How many galaxies are we down to, and how soon before someone notices?
I’ve just figured out the cure for the missing chunk of the universe and the end of all of the Doctor’s main enemies. When the Doctor and the show runner regenerate, EVERYTHING regenerates. I hope that included the dog people. I want a dog person protector!
This was the best season in years, but I also felt it didn’t quite stick the landing, like there was an episode’s worth of story resolution trimmed out. The Grand Serpent seemed more like a Red Herring; we never really saw the resistance Kate was supposed to be leading after going into hiding. And, aside from mourning the largely unseen Lupari, it seemed tone-deaf at the end to gloss over the annihilation of most of the beings in the universe, including presumably all the people the Doctor had saved in previous story arcs, sacrifices now rendered irrelevant without some sort of reset. Not to mention Dan and Diane hanging out at the museum after (yet another) violent and destructive alien occupation of Earth.
The best thing about this run was the side characters, including old friends like Yaz and Kate, and new ones like Diane, Jericho, Dan, Bel, Vinder, that 19th Century tunnel digger whose name escapes me. But especially Karvanista. The Sontarans killed all the Lupari on their fleet, but is that the entire race? They brought along everyone, including the elderly and pups, when they went off to war? The Lupari deserve better, and I want to see more of them, and at the very least, more of Karvanista.
The villians were not as compelling, and I was glad to see their demise. The Timeless Child concept is intriguing, but doesn’t need to be revisited soon. I ‘d be happy if they left that pocket watch in the bowels of the Tardis for a while before revisiting it.
I enjoyed the Flux story, as messy and timey-wimey as it was (three Doctors at once?). And I look forward to the specials in the coming year. I like 13, and will miss her. But I also look forward to the return of Russell Davies, and am interested to see what he does next.
They weren’t destroying the universe to kill the Doctor, the problem was that the Doctor’s influence had infected the universe so much that for Division it was irretrievably compromised and they couldn’t get it back on the track they wanted it on. Tecteun stated quite boldly she wanted the Doctor to come with her to the next universe, although that was likely to come with all the conditioning and mindwipes of the Doctor’s past in Division.
I did come away from the finale thinking it probably deserved another half hour to allow things to breathe but it was mostly a lot of fun, and the missing bits, like the Grand Serpent getting to Earth, are ripe for fan fiction or follow up by Big Finish etc.
I think the warning from Time at the end was that all lives and all regenerations end – not that this is her last regeneration, but that this version of her is coming to an end.
Overall, though, I think they pulled it together well. It’s been really nice to have a proper multi-episode story again.
But, yeah, Diane should have stuck around. She’s got world-shaking potential and she won’t even go on a date with Dan?