Doctor Who Series 13 First Impressions: Episode 3 (Flux Chapter Three: Once, Upon Time)

Chibnall is still Chibnall, but I do appreciate the freshness of him giving us a different flavor of Chibnall. With Chapter 3 of Flux, God help us, we can add the phrase "Gonzo Chibnall" to our lexicon. A strange, ethereal dream of a nonlinear episode that floats fractured in time, delving into the realm of memory and premonition, expositing and teasing and explaining in equal measure while also dropping a whopper of crackling metaphysical concepts. What's not to like? Well, it's a Chibnall, so it doesn't quite hit the highest of highs and actually pokes some unfortunate lows. The strange ethereal dreamlike quality feels like it reflects Chibnall's writing process up to this point, as he cribs so much half-remembered detritus from the driftwood of memory of the RTD years. This time, at least, he seems to have half-remembered Steven Moffat had some good driftwood in the past. Again, I appreciate the freshness of that, if nothing else. Of course, as so many of the Moffat fans who form my little corner of the Internet have pointed out, a Moffat-penned episode would have been good.

Let's drift along with that, and see what we have here. At times it feels like Forest Of The Dead, a beautiful dream with glimpses of unreality briefly waking one up. The four main leads play the roles in these dreams, sometimes shifting to who they're portraying in a moment of confusion. It's all very gonzo and intriguing, but where in the hell does it lead? Not to much, really. Dan's dream amounts to setting up the twist that his lady friend Diane from Halloween Apocalypse is a hostage inside of Swarm's Passenger (itself set up as a prison in this episode). It hits the unfortunate damsel in distress tropes, threatening fridging on the part of Diane to motivate Dan, and also threatens to use rep for someone with a disability in the same way Series 11 used rep for queer people: hey look, it's someone like you! THEY'RE KILL FODDER IN THIS EPISODE! Even if Diane is saved in the latter half of Flux, Chibnall is playing with his usual fire and it's not a good look. Speaking of Chibnall's usual tropes, Yaz does all but nothing here. Her dreamland sequences basically set up for next time, menacing her with a Weeping Angel. I will give some praise to the Angel bits, as again Chibnall seems to have suddenly remembered Moffat's run existed and has cribbed the image of an Angel becoming an Angel from Time Of The Angels. Gamer Angel is a cute variation on the Angel coming out of the screen, a fun twist on an older bit of Doctor Who. The Doctor and Yaz on the couch gaming is also a fun screencap (which led to a really cute Animal Crossing recreation on Twitter) to have. I like that. What I don't like is the missed potential here. This could have been another Can You Hear Me? situation, delving into Yaz's own fears and bad memories and interior landscape. Instead she does nothing and is used to ferry a legacy monster tease for next week in her scenes. Where did all the diving into someone's memories of their timeline go?

Ah, over here with Vinder. I see. Vinder's backstory is the most interesting here, as there are numerous times where it's played as reliving a traumatic event that he does not want to relive. (It is telling that Yaz plays the role of his old white man commanding officer in these scenes; Chibnall, you're telling on yourself.) He blew the whistle on a very bad but very rich and influential space man called the Grand Serpent who had his political opponents killed, off the record. Vinder was punished for this by being sent in Outpost Rose to the ass-end of space. The Grand Serpent both intrigues and frustrates me. He is exactly the kind of callous arch-capitalist oppressive murderer that my favorite Doctors like McCoy and Capaldi would overthrow without a second thought. You'll forgive me if I have low hopes for Jodie "The systems aren't the problem" Whittaker's Doctor taking this fucker down a peg. That disappoints, but in many ways Chibnall has improved. The Bel plot, for instance. A B plot running through the episode with no context that makes you wonder why you're seeing it, until you're given the "oh by the way" reveal that recontextualizes what you've seen. This is a Chibnall trick from the bag of tricks, pulled infamously with the Brendan plot in Ascension Of The Cybermen. Unlike that episode, Chibnall actually gives you the context here at the end: Bel is Vinder's partner and they are both searching for each other. Bel also kills a bunch of Cybermen, and the confrontation with the last dying one is the closest Chibnall has come to really interrogating the conversion nature of the Cybermen since... well, ever, I guess. I was going to say since Ashad, but Maxine Alderton wrote all of Haunting Of Villa Diodati and that's the best Ashad ever got. It's closer than big stompy legacy robots though, so hmmm. Also "love is a mission" is a riff on "love is a promise" from Death In Heaven (a far far far superior Cybermen story to anything Chibnall will ever write) and just crunchy enough to light up the magical girl part of my brain. Cute. Chibnall's not hopepunk enough to roll with it in the ways that will really make me scream, but cute.

Okay but he does know my mirror imagery weakness. Fucker. You got me. The Doctor's dream, a dream that ends up being Division backstory, that shows the jailing and foiling of Swarm and Azure's first plan to destroy the universe, that brings back JO MARTIN and reveals her via a reflection in the mirror. Wow. Yeah yeah yeah, Chibnall's on his Division bullshit again. The far more interesting bullshit is the nature of Time and Space, as opposing metaphysical forces directly attacking one another, both with destructive force in the form of blue Time Fireflies and the Flux for Space. (Time being broken and unleashing a destructive ravenous swarm that eats everything it comes across? Chris Chibnall has read The Langoliers.) There's some absolute gonzo shit here, and I don't know how much of it will really gel with me, but it's a different and strange register for Chibnall so it intrigues. What also intrigues is the abrasive nature of the Doctor, so insistent on learning upon her past that she lashes out at the Mouri in the timestream and even at Yaz for showing concern. Yaz folds like wet tissue here, but I really hope she has an Ace/Clara moment of calling the Doctor on her bullshit here. Please. Give her something to do, Chris. That's that for Once, Upon Time. Is it good? I don't know. It interested me and kept me guessing, and I do appreciate the freshness of Chibnall being gonzo. In the end, though, I mean... Moffat being gonzo was the equivalent of, say, a Quarter Pounder meal from McDonald's. Chibnall's gonzo is the equivalent of a flavor of potato chips you've never tried beofre. It's a good snack, and the new flavor is interesting and unique to see from chips, but in the end one is more filling than the other. Ah well. Close to being really good, but held back by Chibnall's own tendencies and foibles. Almost a shame, really.

At least he remembered Moffat existed for the Angels. Also Maxine Alderton is here next week. Let's see if that freshens shit up.