This is going to be a shorter one, because I really am kind of emotionally checked out from this Chibnallian bullshit. It is not as if I didn't find things to like in the episode, because I did and there were more things I liked here than I did last week. The chocolate-obsessed Sontaran is a clearly flagged comedy bit but it's so campy and out there that you can't help but crack a smile. The Doctor completely flipping the interrogation switch on the Grand Serpent while also taking the absolute piss out of him was a very welcome Doctorish moment. Similarly, Vinder and Kate getting their cathartic revenge on him by putting him in exile on some space rock is good. I do kind of like that the Doctor apologizes for not trusting Yaz and being snippy all season. It is a little muted, but the effort is appreciated. Hmm. Is that all? Yeah, I think that's all. The rest of it didn't impress, I'm afraid. Watching Flux has been wild, because for all the plot threads being dangled and connected, I have noticed oh so many thematic threads left hanging there. Not just in Flux, but in the Chibnall era as a whole. If any of them were connected, it could say something about something and resonate backwards. Things like, for instance, the parallels between the Division and the Grand Serpent's UNIT meddling from last week. Or, to pull from this episode, the reveal that Karvanista was the Doctor's abandoned Division companion tied to that trite "your companions are your experiments" shit from last week. You know. Something about something.
No, but that would require committal, and we can't have that. I'm going to circle back to this, but I want to knock some other critique out. Namely, the Sontarans. Once again we are forced to take them seriously, the super ultimate threat to planet Earth that has subjugated the planet twice in the last month and whose evil machinations allow them to destroy a million billion Daleks and Cybermen by luring them into the Flux. If the discount Klingon thing weren't bad enough, they then have the Sontarans genocide the Lupari. Offscreen. I thought it was a lie at first. Nope. I thought it might get undone. Nope. They really just killed all of Karvanista's species off camera. For fuck's sakes. At the absolute least, when Chibnall had Gallifrey destroyed off-screen in Spyfall 2, I understood the motivation behind it. That motivation was some bullshit "remember 2007, when the show was good?" status quo/nostalgia resetting, but I understood it. Why in the hell would he have done this? The tragic awoo Karvanista gives uncomfortably reminded me of a moment in Star Trek Into Darkness where, after nostalgically invoking the tragic end of Wrath of Khan, a goddamned reference to the KHAAAAN scream is thrown in to MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER WRATH OF KHAN WAS A MOVIE THAT EXISTED AND YOU LIKED, utterly destroying any pathos of the moment by its melodramatic delivery. Good God.
What of the mighty Swarm and Azure, threats to the stability of the galaxy? How will they be defeated? Oh, they gloat to their boss about having already won when the Doctor's stopped their plan without them realizing, and their boss does the whole "failure is unacceptable" thing and just kills them. Oh good, what a satisfying end to the main antagonists of Flux! This then leads to what I should have expected. I'm a dummy and I really should have known better. Here I was thinking that the end of Flux would resolve some of this arc tension. You fool. You absolute buffoon. There are three episodes of the Chibnall era left. Three whole episodes and an entire year for Chibnall to keep his little Fish People dangling on the hook with the promise that eventually, something will resolve about something. All we get here is that the Ravager's boss, the personification of Time I think? Who also turns into the dark coated Whitaker from Once Upon Time? Anyway she delivers some Menacing Threat about how she's totally going to die and the end is coming for her soon. Because HEY WE'RE GOING TO A YEAR OF SPECIALS! REMEMBER HOW THE YEAR OF SPECIALS STARTED WITH A PROPHECY THAT THE DOCTOR'S TIME WAS UP AND HE WAS GOING TO DIE? DO YOU REMEMBER 2009, WHEN THE SHOW WAS GOOD??? Of course Chibnall passes the buck on to his future self again. That's what he does. That's what he always does. If he explained anything now, what would keep you invested in watching the show next time? No, best to keep it all up in the air, to tease, to intrigue, to make sure that all your eyes are on the show because Maybe Chibnall Will Say Something About Something!
Emblematic of this is the approach to that damn watch. The Doctor, since The Timeless Children, has been desperate and cold in her determination to regain that lost sense of herself. There's a whole bunch of stuff she didn't know about and she wants to know. I'd wager many people also want to know. Hell, you spent the last 20 months or more making a Big Fucking Deal out of it, Chibnall, okay. It's the end of Flux and the Doctor finally has the watch in her hands, the lost part of herself she oh so wanted... and what does she do? She drops it in the TARDIS and asks her ship to keep it hidden unless she asks for it again. What in God's name? This decision feels unmotivated by anything save for the fact that, as mentioned, Chibnall wants to keep us idiots hooked on the show because there's a chance he might explain something later. It's how he's been running this dumbshit ship the entire goddamned time. There's no thematic or emotional revelation the Doctor has that seems to explain her reluctance or rejection at her old memories, no grand message to be had or said, nothing learned from this endeavor. The Doctor puts the memories away because Chris Chibnall wants to put the memories away. These don't feel like the actions of a storyteller. They feel like the actions of a goddamned ratings shark. I feel like the man is just keeping us wiggling on the hook with the promises of revealing things, and that come a year from now he'll be laughing his way out the door with none of his shit explained. THANKS FOR WATCHING MY ERA, YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS! I SURE FUCKING FOOLED YOU BY TEASING ALL THAT SHIT, BUT BY GOD IT GOT YOU TO KEEP WATCHING IT! I'm projecting a little, sure, but how else do you explain this lack of anything? That sums up Vanquishers. A lack of anything. Sure, the universe is saved and everyone made it out alive, mostly, and we're off on more space adventures... but what substance was there? What did it say? It did nothing, said nothing, and teased something if you just tune in for the last three. A smarter person would call it quits here. Smarter people have. Fuck that. You're stuck with me. Chibnall, and you'd damn well better do something good in these last three.
Let's see what you do with the Daleks in a few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment