User Reviews

People will complain for the sake of complaining but this is easily the best series opener of the Chibnall era. It feels a little bit overstuffed and messy at times with the inclusion of the Weeping Angels and the Sontarans but you've got to remember that this series is one long story so I'm sure it will make more sense once every episode is out. Some decent comedy as well which seems to have been missing from the Chibnall era. Jodie's best performance as The Doctor so far and the new characters introduced are all very interesting particularly the main villain Swarm who seems to have some sort of backstory with the Doctor. Looking forward to the next episode so let's hope this level of quality can be maintained for the rest of the series.

While I understand this episode is meant to set up the rest of the season, it suffers from poor pacing and too many plot lines going on. However, it was still very interesting to watch and had me intrigued the whole way through. The Doctor and Yasmin's relationship is also quite good in this, showing them arguing and bickering while still getting along. Dan is a great new addition as well, however I hope his ignorance isn't a constant throughout the season. Altogether though it was a pretty solid start to a new season of Doctor Who.

It will probably be best to watch these episodes all in one go... after watching this I felt angry and robbed of my time. It was action packed all the way through but didn't feel like there was time to stop and unpack what was going on throughout the whole episode. Couldn't keep up with the pacing and the introductions of a bunch of new characters. Nothing seems to connect and everything seemed like it was a crammed into one episode to start Season 13 of with a 'bang'.

SPOILERS (with rant) below

Hopefully it all pays off in the later episode but I don't see the point in introducing all these characters if they don't relate or serve a purpose to the plot. I can't find the connection between 2 men arguing in the 1820s, and the end of the Universe in 2021. Why not introduce them in a later episode so our heads aren't overloaded with jumping from one point to another.

Also, a weeping angel is there and it takes... someone... I can't remember their name either... And there's a prisoner alien being secured by 2 guards but he's free now and, oh look, he's really powerful and has killed the guards. Oh and he has a sister but what are they doing? Nevermind he's having a chat with the doctor and they're bad guys ok cool next episode. Wait we're not done yet the Sontarans are back and they are going to do something! But does that even matter, cause the end of the Universe is also here!

I've said it before & I'll say it again; Chris Chibnall is the Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich of Doctor Who.

He conflates quantity with quality & (how very like a man) seems misguided in his belief that if something's big, it automatically makes everything better. As a homosexual, allow me to kindly disabuse him of that fantasy.

In all seriousness though, tonight's outing does undoubtedly showcase the current showrunner's pitifully lazy writing technique & lays it out bare for all to see; instead of patiently exploring one original sci-fi concept in satisfying detail & providing it with the necessary time required in order for it to organically develop (like a passionate gardner lovingly tending to their plant until it slowly flourishes & blossoms in to something magnificent & appreciable), with a misplaced sense of confidence / delusional optimism, he bites off far more than he can ever hope to chew in 50 minutes - depriving the plethora of new ideas featured throughout with the opportunity to naturally grow - & alternatively opts to spit out the barely masticated mouthful of ideas brewing inside his mind, throwing everything & the kitchen sink at this first installment (until we're suffocated by the density of this indigestible concoction), resulting in one of the messiest, incoherent, cluttered episodes of the show I've ever seen, which has hardly enough time to expand upon (or even acknowledge) the pre-existing characters, let alone introduce new ones / unearth the potential within the over-stuffed screenplay. Hence, the execution falters & consequently, it's all spread a bit thin; viewers are presented with a tonally inconsistent, needlessly grandiose, appallingly paced amalgamation of half baked ideas & narratively... I'm unsure as to whether there even is one remaining by the time the credits start rolling? Events just kind of "happen" inexplicably.

Funnily enough, the aptly titled (re)"Flux" could easily allude to the fact that it is so hard to stomach... As I'd believe the understandable inability to consume S13's intensely condensed content would ironically result in feelings of the same acidity which imperilled the protagonist in the frenetic opening montage. Almost poetic, in a way.

For instance, we're jarringly catapulted from one chaotic scene to the next with no apparent sense of direction, continuously whizzing through dizzying, disconnected sequences set across space & time until the viewer's left with severe whiplash from the relentless toing & froing. It's a merciless, nauseating onslaught with no discernible sense or meaning. Any & all information pertaining to the random subplots' relevance is withheld (to deliberately build a sense of "mystery" & "ambiguity" - a cheap way of maintaining interest) but as too much is currently unexplained, this equally results in unintentional confusion, exacerbating the contrived convoluted-ness of the unfurling situation further.

Granted, there are positives; action featured is unique & fun, captured with a noticeably kinetic energy & the production values are certainly impressive for a series produced by BBC studios, making it a sight to behold - so credit to the camera department, who together beautifully brought these moments of extravagance to life on screen in an interesting way, helmed by lead director Jamie Magnus Stone (alongside phenomenal director of photography, Robin Whenary) - & if there's any justice, they should go on to be incredibly successful after shooting this, as they're clearly very talented - but the crew's combined efforts (despite their best attempts) are evidently wasted on a shoddy script when I'm still wondering what actually was "The Halloween Apocalypse" trying to achieve as a piece of television? What was the intention? Moreover, what did it accomplish, other than to overload our senses(?) - because from their adaptation of the source material provided, I additionally doubt they knew the answer to that question whilst filming.

I simply get the impression that - similar to the previous two seasons in Jodie Whittaker's era - the gratuitous CGI spectacle, increased scale, breathtakingly improved visual aesthetic & inventive filmmaking culminates to form something which is specifically designed to (in theory) stylistically compensate for the lack of substance on the page, in order to tip the balance back in the creative team's favour. All the marvellously shot set pieces exist for the sole purpose of distracting us from the blatantly basic fact... It's superficial, devoid of logic, soulless & hollow. That's why the (soon to be "former") executive producer relies so heavily upon it. Papering over the cracks.

What's more, one particular thing I genuinely loathe is how yet again, Chris Chibnall chose to portray disabled people in a negative manner. As soon as I saw Dan's love interest had a disability, as someone who personally has a disability, my heart sank in my chest because I knew he has a history for this kind of thing & was likely going to do something horrible to them... And predictably, he did. However, it was worse than anticipated; having her character involved in a scene where she's not in control of her own body just seemed cruel, in very poor taste & uncomfortable to watch for me; a disabled individual is literally begging their legs to do as they want & they're not responding... And that's thoughtlessly portrayed with little consideration as to how that may translate or be received by the audience?

Meh. Do better.

Okay, I know the episode is not a ten but I know this episode will be bogged down by other reviews because it's messy or confusing or "too woke" (when it really wasn't).

As a setup to a six part story it was fun, had interesting story setups and cool new villains or redesigns of previous ones. Okay, Karvanista was a little over the top, but I think that's intentional.

The music was much better than it has been, the dialogue seems to have improved and so does the acting. And now that Ryan and Graham are gone it's a lot better, Dan seems like an improvement on them.

Very Good Episode. The Flux had a good start to the show. I like the Start where Yaz and the Doctor were at a near death experience as the action was really good. The Villain was menacing and was Somewhat scary. Seeing the Sontarens back was really cool as well. They looked like the ones from the John pertwee era. The setting was at Liverpool which was interesting to say the least. A little cameo for the weeping Angel's who are definitely scary and always remember to not Blink. The Effects were mouth watering they were honestly spectacular and the whole thing was really good to look at. The action was very good. The acting and story was not that bad as it had decent pacing. The Script could have been better but Jodie did well with what she was given and so did Yaz. The dialogue was sometimes good. The humour was not perfect but you'll hopefully get a few chuckles in there like I did. Hopefully you all enjoyed It!

Overall: 7.5/10 A step in the right direction.

I feel somewhat conflicted. On hand, it's very messy and paced poorly. I wished they hadn't tried to set up everything at once. You could have removed the Weeping Angel segment and other parts but the Sontaran bit worked because that's the next episode. It should have remained focused on Dan and the Karvanastra because those were aspects I liked. On the other hand, the Doctor and Yaz are written better than Series 11 and 12 and Dan seems to be a fun edition. The music was surprisingly great as well along with the VFX. The Karvanastra was a great edition and I really hope they use them more. I loved the Sontaran bit at the end and the cliffhanger would be top tier if they didn't put in the image of the angels or Vinder as they didn't serve a purpose to the story just yet. Overall, it's not bad and definitely feels like an improvement but they should have remained a little more focused on not setting everything up at once. I'm excited to see where it goes though.