Doctor Who: Flux – Chapter Three: Once, Upon Time

Doctor Who: Flux has reached its halfway point with the episode “Once, Upon Time.” What was delivered was one of the most confusing episodes the series has produced for a long time.

“Once, Upon Time” picks up where “War of the Sontarans” with Swarm about to kill Yaz and Vinder with time energy. The Doctor saves them by jumping into the time storm and hiding Yaz, Dan, and Vinder in their own time streams. But all the characters experienced distorted events from their pasts.

After two solid episodes the reaction for “Once, Upon Time” was mixed. The general reaction on Twitter was ‘what the hell was that’ and at the time of writing the IMDB score was a muted 6.4. It was an episode that only wanted to confuse instead of telling a compelling story.

The idea behind it was simple enough: The Doctor and her companions were trapped in their own past and they needed to find a way out. It’s a great concept for a character-driven episode as they explore their past and face the worst moments in their lives. It was similar to the Series 7 finale “The Name of the Doctor” where Clara went into The Doctor’s time stream to save him but ends up getting split into different moments of the Doctor’s timeline.

Different characters appeared in each other’s timelines. The Doctor projected herself into Yaz and Dan’s experiences and Vinder saw Yaz as his commanding officer. The Doctor experienced an event she can’t remember and her comrades in arms were Dan, Yaz, and Vinder. Even when The Doctor experienced her past, she was still able to project herself into Yaz and Dan’s past, telling them she was going to find a way out.

“Once, Upon Time” was similar to the Series 6 finale “The Wedding of River Song” and the penultimate episode of Series 12, “Ascension of the Cybermen.” All three episodes had confusing elements of some sort – “The Wedding of River Song” was an episode where time ended up being screwed and “Ascension of the Cybermen” had a subplot about a police officer in rural Ireland. These two episodes were bad examples for “Once, Upon Time” to follow because “The Wedding of River Song” was one of the weakest modern Doctor Who finales and the Irish subplot in “Ascension of the Cybermen” seemed out of place in that episode.

Due to the characters being trapped in their own pasts they couldn’t get out of their situation nor did they make much effort to get out. They have to wait for the Doctor to save them. The most exciting incident was when Yaz was confronted by a Weeping Angel. Even The Doctor was going through the motions as she experiences her past mission because she didn’t seem to do much to get everyone out of their time streams. It was like what happened in “The Name of the Doctor” there was no explanation on how The Doctor and Clara escaped the Doctor’s time stream.

The aim of the episode seemed to be more focused on setting up ideas and conflict for the rest of the series instead of telling an individual story. The most important development in the episode was when The Doctor met a mystery woman (Barbara Flynn) who says the Flux was created and the dimension they are in is going to be destroyed. The stakes are going to be high for the rest of the series. The other important development involved the Weeping Angels since they were in the middle of the time storm and affecting Yaz’s past. The episode’s cliff-hanger involved a Weeping Angel.

The most interesting storyline in the episode involved the character of Bel (Thaddea Graham). Bel was on one of the planets that was destroyed by the Flux. In the post-Flux world humanity was on the verge of extinction and the remains were being conquered by the Daleks, Sontarans, and Cybermen. This storyline had little to do with the rest of the episode, but it at least felt like a fun, pulpy space adventure due to Bel avoiding and fighting these enemies.

“Once, Upon Time” was the televisual version of treading water. It didn’t move the story forwards or offer much character development. It was filler until more interesting developments can happen in the later episodes. There was a big decline in quality after the first two episodes.