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Spoilers Survivors of the Flux grade and discussion thread

How do you rate Survivors of the Flux?


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I think those thoughts are mutually exclusive.
Yeah, I'm in the camp of not being very impressed by any of Chibnall's work on DW. Some of it is passably good but much of it varies from awful and unforgettable to mediocre and forgettable. I have no problem with the casting - the actors are doing their best with what they've been given - especially Jodie. This season is a hot mess that even Christopher Nolan would struggle to untangle.
 
While I generally liked the "Adventures In 1904" bits of the episode, the giant message at the Great Wall was just ridiculous. If it was supposed to be some sort of callback to River's "Hello, Sweetie", it failed (for this viewer, at least). How nice that Karvanista / his ship monitors everything everywhere (or something) and detected the message from wherever whenever in space. Contrived and ridiculous.

I meant to mention in my earlier post that at this point I'm fed up with Swarm and Azure. They're coming across as evil for evil's sake rather than anything interesting.

I really think the episode could've used another subplot or two.
Definitely. There wasn't anywhere near enough going on.

My main gripe with it is that what they're doing with it is just not very interesting.
Exactly, hence my rapidly diminishing enthusiasm. Not that it had been particularly great in the first place, but the fact it appears the Timeless Child stuff is going to be something so generic and bland isn't impressive.

Was anybody else on the edge of their seat watching Kate face off against 'Prentis'?
That scene was another of the very few good bits of the episode. Really liked that Kate worked it all out, and I did actually think to myself "she's doomed" as she approached her house. I wouldn't call myself a fan of the character (I'm basically indifferent to her) but I wouldn't have been impressed if she'd been killed off as a subplot among the ep's zillion other subplots.
 
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* The Timeless Child haters have no choice now but to get used to, if not begrudgingly accept, the new lore it introduced because this episode and the preview for next week pretty clearly set it in concrete as the new status quo when it comes to the Doctor's history

At first, I was going to say that no, I'm not a Timeless Child hater, but maybe I am. At least a Timeless Child strongly disliker! But for good reasons! It makes the Doctor less interesting, diminishes what we've seen since the classic series, and so on. I just don't like it.

However, I'm not convinced (and, I'll admit, this might be wishful thinking) that it's absolutely confirmed that the Doctor is the Timeless Child. When the Doctor asked if what the Master her told her was true, there was a definite beat before Tecteun said "yes."

I still think it makes so much more sense for the Master to be the Timeless Child. It makes his character more interesting. It fits with what we know about the Master. He has a hard time dying! The experimentation and manipulation can explain his evilness. Additionally, the Doctor's struggles against the Master become more interesting if he is some immortal super being while she's a regular old Time Lord.

In short, I'm still hoping that the Master was mistaken and Tecteun lied about the Doctor being the Timeless Child. Afterall, the Doctor didn't recognize Tecteun until she was told.

Given the NYE special relates to ELF storage (groan) it seems unlikely this will be Flux related, it feels holiday related, and Flux has been branded as a six episode run so to get to the end of episode 6 and then say, "Nah it's not over, kids" seems unlikely. No, there might be a few things left dangling, but IMO The Flux ends next week.
I'm wondering if the Spring and/or Fall special will relate to Division? Flux might be wrapped up but I doubt Division will be.

Also why write a message by the Great Wall? Is this linked to the fallacy that the great wall is visible from space? Was it a patch of land Yaz somehow knew wouldn't be touched until 2021? Was it just nonsense?
The aggravating thing about Yax and co's journey was that it was ultimately a pointless waste of screentime. The Great Wall seems symbolic of that. A message that in the unlikely event of being read is useless. None of their journeys contributed to the solution. It was just the encounter with the tunnel guy that led them back to Liverpool, and they're now presumably prisoners of the Sontarans.

I thought the Timeless Child scenes were the least interesting part of the episode, but I really don't mind it. The Doctor being abused by a shady organisation and then cast out with their mind wiped is pretty consistent with the Hartnell Doctor being an exile and not really knowing how to work the TARDIS. It also fits with Troughton's abject fear in The War Games, Pertwee's exile and further Time Lord missions etc.
That is kind of consistent. I don't mind so much if Jo Martin is a pre-Hartnell incarnation. Maybe immediately before Hartnell. So, if we had Jo being the original Doctor as an operative for Division, getting mind wiped and released, and then we pick up the adventures with Hartnell, that works.

However, having this whole Timeless Child's super-special, immortal status, the basis for Time Lords as we know them, and having untold numbers of incarnations before Hartnell is the part that I don't like.

Of course, YMMV!

Oh, oh, oh, and the Master!

My main gripe with it is that what they're doing with it is just not very interesting. So, her (most likely) bio dad and mum were nice, decent, generic SciFi people. Cool, I guess?

I'm a relatively new Whovian, don't know if I'll stick with it.
I keep thinking the Master has got to make an appearance. I would not be surprised at all if he's in the next episode. I'm just trying to figure out how. I keep hoping the TC explains his backstory rather than the Doctor's. I also think he must've been one of the others on the Temple of Atropos raid but his identity was obscured by one of the other's faces. Maybe Vinder--as he could be the Master's father. We'll see.

I have to agree about generic characters. Bel and Vinder. Not sure whose parents they'll end up being. But Tecteun seems to be the Doctor's adoptive mother. And their meeting had huge potential. But it fell flat. A few fireworks but it was quickly done. Chibnall should've cutback on the 1904 hijinks and devote more time to the Tecteun part of the story. Although, if it just meant more exposition, maybe not!

There was a real potential there that was thoroughly wasted. Unless, of course, the Doctor isn't the Timeless Child. ;)

I think if I was a new Whovian, I might question sticking with it. If you haven't, you should catch up with the rest of the modern series (at least) as it is mostly really good. Chibnall's era is the low point of the modern series.
 
Regarding the barking corporal, I bet he's talking about Benton, who was a sergeant during the Pertwee era, so very likely a corporal during this time period.
 
Well, where to start?...

(even if I couldn't help but wonder how they could afford it all...),
That threw me out of the story a bit, though I guess they saved all their money between 1901 and 1904.

Either way, Chibbers has me invested in this.
Quite the oposite for me.

So if Tecteun is the Doctor's adoptive mother then who was the lady on the TV talking to Wilfred during 'The End of Time'?
My thought was a previous regeneration.

I didn't think I'd get too old for this stuff but it seems I was wrong.
Me too, me too.

So, the Chibbers' MasterPlod nears it semi-tumescence (nowhere near climax). Don't like the whole TC thing in any shape or form. Don't like the way this hack is determined to put his stamp on the series. Don't like where Flux is going, and how it's going to turn out, probably a rebooted universe of some kind. Don't like the infodumps where the Doctor can only stand around gawping. It's... just... woeful.

The actors as usual knock out of the park whatever they have to work with. But the story, the arc, the characterisation, all the writer's responsibility, leaves me cold. No emotional investment. I will be glad when Chibbers' tenure is over. Whether I'll continue to watch, i'm not sure.

Speaking of which, is there a viewing schedule for 2022 yet?
 
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However, having this whole Timeless Child's super-special, immortal status, the basis for Time Lords as we know them, and having untold numbers of incarnations before Hartnell is the part that I don't like.

Of course, YMMV!

This is the part that doesn't sit well with me. Same as when Cartmel wanted the Doctor to be one of the founders of Time Lord society back in the eighties.

But is the Timeless Child actually super special, or just from another universe where this is commonplace? I guess we'll find out sooner or later!

I'm honestly not bothered by the previous incarnations thing. It doesn't make any difference to the character to me, because what's important is that the Doctor believes they began with the First Doctor, and that's how we've seen their personality form over the years.

I'm a bit worried about that pocket watch though. I'd rather the Doctor didn't get her memories back - keep them where they should be, vague and open for future writers to explore, should they wish.
 
I thought the Timeless Child scenes were the least interesting part of the episode, but I really don't mind it. The Doctor being abused by a shady organisation and then cast out with their mind wiped is pretty consistent with the Hartnell Doctor being an exile and not really knowing how to work the TARDIS. It also fits with Troughton's abject fear in The War Games, Pertwee's exile and further Time Lord missions etc.

I don't particularly need to know it, but I like this more than the Cartmel Master Plan stuff.
That's actually a nice way of framing the whole Timeless Child business, even if we don't like it.

But like you said, we don't really need this explanation.

I wouldn't call myself a hater of the whole thing (and what a dumb, asinine thing to say to people collectively :rolleyes:), rather I would say that I'm still waiting to see how this all plays out after Chibnall is done (since we know when that end date will be) before I judge it on its full merits.

But it's not going well, I agree.

The rest of the episode was just great fun, especially all the scenes with Edwardian Yaz, Dan and Jericho. I'd like to have seen more of that. A spin-off in the works? Big Finish would bite yer hand off. The Grand Serpent was great too. He's doing a bit of a Harold Saxon but over a longer period. That could have been the season thread in itself.
Yup, the moment Dan mentioned they had been at this whole thing for three years, I immediately thought what Big Finish would do with that gap! :D

More adventures of Yaz, Dan, and Jericho please!
 
Overall a 7 but really thee episodes feel like small very disjointed movies directed by someone on acid.

I can follow the story but really they do jump around a lot. I love Yaz. Jodie is good too. What's the deal with the two baddies? Division sucks.
 
Did anyone catch how Swarm said, they are time and the others were space?
He implies that time and space are natural opposites of each other and should be incompatible.
He claims time’s dominion over space.
I don’t think they are a literal manifestation of time, though.
And one wonders of there is a third party representing relative dimensions or something…
 
But is the Timeless Child actually super special, or just from another universe where this is commonplace? I guess we'll find out sooner or later!
Sigh . . . I imagine we will. But, whether or not the TC was super special in its own universe, it clearly is in ours! It's like Superman on his home planet vs. Earth.

I'm honestly not bothered by the previous incarnations thing. It doesn't make any difference to the character to me, because what's important is that the Doctor believes they began with the First Doctor, and that's how we've seen their personality form over the years.
I can live with previous incarnations. Particularly, if that was the only thing. Like I was saying, it's the other aspects of the TC that bothers me.

I'm a bit worried about that pocket watch though. I'd rather the Doctor didn't get her memories back - keep them where they should be, vague and open for future writers to explore, should they wish.
I don't think she'll get her memories back. Or at least not the majority. I've got two theories about the watch and it depends on what happens.

If, as I'm still hoping, the TC actually becomes the Master, then it's not the Doctor's memories. That could be a plot twist. In this scenario, Jo Martin could still be a pre-Hartnell incarnation of the Doctor with erased memories but they'd be separate from the TC.

However, if the TC becomes the Doctor, I'd guess that the watch will need to be sacrificed for some reason before the Doctor retains her memories. It's Time Lord technology that works at the quantum level. Perhaps it'll be adapted to reboot the universe . . . or something. At any rate, something will happen to prevent the Doctor from regaining all her memories.
 
Regarding the barking corporal, I bet he's talking about Benton, who was a sergeant during the Pertwee era, so very likely a corporal during this time period.
Benton is a corporal on his first appearance in The Invasion, but the dialogue refers to Lethbridge-Stewart (who wouldn't use his surname alone unless he was an officer).
 
I was swept along by it decently enough, and intially gave it a high mark as a result, but the more I think about it the less satisfying it feels. As has been discussed in detail in this thread, many bad Chibnall habits came back in force, from conveniently glossed over plot details to exposition marathons that aren't nearly as dramatic and twisty as the epic musical stings try to make out. It's just...hollow.

The main issues here are twofold. One, someone really needs to get through to Chibnall that finding something out is usually more effective than being told, and if you have to tell, make it short and sharp. Two, none of the characters are growing in the slightest, they're just static elements being moved by the plot. After all the build, most of the momentum has gone, deflated by an episode that does a lot, yet achieves little.

Certainly most of my enthusiasm has died. I just can't see, given all the threads, and all the questions still hanging, and the unengaging, too familiar narrative elements at play, how this could possibly all tie up in a rewarding fashion. It'll be Big, and superficially enjoyable, but barring some spectacular final twist Flux seems destined to disappoint. So frustrating.
 
There has just been a change that ends the limit on privates who've become officers. Until now the highest rank a soldier-turned-offiicer could reach was Lt-Colonel.
So the Brig would have been an officer from the start.
The irritating thing is that, while the UNIT dating problem was never going to go away, the other issues wouldn't arise if the line had been "That's our new captain. Bit of a shouter, but very good. Don't expect he'll stay as a captain for long."
 
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