Doctor Who S13E6: “The Vanquishers” Fumbles the Finish

The following contains spoilers for the season finale Doctor Who S13E6, “The Vanquishers” (written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Azhur Saleem)

So the Doctor Who: Flux saga has reached its conclusion. Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker have some specials left, but this was their last full season with which to lay their legacy on the show. To its credit, the Flux storyline built momentum and carried the unifying story throughout the six episodes in a way that has been unmatched in the modern era of the show. There were no standalone episodes of the week, it turns out that everything we saw tied back to the flux, for good and ill. But, now that Doctor Who: Flux is over and all the episodes, of varying quality, have aired, where have they left us and what have we learned? 

Doctor Who S13E6, “The Vanquishers” puts an easy cap on all the storylines that had been set into place in “Survivors of the Flux“. The Sontarans are defeated, the Ravagers dissolved, and the Flux is stopped before it can destroy the rest of the Universe, but it still all feels unfinished. With so much time spent developing the scope of the threat, and the destruction, of the initial Flux, it seems odd and off-putting that “The Vanquishers” spends absolutely no time dealing with the aftermath or fallout of any of the destruction. There have been times in the past that Doctor Who has ignored the ramifications of universe shattering events but this feels different. With so much emphasis on Bel (Thaddea Graham) trying to navigate the now barren and lifeless universe, it would have felt right for there to be more acknowledgement of what happened by the Doctor and the TARDIS crew.

Instead, the episode ends on an uncomfortably upbeat note. Vinder (Joshua Anderson) and Bel are reunited and decide to go off on adventures with Karvanista (Craige Els). Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) makes a heroic sacrifice and stands his ground one final time against the Sontarans, which means at the end of the episode, he is dead and really only Claire (Anabel Scholey) is shown to mourn this great loss. She departs back into her old life, the only one really speaking of the man. Dan (John Bishop) asks Diane (Nadia Albina) out, but she is visibly upset by everything that has happened and seems to, pretty inexplicably, blame Dan for it. So Dan returns to the TARDIS where Yaz (Mandip Gill) and the Doctor push on ahead as if nothing has really happened. It seems that Chibnall is going for the sort of “happy coda” ending that was a huge part of the Davies era of the show, but without giving any of the characters a reason to be happy.

Doctor Who S13E6 spends most of its time following the Doctor. Yaz, Dan, and the others do almost nothing throughout. Instead we follow the Doctor as she flits back and forth between three different versions of herself. Eventually this separation proves key to the saving the day as the Doctor is able to literally be in multiple places at the same time. One stuck in Division with only an Ood as a companion, one fighting Sontarans with Bel and Karvanista, and one wandering Joseph Williamson’s (Steve Oram) tunnels with Dan, Yaz, and Kate Stewart (Gemma Redgrave). When the Doctor finally meets the “Mad Mole” she compares his handshake to Paul Hollywood, which seems to be a bafflingly specific pop culture reference which I’m not sure I understood, but it did seem that everyone involved was at least having a good time.

All of this is good fun and makes for an entertaining episode, until it reaches the climax. The Doctor’s entire “plan” to save the day and destroy the Flux turns out to be the exact type of plan that we have seen Doctors from Tom Baker’s incarnation to Peter Capaldi’s version refuse to be a part of. Well, to be fair, it is the Sontarans who came up with this particular plan. The warrior species uses their conquest of earth to force humans to predict the time and location of the “final Flux” that will end everything. Ultimately, due to Doctor’s somewhat ill-conceived decision to send in Claire, the actual psychic, to spy on them, they discover exactly what they need to know. It turns out they do not want to rule over the desecrated remains of the universe after all, they want to use the Flux strategically, to destroy their enemies.

The Sontarans murder all of the Lupari (off screen) and commandeer their fleet to use the shields against the Flux. Then they invite the Daleks and Cybermen to meet at the point of the Flux, promising to save them with the shields as well. In a pretty brilliant strategic move, for the villains, it turns out to be a trap. Once their enemies have gathered, the Sontarans plan to let the Flux wipe them out, extinguishing the Flux in the process, allowing the Sontarans to be hailed as not only the rulers of the universe, but the saviors of it as well. The Sontarans set themselves up to be “The Vanquishers”. Only this is not to be. The Doctor learns of the plan and then sets about to do the very heroic thing of enacting their exact plan, but killing all the Sontarans too. Which is the issue, the Doctor may have been the “oncoming storm” but this complete acquiesce to triple genocide seems like it should be a bridge the character would not cross.

Not only does the Doctor cross the line though, she seems to revel in the destruction. While I don’t think it necessarily worked for the character as a whole, I personally liked the much more vicious and headstrong version of the Doctor on display here. Throughout the story Whittaker seemed to be portraying the character with far more of David Tennant’s self-destructive darkness than with her usual brand of hyperactive silliness. The callous disregard for the lives of her enemies certainly sets the Doctor apart in this moment, it just seems odd that there would be no repercussions of such momentous decisions. And the Doctor makes an even more dissatisfying decision in Doctor Who S13E6, when she throws the fob watch containing the memories of her past lives into the heart of the TARDIS.

This decision is framed as a grand gesture by the Doctor, like she is making a valiant and noble choice by not learning about her past, the very thing that has been driving most of her decisions since the Master (Sacha Dhawan) told her that she was the “Timeless Child” and that these memories had been hidden by Division. Unfortunately, there is no compelling or story based reason for the Doctor to make this decision. If it had been set up that learning the secrets would have harmed the universe, or even set the Doctor up for some hardship, then maybe this choice would have made sense. But neither of those things are the case and so it seems the Doctor decides not to learn about her past because Chibnall didn’t want to write any answers into the script. If he had answered these questions here, then the mystery box is closed, and he remains much more interested in questions than answers. To everyone’s detriment.

This seems especially odd considering that much of the final showdown between the Doctor and the Ravagers (Swarm and Azure) is spent in discussion of how much life means to the Doctor. Azure (Rochenda Sandall) gets a lot of juicy monologues and back and forth with the Doctor. Focusing on how the Doctor always values life. “Life must win,” says the Doctor, a character who by the end of the episode is reveling in the mass destruction of three different species while ignoring the psychological toll being left alone in the universe has on Karvanista.

The idea that Karvanista was once a companion is interesting. Except that, by making this character a pretty silly dog-like alien, the emotional impact is lessened for both the Doctor and the audience. All the other Lupari are killed and Karvanista is a broken figure, angry and alone, and it seems that no one on screen seems to care at all. Every story beat around these things could have been compelling, but in each and every case it is cast such a remove that it seems clear Chibnall does not actually care what is happening, just that something happens.

There is one personal matchup between characters in Doctor Who S13E6 though, the final showdown between the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson) and Kate Stewart (Gemma Redgrave). Kate is able to live up to her reputation as the defender of humanity and The Grand Serpent is shown to be so petty that he abandons whatever plot he was into with the Sontarans for the mere chance to kill the one human who bested him. The two of them actually get to interact and pay off some of the tension that was built last week, unlike Vinder who has even more of a past with the Serpent, but spends much less time with him. Ultimately he is defeated and gets the much more normal treatment for a vanquished villain on the show, exiled to a rocky outcropping alone in space.

While the Doctor is basically enacting the Sontarans’ plan for them, it is Diane who comes up with the solution that actually saves the universe from the Flux. Inside of Passenger she shows Vinder all the various ways that she has figured out how to break free of the prison (basically she spent her time inside learning how the thing worked and how to exploit it, which is a fascinating development for the character, and something that it would have been interesting to see more of). They use these skills to break free and send a signal to the Doctor, who ultimately is able to free them because the plot needed them to be free. Diane uses her knowledge to convince the Doctor to trap the Flux inside of the passenger form, which is infinite (Passenger is like a TARDIS inside of a black domination suit, I guess?) where it can destroy matter until it peters itself out.

Throughout it all the Doctor is split into three versions, an apt metaphor for the current era of the show. There are three Doctors but the way the camera jumps between them doesn’t distinguish them at all. Instead of having distinction from each other, or their own take on the Doctor’s traits, the three versions just exist as is. The Doctor is herself throughout the crisis, which lessens some of the impact of having the Doctor split in the first place.

That is not to say that Doctor Who: Flux did not teach us new things about the character. The Doctor is more open, finally admitting to Yaz that she should be more open and forthright. (And clearly openly flirting with both herself and Yaz, come on show, all will be forgiven if during the specials you bring back the Doctor’s Wife.) She is at times a more confident, powerful version of the Doctor, which is a great return to the days of shouting down enemies from on high. She still has the spark she has always had, but it is true that she has changed. 

And now, heading into the end of her time, there is very little time left to deal with the ramifications of the Doctor’s decisions, or the Flux itself. We are likely never to see any resolution to any of these arcs, plots, or characters, as the time has come to move on. So Doctor Who S13E6 ends with a whimper, refusing to unwrap the mysteries we have been given. Instead we move to the specials hoping for a last glimpse of the characters we love. Though, as jaded as I may be, I am excited to actually see Jodie’s Doctor in a proper stand alone adventure with Dan and Yaz. All three of them have the ability to light up the screen.