An Autist Reviews: Once, Upon Time (NuWho Series 13: Flux - Chapter Three)

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

*This is a bare-bones/lite review made after only a single viewing. (Hence there not being any replay rating)*

To save Yaz and Vinder, the Doctor throws herself and Dan into the places of two burned-out Mouri. Lost throughout her own timeline, thrust between the heart of the timestorm and the Siege of the Temple of Atropos, the Doctor attempts to find a way to stop the Flux whilst trying to keep her friends hidden in their own timelines. As Dan finds himself having a good time, soon to turn very, very wrong, with Diane, Yaz finds herself at the mercy of a Weeping Angel as her timestream begins corrupts, and Vinder finds himself in the series of events that would lead to his posting, floating in the void of space. All this while a woman named Bel attempts to survive in a post-Flux universe, harrowed by the Cybermen, Sontarans, and Daleks, all while she tries to find the love of her life.

Okay, the beginning of this episode has a lot of problems. One, the Doctor is running too soon for it to fit with the previous episode; two, there is no real explanation for what the timestorm is, I can guess, but there is no GOOD explanation; three, the companions and the Doctor getting dragged into the storm looks dumb. That aside, the resolution does rather make sense, and for reasons I can’t mention, it’s reasonable to assume that Swarm let the Doctor save Yaz and Vinder by, I don’t know, delaying the time it took for Yaz and Vinder to get run through with time or something, I don’t really know. One thing is certain though, aside from the beginning, aside from some iffy dialogue here and there, aside from some really iffy exposition consistently, and especially at the beginning, this episode is incredible. So, the story rating is largely an 8 because of the beginning, because of how the main plot of this episode is resolved, which is just a bit of a copout and because Yaz should be dead via Weeping Angel, but somehow isn’t. Those are big and annoying things that heavily weigh this story down for me. The pacing is generally incredible, even if it’s sort of iffy at the beginning and the very end. I think that a good 90% of this story is incredibly well-paced, so long as you don’t mind jumping back and forth between well-paced stories. It’s sort of like how the first episode was paced except with some issues at the start and end. The dialogue really only has some small bumps here and there with the obvious exception of the video games line, which is stupid as much as I think it is kinda excusable. Still, there are too many small bumps and annoying moments for me to make the rating a 10. The exposition is the worst part of this episode, and it still has some really good parts to it! The only way that I can really sum up the general exposition experience is that the Doctor is constantly spouting poorly written exposition. That said, there are some stand-out, non-Doctor, poor exposition moments, such as when Bel is talking about how the bad guys are taking over the universe whilst all we see is a damn screen that shows nothing interesting and that really isn’t a good way to represent the positions of the bad guys. Also, why does the Cyberman she talks to just give up important information? I mean, there isn’t really a reason for it not to, it’s not like one person can really do much, but still, it’s kind of dumb. I will say, there is one line of exposition that Bel has near the end, and it seriously isn’t bad, it could have been worded better, but it’s not bad, really. Moving on, the twist about the Siege is well done, not exactly much of a twist, but well done. The resolution of Vinder’s story in this episode is incredible, and I can’t wait to see how things go for him in the future, too, so that has helped to salvage the resolutions score a good bit. Finally, the ending, the very end of the story, is just incredible. It’s absolutely brilliant and I love every aspect of it. There’s nothing more to say about that. This story isn’t confusing, honestly, I originally missed the first roughly 5 minutes of this story and I still understood it easily. The only sort of confusing part is Awsok, but she’ll be explained soon enough, I’m sure.

Let’s go from best acting to worst. Azure and Swarm are doing incredibly this episode, and they are joined by a small Cybermen cameo which is just lovely; Nicholas Briggs always does good voice work. The main characters are largely at their best, but the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan have enough poor lines here and there that I can’t give the main characters the 10 I gave the baddies. Finally, we come to the side characters, who really are only held down by the Mouri not being the best and by Diane just not being great near the end of the story. There we go, perfect, job done. There’s not really a lot to say here, but there is a lot coming up, so here we go.

Let’s start with the best parts of the episode and move our way down. The music was fantastic, there wasn’t a single bad piece of music in the entire episode and whenever it appeared it made everything so much better! The practical effects, few though they were, were also absolutely amazing, and I just loved them to bits! The sound effects of this episode were also absolutely brilliant, and the fact that I have nothing more to say on the matter should tell you just how good they were. I literally couldn’t notice they were there, they were so natural and well done! Next, we have the glorious, glorious cinematography! God, from Vinder poking his head into the TARDIS to the Doctor falling through the timestorm, to Bel sitting under a damn bridge by a fire, every single shot is perfect, trippy when it needs to be, and subdued when it needs to be. The cinematographer for this episode knows what they are doing, and I love them for it just SO much! The sets are the last effect I rated a 10 and that’s for good reason. Every set, however small, is incredible! From alien planets to the inside of a Lupari ship, to the temple of Atropos, every single set looks absolutely perfect! Next up we have the voice effects, which aside from the weird way that Swarm and Azure sound in the temple, for whatever reason that may be, are perfect. The Cybermen sound incredible, the Mouri are just perfect, and any glitchy and overlapping voices are done perfectly as well. Honestly, the weird effect on Azure and Swarm might just be me hearing things, but I still heard it, so I have to assume it’s there. Next up are the costumes and makeup which are absolutely perfect aside from, as I’ve mentioned before, Passenger’s mask, which is literally just an airsoft mask. The computer effects for this episode were just beautifully done, so it saddens me that the few bad ones left such a sour taste in my mouth that I can’t rate them higher. The main characters getting dragged into the timestorm looked stupid, the Weeping Angel appearing in the timestorm looked even worse, and the marching cybermen just didn’t really mesh with the environment they were in. People complain about the Dalek CGI, but I literally see nothing wrong with them at all, so I don’t know what people think they’re seeing. Now, the only other computer effect that I really want to mention is the mites, which are either very well done or terribly done and it all comes down to intent. If the intent was to make them look like they don’t fit into reality, then they’re perfect, but if they WERE meant to fit into reality, then they’re pretty bad. Aside from those issues though, I loved the CGI of this episode, especially the timestorm! Now we finally come to the lowest rating of the effects, the action. Now, the thing you need to keep in mind is that there are literally only two proper action scenes in this entire: The beginning and Bel dealing with the Cybermen. Both have issues, but the Bel one upsets me the most because I’m pretty sure that the number of Cybermen changes, and even if they don’t, the editor definitely reused the shot of the Cybermen dying which is just lazy and embarrassingly obvious.

All in all, for all its faults, I love this story to bits. It has plenty to criticize it for, but I think that it’s one of the best Doctor Who stories we’ve had in a while, and certainly one of the most interesting and trippy! It is genuinely exciting and you get genuinely invested in the characters as they try to handle being tossed through their own timelines, and that alone makes this episode incredible! The effects and acting are the icing on the cake, but sadly, like the story of this episode, they aren’t perfect. I spent this entire review wanting to give this story a 10/10 because I do genuinely love it, plus it’s what I’ve thought from the first time I saw it, but after a rewatch, I seriously just can’t bring myself to bump it up to perfection. You can see throughout the review how I try to convince myself that it’s better than it is, and I’m honestly sad that I couldn’t. Still, I love it, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the review.

Total - 9 (I thought it would be higher, but I can’t convince myself to bump it up a point...)

Plot - 9

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Story - 8

Pacing - 9

Dialogue - 9

Narration - NR

Exposition - 6

Enjoyment - 9

Twist/s - 10

Resolution/s - 8

Ending/s - 10

Acting - 9

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MC/s - 9

SC/s - 9

BG/s - 10

Narrator/s - NR

Effects - 9

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Music - 10

Voice Effects - 9

Computer Effects - 8

Practical Effects - 10

Costumes/Makeup - 9

Sets - 10

Action - 7

Cinematography - 10

Sounds - 10

Replay - NR

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Re-Enjoyment - NR

New Details - NR

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