An Autist Reviews: Survivors Of The Flux (NuWho Series 13: Flux - Chapter Five)

*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)*

The Doctor has been taken to the Division, under the watchful eye of an Ood and the woman who ruined her life before it had even begun. Meanwhile, Yaz, Dan, and Jericho trek across the world, continent to continent, trying to figure out when the world is going to end, but they aren’t having much luck. Elsewhere, across the universe, or at least what’s left of it, Karvanista hunts down Bel to save Earth while Vinder goes toe-to-toe with Swarm and Azure while back on Earth the man who ruined his life starts getting into bed with the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. All the while, the end of the Universe is approaching and the most dangerous creatures in the Universe are headed straight for what will soon enough be the last planet standing: Earth.

Alright, let’s start with the elephant in the room, the exposition ain’t all that great throughout. I’m not somebody who gets upset about exposition dumps so long as they’re interesting, this is probably why I don’t hate Chibnall as much as some, but I DO hate bad exposition. I feel like half of the things we learn in this episode were worded in really stupid ways or repeated without reason. I honestly hated most of the exposition in this, so just, fair warning, it’s not great. The story itself has only one major flaw in it and that’s the fact that somehow something big enough to be seen from space has never been found until Karvanista suddenly discovers it. Aside from that, the story is really solid. The pacing of this story is, as expected, fantastic, and the dialogue is thankfully much better than the exposition, even if it does have some issues here and there that make me want to throw myself out of my window. This episode picks up from the cliffhanger in a really artistic and beautiful way, so no problems there, and aside from a weird audio issue I have when watching this episode, the ending is absolutely fantastic too, which makes me a very happy boy! Now, to get a little more specific. This is a companion-centric episode that mostly follows Dan, Yaz, and Jericho as they travel across the world, having wacky adventures and nearly getting killed like 50 times, and it really helps humanize Dan and Yaz and flesh out their characters and dynamic. Also, I’m not a Thazmin shipper, but oh dear god this episode must be heaven for them. The Doctor spends whatever time she has on-screen talking with Awsok and her pet Ood, trying to figure out what Division is and what the Flux is, and boy oh boy do we get some lovely reveals despite the poorly written exposition! Vinder and Bel each only have small stories this episode, but they’re clearly setting up for some incredible stuff next episode, so it doesn’t bother me that they don’t do a lot. Something that made me very happy is that we get to see more of the Grand Serpent, which was really unexpected since he seemed like just a one-off character, but here he has the second or third biggest storyline of the entire episode, hopping through the history if UNIT and causing trouble, and it seems as though he’s gonna be a very important part of the finale, which makes me very happy because he’s absolutely incredible. Also, since I just can’t say much about this episode without giving away spoilers, let me just give a prediction for the finale: It’s going to be a simple, fun, high-stakes, action-packed story that won’t be complicated really at all. I know it’s the opposite of what most people think, but honestly, I don’t get how most people seem to think that the finale is gonna crash and burn, the landing is lined up perfectly, Chibnall would have to literally TRY to fail in order to actually fuck up this finale or make it overcomplicated. That said, let’s move on to the acting, and honestly, I don’t know why my thoughts are so brief today.

Okay, Dan’s friend is the worst actor this episode, but I’m gonna give her a pass because I think it’s a WotS thing, where she was alone on set and had weird direction and her acting seems shitty because of it. Moving on to more side characters, Vinder and Bel are each incredible, although Vinder is better in this episode if you ask me. Karvanista is his usual grumpy, funny self, and the mad mole, who deserves a spinoff, is just incredible and I love him so so so so much. The hermit is hilarious, the Ood is perfect aside from like one or two lines, the people the Grand Serpent plays for fools are incredible, and Nicholas Courtney’s post-mortem cameo is perfect, as expected, it’s not like it’s hard to find a good Brigadier line to use. Kate Stewart is odd this episode, as she honestly sounds tired and sad no matter what she’s saying and I just don’t like it, but I did soften on her performance upon a second viewing. The main cast is mostly at their best with only a few iffy lines here and there, mostly on the Doctors and Yaz’s sides, which is sad because they also had the best acting of the entire episode, especially during THAT scene, you know what I mean if you’ve seen the episode. Dan is, as expected, lovely and camp, so not much to say there, but I really don’t think he had a bad line this episode. The bad guys, and boy are there a lot of them, were all fucking perfect EXCEPT for the Weeping Angels, which in this episode are voiced by the Doctor, who just doesn’t sound all that great as the angels. I guess you win some, you lose some. The Grand Serpent is camp as hell and I swear to god this man makes me question my heterosexuality every time he opens his mouth or kills someone, Swarm and Azure are barely in this episode but what scenes they do have are just perfection incarnate, The guy who tries to kill Yaz, Dan, and Jericho was really good, and Awsok was just 10/10 fantastic and manipulative and golden through and through! There is a group of bad guys that I’d love to mention, but that would be a spoiler, so excuse me if I stay silent on who they are, but they ARE perfectly acted, as expected of the guy who voices them.

God this episode was fucking beautiful! LIKE JESUS IT’S BEAUTIFUL! But, if we must, let us start by talking about the music, which is just as beautiful as everything else in this incredible episode! Whether it’s dark or happy, simple or complex, every single track this episode was perfection. The voice effects were not as perfect solely because of the Weeping Angel voice effect at the beginning, which I just don’t like at all, but aside from that, from a voice glitching in and out to millions of whispering ghostly voices coming from nowhere and everywhere at once, every other voice effect is incredible. The computer effects should be a 10/10, they should be, really, but I just can’t forgive how poorly the psychic alien snake moved and how weirdly it kills people. Firstly, that’s not how snakes fucking move, man. It’s better throughout the episode, but when we see it slithering on the floor, it’s not slithering, it’s dragging its body after throwing its head forward, which IS NOT HOW SNAKES MOVE. The snake honestly is incredible outside of that though, and its head looks so good I honestly wonder if it is in some way or another partly practical because that head moves the way I’d expect a puppet to move, which isn’t a complaint, just an observation of something I loved. Secondly, why is it that people’s faces distort uniformly when they get murked? It doesn’t look realistic having people’s faces deform uniformly, their eyes should be bulging, vessels twitching, flesh pulling, it shouldn’t look like somebody is playing with a well-made 3D CGI head. The division is shown many times this episode, which is good because it’s the sort of simple, elegant, perfect piece of artwork that just needs to be shown multiple times to really be able to bathe its simple glory in. Moving away from the computer-generated effects, those practical effects were fucking glorious! If the snake’s head was practical, then throw that on the pile of incredible practical effects this episode! The costumes and makeup, as per usual, were perfect aside from the Passenger Forms’ masks, which, as we all know by now, are just airsoft masks, which I just can’t forgive, however, awesome everything else is. God the sets make me so fucking happy just thinking about them. Me and a lot of other people thought that this series would see a lot of sets being reused since it’s serialized, but boy was we wrong, as, in the penultimate episode, we’re still getting new and incredible set-pieces that can take one’s breath away. From the inside of the Passenger Form to the teleport-doorway thingies, to FUCKING DIVISION ITSELF WHICH HAS A FUCKING CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE IN THE MIDDLE LIKE WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS IT SO FUCKING AWESOME??!?!?! God the sets this episode are like an 11/10 if I’m being frank with you. Action in this episode takes many forms, from slapstick to a badass, close-quarters fight on a ship, to explosions and more explosions. God, there are a lot of explosions, and god are they fun. One thing doesn’t change from stunt to fight scene, and that’s the quality, which is just phenomenal overall. Watch out if you ever have to fight Dan, by the way, you never know when he might bite your toes… kinky. Okay, the cinematography this episode is glorious, truly, but I can’t forgive the camera panning from the Doctor to the Doctor in the same location but as though her location somehow changed, because that was the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a fucking while. Aside from that one thing though, as we’ve all come to expect by this point, this episode was beautifully shot. And now, ending on a simple note, the sound design is just plain exquisite, chef’s kiss.

All in all, I loved this episode. My opinion of it lessened slightly when I rewatched it before writing this, but I still love it with all of my heart. Yes, the exposition could really use some work, but damn if it isn’t forgivable when it’s surrounded by incredible revelations, amazing acting, and beautiful visuals. I mean, you have problems here and there, of course, you do, but how you could let those hold you back I don’t know. The only thing that is honestly bad about this episode in any way aside from one person’s acting in a single, very short scene, is the exposition, which is just annoyingly written for the most part. But if you ask me, that is not enough to ruin this episode, not when every other aspect is so incredible, so visually stunning, so heart-breaking and funny and gruesome. It just isn’t. 10/10, I can’t wait for the finale; I hope my prediction proves accurate, especially since it will give me hella bragging rights.

Total - 10

Plot - 9

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Story - 9

Pacing - 10

Dialogue - 9

Narration - NR

Exposition - 6

Enjoyment - 9

Twist/s - NR

Resolution/s - 10

Ending/s - 10

Acting - 10

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MC/s - 10

SC/s - 9

BG/s - 10

Narrator/s - NR

Effects - 10

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Music - 10

Voice Effects - 9

Computer Effects - 9

Practical Effects - 10

Costumes/Makeup - 9

Sets - 10

Action - 10

Cinematography - 9

Sounds - 10

Replay - NR

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Re-Enjoyment - NR

New Details - NR

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