‘Doctor Who: Flux’ Recap – ‘Chapter Three: Once, Upon Time’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 1303 of ‘Doctor Who’.
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Once upon a time there was a young woman named Bel who flew through space after the Flux, searching for someone. Someone very specific. Someone whom she loved more than anything. Finding this person has become her mission and that leads her through Post Flux torn places. Through Dalek and Cyberman territories alike, she faces grave dangers, people eating space/time mites, and so much more on her quest. Bel is determined, and she will not stop until she finds her love. But who could be the one person she would risk everything for? Vinder, of course. There is more to this pilot that meets the eye too. Beyond being the one thing Bel is searching for, Vinder is a standup man who will not sell his soul out for anything. A man who lives by his convictions, no matter the cost. Vinder is more than just a solider, just a man stationed on an outpost that outran the Flux and got settled with the Doctor. He is the type of person we all want on our team. Yet, Vinder is currently having a bad time living through some awful moments in his past. Why is he re-living moments of his past?
 
Well, sometimes when you’re the Doctor, the only way to save your friends is to hide them in their own time streams. In Vinder’s case, it’s reliving everything that lead up to him being stationed on a remote star base, away from Bel. All because he filed a report against their leader for having people killed. Whistle blowers never do get off easy. This did ensure he survived the Flux, however. So, I suppose that is one minor win. Only, now he doesn’t know where Bel is. As for the others? Dan is having a good time skipping about in his past, or maybe future? Or maybe both. His love interest was clearly on a date that didn’t go well when he keeps jumping about in both time and place. That tends to happen when Time itself is being destroyed. Yaz is having an even worse time as she’s thrown into events in her life that haven’t even happened yet. The Doctor seems to have the strongest connection in getting through to her. The Doctor isn’t the only one getting to Yaz, though, it seems a Weeping Angel has made itself known. At first it was just in the mirror here, or there. Then it was in a video game. Certainly. That’s not good.
 
Yaz also keeps appearing in Vinder’s timeline, only it isn’t really Yaz, he’s just replacing other people with her for some reason. Dan is stuck with someone from the past and that’s how he learns about the Time Mites, he’s also the one who is jumping around the most and getting lost. the Doctor has a harder time connecting with him than the others. The Doctor? Well, she is in her own past while also meeting with the Mouri. In her one timeline the Doctor is with Dan, Yaz, and Vinder already as they storm the Ravagers stronghold. The Doctor does get a glimpse of her reflection at one point, she thought this was her future, but this is really her past. A past she has no memory of and she’s a person she definitely hasn’t been before. Or has she? It's the mysterious female version of the Doctor, she sees. The very same we met last season. This Doctor is more ruthless. She tells the Ravagers that they need to surrender or be killed themselves, or even worse. Live in a prison ‘til the end of Time itself.
 
Time is also a place, one the Mouri are trying to control, or are they? Wibbly Wobbly and such have us just a tad confused on whom we are truly supposed to be rooting for. Slipping in and out of time streams is dangerous, and it’s slowly going to kill the Doctor if she doesn’t stop. She manages a plan, bring the Mouri into a specific place in time like they had before. Except, she’s not ready for this plan yet. She needs to go back into her past one more time, it’s the only shot she has at learning more of who she was and is. Something, someone, pulls her away completely, another woman with a dire warning. All things end, including this universe, and the Doctor needs to accept it. This mysterious woman, who does have an odd familiarity about her, also warns the Doctor to never look for her again. And then it’s over. The Doctor is shoved into the present with the Mouri, with Dan, and Vinder, and Yaz, and the escaped Ravagers post Flux. The Ravagers escape and the Doctor gets everyone into the TARDIS to leave. They have to fix time and space, after all.
 
Yaz is always questioning her lately, and the Doctor keeps shutting her down. Vinder just wants to go home, and so that’s where he’s taken. Left with a way to contact the Doctor on his Flux torn home planet to search for his love Bel. Dan and Yaz are left with the Doctor to try and sort all this out, until the Weeping Angel from Yaz’s time streams pops out of her phone and… the Weeping Angel has a TARDIS! With that the Flux Saga continues, yet we’re left waiting a whole week before we find out what happens next! 

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