Doctor Who: Flux - Once, Upon Time (2021) - Review

I've been eagerly awaiting a proper tippy, mind-bending, timey-wimey episode of Doctor Who for a while now. Oftentimes such ideas are relegated to sequences, with a fear of (presumably) not being "mainstream" enough. We received hints of this in Series 12's Can You Hear Me?, but Once, Upon Time is almost entirely dedicated to this concept.

Firstly, the big one: we finally get to see more of "The Division days", and it's simultaneously incredibly exciting and a tiny bit underwhelming. Jo Martin returns as the Fugitive Doctor! Although she clearly wasn't present during the initial shoot and has been added in pick-ups, resulting in a "glitch" effect switching between her and Jodie Whittaker. It's a good compromise, as though the production team couldn't make the schedules work, and so did what they could, but I'd have much rather seen at least one full scene with Martin in the role again. Perhaps she shot her snippets alongside a later instalment of Flux? Either way, it's nice to see the various strands of Series 12 and 13 coalescing like this. The inclusion of "old" Swarm, and the reveal about Passenger were nice touches, while Karvanista's reveal was plagued by a very noticeable line around him...

Vinder's storyline was interesting to see play out. It seems as though Craig Parkinson is set to return later this series, although whether this will be as the Grand Serpent remains to be seen. It's great to see him - albeit in a small guest role - in Doctor Who though, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a space opera feel the episode worked in. Thaddea Graham brought some very human qualities to her scenes - even if the reveal that she's looking for Vinder could be seen from a mile away - and I really enjoyed the bits of Universe-building in the wake of the Flux. The CGI Daleks may have been a bit wonky, but I was glad to see the Cyber Warriors make a return (complete with Segun Akinola's industrial musical leitmotif). 

Perhaps the real success of this format was that it allowed time to develop Vinder and Dan into more three-dimensional characters, giving us backstory but in such a way that it didn't drag the over-arching narrative of Flux down. The Yaz scenes, meanwhile, seem to be building towards events in next week's instalment Village of the Angels. Quite where that's all going, I'm not too sure; although the angels finally have the phone box!

Once, Upon Time may not have been quite as fun as War of the Sontarans, but it was a delightfully twisty and turn-y narrative with all manner of great reveals. Perhaps the only real let-down was the way the episode awkwardly and rather slowly resolved itself, with the Ravagers awkwardly returning and then disappearing, Vinder's exit and the time-jump into the cliff-hanger scene. Flux has certainly been a rollercoaster over these first three chapters, and I can't wait to see what the second half of the series has in store...