Doctor Who: Flux - War of the Sontarans (2021) - Review

Prior to watching War of the Sontarans on Sunday, I revisited the first chapter of Doctor Who: Flux, and I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot more. Was it the weight of expectations? The overwhelming number of disparate plot threads? Well, I still find the episode to be a little muddled, but it's a fun adventure, and if nothing else the dangling plot threads are all quite interesting. How would that cliffhanger be resolved?! Off-screen, it turns out...

The best summary I have for War of the Sontarans is FUN. It's great to see the Sontarans back again, and I'm glad that writer Chris Chibnall dedicated 2/3 of the episode to them. Jonathan Watson is great as his two Sontaran commanders, while Dan Starkey's supporting role is a nice bit of continuity from previous Sontar tales. Having seen a number of set photos last year, I had expected the Crimean War storyline and modern day invasion to take place over two instalments of a two-parter; alas, it turns out that it's all part of some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey attempt to not only conquer planet Earth but to have always conquered planet Earth! Quite how the Sontarans were able to manipulate the Flux, or at least use it to their advantage, I'm not entirely sure... Nevertheless, the potato-headed warriors were handled brilliantly, from their 70's costumes to the careful balance of humour and drama. Doctor Who has often mishandled the Sontarans, making them too silly without any kind of threat (see: The Invasion of Time, and the entire Steven Moffat era), but making them too threatening and ignoring the inherent silliness would be no better, and I think that Chibnall has managed to strike that perfect balance. Having successfully handled the Daleks, the Master, the Cybermen and now the Sontarans - it's clear that classic Who monsters are a strength in Chris Chibnall's writing.

It did seem a little odd to split the newly-formed TARDIS trio across time and space, although this did result in three very well-paced storylines. I loved Dan's exploration of a Sontaran-invaded Liverpool - even with a number of noticeable narrative gaps - and John Bishop is clearly having a ball. He brings so much warmth and humour to the series, with the tempura gag being a particular highlight. Jodie Whittaker meanwhile gets a lot more to do, with an arc reminding me of Spyfall: Part Two, as she's trying to deal with an alien menace across time periods without her "fam", and without access to her TARDIS. The Thirteenth Doctor backed into a corner seems to be the most interesting kind of story to tell with that character, and Jodie really makes the most of it.

The scenes in the Temple of Atropos gave me some real The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos vibes, although I'm not sure what else to say: it predominantly seems to be setting up Chapter Three, and ends up feeling like a mystery box in this instalment. There were some good moments and intriguing set-up though, and that cliffhanger was a doozy. War of the Sontarans may have packed in a lot, but it was a much more cohesive episode than The Halloween Apocalypse, and it's great to see a full-scale Sontaran invasion finally realised to its full potential in Doctor Who. Bring on Once, Upon Time!