As we head into the 3rd episode of Doctor Who's season long 6 part Flux storyline, Chris Chibnall has many, many balls in the air, all swirling about, bright and colorful.
Some of those balls might mean something.
"Meaning" remains in short supply.
Meanwhile, Chibnall decides this is a good idea: MORE BALLS!!!
Once, Upon Time is a disjointed and fractured narrative that echoes the structure of The Halloween Apocalypse.
Is this a good idea? After the break, we'll discuss.
And remember, as always, spoilers, sweetie!
Once, Upon Time
by Chris Chibnall
The episode opens with a title card: Bel's Story.
OK, who the hell is this now?
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
Bel is a scrappy young woman, one of the few survivors of a universe devastated by the Flux.
Bel has a Tamagotchi like device she communicates with which responds with emojis.
Bel manages to stay ahead of a squad of Daleks who were for once a genuine surprise, totally missing from any promo materials.
Bel is on a quest and it involves more than simply staying alive.
Now onto the Temple of Atropos where the Doctor does something daring and stupid to save Yaz, Vinder and Dan and stymie whatever the hell Swarm and Azure are up to.
The Doctor and her friends are in the time stream, fractured and in total chaos, a timestorm if you will, all cast about in various parts of their past, present and future.
In her own part of the time stream, Yaz is back to being a police officer and then playing video games with her sister. The latter takes a sinister turn when Weeping Angels try to get at Yaz through her TV screen.
Dan and Diane get a moment but it's not quite right. Dan missed his date with Diane and Diane is missing.
Vinder goes back to his past, a well regarded soldier tasked with being the right hand man of the Great Serpent....
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
The Great Serpent is a vacuous galactic leader who is not above using his office for criminal and personal gain. Vinder blows the whistle on his nonsense which leads to the exile in deep space we found him in back in episode one.
Let's check in with Bel who is shows off what a total bad ass she is by taking down a half dozen Cybermen by her own damn self. I want to like Bel but I'm unclear why I'm supposed to care.
She tells a dying Cyberman that her mission is "love".
The Tamagotchi thingy responds with hearts.
The Doctor gets shunted to the past where she has a dark coat instead instead of her light blue one and she's accompanied by Yaz, Dan and Vinder who are armed to the teeth. They are on a mission to the Temple of Atropos to stop Swarm and Azure. Not in the present but in the long, long ago past.
How long, long ago? When the Doctor sees herself in in a reflection, she sees... the Fugitive Doctor.
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
And Dan only looks like Dan. It's really Karvanista.
As Jodie Whitaker and Jo Martin keep swapping places, the Doctor and her gang stops and captures Swarm and Azure in the past.
Ah, it's another good day for the Division.
Then we meet Awsok, a mysterious woman in charge...
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
Then we meet Awsok, a mysterious woman in charge who has some cryptic nonsense to say to the Doctor.
Ooh! More mysteries! More things we don't know! More...
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
In the present, the Doctor and pals are back together in the Temple. Swarm, Azure and the Passenger (yep, that's where Diane's gone) book it, having caused whatever damage and trouble they set out to do.
Your guess is as good as mine.
The Doctor takes Vinder back to his home planet, devastated by the Flux. Vinder opts to stay behind; there's someone he hopes to find.
Which brings us back to Bel. She's watching a holo-recording of Vinder and contemplating their unborn child. It seems the Tamagotchi thingy is a link to her fetus.
Meanwhile, back in the TARDIS, Weeping Angels pop out of Yaz's cell phone, oh we've got trouble now and we are..
To be continued.
Oh my stars and garters! Never has so much been said for so little.
OK, the Doctor does a crazy thing that can save everyone or kill everyone, it's kind of a 50-50 thing. It's kind of a Doctor Who trope that Jodie's Doctor hasn't gotten to do a lot. Jumping into the time stream which is now a time storm is a crazy last ditch effort to save her friends. That's cool.
It also splinters the story with a lot of break neck intercutting between 4 different narratives that uses confusion and complexity in lieu of any actual forward momentum. Which is not cool.
Make that 5 narratives as we follow new character Bel.
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
Bel is a strong character, making her mark clearly as someone to be reckoned with. Daleks and Cybermen? Screw them! She's got things to do and places to be!
By why are we supposed to care? She seems to be a plot device that allows Chibnall to show what is going with a universe devastated by the Flux while the Doctor and her pals are doing whatever they're doing.
The revelation at the end that Bel is Vinder's lover and carrying his child is supposed to be some kind of surprise twist but I can't help but think the information in this "surprise" would've been more valuable if we knew more of it earlier.
OK, we got rid of Ryan and Graham but Yaz is still getting the short end of the stick. I had such hopes for Yaz back in episode one but with all the time taken up with Dan, Vinder and Bel..
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
Yaz is on the periphery again. Since the Weeping Angels seem to have a fixation on Yaz and next week's episode is focusing on the Angels, maybe Yaz will get a chance to draw some focus of her own.
One can see the seams showing where Chris Chibnall is stitching together his storyline, compressing over six episodes what would've been better delivered over a longer season. But the pandemic had other plans and bless ol' Chibs for trying to make this work.
On the plus side, Doctor Who has a sense of energy and urgency that has been lacking from Chibnall's time as showrunner. But that energy and urgency is coming from a disjointed mishmash of ideas told better by Steven Moffat and Russell Davies.
I'm still on board for this Flux ride. And Chris Chibnall may yet deliver a conclusion that makes the ride worthwhile.
Next week: Doctor Who Is NEW! returns with my take on "Village of the Angels".
Until next time, remember to be good to one another.
Chris Chibnall: "MORE BALLS!!!!!"
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