Doctor Who: Flux was supposed to be a new opportunity for Chris Chibnall to win over his doubters, but it’s repeating all the worst mistakes of the Steven Moffat era. Doctor Who: Flux is the thirteenth season of the modern era of the long-running sci-fi series, telling one story spread across six episodes. It’s the last full season produced under Chibnall with both he and current Doctor actress Jodie Whittaker set to depart the series in 2022, albeit after a series of TV movies to bring the Chibnall era to a close.
After the series revived under the watchful eye of Russell T Davies in 2005, Steven Moffat took over the position of Doctor Who showrunner from 2010 to 2017. His early years were met with near-universal critical acclaim, with Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Eleventh Doctor gaining worldwide popularity. However, while still producing many fan-favorite episodes, over the years his era saw declining viewership and waning enthusiasm for the series, with particular criticism for Moffat’s overly complex plotlines.
With Doctor Who: Flux, Chibnall is steering the show back toward the Moffat era’s byzantine plots, and it’s all the worse for it. Despite being presented with an opportunity to tell a story that is simple and self-contained, Flux has rapidly devolved into a complicated, navel-gazing mess. With Doctor Who season 13 employing a miniseries-like structure, Flux had the opportunity to function as a perfect on-ramp for new viewers, but the backward-looking plot will only further alienate viewers who had already checked out under Moffat.
After Chibnall’s controversial Timeless Child retcon, many viewers were hopeful that Doctor Who: Flux would offer an opportunity to move past season 12’s heavy emphasis on the show’s lore. Instead, Flux is delving even deeper into The Doctor’s background. Rather than focusing on a new story, Flux is posing more questions about the Timeless Child, the Division, and further esoteric elements of The Doctor’s past. It’s a flaw that hindered Moffat’s era as well, with season arcs focusing on The Doctor’s secret name or a mythical “hybrid” from an ancient Gallifreyan legend. Rather than offering simple space adventures, these arcs task the audience with sifting through the show’s increasingly convoluted canon.
In addition to the plot being too absorbed in the show’s history, Doctor Who: Flux is simply too confusing. Moffat was criticized for his enigmatic, mystery box plots, but Chibnall has taken the problem further, with stories that paradoxically manage to evade comprehension while being overstuffed with exposition. Doctor Who season 13, episode 3, “Once, Upon Time” represents a new high water-mark for convolution, matching a scattered story with confusing dialogue. Even The Doctor seems to echo the sentiment, at one point saying, “I'm sorry, I'm normally very good at keeping up with things, but you lost me quite early on.” Seemingly unaware of the parallels to Moffat’s glutted narratives, Flux even borrows the Weeping Angels, arguably Moffat’s greatest Doctor Who creation, and adds them into the mix, one more element to needlessly complicate the plot.
After Doctor Who season 12, the following holiday special “Revolution of the Daleks” looked to be a course correction for the show, showing that rather than growing further entangled in the show’s canon, it could move on, with the Timeless Child serving as a footnote in The Doctor’s history. Unfortunately, Flux has squandered that opportunity, proving more needlessly complex than even the most labyrinthine Moffat story. With the rest of Chibnall’s era inevitably spent sorting out the tangle of plot threads created by Doctor Who: Flux, viewers can only hope the series will learn from this mistake in 2023, when returning showrunner Russell T Davies retakes the reins.