An Hour of Who a Day: 09/16/22

September 16: "Chapter Two: War of the Sontarans"

(Flux episode 2)

So we last saw the TARDIS about to be enveloped by the Flux and presumably destroyed. This episode opens with the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan lying in the ground in 1855 Crimea, with no real explanation as to how they survived ("The TARDIS took a hit" is about the closest thing we get). Then Yaz and Dan get whisked away with no real explanation beyond "the plot needs them to be in different locations" (this one at least gets half-a-fig-leaf with "A collision between Flux and vortex energy. You're falling through space and time," which isn't really an explanation but at least is something).

But here's the thing. Once the episode has finished manhandling its characters to where it needs them to go, "War of the Sontarans" settles down and becomes a pretty enjoyable time. Much like The Trial of a Time Lord before it, this season-long story looks like it's going to made up of smaller individual tales, connected by the overarching theme (the Doctor's trial in that case, the Flux in this one); this means that "War of the Sontarans", although it ties in with the Flux business, is basically self-contained. (It's not quite that simple, as we'll see later on, but that's basically the case.)

Mary Seacole outside her British Hotel. ("War of the Sontarans") ©BBC

And so this ends up being the "celebrity historical" of the season, with the focus on Mary Seacole, a British-Jamaican who traveled to the Crimea to set up an establishment behind the lines for the purpose of rest and convalescence: the British Hotel that we see here. Sara Powell does a great job as Mary, showing her as independent, kindly, and fiercely intelligent, serving also as a good companion-surrogate for the Doctor. The only thing is, instead of fighting the Russians, the British are fighting the Sontarans. The scheme here is that the Sontarans slipped onto Earth in the moment before the Lupari shield that was protecting the planet from the Flux was completed and consequently have established a base in modern-day Liverpool with the intent of traveling back in time to rewrite Earth's history; the replacement of the Russians with the Sontarans in the Crimean War is the pilot program for this effort. Mind, the episode doesn't do a great job of making this clear; I only really properly sussed it out after paying close attention here, having already watched this story a couple times prior.

Actually, that's something of an ongoing issue with this episode (and honestly, the entirety of Flux, as we'll see). The information needed to properly understand what's happening is for the most part present in the episode, but it tends not to be given enough emphasis for the audience to easily pick up on it. So the Sontaran scheme is explained, but only if you're watching closely; similarly for the rather-intrusive scenes in the Temple of Atropos (so another way this story resembles The Trial of a Time Lord, with the "arc" scenes interrupting the story we're more interested in), where Yaz ends up (along with Vinder, somehow) and learns some stuff about the purpose of the Temple and how before it was created, "Time ran wild". It's present, but it's not emphasized in a way to make it more significant than any of the other vaguely technobabble-esque dialogue. I'm not sure if this is a directorial issue brought on by the pressures of COVID or if perhaps Chibnall and company had lived with the script so much that they didn't realize things weren't as clear to outsiders as they were to them, but either way it's a concern -- not a major one, but a concern nevertheless.

Setting that aside, however, "War of the Sontarans" is a lot of fun. The updated Sontaran costumes are, frankly, gorgeous; I love the way they look like the classic black-and silver costumes from the 20th-century Sontaran stories, just updated with some upper armor that appears to also incorporate the look (if not the coloring) of the purple-blue armor from "The Sontaran Stratagem" et seq., and the way they've made that silver armor look weathered and worn is also excellent. This is a fabulous example of how to update an old look for the modern day while still being faithful to the old design. The Sontarans themselves maintain their current personality of being threatening but also just ever so slightly comic (Dan Starkey's performance as Svild not being a million miles away from his performance as Strax, while Commander Skaak confesses that he partly chose the Crimean War as the test case because he wanted to ride a horse), and generally speaking they walk that line pretty well. And Jodie Whittaker is rarely better than here, raging against both the Sontarans and the stupidity of the British leader, Lieutenant-General Logan, and trying to broker a ceasefire that it turns out neither side is interested in. Her fury at Logan after he blows up the Sontarans, despite the fact they were retreating, is a great indication of how intense this Doctor can be. It's almost like once she's not showing off for her friends, the thirteenth Doctor is more focused, and so it's nice to see that side of her come out here.

And we get to see Dan back home, aided by his parents as they sneak around past curfew in Sontaran-occupied Liverpool (it's been all of two days since Halloween, according to Dan's mum) and then being heroic by sneaking aboard a Sontaran vessel to figure out how to get rid of them. It's a lot of fun watching him knocking out Sontarans by hitting their probic vent with a wok, while he tries very hard to make a difference despite being out of his element. He makes it surprisingly far, in fact, allowing him to communicate with the Doctor, while Karvanista shows up to rescue him from a Sontaran squad once he finally is captured and then sends the ship they're in on a crash course with the other ships, thus causing a "temporal implosion" (just go with it) that gets rid of the Sontarans in Liverpool. It's also fun how he keeps trying to take credit for other people's plans, making himself more important than he otherwise would be. Which admittedly sounds insufferable, but John Bishop makes it work so that it never feels that way. And the way he pauses, after being officially invited aboard the TARDIS by the Doctor, before grinning and agreeing, is a great choice.

So "War of the Sontarans" is generally an enjoyable, well-told tale, one that can be appreciated even if you're not paying close attention to the details. But because this is still part of Flux, we end with the Doctor and Dan at the Temple of Atropos, where Swarm and Azure have been doing Evil Things. There's some stuff about how the Mouri (five women in robes) channel and direct time, and how the Flux has damaged the Mouri, that might hopefully make more sense next time. Oh, and it seems Swarm and Azure have the ability to speed up time, so that they can move really fast and turn people and objects to ash (at least, I assume that's what happening here). Bad luck for the Doctor, then, that Swarm has stuck Yaz and Vinder in the place of the two of the Mouri and is ready to send the full force of time through them...