'The Flux': Chapter 5 'Survivors of the Flux' (Story Code 13.05) by Chris Chibnall

“So the universe has to end to protect the existence of Division?!” – The Doctor

Imprisoned inside the stone form of a Weeping Angel, the Doctor finds herself in a virtual world filled with millions of the assassins. Unable to learn anything from the creatures, the Doctor is then restored to her natural state by an Ood, who equips her with a ‘conversion plate’ and leads her into a chamber filled with bio-organic technology. Here the Doctor meets the old woman she met earlier, who explains that they are inside the Division…

In 1904, Mexico, Yaz, Dan and Professor Jericho break into an Aztec temple to retrieve an ancient stone pot that holds the date of the end of the world. The trio take the artefact to Constantinople to meet an old woman who can decipher its markings, but are only able to obtain a partial date of December 5th before an assassin attempts to blow them up with dynamite. Taking an ocean voyage on a liner, Yaz, Dan and Jericho are attacked by a waiter, who kills himself with a poison capsule implanted in his teeth before they can interrogate him; on the dead man’s wrist is the tattoo of a serpent…

In England, 1958, General Farquhar entertains his houseguest, Prentis - none other than the Grand Serpent. When Farquhar reveals that he is setting up a new taskforce for the United Nations to deal with extraterrestrial threats, Prentis is only too happy to look at the general’s plans…

In 1904, while Dan and Jericho throw the waiter’s corpse overboard, Yaz contemplates a holo-message the Doctor slipped into her pocket: a recording that warns of a forthcoming battle for ownership of the Earth in the aftermath of the Flux event.

The Doctor discovers that the old woman, Awsok, is the leader of the Division, the Time Lord shadow agency that started on Gallifrey and now operates throughout all space, time and dimensions. Having been unable to trace the Division, the Doctor is surprised to hear they are currently aboard a vessel situated outside the universe.

In 2021, one of the Lupari ships breaks formation, causing the shield around Earth to fail. To plug the gap, Karvanista locates a ship that did not answer his people’s species recall - the ship stolen by Bel, which is forced to return before its illegal owner can dock on a massive, claw-like monolith in space. The recall of Bel’s vessel is heard by Vinder as he materialises on the monolith below; instead of his missing partner and unborn child, Vinder finds dozens of refugees kidnapped from Puzano, who stand immobile around glowing machinery. As Vinder watches, the captives’ life essences are absorbed by Swarm and Azure.

In the Division, Awsok and her Ood servant prepare to move their vessel - a ‘seed vault’ - away from the current Flux-stricken universe. It seems that Awsok regards the Doctor as a virus in her experiment, and so she deliberately released the Flux to protect the Division from the Doctor’s interference, by shutting down the old universe and moving to a new one. Awsok has a further revelation: she is really Tecteun, the Doctor’s adopted mother. Tecteun confirms that everything the Master told the Doctor was true: she found the Doctor by a monolith beneath a wormhole to another dimension - and she was also responsible for having the Doctor’s memories removed…

In 1967, England, General Farquhar shows Prentice U.N.I.T.’s new Headquarters. Leading Prentice to a laboratory full of advanced equipment - and also a mysterious police box retrieved from a deserted village in Devon - the general demonstrates a device for identifying non-terrestrial life-forms; unfortunately, this blows the Grand Serpent’s cover, and he is forced to silence the general using a deadly alien snake.

On the monolith, Vinder is captured by Swarm and imprisoned within a Passenger form. Here Vinder meets Dan’s friend Diane, and together they make plans for escape.

In Nepal, 1904, Yaz, Dan and Jericho visit a legendary seer, who gives them the message “fetch your dog”. Quickly guessing what this means, Yaz and Dan travel with the professor to the Great Wall of China, where they paint a giant message to Karvanista, telling him to fetch his human in 1904. The message is detected by Karvanista in 2021, but he has no means of time travel…

In the Division seed vault, the Doctor appeals to the Ood to see reason and save its people by stopping the Flux; the Ood agrees, and shows the Doctor an image of the remains of the universe. When the Doctor is puzzled by what she sees, the Ood explains that the remnants are being compressed towards Earth, which has been designed to be the apex of destruction. Hearing a strange whispering, the Doctor sees a flash of her vision of the old house suspended in the air, then traces the source of the noise to a familiar-looking Gallifreyan fob-watch held inside a bell-jar…

In 1987, the Grand Serpent assassinates the chairman of the committee overseeing U.N.I.T., a power move that allows him to gain control of the organisation.

Taking another ocean voyage, Yaz, Dan and Jericho are surprised when Joseph Williamson barges into their cabin, before vanishing into thin air. Recognising the man’s name, Dan proposes a trip to Liverpool, where the trio begin a search of the disused ‘Williamson Tunnels’ below the city. Inside the cobweb-strewn passageways they finally locate Williamson, who agrees to help in their quest to prevent the destruction of Earth…

In the Division, Tecteun confirms that she retrieved the Doctor’s lost memories from the rogue Weeping Angel, and has stored them inside the Chameleon Arch fob-watch. Tectuen offers to return the Doctor’s memories if she rejoins the Division and helps to build the new universe - but the Doctor refuses, demanding that Earth be left alone, no matter what it will cost her personally.

In 2017, Prentis informs Kate Stewart, Head of UNIT, that her organisation is being wound down. But Kate knows there is a viper in their midst from her investigations into the suspicious committee chairman, and she threatens to expose him and call in the Doctor. Returning home that night, Kate only just avoids being blown up by a booby trap; with her house now in flames, Kate goes on the run…

In 2021, Bel’s stolen spaceship is brought into alignment with the rest of the Lupari fleet shield. Karvanista teleports aboard to confront the thief, but then the ship comes under attack from someone else…

In the tunnels beneath Liverpool, Williamson leads his guests to the heart of his excavations, a chamber lined with a dozen doors that lead to many different times and worlds. Suddenly the doors around the chamber all slam shut…

In 2021, the Grand Serpent orders his agents inside UNIT HQ to lower all planetary defences and turn all weapons onto key cities on Earth; he then hands control over to Sontaran Commander Stenck, who deploys thousands of his forces’ assault ships in a revenge attack on the planet. As Bel and Karvanista realise that the Lupari shield has been deactivated, they come under fire from a Sontaran boarding party. Meanwhile, Yaz, Dan, Jericho and Williamson are confronted by a squad of the squat aliens in 1904. Elsewhere, the Doctor’s vow to destroy the Division is interrupted by the arrival of Swarm and Azure, who have used the power stolen from their captives to create a psycho-temporal bridge leading to the Doctor. Gleeful at the opportunity to gain revenge on the Division, Swarm kills Tecteun and then turns on the Doctor…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), John Bishop (Dan Lewis), Kevin McNally (Professor Jericho), Barbara Flynn (Awsok / Tecteun), Craig Parkinson (Prentis / Grand Serpent), Robert Bathurst (General Farquhar), Craige Els (Karvanista), Thaddea Graham (Bel), Jacob Anderson (Vinder), Sam Spruell (Swarm), Rochenda Sandall (Azure), Nadia Albina (Diane), Nicholas Blane (Millington), Steve Oram (Joseph Williamson), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Johnathan Watson (Commander Stenck), Barbara Fadden (Weeping Angel), Isla Moody (Weeping Angel), Lowri Brown (Weeping Angel), Simon Carew (Ood), Silas Carson (Voice of the Ood), Guy List (Waiter), Johnny Mathers (Passenger), Nicholas Courtney (Voice of Colonel Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart), Kammy Dharweish (Kumar), George Caple (Alfie)

Directed by Azhur Saleem
Produced by Pete Levy
Executive Producers Nikki Wilson, Ben Irving, Matt Strevens and Chris Chibnall
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
28th November 2021 @ 6.25 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Dan, Professor Jericho and Vinder

*This 50-minute story is part five of a six-part story; it has no pre-title sequence

*Does the mis-spelling of Colonel 'Alastair' Lethbridge-Stewart - as opposed to 'Alistair' - hint that this story (or even all of the Thirteenth Doctor's adventures) takes place in an alternate universe after all??