'The Flux': Chapter 6 'The Vanquishers' (Story Code 13.06) by Chris Chibnall

“This is better than we ever could have hoped. We have everything we need: Division, the power to destroy your universe, and you.” - Swarm

As the Sontarans invade the Williamson Tunnels, Yaz uses a rope to open one of the doors, releasing a deadly energy that destroys the alien soldiers. Williamson takes Yaz, Dan and Professor Jericho through another of the doorways, which leads to 5th December 2021…

Inside the Division, the Ood informs the Doctor that he has located the TARDIS. Swarm closes in on the Doctor, but as he places his hand on her head, she rips the compression plate from her lapel…

…and finds herself aboard Karvanista’s ship, as the canine soldier and Bel deal with an attack from Sontarans.

Emerging inside the tunnels in 2021, Yaz, Dan, Jericho and Williamson encounter Kate Stewart, now leader of the human resistance against the Sontarans. Detecting artron energy on Yaz and Dan, Kate takes them for the Doctor’s latest companions and shows them the TARDIS, now hidden nearby. To everyone’s surprise, the Doctor appears…

…but the Doctor is also still in the Division, and while Azure holds the Time Lord fob watch containing the Doctor’s stolen memories, Swarm gloats about destroying the universe…

Sontaran Commander Stenck issues a message to the remains of the universe, offering the survivors of the Flux an alliance or death. The commander specifically calls out to the Daleks and Cybermen to become his allies.

Split across three places at once, the Doctor aboard Karvanista’s ship detaches the vessel from the Lupari shield and sets it on a collision course with the Sontaran Dark Energy Camera in Chile. The attack fails, and the ship is caught in a force-field – but this was the Doctor’s plan, so she and Karvanista can get aboard the Sontaran ship while Bel goes on a solo mission.

Azure opens the fob watch and directs the released energy at the Doctor, transporting her into a vision of the floating house. Sharing the vision, Swarm and Azure identify the illogical house as a representation of the Doctor’s lost memories. For fun Swarm disintegrates the house, causing the Doctor to crumble as well - until Swarm reverses the destruction so he can do it again…

In the tunnels, the Doctor catches up with Yaz and Dan and learns how Williamson discovered rips in time and space, early effects of the Flux; Williamson mapped the rifts and incorporated them into doors in an underground city intended to protect against the coming destructive event. When Kate explains that the Sontarans are using humans to fuel their psychic camera, and are also raiding corner shops, the Doctor hatches a plan: she and her friends find a Sontaran gorging himself on sweets and fizzy pop, and make a deal to share chocolate for the chance to sneak two people into Sontaran command. The gang then use the TARDIS to travel to 1967 and collect Claire, so she and the Professor can go undercover…

Locked up with Karvanista in the Sontaran command ship, the Doctor tries questioning him about the Division, and how he was her Fugitive self’s companion. But the canine is unable to answer due to a lethal synaptic collider implanted in his brain by the Division.

The Doctor awakes in the Division vessel, where the Ravagers reveal their plan use the Flux to end all of space, and then use the Temple of Adripos to rewind time and destroy it again and again in a destructive loop - all for their saviour, Time. To demonstrate Swarm disintegrates the Doctor, then restores her so he can do it again…

Visiting his prisoners with the Grand Serpent, Sontaran Commander Stenck informs the Doctor and Karvanista that his soldiers have seized control of the Lupari fleet and airlocked their crews. As Karvanista howls in pain, the Doctor is dragged away for questioning.

Elsewhere, inside the Passenger, Vinder and Diane search for a way to escape. After Diane shows Vinder a section of bioform controls that she dug up, Vinder disrupts the Passenger’s systems with a shot from his gun, enabling them both to escape the prison-form.

In Chile, Sontarans take Jericho and Claire inside their ship and connect them to quantum reader equipment, ordering them to find out the space-time coordinates for the final Flux event.

Under interrogation by the Grand Serpent, the Doctor turns the tables and deduces that he is a binary demi-species, and a deposed dictator who plans to betray the Sontarans so he can rule instead. As the Grand Serpent attempts to kill the Doctor with his snake-creature, the TARDIS appears and a second Doctor emerges; she imprisons the Grand Serpent in his own interrogation machine, then helps her other self to escape. While the two Doctors collect Bel, who has been busy obtaining data from the Sontarans’ records, Dan releases Karvanista from his cell. With everyone aboard the TARDIS, the Doctors listen to Commander Stenck’s message calling for an unlikely alliance with the Daleks and Cybermen, and immediately become suspicious. The two Doctors link psychically and contact the Doctor in the Division, and together they work out that the Flux’s primary component, anti-matter, is being altered by Swarm to change its trajactory.

Detecting Claire’s strong psychic abilities, the Sontarans boost the power to her quantum reader, allowing her to find the required space-time coordinates. Commander Stenck immediately recalls all Sontarans to their ships in an evacuation of Earth. Before they leave, the Grand Serpent scans the planet for artron energy, looking for Kate…

Free of the Passenger, Vinder contacts the Doctor in the TARDIS, where Bel is happy to overhear her partner’s voice. The Doctor locks onto Vinder’s signal, but he and Diane are pulled back inside the Passenger.

Kate contacts the Doctor with a warning that the tunnel doors are behaving strangely; Kate is unaware that the Grand Serpent has returned to Earth and is now searching for her.

While one Doctor rescues Vinder and Diane from inside the Passenger, the second Doctor takes the TARDIS to the tunnels and sends Williamson through the door leading back to his own time. With Kate’s help, the Doctor works out that the Sontarans want to use the Flux to destroy the Daleks and Cybermen, while they use the Lupari fleet to shield their own forces – an audacious plan that will allow the Sontarans to take over the remaining universe.

In the Division, the Ravagers reveal their plan to sacrifice the Doctor to Time, then teleport to the Temple of Atripos.

Having split her forces into two teams, the Doctor instructs Jericho and Claire to use their transmat rings to return to the TARDIS; but while Claire manages to escape, Jericho’s ring is destroyed by a squad of Sontarans, stranding him aboard the alien vessel. Elsewhere, the other Doctor and her team sneak aboard a Lupari vessel and incapacitate the Sontarans aboard.

Commander Stenck moves the Lupari shield out into deep space, providing a protective barrier against the Flux in time for the arrival of the Dalek and Cyber battalions, as they rendezvous with the Sontaran fleet. But as soon as his enemies materialise Stenck moves the shield away, leaving the Dalek and Cyber spaceships to fall to the destructive onslaught of the Flux. Stenck is surprised when the Lupari shield reforms in the wrong place, until he receives a transmission from Karvanista, who has taken over remote control of his stolen fleet. Vinder and Bel use two Lupari vessels to destroy the comms transmitter on Stenck’s ship, preventing him from warning his own fleet; unable to get to safety, Stenck and his army are swiftly destroyed by the Flux as well. But the lethal wave also hits the Sontaran ship containing Professor Jericho, who manages to send a goodbye to the Doctor before facing his death bravely. With some remnants of the Flux getting through the shield, the Doctor uses Diane’s idea to teleport a Passenger into its path to suck up the destruction wave, storing it safely inside.

Arriving at Atripos, the Doctor, Swarm and Azure watch as Time manifests itself before them, taking on the form on Swarm. Knowing that the Flux has been extinguished, Time promptly kills the Ravagers for their failure. As the Doctor picks up the fob watch dropped by Azure, Time takes on her image. To the Doctor’s surprise Time spares her, allowing her to leave with a cryptic warning that her time will end soon without regeneration, and that she must beware of the forces amassed against her - along with their master. Restoring the Doctor’s split selves into one, Time sends her back to the TARDIS to rejoin her friends.

In the Tunnels, Vinder saves Kate from the Grand Serpent, and together they force the dictator through one of the doors, stranding him on a remote asteroid. The Doctor leaves Vinder and Bel to explore space with Karvanista, then drops Claire and Kate back on Earth. Dan returns to Liverpool to resume his life, but with Claire still angry that he left her behind, he decides to continue his travels in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Yaz.

Some time later, after apologising to Yaz for shutting her out, the Doctor drops the fob watch into the TARDIS console, instructing her ship to hide it from her - until she finally decides to open it…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), John Bishop (Dan Lewis), Sam Spruell (Swarm), Rochenda Sandall (Azure), Steve Oram (Joseph Williamson ), Kevin McNally (Professor Jericho), Craige Els (Karvanista), Thaddea Graham (Bel), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Johnathan Watson (Commander Stenck), Craig Parkinson (Grand Serpent), Dan Starkey (Sentarg / Shallo / Kragar), Annabel Scholey (Claire), Jacob Anderson (Vinder), Nadia Albina (Diane), Simon Carew (Ood), Silas Carson (Voice of the Ood), Johnny Mathers (Passenger), Sonny Walker (Stevie (Grand Serpent Victim)), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Daleks / Cybermen)

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):
5th December 2021 @ 6.20 pm

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

*This 59-minute story is part six of a six-part story