Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Jo Martin – Fugitive Doctor
Companions
Mandip Gill – Yasmin Khan
John Bishop – Dan Lewis
Directed by Azhur Saleem
Written by Chris Chibnall
Script editors: Caroline Buckley, Rebecca Roughan
Produced by Pete Levy
Executive producer(s): Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens, Nikki Wilson
Incidental music composer: Segun AkinolaSeries 13
Running time
3rd of 6-part story, 49 minutes
First broadcast 14 November 2021
In the future, the Flux has wiped out all history and knowledge, and humanity is now on the verge of extinction, as the Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans now occupy most of the remaining planets, with deadly time particles sweeping through the remaining populations. In the Temple of Atropos, the Doctor jumps into the time storm and stalls Swarm by hiding Dan, Yaz and Vinder in their pasts, albeit with many details changed.
Dan experiences his date with his love interest Diane, but the setting keeps shifting, until the Doctor appears to him as a hologram, and Diane is abducted by Swarm's companion Passenger. Yaz tries to talk to her police partner, but the Doctor appears in her place. Yaz tries to teach her sister, who also swaps places with the Doctor, to play a first-person shooter, but a Weeping Angel appears, which Yaz defeats by breaking the video game console. Vinder reluctantly relives his time assisting the dictatorial Grand Serpent, and his demotion to the remote outpost Rose upon revealing the Serpent's misdeeds, including making an illegal alliance with people who know the whereabouts of his political opponents, with an image of Yaz as his commanding officer and the Doctor as a hologram. Vinder is seen making messages to his true love aboard the outpost.
Bel, a survivor of the Flux, evades the Daleks in a thick forest. She finds a Lupari ship, collects several ray guns, and travels through the ruined universe from the Dalek sector to the Cybermen sector. Bel kills six Cybermen in a boarding party, then reveals her motivations of love to a Cyberman she incapacitates. They briefly discuss the nature of love before she shoots him dead and escapes.
The Doctor jumps into her own timestream and recovers memories of her past Fugitive Doctor incarnation and three others, including the Lupari officer Karvanista, raiding the Temple of Atropos to confront Swarm. Swarm appears older and has vessels called Passengers that each stored hundreds of thousands of life essences. Unbeknownst to Swarm, the Fugitive has hidden six powerful Mouri priests inside Swarm's Passengers, and unleashes them.
Back in her present, the Thirteenth Doctor finds the Mouri priests, fixes the timestreams, and encourages them to return to the temple, but the priests forcibly separate her from her past memories to protect her from the deleterious effects of the time storm. Awsok, a mysterious old woman-like entity from outside the Universe, reprimands the Doctor, claiming it is inevitably collapsing due to the intentional placement of the Flux, and the Doctor's mission is futile.
Bel is revealed to be searching for Vinder as his true love, and is carrying his child and messages. The Doctor returns Yaz, Dan and Vinder to the present, but cannot prevent Swarm from apparently killing Diane, who is trapped inside his new Passenger. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to return Vinder, who resolves to find Bel, to his Flux-ravaged home planet. The Doctor gives Vinder a device to contact her. After the TARDIS takes off, a Weeping Angel jumps out of Yaz's phone and commandeers the TARDIS console.
Flux - Chapter 3: Once, Upon Time