This review contains spoilers for Doctor Who Series 13, Episode 3. After the fun and attention-grabbing Series 13 premiere, last week’s episode of Doctor Who stumbled a bit by telling a mainly self-contained story that failed to address any of the many questions raised by the previous installment. And while this week’s episode seemed like it would be dedicated to clearing up many of this season’s mysteries, it instead spends most of its time raising even more questions.
“Once, Upon Time”, written by showrunner Chris Chibnall, picks up where the previous episode left off — with the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her allies Yaz, Dan, and Vinder in the clutches of the villains Swarm and Azure, about to be exposed to deadly amounts of temporal energy. But to save her friends from destruction, the Doctor activates her Sonic Screwdriver, which miraculously saves her and her companions by sending them all adrift through their own timelines. How exactly the Doctor does this and how she’s going to fix it are never fully explained, and that’s only the beginning of this episode’s confusion.
Shattered Memories
What follows is a series of flashbacks that feature the four main heroes reliving moments from their own past. This serves as an opportunity to shed more light on the pasts of Dan (John Bishop) and Vinder (Jacob Anderson), who both have had little time to be fleshed out as characters amidst all the chaos of the Flux. And while the scenes in question are good character moments, the convoluted plot of the episode makes these sequences difficult to appreciate.
Vinder’s backstory in particular is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s a compelling story that reveals his past as a bodyguard to a corrupt politician known as the Great Serpent. Once Vinder witnesses his boss ordering the assassination of a political rival’s family, he immediately attempts to expose the conspiracy, only to be reassigned to a deep-space observatory to cover up the incident. However, the subplot still suffers a bit due to lack of context — the viewer is thrown into Vinder’s story without any exposition on his homeworld, its society, or its government, making it somewhat jarring when terms like “the Great Serpent” are thrown about so casually. Worldbuilding has been a major weakness of Chibnall’s throughout his time as showrunner, and this episode puts that on full display.
Additionally, Yaz (Mandip Gill) has very little to do in her flashback scenes. Despite being the Doctor’s right-hand woman, Yaz never seems to get any time in the spotlight, and this trend, unfortunately, continues here. Her only contribution to the episode is to be pursued by the Weeping Angels throughout her memories, culminating in a truly absurd scene where a Weeping Angel manifests within a video game Yaz’s sister is playing. (As an aside, this scene also features a truly baffling line from Yaz: “Nobody calls them video games anymore!” Chibnall’s definitely showing his age on that one.)
A Time of Confusion
However, the main focus of the episode is the Doctor’s flashback scenes, which place her back in her forgotten “Timeless Child” days as an agent of the mysterious Division. In this sequence, she’s raiding the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time (perhaps the single most on-the-nose name in Doctor Who history), in order to foil the plans of Swarm and Azure, who are revealed to be collectively known as the Ravagers. In a questionable creative decision, the Doctor sees her fellow Division agents as Yaz, Dan, and Vinder, making the introduction of this sequence much more jarring than it needed to be.
One might think that this flashback to the Doctor’s past battle with the Ravagers would shed some light on their motives and backstory. However, nothing of the sort is revealed — the only clues provided are some cryptic lines by Swarm about a “battle between time and space” and his desire to “reign in Hell”. This episode marks the halfway point of the Flux miniseries, and the main antagonists remain a complete enigma. Additionally, none of the questions around the planet Time and its inhabitants the Mouri are cleared up, making their apparent contradictions to established lore even more egregious. Chibnall clearly intended all this mystery and ambiguity to create suspense and intrigue in the viewer, but instead, it’s more likely to cause confusion and frustration.
Even so, this A-Plot has one major highlight in the form of the Doctor herself — or more accurately, herselves. Yes, this episode features an unexpected cameo in the form of Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor, the forgotten regeneration who initially lived out the memories the Thirteenth Doctor is now experiencing. Even if the Fugitive Doctor’s very existence is a major contradiction to Doctor Who canon, Martin herself is nevertheless a wonderful actress. And as brief as her appearance is, it’s enjoyable all the same.
That’s not to say Martin steals Whittaker’s spotlight, however. As overly convoluted as Series 13 has been so far, it’s still provided plenty of opportunities to let Jodie Whittaker shine as the Thirteenth Doctor. In this episode, she’s as Doctor-y (for the lack of a better word) as she’s ever been, brilliantly showcasing some of the character’s most iconic traits. The Doctor’s impulsive need to save others, coolheaded confidence in the face of danger, trickster-like outwitting of their enemies, and even their overly controlling tendencies are on full display thanks to Whittaker’s performance.
Even More Mysteries
The episode has one more subplot — one focused on another new character named Bel (Thaddea Graham), who’s been traveling the universe searching for her missing lover. The story of Series 13 is so crowded already that it’s unclear what role Bel has to play in the larger narrative. Indeed, her subplot feels largely pointless on a first viewing, until it’s revealed at the very end that her lover is none other than Vinder. On her quest, Bel’s been evading the dark forces that are clashing over control of the Flux-ravaged universe. The Sontarans are name-dropped as one of these warring factions, along with the Daleks and Cybermen, who both make unexpected cameos.
A galactic war between the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans, though cliche, is nevertheless a more compelling premise than the main plot of Series 13 — at the very least, it’s a more straightforward one. Not helping matters is another new character, Awsok (Barbara Flynn), a mysterious old woman who appears in a vision to the Doctor, claiming that the Flux “wasn’t an accident… It was made, it was placed. Because of you.” She then disappears without elaborating.
Despite the promise of grand revelations, “Once, Upon Time” only raises more questions. Despite some strong performances from Whittaker, Anderson, Graham, and Martin, the episode is a muddled, confusing mess with subpar worldbuilding and even worse dialogue. The Flux miniseries is already halfway done, and it’s still unclear exactly what’s going on in this needlessly complex story. Next week’s episode, “Village of the Angels” seems to be another standalone story focused on the Weeping Angels, making any answers about the Ravagers, the Mouri, Bel, Awsok, or the Flux seem unlikely. Hopefully, it’ll at least be more fun than this episode.