This review contains spoilers for Doctor Who Series 13, Episode 2Last week’s episode of Doctor Who was a surprisingly strong introduction to the Flux miniseries and the new season as a whole, offering a much more fun and compelling story than the past episodes of Chris Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner. And while this week’s episode does falter a bit, it’s still a definite step up from the previous season.
“War of the Sontarans”, written by Chibnall himself, picks up where last week’s episode left off, with the TARDIS being swallowed by the Flux along with the entire Earth. However, much to the Doctor’s surprise, Earth is still there, along with the rest of space and time. Whatever the Flux has done to the universe, it hasn’t destroyed it — but that’s a mystery that’ll have to be solved another time, because the Doctor and her companions soon find themselves in an entirely new mess.
The Doctor, Yaz, and new companion Dan (John Bishop) find themselves scattered all across time and space. The Doctor is trapped in 19th century Crimea, where a war is being waged not against the Russians, but against the Sontarans, a species of bloodthirsty warmongers who will be quite familiar to longtime fans of the series. Meanwhile, Dan is returned home to 21st century Liverpool, only to find the truth behind the Sontarans’ meddling with history — the Sontarans managed to make their way onto Earth before the Flux consumed it (as foreshadowed in the previous episode), occupying Liverpool and constructing a fleet of ships that will allow them to travel through time, conquering Earth at various points throughout its history. At the same time, Yaz encounters newcomer Vinder (Jacob Anderson) in the mysterious Temple of Atropos, where the new villain Swarm soon appears to advance his plans.
The highlight of “War of the Sontarans” is, fittingly enough, the Sontarans. Ever since “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “The Poison Sky”, the Series 4 two-parter that reintroduced them to the revived series, the Sontarans have been out of the spotlight for over a decade. Despite being some of the Doctor’s most infamous foes, they’ve never been depicted as major antagonists in subsequent seasons, only appearing either as a brief cameo (like in “The Pandorica Opens”) or as comic relief, as exemplified by the recurring character Strax from Steven Moffat’s era as showrunner. However, Chibnall seems intent on returning the Sontarans to their roots in this episode. Their plan of meddling with human history calls back to the first Sontaran story, the 1973 Third Doctor serial “The Time Warrior”, in which a Sontaran officer schemed to conquer medieval England. In fact, considering the antagonist of that story, Commander Linx, is name-dropped in this very episode, the homage is likely an intentional one.
The Sontarans in this episode still keep some of the comedy of previous appearances but balance it out with a deadly ruthlessness and grandiose ambition befitting of some of the Doctor’s greatest enemies. The brutality of their warrior culture is on full display, with one memorable scene showing a Sontaran commander solemnly executing a subordinate as a show of mercy. Their more grotesque redesign helps, making them appear as scarred and malformed masses of flesh in well-worn gunmetal gray armor, as opposed to the “angry potatoes wearing bright blue plastic” look they had in past seasons. They also get plenty of great lines, from the ominous (“Your blood shall soak our uniforms, your bodies shall soften our steps.”) to the whimsical. (“I always wanted to ride a horse.”) Indeed, this episode stands out as the best depiction of the Sontarans in the revived series, even if it doesn’t have much competition.
Of course, the rest of the cast has their time to shine as well. In particular, Jodie Whittaker puts in one of her best performances yet, feeling more like the Doctor than ever before as she stares down the Sontaran menace. The main plot of the episode, in which the Doctor attempts to defeat the Sontarans without causing any further bloodshed, is a perfect vehicle for Jodie to showcase the confidence, determination, and compassion that define the character of the Doctor. It’s nothing particularly innovative — in fact, the episode recycles quite a few familiar story beats, with the Doctor once again butting heads with a human military leader over whether it’s right to use force — but it’s still a major improvement over past Chibnall episodes.
Dan is also a highlight, just as he was in the previous episode. While his reduced role means he isn’t quite as much of a show-stealer, his dynamic with his cranky dog-man protector Karvinista (Craige Els) is once again a source of utter joy, especially since they’re ultimately the ones who deal the decisive blow against the Sontarans. The only downside to Dan’s role in the episode is that he spends most of it apart from the Doctor, meaning the new TARDIS trio has so far spent the vast majority of the season divided. Hopefully, future episodes will remedy this, but for now, it’s a glaring issue that the character dynamics of the main cast have gone sorely underutilized.
This is especially a problem in the case of Yasmin “Yaz” Khan (Mandip Gill), whose subplot is by far the weakest link of the episode. It’s a real shame too — just as Yaz was finally starting to show a much-needed upgrade in terms of writing quality, her segment of Episode 2 is filled with little more than clumsy exposition. Even Jacob Anderson’s Vinder, one of the most charming new characters of the season premiere, has little to do besides listen to a floating pyramid spout cryptic foreshadowing about plot points the audience has no context for. It’s revealed that Yaz and Vinder are in the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time (a laughably on-the-nose name if there ever was one), where beings known as the Mouri supposedly keep time from running out of control.
Needless to say, this likely has something to do with the appearance of the Flux, though it’s hard to know what considering the audience is only given the most basic details of these new worldbuilding elements. The existence of the Mouri is especially head-scratching when one considers that the Time Lords (or if one were to go even more obscure, the Guardians of Time) have traditionally been depicted as the ones responsible for maintaining balance in spacetime, making the whole reveal smack of even more needlessly convoluted retcons from Chibnall. Soon, Swarm and his sister (now identified as “Azure”) enter the picture with their own designs on the Temple of Atropos. What said designs are, however, is unknown, as none of the mysteries around these new villains are revealed in this episode.
Hopefully, future episodes will clear things up — after all, this story is still far from over. But for now, this episode presents more questions than answers, to frustrating effect. “War of the Sontarans” is a perfectly enjoyable (if uninventive) story with some strong characterization, but it’s sadly bogged down by its place in a larger story that offers too little progression to keep up the suspense.