‘This is impossible. The end of the universe is chasing us.’ Praxeus, but with everything turned up to 11.  Rather than a global apocalypse this offers up a cosmic cataclysm with the same frenetic jumping from location to location, and a whole load of new characters to try to follow. Perhaps the fact that almost none of them interacts is down to the production challenges created by the pandemic – but given Chibnall’s previous form it’s as likely that this is just how he wrote it.

On the plus side, some of the characters are very promising. Dan might hew to the Graham O’Brien template of an older man thrown into adventures and learning to enjoy them, but he’s written with a tangible affection for Scouse idiom (civic pride, sarcasm, defiantly unimpressed by anything: ‘I had a mate who had [a TARDIS]. I think his was a bit bigger actually’) and performed with immense likeability. Karvanista is irresistibly cute. Swarm, the Doctor’s forgotten archenemy, is impactfully evil. Rightly, most of this episode’s focus is on providing them with screen time so we’re at least familiar with some of the people we’re meant to follow over the next five weeks.

On the downside… Ambition is great, but this teeters on the brink of incoherence. On top of Dan, Karvanista and Swarm we’re introduced in one or two scenes to two Victorian Liverpudlians squabbling about tunnels; a woman called Claire who recognises the Doctor and Yaz gets touched by a Weeping Angel; Dan’s friend Diane who gets abducted by Swarm’s sister Azure who was hidden (?) as the partner of a man in the Arctic Circle; two Division agents; two Two Doctors-style Sontarans; and a Vinder in a Rose Base, observing the effects of the Flux. I’ve heard of Chekhov’s gun but this is more like Chekhov’s weapons dump. We can assume all these events are connected, but in the absence of any answers it’s asking the audience to take a lot on trust. Still, ending the episode with the universe exploding does make the stakes clear.

There are some good ideas: the whole opening sequence; the TARDIS internal dimensions starting to deteriorate, or the Lupari bonding with individual humans and sending a fleet to save them from the Flux. There are some I was more cynical about, especially the Doctor delving into Division when Revolution of the Daleks had already established that her past – true or false – doesn’t dictate who she is now. There, Chibnall seemed to be leaning, quite bravely, into the idea of leaving the mystery unexplained. But the need to show his working is too strong, and so the new backstory is becoming the only story, with a troubled Doctor becoming guarded and secretive, leaving Yaz, Ace-like, to complain about being left in the dark (the mention of Nitro Nine feels timely).

Next Time: Flux Chapter Two – War of the Sontarans