‘I do not have time for your delusional witterings.’ The longest Doctor Who story since 1986 closes, like The Trial of a Time Lord, with an extended action-adventure that realises it’s bitten off more than it can chew, and ends up with a lot of noises off and kicking the can down the road. Still, on its own merits it at least centres the Doctor (all three of them), giving Whittaker her best material this series, and has plenty of nice moments. On balance it’s much better than it could have been.

The good bits: I’m still sceptical about a second invasion of the Sontarans in the space of five episodes – but given we’ve already had a Dalek invasion on New Years Day and a Cyberman one to end Series 12, the options were limited (Ice Warriors?). Their stratagem to take their major rivals off the board makes sense, and their extermination of the Lupari is a new level of wickedness. I’m not a fan of the ‘Chocolate!’ scene, but there aren’t really any other Doctor Who monsters that can commit genocide one moment and raid a sweet shop the next.

Chibnall also tries to neatly play plotlines off against each other – the Passenger absorbing the remains of the Flux for example (slightly undermined by the nagging sense that the Passengers are only in it for this function). And there are a few good character beats: Diane rejecting Dan after her traumatic adventures; Jericho facing death with dignity, and Whittaker getting to play the Doctor as ingenious, flirty, pensive and furious across three different strands. The moment she laughs at the Grand Serpent’s interrogation is probably my favourite Whittaker scene.

But let’s not pretend there aren’t major problems. Partly it’s because there are too many villains (and who are they? Who is Time? Who is the Grand Serpent?), but conversely, there’s no Big Bad reveal (Swarm and Azure have become less prominent as Flux continued, and fade into sidekickness here). It’s like a 1980s Bond movie – who’s the diabolical mastermind behind it all? I guess it was meant to be Tecteun, but as she’s already been bumped off there’s no grand showdown. That is, unless you count the spectacularly underwhelming scene of the Doctor and Time discussing yet another prophecy, ‘Beware of the forces that mass against you – and their Master’, as though that’s somehow cryptic (massive eye rolls for, ‘What do you mean, “their Master”?’). Given the reveal of anti-matter particles from outside the universe and ‘Another Doctor – the same Doctor!’ I wondered if it would turn out Rassilon had teamed up with Omega to get revenge for being deposed. At least Trial had the Valeyard.

Too many villains, and too many allies. Multiple iterations of the same Doctor running about with a ton of companions on a dimly-lit spaceship, this frequently recalled Journey’s End – except a Journey’s End where you hadn’t met most of them before. Dan, Diane, Jericho, Claire, Kate, Karvanista, Bel, Vinder, the Ood, Williamson all play a role in this. And in another echo of Trial, like Mel, several of them know the Doctor better than she knows them. All of these characters need some sort of closure. To Chibnall’s credit, I think he largely manages this, but Bel and Diane in particular feel redundant, and the actual companion, Yaz, is practically invisible.

The Vanquishers ends up generally working OK (as long as you don’t think about how much of the universe is left, and whether Division is truly defeated) but is by no means great. And Flux as a whole leans so far into the Timeless Child plotline that it’s almost rude to walk away from resolving it (although Time’s promise, ‘Your time is heading to its end’ and the Doctor consigning her backstory to the heart of the TARDIS ‘Unless I really ask’ hint that Chibnall’s planning to poke this bear again soon). As my old teacher used to say, “It’s a lot of fuss, fart and feathers but no egg”. With memories of his 1986 Open Air critique of The Trial of a Time Lord inevitably ringing in his ears, it must vex Chibnall to realise he’s only battled Pip and Jane to a draw.

Next Time: Eve of the Daleks