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Chapter Five of Doctor Who: Flux, Survivors of the Flux, returns to the frenetic jumping between settings seen in chapters one and three. A greater sense of urgency is balanced by disconcerting shifts in relative time. Yaz, Dan and Jericho have to cover more ground across more time than anyone else. The Doctor’s experience en route to and at Division is brief, but Bel’s journey takes very little time. Swarm and Azure require minimal screen time to achieve their goal, revealed as reaching Division by means of a psychotemporal bridge tethered to the Doctor. It’s only the humans who have to take the slow path. The Grand Serpent might take over sixty years to see his plan come to fruition, but Kate suspects he’s taken several short cuts.

Read more of my thoughts on this episode at The Event Library...

After a very long night last night I'm not able to sleep tonight, so have finished watching Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass on Netflix. I'm not sure whether it was the towering work of art its admirers have hailed, but I don't think it was the damp squib its detractors have pointed to either. I could sense that it was full of references to other works even if I didn't know the works themselves, as it had the taste of something cooked from cherished ingredients, but suspect it displayed its citations with flair. Its low-key blend of horror strands and likeable performances was winning, dialogue varying the kitchen sink with the prophetic to the deadpan realisation of self-delusion. Satire's claws are out too, for church and congregation and for capitalism and its critics alike and they are cold; though I fear cat-lovers might be the most distressed.

( Picture as it appeared at The Event Library, where this post first was made )

My review of The Timeless Children, like that of Ascension of the Cybermen, appears at Space-Time Telegraph, the blog which is the successor of its writer-editor John Connors's fanzines, which included Top, Faze and This Way Up. I wrote it having only seen the story once and much of my initial enthusiasm was qualified by other people's reservations. Having rewatched some of the episode since, I was reminded of the focused performances throughout and minimizing of languor. Jodie Whittaker's portrayal of the Doctor's fury and disgust at the Master was electrical, combined with eye-rolling expressions of frustration at just how tedious her old friend can be.

I wrote in the review that there had been no indication in Ascension of the Cybermen that the Doctor was periodically experiencing chapters in the saga of Brendan the Irish policeman - 'Gallykissangel', as I've called it, the term having been suggested by Paul Dumont. Ian Bayley has pointed out that there are odd lines of dialogue in Ascension which might suggest that the Doctor is being surprised by new Brendan scenes, but if so I still find them very understated.

As for the review itself:

So it was about authorship after all. Ascension of the Cybermen turns out to have been undermined throughout by a streaming hacker who couldn’t resist introducing it himself at the end and boasting of his reinterpretation of the ensuing acts, of which the Doctor was both audience and unwitting star. The Timeless Children was visually engaging television and I was surprised by some of the resolution it presented, if only because I was expecting something more complicated. Performances were very strong, and as with Ascension of the Cybermen, I felt an energy in the production which I’ve rarely experienced in the Chibnall era. There were a few moments when it seemed The Timeless Children did not marry so well with Ascension of the Cybermen, however, and in hindsight the episode left lingering doubts about the wisdom of the decisions therein.

Read more...

(Apologies for the large spaces between paragraphs, but this must be what happens when you copy across another site's code.)

Finally, a few minutes before Praxeus started, I completed my write-up of Fugitive of the Judoon for the Doctor Who News Page.

I undertook the review of the second part of Spyfall for the Doctor Who News Page even though time was much more limited this week. The changes in the way I recalled the episode over the few days in which I wrote it are probably apparent! I enjoyed it, but I had a few concerns about some crucial moments.

Doctor Who 12.2 - Spyfall: Part Two, at Doctor Who News Reviews

Yes, I've skipped It Takes You Away, for reasons of time. I was asked to review The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos for Space-Time Telegraph, however.

An introductory post on The Event Library adds a little more context.

Written up at last at The Event Library.

My thoughts are at The Event Library this week.

At the Doctor Who News Page this week: Doctor Who Reviews: Rosa

A new season, a new Doctor, a new showrunner, and lots of newness. So it's no surprise that there was a touch of light familiarity to this new season. I've written more about the symbolism and more at Space-Time Telegraph.

Two other reviews with different opinions:

James Cooray Smith at Hero Collector

J.R. Southall at Starburst