Doctor Who Season 14: What RTD’s Return Must Learn From Flux’s Failures

Russell T. Davies will soon return as Doctor Who’s showrunner, but what can the upcoming season 14 learn from the failures of season 13’s Flux?

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As Russell T. Davies prepares to return as showrunner, which lessons should Doctor Who take from the season 13 “Flux” experiment? Even before Doctor Who: Flux, Chris Chibnall’s stewardship of the long-running BBC sci-fi series was highly divisive. Despite widespread praise for Jodie Whittaker and the Fugitive Doctor, as well as a steep improvement in production values, Doctor Who seasons 11 and 12 both endured criticism over storytelling, character presentation, and the ambitious Timeless Child concept that took The Doctor’s established origin story and tossed it into the time vortex, never to be seen again.

As his final full season in charge, it’s fitting that Doctor Who: Flux typifies the highs and lows of Chris Chibnall’s era – doubling down on modern Who’s strengths, and what tends to go a bit wibbly-wobbly. Opinions were predictably mixed at the beginning, but Doctor Who: Flux’s finale united audiences in a collective sense of disappointment and confusion. Not every element fell flat, admittedly, but if Chibnall’s season-long narrative was an experiment, it cannot be considered successful.

Doctor Who: Flux serves as an prime example of what Russell T. Davies should and should not do when reclaiming control of the TARDIS in 2023. From Davies’ previous work, audiences already know to expect a more grounded, character-driven Doctor Who compared to the exposition-heavy Chibnall era, and season 14 should also land closer to the spirit forged by classic script editors such as Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes. But what can RTD’s Doctor Who learn specifically from the trials and tribulations of Doctor Who: Flux?

Flux Proves Doctor Who Needs Episodic Seasons

Measured by both review aggregators and online reaction, Doctor Who: Flux’s strongest episodes were “War of the Sontarans” and “Village of the Angels” by a fairly comfortable margin. It isn’t a coincidence that these most praiseworthy chapters of Doctor Who: Flux were also the season’s most standalone offerings. Both told largely self-contained stories – one about Sontarans invading the Crimean War, the other a 1960s Devonshire village ravaged by Weeping Angels. Both were also infinitely more engaging, mercifully easier to follow and, crucially, better entertainment compared to Doctor Who: Flux’s other 4 episodes, which focused exclusively on the broader Flux storyline.

“War of the Sontarans” and “Village of the Angels” succeed through combining well-crafted scripts and classic Doctor Who ingredients, topped by a gentle sprinkling of long-term storytelling and future setup. Had Chris Chibnall adopted that format for all six episodes, season 13 could’ve been a genuine winner. The path for Doctor Who season 14 is now clear – episodic storytelling is what the TARDIS was (literally) designed for.

Three’s A Crowd For Doctor Who TARDIS Companions

Compared to Jodie Whittaker’s first two seasons, Doctor Who: Flux strikes a far better TARDIS dynamic. Thirteen’s original companion trio of Graham, Ryan and Yaz continuously competed for screen time, barely getting chance to shine between The Doctor, each other, guest stars, and that week’s villain. Doctor Who: Flux finally addresses the overcrowding by elevating Mandip Gill’s Yaz to “main” companion, and introducing John Bishop’s Dan as a newcomer. Yaz feels vastly more relevant as a result, and Dan proves to be Flux’s comedic highlight. The likes of Jericho can be considered peripheral assistants, but the benefits of Doctor Who: Flux having a core trio rather than a core quartet are both abundant and obvious.

Preferring to keep TARDIS numbers down during his previous reign, Russell T. Davies likely would’ve avoided this pitfall anyway, but Doctor Who: Flux highlights just how problematic balancing three companions was during Jodie Whittaker’s past adventures. Doctor Who season 14 and beyond should take heed – there should never be enough companions to make the term “fam” applicable.

RTD’s Season Finale Team-Ups Won’t Work In Doctor Who Season 14

One of the most recognizable tropes from Russell T. Davies’ original Doctor Who run were his season finale team-ups. Like getting the family together for Christmas, Davies-era finales would typically reunite The Doctor’s whole gang – Rose, Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane, even Harriet Jones. Always a little corny, the theme hasn’t aged as gracefully as the rest of late-2000s Doctor Who, and Flux’s finale proves precisely why.

Doctor Who: Flux’s “The Vanquishers” does its own version of the Russell T. Davies Facebook reunion, bringing together The Doctor, her two companions, Karvanista, Bel & Vinder, Claire, Jericho, and Kate Stewart. Just like in RTD’s day, everyone gets their own individual task, and there’s the same sense of camaraderie at play. But the chaos of so many characters is often thin cover for an anti-climactic solution, and Doctor Who: Flux is guilty as charged. Despite the whooping and back-patting, 5 episodes of setup essentially culminates in The Doctor flipping a switch. Even worse, Jericho’s death gets completely overshadowed in the melee, with Doctor Who totally ignoring how Yaz and Dan spent years travelling alongside the professor, only to say absolutely nothing when he dies. While it’s good to have Russell T. Davies back at the helm, Doctor Who: Flux proves his finale team-ups should remain in the past.

Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor Must Return

Doctor Who: Flux wisely invites Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor back after the character’s memorable season 12 debut. Unfortunately, her presence is a criminally brief glorified cameo. Still immensely popular among fans old and new, Russell T. Davies surely realizes Jo Martin absolutely must transcend showrunners, either through more Division flashbacks, or by somehow engineering Jodie Whittaker’s departure so that she regenerates into Jo Martin as the Fourteenth Doctor. Simultaneously battle-hardened and unashamedly modern, the Fugitive Doctor still has plenty to offer in season 14, and scant appearances in Doctor Who: Flux’s Temple of Atropos mission only accentuate her potential as a future main character.

The Timeless Child Can No Longer Be Retconned

When Russell T. Davies was announced as Chris Chibnall’s successor, Doctor Who viewers wondered whether the new (old) showrunner could somehow wriggle free from season 12’s controversial Timeless Child revelation. Alas, the events of Doctor Who: Flux have rendered any such wriggling futile. Previously, only The Master had directly referenced The Doctor’s secret past, and with his penchant for lying, a rewrite seemed simple enough. But in Doctor Who: Flux, the Timeless Child is mentioned by Tecteun, Karvanista, and the Weeping Angels. There’s also flashbacks to pre-Hartnell missions, and Swarm remembers The Doctor from before her memories were wiped. To retcon the Timeless Child now would be even more awkward and cumbersome than introducing it was.

Russell T. Davies is left with no choice but to accept the Timeless Child as Doctor Who canon. His task is to somehow reconcile The Doctor’s hidden history with the older lore audiences know and love. With only 3 episodes left to answer 300 Timeless Child questions, it’s looking increasing likely that Chibnall could reveal The Doctor’s true heritage, then leave his successor to handle the aftermath. Thanks to Doctor Who: Flux, the Timeless Child is unavoidably here to stay.

Chibnall-Era Production Values Are Doctor Who’s Future

Say what you will about the storytelling, dialogue and character problems of Doctor Who: Flux, but the entire season has been a visual feast. To his credit, Chris Chibnall has elevated Doctor Who into a cinematic spectacle, overhauling the imagery, music and scale to keep up with the world of streaming TV and its increasingly generous budgets. Most of the monsters look better too, with the Sontarans just one recipient of a much-needed makeover in Doctor Who: Flux. Though Russell T. Davies’ 2005 Doctor Who retained the humble, homemade charm of yesteryear, the aesthetics of Chibnall’s era don’t need fixing. If Doctor Who season 14 can retain the eye candy and directorial ambition of Flux, while also tightening up the substance behind the style, audiences can expect a whole new TARDIS experience.

Doctor Who Canon Is There For A Reason

The longer Doctor Who continues, the more volumes are added to BBC’s canon and continuity bible, and it’s not hard to see why a showrunner might ignore those restraints in favor of breaking new ground. Russell T. Davies stayed mostly faithful to Doctor Who’s past, and any major moves (the Time War, for instance) added to The Doctor’s canon without contradicting what came before. Frankly, it’s a miracle the Time Lords and Daleks didn’t try wiping each other out sooner. Chris Chibnall adopted the opposite approach, playing fast and loose with Doctor Who canon, and if RTD was wondering whether he might try something similar upon returning, Doctor Who: Flux should be the red flag that deters him.

By avoiding all the big questions, Doctor Who: Flux proves just how impossible introducing the Timeless Child always was. There’s a host of other continuity breaks too – UNIT’s formation, The Division, the Avatar of Time – all of which rub awkwardly against existing Doctor Who history. Expecting a 60-year-old franchise to continue without any plot holes whatsoever is unrealistic, but it’d be a welcome change of pace if Russell T. Davies’ Doctor Who season 14 offered an oasis free from wholesale rewrites.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-season-14-russell-davies-mistakes-fix/