Doctor Who Flux finished with a couple of unanswered questions, and it looks like these will be addressed in the latest new year special.
‘Eve of the Daleks’ is set to broadcast on New Year’s Day 2022, and sees the Doctor, Yaz and Dan stuck in a terrifying time loop with so-called executioner Daleks. And for those people who still have questions after the recently-aired Doctor Who Flux, there are signs that some of these will be answered (or at least addressed) in the festive episode.
According to showrunner Chris Chibnall, “The Doctor lands the TARDIS in a place she’s not expecting to land in order to reset it from the damage done to it in the Flux in the previous series.” The TARDIS, if you remember, had begun to seep a strange black goo, and was sprouting new doors in random locations. This could be a sign of time and space breaking down, and may well connect to the time loop that the travellers find themselves in.
And then there are the executioner Daleks. “They’ve got slightly different weapons and have very much come with a very clear purpose for this,” says Chibnall. “They are not trying to destroy the world, they are trying to destroy the Doctor in payment for what has been done to the Daleks at the end of the previous series.”
At the end of Doctor Who Flux, if you recall, the Daleks were lured into a trap by the Sontarans, and the Doctor used this to her advantage to allow the Flux to consume them, along with the Cybermen. Understandably, the Daleks are not too happy about this, so it makes sense that they have decided to retaliate.
And for the current Doctor Jodie Whittaker, this means actual extermination. “When I read this episode for the first time and in one of the opening moments get exterminated I genuinely thought, ‘Somebody has decided to write me out a bit sooner than I thought!'” she explains. “It’s brilliant to play because the first time, for the Doctor, it’s as if you’re grasping at those seconds and that realisation that it could be your last moment.
“And for you to be killed by a Dalek would be so horrendous! But then once you realise you’re in this time loop the anticipation of the pain and the fun that can be had with that… it’s the first time in my career I’ve died so many times in an episode, there’s always a first!”
Doctor Who Flux also saw the end of the universe as we know it, with very little remaining by the time the series ended. The Doctor and her friends still occupy this universe, so it remains to be seen if they will be able to put things right.
And ‘Eve of the Daleks’ may not answer all of Doctor Who Flux‘s questions; there will be two more specials in 2022, with the final episode coinciding with the BBC’s centenary celebrations and featuring the Thirteenth Doctor’s regeneration.
Do you have any unanswered questions from Doctor Who Flux? And what are you most looking forward to in ‘Eve of the Daleks’? Let me know in the comments below.
Doctor Who Christmas sweater – order now from the Lovarzi shop!
Leave a Reply