Doctor Who Series 13, Episode 3
“Once, Upon Time”
Posted by Sage
We are now officially halfway through the last season of Doctor Who we’re going to get until at least 2023, and I still wish that I could tell you with any confidence what it’s about. While last week’s episode gave us a fully contained story in which most things were in some sense what they seemed, “Once, Upon Time” swan dives back into incoherence and a form of storytelling that I find unnecessarily aggravating. Even so, it’s not lacking for good bits. In fact, every choice made in this episode falls so squarely into a like/do-not-like dichotomy that that’s how I’ll be organizing this recap.
Let’s start off with the positives:
Vinder’s backstory
Part of it, at least. We learn when we first meet Vinder that he’s been given a grunt assignment as some form of punishment, and in this third episode, we learn what he’s been punished for. The actions of the highly respected and feared Grand Serpent are rather thrillingly dark. (Though, to sneak a complaint into this section, I wish Chris Chibnall would reserve some of that darkness to give his heroes even the occasional whisper of moral ambiguity.) And we love some political intrigue in our Doctor Who. Vinder reports what he’s witnessed, knowing full well that he will be retaliated against, but he accepts the Observation Outpost Rose posting with a clean conscience. At the same time, this certainly isn’t the first time the Grand Serpent has outsourced a mass murder or been otherwise corrupt. I want to know more about how far his power extends and what others in Vinder’s position have been asked to ignore. Is this storyline only relevant to us because of what it says about Vinder and that it gets him to where he needs to be? Or does it have bearing on something else? From what little we know about the Division, it seems that crimes like his would be below their notice. Still, I feel like there’s more there, whether or not the series takes us back to it.
The fractured time stream
I am all for our friends being stuck in/thrown around time. And this is the kind of destabilization that keeps an audience on their toes without alienating them completely. The jump cuts within Dan’s stream in particular are very effective, as is the Doctor bleeding in and out of Yaz’s consciousness, taking the place of other people in her life. Unfortunately, production constraints are really on display here, as neither strays too far from their present. Dan kind of just pops up in different locations in Liverpool, having a conversation with one of two close friends we’ve seen him with in his regular life. And Yaz’s vignettes are unremarkable past and future memories, but for the Angel in the video game. (I know I haven’t seriously played since the original Sega, but we still do call them that, right?)
Meanwhile, Vinder’s journey conveniently fills in the gaps that were created in his introduction. “Don’t make me relive this bit,” Vinder says when he realizes he’s about to be banished to the outpost again, suggesting that this pinballing through time isn’t random, and that someone is in charge. So which is it? Is time uncontrollable chaos or are our heroes being deliberately pulled in certain directions? The show doesn’t appear to be sure yet — and you’d think that the time slips would be more extreme and frightening if it were the former — but I’m still allowing this series room to clarify.
The distance between the Doctor and Yaz
Can we explore this please?? For the most part, the Chibnall era has avoided interpersonal messiness, opting instead to give us surface-level friendships in which conflicts are cleanly and easily resolved. (Doctor: “Graham, don’t kill Tim Shaw or I’ll be really mad at you.” Graham: “…Okay fine.”) But there’s something a-brewing between Yaz and the Doctor as the Flux exposes more of what the Doctor doesn’t know about herself. She’s the person Yaz looks to for answers, but in a time where all the Doctor has are questions, she’s not in the mood to be the glossary in the back of the book. With only three episodes left, I can tell you that we’re not going to have the time to really get down and dirty here, but I’m hoping that the snappishness is building to an all-out argument between these two. This Doctor is the most withholding of the modern Doctors by a large margin, and if I were Yaz, I’d also be pretty tired of it. They’ve built up an intimacy that is, in some regard, totally false, because the Doctor hasn’t trusted Yaz with the details. (And Yaz hasn’t told her how she feels, so there’s also that.) It would be a disservice to Yaz’s character to have that disconnect go unnoticed or just fizzle out situationally.
The Weeping Angels
Cliffhangers are key to a serialized story, and I’ve got to hand it to Chibs for this one. His Angels are proper scary, and as if the sight of them surrounding a TARDIS wasn’t foreboding enough, one at the controls is certainly cause for concern.
That said, here’s what absolutely did not work for me:
The use of the Fugitive Doctor
As the Doctor delves further into the past that was hidden from her, it only makes sense that Jo Martin would return. And I love how they exchanged places throughout the Atropos flashback, like someone was flicking the channel back and forth. (It’s giving Last Night in Soho.) What I don’t like is that, in the two times she’s reappeared since “Fugitive of the Judoon,” the Fugitive Doctor’s main function has been to give Thirteen a pep talk and to remind her who she is. Meanwhile, we’re in the Fugitive Doctor’s lifespan in this flashback. Ruth is in charge and propelling the action forward. Simply letting that play out and having Thirteen experience it would further inform her character. There’s no reason to put the Fugitive Doctor in the role of advisor once again, not when she’s lived a whole life that’s just as exciting and dangerous as Thirteen’s has been. It puts Thirteen above the Fugitive Doctor in a hierarchy that shouldn’t exist.
The murkiness of Thirteen’s past
Canon revision doesn’t bother me; I’m not fussed that the Chibnall era has rewritten the Doctor’s origin story. But for god’s sake, stop withholding information from the Doctor solely because the audience isn’t allowed to know it yet! I’ve seen some comparisons to Broadchurch when it comes to the deprivation we’re being put through in this series, but here’s the thing: People were keeping secrets in Broadchurch because they didn’t want to be suspected of murder, least of all the person who did it! There was a narrative reason to dole out information at that pace!!
Every attempt to justify why the Doctor can’t know something, meanwhile, has been so lame. And none more so than the Mouri being like, “You know, we would, but we don’t have enough time,” like their kids asked them to stop for McDonald’s breakfast before school. This problem is endemic in this era — just think back to when the Master sent the Doctor to a decimated Gallifrey, only to pop up later to say, “Oh btw, that was me!” There is no rational explanation within the story as to why he wouldn’t have just told her both of those things at the same time. (He does all of this after trying to kill her, even though he only destroyed their home planet so that he could taunt her with it. So go figure on that entire timeline.)
And that brings me too…
Bel
I want to believe that we’re going to get more from Bel than her impenetrable cheeriness in the face of absolute inter-galactic destruction and pregnancy, yet I’m keeping my expectations low. There’s so much potential in a plucky young adventurer character like this, but where is the humanity? Where are the cracks? Her ability to survive, alone, in this hellscape would be far more impactful if we were allowed to see her be even slightly unsure or fearful. Honestly, they could have just named her “Strong Female Character” and been done with it.
And in the same vein as my Division gripes: How would this episode have changed if, in that first monologue, Bel had ended her message, “My love, Vinder“? Why keep that from us for the entire hour? It’s a weak excuse for creating more drama, even though I personally believe that Vinder’s plot in this episode would have had more juice if we knew throughout that the person he was trying to get back to was still alive and fighting. Instead we spend the episode watching Bel go through the motions, having no idea how she ties into our story, when what we could be wondering is, how the hell are these two brave and good people going to find each other? And isn’t that the more interesting question?
The aftermath of the Flux
I can’t be the only fan confused about the physics of the Flux. The first thing we’re told about it is that it destroys everything it touches. We see it vaporize entire planets in seconds. So how the hell is Vinder’s planet still there? How are there ruins? Where were the Daleks and the Cybermen hiding out when this happened? Who’s getting upgraded if entire populations are being vaporized along with their planets? If this is actual a battle between space and time like Swarm says, then who’s on which team?
And how, most importantly, is all of this going to be answered and resolved in three more episodes?
Timey Wimey Observations:
- “The biggest changes to our lives start small. Catastrophes creep in quietly.”
- If Vinder was just a pilot before his Grand Serpent assignment, when did he and Bel encounter the Daleks? And how does he know what a TARDIS is?
- Related: I don’t think that Bel and Vinder will turn out to be the Doctor’s parents, and I think it would be a wild and unhinged choice to make, but I would revel in the ensuing chaos.
- Me as Diane pretending to be narcoleptic after she falls asleep on a date and committing to that lie so hard that an ambulance is called.
- Also me as Diane wondering how Dan is still single.
- “DO AS YOU’RE TOLD.”
- Let Yaz wear a uniform in every episode.
- Men! Be like Serving Commander Inston-Vee Vinder of Kasto-Winfer-Foxfell and go to therapy.
- “Oh, wow, supersize Mouri.”
- Who was “the creature” at the bar who told Bel that the temple was compromised? 👀
- What was with that gross gamer girl subplot with Yaz’s sister? Who let that happen?
- As many have noted, that white-haired lady who pops up in the Doctor’s time stream has huge Eloise Hawking from Lost energy.
Were you over-, under-, or just whelmed by “Once, Upon Time”? Let us know in the comments!
Featured Image Source: BBC
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