We’ve only had six weeks in the TARDIS this time around, and at last: Flux is about to come to its final end. Come talk about Doctor Who’s present and future with us as we await it, why don’t you?
“The Vanquishers” has a lot to touch on before it can bring this weird, truncated adventure to an end. After all, Kate Stewart’s got a Sontaran invasion of Earth and dog guys in the sky to contend with. Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho are still stuck in the early 1900s, even if they do now have the help of a Liverpudlian miner big on building tunnels that just so happen to connect to different points in time. The Doctor might have the Most most she’s ever had to deal with, reeling from the sudden revelations, and death of, her adoptive mother turned Division head honcho Tecteun, with Swarm and Azure now breathing down her neck in Division’s secret base in the gaps between the multiverse. And just when she was so close to gaining the Gallifreyan fobwatch filled with her past memories stolen by her own mum!
Oh, and then there’s the apocalyptic eradication of most of time and space itself. And zillions of people being held hostage inside a host body. And whatever’s been up with the TARDIS all season long to make its insides so weird.
Suffice to say, “The Vanquishers” seems like it’s going to have to follow in the chaotic steps before it seen in the premiere in order to not just satisfyingly touch on and conclude all these arcs, but do so in a way that actually feels earned instead of “The Halloween Apocalypse”’s vomiting of ideas. Is it a bit much to even start wondering what kinds of teases we’ll get for New Years Day, and beyond that, what’s in store for the 13th Doctor’s final hours?