Doctor Whos Division Secretly Mocked The Whittaker Eras Major Problem

Doctor Who’s Division Secretly Mocked The Whittaker Era’s Major Problem

Contents

Doctor Who: Flux’s revelations about the Division lampshade all the greatest problems of Chris Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner – was it deliberate?

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Doctor Whos Division Secretly Mocked The Whittaker Eras Major Problem

Doctor Who’s Division secretly, and perhaps unintentionally mocked several flaws from the Chibnall era. Current Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall’s tenure has sadly proved rather controversial. His biggest contributing concept—the Timeless Child retcon that revealed the Doctor is not actually a Time Lord at all, but rather a cosmic being who became the base genetic code for every Gallifreyan who lived within the Citadel—has proved incredibly divisive. The show’s execution since Chibnall took over has also been called into question.

Chibnall has a love of exposition, setting up mysteries that are typically resolved through an extended infodump. Sometimes he finds a creative way of working around this, such as Doctor Who: Flux episode 3 using a time storm in the Temple of Atropos to allow the Doctor to relive key moments of her forgotten past. But, in general, almost every episode includes a scene where the momentum screeches to a halt so someone can tell the Doctor what’s going on. It doesn’t help that many of these reveals are self-explanatory, with Chibnall not trusting the audience to put the pieces together. Others depend too heavily upon Doctor Who’s lore, as Chibnall is an old-school fan, and he places classic Doctor Who above the post-2005 relaunch, with a focus on micro-continuity.

Doctor Who: Flux episode 5 finally revealed the truth behind a secretive organization known as the Division, who the Doctor once worked for in her forgotten past. Ironically, all the revelations in the episode feel as though they’re lampshading the flaws of the Chibnall era. Making matters worse, that doesn’t even seem to have been intentional.

Doctor Who: Flux’s Division Lore Is An Extended Infodump

Doctor Whos Division Secretly Mocked The Whittaker Eras Major Problem

The dramatic cliffhanger of Doctor Who: Flux episode 4 saw the Doctor apparently transformed into a Weeping Angel. Viewers swiftly learned this was nothing more than a transport system, with the Weeping Angels converting the Doctor into a form allowing her to be transported to the Division. There, the Doctor came face-to-face with the Division’s secretive leader, who revealed herself to be Tecteun, the ancient Gallifreyan explorer who had discovered the Doctor as a child at the foot of a wormhole from another universe. Tecteun explained the history of the Division in what can only be called an extended infodump.

Infodumps have proved to be a characteristic feature of the Chibnall era, with almost every episode featuring one. Chibnall seems to have come to recognize this weakness, and in Doctor Who: Flux he’s been a little more creative with them. Episode 5’s confrontation with Tecteun reverted to type, though, with the Doctor simply stuck in a room listening to a lecture that told her everything she needed to know. The scene was better handled than some other infodumps—the set was lavish and beautiful, and Jodie Whittaker’s animated performance attempted to maintain momentum—but it was still just another outpouring of exposition, with the Doctor relegated to the role of passive observer.

See also  What To Expect From Shaun The Sheep 3

Doctor Who: Flux Places Lore Over Character

Doctor Whos Division Secretly Mocked The Whittaker Eras Major Problem

Tecteun’s Division revelations repeat another problem of the Chibnall era: the tendency to place lore over character. One of the most frustrating aspects of the messy Timeless Child retcon itself is that it only really matters to viewers who are deeply invested in the lore. The Doctor has never been defined by her past, but rather by the choices she makes, meaning it doesn’t matter whether she is a Time Lord or the Timeless Child. For all that’s the case, though, Doctor Who: Flux has treated the quest for the Doctor’s past as though it’s the A-plot; a rather bizarre choice given the scale of the story, which features the literal end of the universe. This was lampshaded in a surreal moment in which Tecteun offered the Doctor the opportunity to regain her lost memories if she just allowed the universe to die, and it was handled as though this was a legitimate choice for the Doctor.

To be fair to Chibnall, he seems to have recognized he went a little too far with Jo Martin’s dialogue in Doctor Who season 12, episode 10. He’s trying to prove that the Timeless Child really did change everything, with the Doctor becoming obsessed about her past and increasingly secretive, driving a wedge between the Doctor and Yaz in particular. Doctor Who: Flux episode 5 took it too far, because it implied the Doctor’s relationships with her companions are an unconscious cycle of abuse she’s trapped in due to her own experience as a loose “companion” of Tecteun a billion years ago. The implication is all the more frustrating because it’s handled in an off-hand manner, and it’s unlikely Chibnall has the time to develop it. Doctor Who: Flux recognizes that there should be a character arc here, but it isn’t concerned with it—because character comes second to lore.

Doctor Who: Flux’s Division Isn’t As Clever As It Thinks It Is

It doesn’t help that Doctor Who: Flux’s revelations about the Division really aren’t as clever as Chris Chibnall appears to think they are. Doctor Who season 12, episode 10 had already revealed the Division started out on Gallifrey as an organization who rejected the Time Lords’ policy of non-intervention, and it was pretty clear they’d grown beyond the Time Lords given they didn’t get caught up in the Time War. This was confirmed when Doctor Who: Flux episode 1 introduced Karvanista, a Lupari who had worked for them. The only real news in Tecteun’s infodump was the fact the Division’s headquarters was outside the universe, and they now sought to leave this one for the next. Even this wasn’t quite as shocking as the script implies, given the Timeless Child retcon suggested the Doctor originated from another universe. The infodump wasn’t as essential as Chibnall believed, and the Doctor’s failure to put the pieces together meant she was actually less intelligent than viewers – rather than the dazzling genius audiences are used to.

See also  Last of Us Actor Reveals New Character For HBO Adaptation

Ironically, there’s nothing new about the Division at all. Classic Doctor Who had an organization called the Celestial Intervention Agency, who rejected the Time Lords’ philosophy of non-interference and forced the Doctor to work for them on many occasions—most notably in the classic story “Genesis of the Daleks,” where they sent the Doctor to Skaro in the hopes he could prevent the Daleks ever being born. The BBC’s Eighth Doctor novels, released ahead of the 2005 relaunch, even posited a scenario where the CIA discovered an impending Time War and preemptively removed themselves from the universe, ascending to a higher plane of existence using something called “flux theory.” It’s not hard to see where Chibnall drew inspiration for this story; he might as well have just called the Division the CIA in the first place, and run with it.

The decision to place Tecteun in charge of the Division is quite problematic as well. It’s easy to see why Chibnall took this approach – it means the confrontation with the Division’s leader matters to the Doctor on a personal level. But it effectively reduces the story, because no longer is this a conflict between the Doctor and a massive, multiversal force; now it’s a clash between the Doctor and her abusive “mother,” who has decided to destroy the entire universe precisely because she can’t control the Doctor. Worse still, Tecteun is treated as though she’s a big deal, and then killed off once she’s given the Doctor the essential infodump. It all feels like such a waste.

All in all, then, Doctor Who: Flux’s Division revelations were frankly disappointing. They perfectly displayed all the flaws of the Chibnall era, so much so they felt almost as though they mocked them. The Division had been set up to matter – and yet they were dealt with at speed, with Swarm killing Tecteun and taking control of the Flux. In truth, the whole Division arc seems to have been nothing more than another breadcrumb on the trail to the Doctor’s discovering her new origin—a story that will likely be told in 2022’s three planned Doctor Who specials. Hopefully Chibnall will be able to deal with his stylistic and narrative problems, in order to make it all worthwhile.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-division-timeless-child-chibnall-twists-bad/

Movies -