History Recap / DoctorWhoS39E1FluxChapterOneTheHalloweenApocalypse

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The premiere of Series 13 and the first installment of the six-part ''Flux'' story arc. Born out of production difficulties caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, the arc resurrects a format previously used for seasons 16 and 23 of the Classic Series, which revolved around a single, extended story divided into multiple smaller, but interconnected, adventures. Unlike both of those seasons, this one features Chibnall as a writer or co-writer for every episode.

* VocalDissonance: Karvanista is a very imposing canine-like warrior... who speaks with a heavy Liverpudlian accent.

Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall and debuting on October 31st, 2021, "The Halloween Apocalypse"[[note]]official title "Flux Chapter One: The Halloween Apocalypse"[[/note]] is the premiere of Series 13, and the first installment of the six-part ''Flux'' story arc. Born out of production difficulties caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, the arc resurrects a format previously used for seasons 16 and 23 of the Classic Series, which revolved around a single, extended story divided into multiple smaller, but interconnected, adventures. Unlike both of those seasons, this one features Chibnall as a writer or co-writer for every episode.

* TheyShouldHaveSentAPoet: Vinder appears to have been ReassignedToAntarctica on Observation Outpost Rose, but admits the view is wonderful. Likewise, when the Doctor throws open the TARDIS doors and says there's nothing there, Yaz and Dan can only disagree.

* MansBestFriend: Lampshaded by the Doctor, with her implying that humans are attached to dogs due to trace ancestral memory of their protectors, the Lupari.

-->'''Yaz:''' "I need to see a man about a dog, that's all you said. But it turns out the man is a dog, and he's called Karvanista!"

%% Page is under construction; please contribute anything you can to help!

Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall and debuting on October 31st, 2021, "The Halloween Apocalypse"[[note]]official title "Flux Chapter One: The Halloween Apocalypse"[[/note]] is the premiere of Series 13, and the first installment of the six-part ''Flux'' story arc. Born out of production difficulties caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, the arc resurrects a format previously used for seasons 16 and 23 of the Classic Series, which revolved around a single, extended story divided into multiple smaller, but interconnected adventures. Unlike both of those seasons, this one features Chibnall as a writer or co-writer for every episode.

* AlienGeometries: The [=TARDIS=], even more than usual, as some unexplained event is causing the doors on the inside to keep changing locations.
* AmbiguousSituation: Claire's situation. She comes up to the Doctor and Yaz because she already knows them, but they don't know her. She claims they'll meet her in her past, but doesn't seem sure that even that's correct. Then shortly after they leave, she encounters a Weeping Angel (which seems to be hunting down her specifically, and she already knows how they work) and gets zapped away by it. In particular, her line about maybe having met the Doctor and Yaz in the past. The Doctor assumes that Claire meant she is unsure about her own past, but given [[TimeyWimeyBall the kind of show this is]], does she mean she has trouble remembering her own past, or is this some form of TimeTravelTenseTrouble?
* ApocalypseHow: The Flux represents ''at minimum'' a ApocalypseHow/ClassX, capable of utterly annihilating any planet that has the misfortunate of encountering it; given that characters refer to it as being a threat to the entire universe, it may represent a ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 or]] [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ higher]].

* ArcWords: Claire mentions taking "the long way," which has been arc words since ''The Day of the Doctor'', immediately marking her as an important character.
* ArtisticLicenceHistory: James Stonehouse is depicted as a man with grey hair in 1820. The real Stonehouse was only eleven years old at that time.
* BadassBoast: Subverted in the BatmanColdOpen where the Doctor's bragging that Karvanista hasn't got the better of him is followed by a RevealShot of just how much of a pickle she and Yaz are in. They escape anyway though, so it's justified in the long run.

-->'''Yaz:''' "I need to see a man about a dog", that's all you said. But it turns out the man is a dog, and he's called Karvanista!
* BenevolentAlienInvasion: The Lupari fleet approaching earth, and Karvanista's kidnapping of Dan, is all part of a plan to save the human race from the Flux.
%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is. Please do not unhide until further context has been added.* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' call Karvanista a dog, no matter how much he looks like one; and no matter what you do, do not ''under any circumstances'' bring up his mother.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: The episode ends with pretty much every faction facing one terrible scenario or another: Claire has been zapped an unknown amount of time into the past by the Weeping Angels; Diane has been pulled into an old mansion and finds herself in a water-filled room along with Swarm and his sister; the Sontarans are preparing to launch their bloodiest military campaign yet against the universe; Vinder has been forced to eject from his station and is now fleeing the Flux in an escape pod; and of course, the Doctor, Yaz, Dan, Karvanista, his species, and ''the entire planet Earth'' are all staring down the full force of the Flux with no rescue in sight.

** When the Doctor's voice-operated handcuffs malfunction, she wonders if it's because she had [[Creator/SylvesterMccoy a Scottish]] [[Creator/PeterCapaldi accent when]] she programmed them.
*** They deactivate when she says "relief", which may mean she programmed them as [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor the Third Doctor]].
** One going back all the way back to 1988: apparently, [[NoodleIncident the Doctor and Yaz's first attempt to confront Karvanista]] involved Nitro-9, the explosives used by Ace.

* EldritchAbomination: The Doctor describes the Flux as a force that disrupts every particle, disobeying every law of time and space; in essence, the end of the universe itself made manifest. Visually it is very reminiscent of the Nothing from ''[[Film/TheNeverendingStory The NeverEnding Story]]''. However the Flux is more than just an apocalyptic force; it appears to have a will of its own, or at the very least is directed by something, because it actively chases the TARDIS.
* EmptyFridgeEmptyLife: Dan's is empty when he was previously shown turning down an offer of food from the food bank he worked in, saying other people needed it more.
* EscapePod: The guy on Observation Outpost Rose evacuates on one to escape the Flux.
* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: Because Karvanista attempts to abduct Dan on Halloween, Dan initially assumes his face is a costume and compliments him on how well-made it is. Karvanista later transmits data on the festival to the rest of the fleet, believing they can take advantage of it to hide in plain sight amongst the humans.
* FriendToAllChildren: Dan gives a bag of candy to a child in a Halloween costume when she and her mother visit his food bank.

* GoodIsNotNice: Karvanista's species, the Lupari, are the protectors of humanity, with Karvanista himself specifically assigned to protect Dan. He does this by chopping down his front door with an axe, kidnapping him and locking him in an electrified holding pen, and destroying his home with a trap he sets for the Doctor.

** Claire approaches the Doctor, Yaz and the TARDIS and attempts to greet them, only to be met with confusion. She promises that they'll all meet at some point in her past.
** Played for drama with Swarm who has fought the Doctor before. The fact that he can remember their past battles whereas the Doctor cannot gives him the advantage--he knows what worked last time and what didn't, whereas the Doctor is starting from scratch.
* HeroicDog: Downplayed. Karvanista is very dog-like in appearance, and his species, the Lupari, see themselves as humanity's protectors, with each member genetically bonded to an individual human. Based on Karvanista's behaviour however, they're also a case of GoodIsNotNice, don't have to like the human they're bonded to, and don't have any qualms about destroying their property or [[KidnappedByAnAlly kidnapping them]].
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Swarm lampshades the fact that Earth is celebrating Halloween while the Flux rips apart the universe, mockingly asking the Doctor "Trick or treat?" during one of her visions of him.
* HumanAliens: The man working on Observation Outpost Rose looks human, but his scenes must be set in the present since they feature the same Flux event that threatens the Earth on Halloween 2021, so he's a Human Alien rather than a future human.

* MansBestFriend: But no-one said they had to like it.

** The Flux manages to do this after ''being exposed to Vortex energy from the heart of the TARDIS'', something that ''killed'' the Doctor's ninth incarnation (and very nearly killed Rose Tyler). Cue an OhCrap from the Doctor.

* OutsideContextProblem: In a stark contrast to the Doctor's usual preparation for whatever threat the universe throws at her, she is left ''utterly baffled'' at the arrival of the Flux, a mysterious force tearing apart the universe at a fundamental level which seems to have sprung up out of absolutely nowhere.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Karvanista is introduced as a MalevolentMaskedMan who says he’s going to witness “the final hours of planet Earth”. After being unmasked as a dog-like alien, it turns out that he meant the latter statement [[RedHerring not as someone trying to cause it]], but someone trying to save the planet. Given that he takes a while to get around to this explanation, the Doctor and Yaz nearly get themselves killed several times over trying to stop what they assume is an AlienInvasion.

* SealedEvilInACan: Both Swarm and his sister Azure have been neutralized this way sometime in the past, Swarm in a forcefield on a desolate planet while Azure has been SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan. Naturally, Swarm escapes during the episode and then frees Azure.

* TheyShouldHaveSentAPoet: The sole occupant of Observation Outpost Rose appears to have been ReassignedToAntarctica, but admits the view is wonderful. Likewise when the Doctor throws open the TARDIS doors and says there's nothing there, Yaz and Dan can only disagree. However both occasions foreshadow the universal destruction of the Flux.

* VitriolicBestBuds: The Sontaran commander and the psychic surveyor are old friends but the commander mocks him for how old and disgusting he looks now.

* WeaponizedExhaust: The TARDIS isn't completely without weaponry as the Doctor has often stated; in times of [[GodzillaThreshold dire emergency]], the raw power of the time vortex can be unleashed from within the main console, which in the past has been shown to be enough to destroy anything. It's not quite enough this time, however.

* ApocalypseHow: The Flux represents ''at minimum'' a Class X, capable of utterly annihilating any planet that has the misfortunate of encountering it; given that characters refer to it as being a threat to the entire universe, it may represent a Class X-4 or higher.

[[caption-width-right:350:Not a [[Franchise/StarWars Wookiee.]] A [[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder bodyguard.]]]]

The one with the grumpy dog alien.

* AnAxeToGrind: Karvanista is packing an axe-shaped [[LaserBlade energy weapon]].

%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is. Please do not unhide until further context has been added.* Berserk Button: Do ''not'' call Karvanista a dog, no matter how much he looks like one; and no matter what you do, do not ''under any circumstances'' bring up his mother.

* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' call Karvanista a dog, no matter how much he looks like one; and no matter what you do, do not ''under any circumstances'' bring up his mother.

* AnAxeToGrind: Karvanista is packing an axe-shaped [[SwordBeam energy weapon]].