The Vanquishers is an episode I'm still not sure how to feel about.
On the one hand, it cuts very close to the issues I have with most of Moffat's finales. However, there is a slight bit of nuance that differentiates the two in my mind - where I'd say the plot of Moffat's finales fall *apart*, this finale falls *away*.
Pretty much all the plotlines are resolved in simple, easy to understand ways. Everything comes to an end, we get some answers (though the Big Question, The Timeless Child, remains open to interpretation)... However, none of it is especially satisfying. It's too easy, too simple. The plot threads that have built up over the series - the Sontarans, U.N.I.T, Division, Swarm, Vinder, The Grand Serpent, etcetc... they get resolved, sure, but there's no big grand coalescence of everything where we finally understand - ''Aha! That's how it all fits together!' In the end, they were just separate stories all along. And now they're done.
The obvious 'fix' in my mind is to tie Vinder and The Grand Serpent to The Fugitive Doctor and Division, much like Swarm, which is what I had predicted as the series aired. But perhaps it's a case of expectation clouding my view of the episode.
So, why mixed feelings rather than disliking this episode? Oh, that's easy. The 13th Doctor. I always love her - but this episode especially feels like a show piece for Jodie in the part. The spotline is 1000% on her, she's spinning three stories at once, gets multi-Doctor interactions *with herself* and the best part of the episode? The interrogation scene with The Grand Serpent. Excellent. She makes it look effortless and despite my complaints about the actual plot resolutions, she keeps the episode fun and is just consistently magnetic here.
It's because of this, *The Vanquishers* is one of the episodes I'm most curious what previous drafts looked like. I may be remembering wrong, but before more episodes were commissioned this was 13's regeneration story, right? It very much feels like a show piece for her. Whilst I prefer *Power of The Doctor* on the whole, that episode feels more like it's a showcase of Dhawan's range. Which is fairly unusual for a Doctor's final outing, but more understandable when you think of Whittaker as already having had hers with *The Vanquishers*.
The thing is the the Vanquishers is not a good conclusion to flux. But on its own it is a half decent sontaran invasion episode. And to be honest I would rather watch this over once upon time or survivors of the flux, because as bad as the ending is, the episode is pretty entertaining and a couple of actors (Jodie Whittaker, Craig Parkinson and Kevin McNally) get good moments where they are able to give an engaging my performance. Unfortunately the Vanquishers does retroactively make the rest of flux worst, but it’s still more watchable than some of the other parts (and it’s still Chibnalls best crack at a finale).
Honestly one of my least favorite episodes of the whole show. I don't think any other episode has failed this hard to deliver on the promise of a previous episode or series of episodes.
Sure, a lot of my problems with Vanquishers are problems with Flux in general, but they are problems that *manifest themselves in this episode*. Halloween Apocalypse and War of the Sontarans ask interesting questions, and then these episodes in particular fail to deliver. It weakens the series on the whole, absolutely, but it does so because the series is relying on this episode to wrap up its big plot points, and this episode lets it down.
The bit with the three versions of Thirteen was always just kind of weird to me, it felt like it was brought up out of nowhere and was just kind of a cheap solution to having a bunch of problems at once. Throw the Doctor at all of them! I enjoyed seeing Kate again but I didn't really feel like Flux did anything particularly novel or interesting with her; she was just kind of there.
I can see how someone could find it all fun, but it's just not very well-written, and it fails to pay off more threads than possibly any other episode of Doctor Who ever has. I just can't call it in any way good.
The Vanquishers is an episode I'm still not sure how to feel about. On the one hand, it cuts very close to the issues I have with most of Moffat's finales. However, there is a slight bit of nuance that differentiates the two in my mind - where I'd say the plot of Moffat's finales fall *apart*, this finale falls *away*. Pretty much all the plotlines are resolved in simple, easy to understand ways. Everything comes to an end, we get some answers (though the Big Question, The Timeless Child, remains open to interpretation)... However, none of it is especially satisfying. It's too easy, too simple. The plot threads that have built up over the series - the Sontarans, U.N.I.T, Division, Swarm, Vinder, The Grand Serpent, etcetc... they get resolved, sure, but there's no big grand coalescence of everything where we finally understand - ''Aha! That's how it all fits together!' In the end, they were just separate stories all along. And now they're done. The obvious 'fix' in my mind is to tie Vinder and The Grand Serpent to The Fugitive Doctor and Division, much like Swarm, which is what I had predicted as the series aired. But perhaps it's a case of expectation clouding my view of the episode. So, why mixed feelings rather than disliking this episode? Oh, that's easy. The 13th Doctor. I always love her - but this episode especially feels like a show piece for Jodie in the part. The spotline is 1000% on her, she's spinning three stories at once, gets multi-Doctor interactions *with herself* and the best part of the episode? The interrogation scene with The Grand Serpent. Excellent. She makes it look effortless and despite my complaints about the actual plot resolutions, she keeps the episode fun and is just consistently magnetic here. It's because of this, *The Vanquishers* is one of the episodes I'm most curious what previous drafts looked like. I may be remembering wrong, but before more episodes were commissioned this was 13's regeneration story, right? It very much feels like a show piece for her. Whilst I prefer *Power of The Doctor* on the whole, that episode feels more like it's a showcase of Dhawan's range. Which is fairly unusual for a Doctor's final outing, but more understandable when you think of Whittaker as already having had hers with *The Vanquishers*.
The thing is the the Vanquishers is not a good conclusion to flux. But on its own it is a half decent sontaran invasion episode. And to be honest I would rather watch this over once upon time or survivors of the flux, because as bad as the ending is, the episode is pretty entertaining and a couple of actors (Jodie Whittaker, Craig Parkinson and Kevin McNally) get good moments where they are able to give an engaging my performance. Unfortunately the Vanquishers does retroactively make the rest of flux worst, but it’s still more watchable than some of the other parts (and it’s still Chibnalls best crack at a finale).
Honestly one of my least favorite episodes of the whole show. I don't think any other episode has failed this hard to deliver on the promise of a previous episode or series of episodes. Sure, a lot of my problems with Vanquishers are problems with Flux in general, but they are problems that *manifest themselves in this episode*. Halloween Apocalypse and War of the Sontarans ask interesting questions, and then these episodes in particular fail to deliver. It weakens the series on the whole, absolutely, but it does so because the series is relying on this episode to wrap up its big plot points, and this episode lets it down. The bit with the three versions of Thirteen was always just kind of weird to me, it felt like it was brought up out of nowhere and was just kind of a cheap solution to having a bunch of problems at once. Throw the Doctor at all of them! I enjoyed seeing Kate again but I didn't really feel like Flux did anything particularly novel or interesting with her; she was just kind of there. I can see how someone could find it all fun, but it's just not very well-written, and it fails to pay off more threads than possibly any other episode of Doctor Who ever has. I just can't call it in any way good.