"War of the Sontarans", prefixed frequently with either "Chapter Two" or "''Flux''", is the second episode of the thirteenth series of the British

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

television programme ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'', and of the six-episode serial known collectively as ''Doctor Who: Flux''. It was first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on 7 November 2021. It was written by

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

and executive producer

Chris Chibnall Christopher Antony Chibnall (born 21 March 1970) is an English television writer and producer, best known as the creator and writer of the award-winning ITV mystery-crime drama ''Broadchurch'' and as a showrunner of the long-running BBC sci-fi ...

, and directed by

Jamie Magnus Stone Jamie Magnus Stone (born 15 December 1985) is a Scottish film director and animator, who studied at the National Film and Television School. He is the son of Sally Magnusson and grandson of Magnus Magnusson and Mamie Baird. Career Stone st ...

. The episode stars

Jodie Whittaker Jodie Whittaker (born 17 June 1982) is an English actress who is best known for portraying the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor in ''Doctor Who'' (2017–2022) and as Beth Latimer in ''Broadchurch'' (2013–2017). She came to prominence ...

as the

Thirteenth Doctor The Thirteenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the fictional protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme, ''Doctor Who''. She is portrayed by English actress Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to portray the character, sta ...

, alongside

Mandip Gill Mandip Kaur Gill (born 5 January 1988) is an English actress. Her first television role came in 2012 when she was cast as Phoebe McQueen in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks''. After departing the series in 2015, Gill went on to have guest ro ...

and

John Bishop John Marcus Bishop (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian, presenter, actor and former footballer. Bishop formerly played football as a midfielder for Winsford United F.C., Crewe Alexandra F.C., Runcorn F.C., Rhyl F.C., Witton Al ...

as her companions,

Yasmin Khan Yasmin Khan is a historian of British India and Associate Professor of History at Kellogg College, Oxford. Education and career Born in 1977 to Pakistani and Anglo-Irish parents in Kingston-upon-Thames, Khan completed her BA in history at S ...

and Dan Lewis, respectively.

Plot

The Doctor, Dan, and Yaz are transported to

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, where they all briefly meet

Mary Seacole Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu E.N. (2012) Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands. ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up t ...

before Yaz and Dan are transported away through time. The Doctor is unable to enter her

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior ap ...

to track and find them. Remaining in Sevastopol, the Doctor realizes the British opponents during the war are now the

Sontaran The Sontarans ( ) are a fictional race of extraterrestrial humanoids principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. A warrior race characterised by their ruthlessness and fearlessness of death, they w ...

s, with all traces of China and Russia replaced with Sontar. Tricking a scout into granting parley with his general, the Doctor discovers that seconds prior to the Lupari shielding Earth from the Flux in the previous episode, the Sontarans took advantage of the Flux and rewrote human history to feed their species’ hunger for battle. Yaz materializes in the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time, where she briefly encounters Joseph Williamson before befriending Vinder. They are both recruited as repairers of the temple’s mainframe. Swarm and Azure arrive to take control of the temple and use its power for themselves. Dan is transported back to Liverpool, where he finds a world overtaken by the Sontarans. Saved from a Sontaran unit by his parents, he learns a three-minute blackout caused by the Lupari shield allowed the Sontaran fleet to land first at the Liverpool docks, where they established a base of operations. Dan sneaks onto one of the Sontaran ships and contacts the Doctor who tasks him with ending the Sontaran offensive in 2021. Dan is discovered by the Sontarans but is saved by

Karvanista Karvanista is a recurring character in British science fiction series '' Doctor Who''. The character made his first appearance during the episode "The Halloween Apocalypse" in the thirteenth series otherwise entitled as Flux. Karvanista is playe ...

. The pair destroy the primary fleet by ramming their captured vessel into the shipyard and evacuating at the last moment, resetting the timeline. Poisoning the supply system of the Sontarans in Crimea, the Doctor cripples their offensive, forcing them to retreat, but the British general Logan bombs their vessels as revenge for massacring his troops. The Doctor regains access to the TARDIS to collect Dan and find Yaz. The TARDIS malfunctions and forces the Doctor and Dan into the temple, through which all temporal energy must pass. The death of the Mouri gatekeepers and ruin of the temple has resulted in the Flux phenomena, and now seeking to control time for himself, Swarm has imprisoned Yaz and Vinder as replacement bodies for the Mouri. Knowing the power unleashed will kill Yaz, the Doctor begs Swarm not to activate the temple, but he ignores her and takes control.

Production

Development

"War of the Sontarans" was written by showrunner and executive producer

Casting

The series is the third to feature

as the

, and

, with

having joined the cast for the series as Dan Lewis.

Filming

, who directed four episodes of the previous series, directed the first block, which comprised the first, second and fourth episodes of the series.

Broadcast and reception

Broadcast

"War of the Sontarans" aired on 7 November 2021. The episode serves as the second part of a six-part story, entitled ''Flux''. In the United States the episode aired on

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...

on the same date, where it returned to its regular timeslot following an earlier broadcast the preceding week for the premiere episode.

Ratings

Overnight the episode was seen by 3.96 million viewers. The consolidated viewing figure across all platforms for those who watched the show within seven days of broadcast was 5.10 million viewers. This made it the 13th most viewed programme on all UK TV for the week and the 4th most viewed on BBC1. The episode received an

Audience Appreciation Index The Audience Appreciation Index (AI) is an indicator measured from 0 to 100 of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by the B ...

score of 77.

Critical reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 100% of seven critics gave the episode a positive review, and an average rating of 7.3/10.

References

External links

* * * {{Sontaran stories 2021 British television episodes Television episodes written by Chris Chibnall Thirteenth Doctor episodes Doctor Who stories set on Earth Doctor Who pseudohistorical serials category:Crimean War fiction