The Halloween Apocalypse (TV story)

The Halloween Apocalypse, prefixed in the title sequence with Chapter One and in other sources with Flux, was the first episode of series 13 of Doctor Who. It formed the first chapter of the six-part serial Doctor Who: Flux.

This opening chapter introduced the Flux, a universe-breaking force which is bound for Earth, as well as Swarm, a figure from the Doctor's past who escapes his confinement and "frees" his sister Azure from her earthly life. A new companion, Dan Lewis, also joins the TARDIS team, marking a transition from Yasmin Khan's largely unwritten solo travels with the Thirteenth Doctor.

The Doctor is revealed to have been pursuing Karvanista, the last living member of the Division, the order which erased her memories of having been the Timeless Child. This carries on from the revelations of 2020's The Timeless Children.

Synopsis
Halloween, 2021. A storm approaches. Something tears through space and time, undoing everything it touches. Who is the man who escapes his shackles? What about Dan has got his captor's attention? Why have the Angels come? And what will remain of the Earth when this night is done?

Plot
Hanging upside-down from a gravity bar in handcuffs and foot locks above an ocean of acid, the Doctor tells a hologram of her captor, Karvanista, that he has not beaten her and Yaz. Karvanista denies this and informs them that if they do not die by the acid in 79 seconds, either his Kill Disks or the nearby supernova will get them, then vanishes and leaves to what he describes as "the final hours of planet Earth". Yaz is annoyed at the Doctor for repeatedly getting them into trouble, but they escape by grabbing onto the gravity bar like a trapeze when it drops them and holding on when it breaks in half. Despite their voice-activated handcuffs refusing to release, they spot the TARDIS lying sideways nearby, bounce off a trampoline inside the doors, and safely on a mattress. As their handcuffs finally release, they remember Karvanista's words and leave to go to Earth.

In Liverpool, 1820, inside a tunnel, Joseph Williamson tells another man how more workers are needed for his job. Outside, James Stonehouse berates Williamson on the irrelevance of what he is doing. Williamson, however, claims that he has a reason, but refuses to explain why he is preparing for the "cataclysmic", saying that anyone he tells would go mad.

In Liverpool, 2021, a man named Dan Lewis leads a group of visitors around the Museum of Liverpool, telling them about how great the city is. He is interrupted and escorted out by Diane, who tells him that he needs to stop pretending to be a tour guide because he could be permanently banned from the museum. He protests that he is making people happy, and they clarify where they will meet up for Halloween drinks.

A burst of sparks comes from the TARDIS console and the Doctor and Yaz wonder why it is not taking them to Earth. Before they can ponder this, the Doctor experiences a vision. Seeing a planetoid on the Burnished Rage battleground, the Doctor watches two people, En Sentac and K-Toscs, checking if a prisoner called Swarm is still contained, as he has been since the dawn of the universe. Swarm awakes and taunts them before easily breaking free and killing them both, visibly renewing himself as he does so. He turns around and tells the Doctor "trick or treat". Shaken, the Doctor comes to as Yaz alerts her to a black liquid seemingly leaking from the TARDIS. She scans it with her sonic screwdriver and pretends that everything is fine. She sets the dateline for 31 October.

In Liverpool, Dan emerges from Jenning Street Food Bank and gives a box of food and some sweets to two people dressed in Halloween costumes. Inside, his co-worker Wilma offers to make up a box of food for him but he declines. Something dashes behind him as they talk but he does not see it. It scans them both as they lock up.

Arriving at his house on 37 Granger Street, Dan gives the last of his sweets to three small children who knock on his door. However, he refuses to give any to a man holding a carton of eggs who also knocks on his door. Going back inside, Dan finds no food in his refrigerator or cupboard and regrets his decision to turn down his food. As he does so, Karvanista breaks down Dan's door, revealing that is a canine Lupar. Dan simply believes him to be a dangerous Halloween prankster and threatens to call the police, and as Karvanista's efforts to hypnotise him fail, he captures him in an energy cage.

The Doctor and Yaz arrive in the middle of the street and after following a trace leading to Dan's house, they discover his door open. Finding the traces of Karvanista's stun cube, the Doctor uses a laptop to then discover that Karvanista is leaving while there is a fleet of seven billion Lupari waiting to invade Earth. The laptop then glows red as the Doctor realises it was a trap set for them, and they quickly run out as the house shrinks behind them, leaving next door's bathroom exposed.

Meanwhile, in the Arctic, two people called Jón and Anna go about their daily lives in a research station. They are alerted to something and discover a glowing device floating in the garage, both of which they seem to recognise. Anna simply smashes it and walks off.

Dan awakens in an electrified cage on Karvanista's ship. He briefly protests and threatens Karvanista with being reported for kidnapping until he is shown the view of the depths of space outside. Upon asking what is so special about him to warrant being kidnapped, Karvanista explains that he is totally irrelevant, threatens to kill him if he keeps talking, and storms out.

Back in Liverpool, the Doctor and Yaz ponder Karvanista's motives when a stranger comes up to them and introduces herself as Claire. She explains that she was surprised to see them as she knows them from their future, but seems to doubt herself. After the Doctor gets a signal from the Lupari, however, she rushes off with Yaz, with Claire reassuring her that they will see each other soon. When they go back into the TARDIS, the Doctor and Yaz realise that they have entered on the opposite side of the room. With Yaz co-piloting, they try to head towards the fleet but the TARDIS stalls until hit with a hammer. The Doctor performs a quick system check on the TARDIS and her mind, leading Yaz berates her for still not telling her everything. The TARDIS then gets hit and they realise that Karvanista has temporal residue around his ship and they have to force their way in.

Back on Earth, Claire is leaving to enter her house, but she finds a Weeping Angel behind her. She already knows not to blink and tries to pull out her keys and get into the house, but fails just as she sets foot inside the door and gets sent backwards in time.

On Observation Outpost Rose, far away in the universe, Observation Officer Inston-Vee Vinder makes his 21,754th status report. He remarks that nothing has changed, as per every previous report, but admits it the sight of space is unimaginably beautiful and he is grateful to see it. He then ends his reports with his usual request to his superiors - "go to hell". As he says that, his system reports an error and he notices problems in the planets of the Thoribus Trifecta. Watching a vast dark cloud expanding across space, it instantly disintegrates Thoribus Minor on impact and Vinder makes an emergency status update to save himself.

more to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Dan Lewis - John Bishop
 * Karvanista - Craige Els
 * Joseph Williamson - Steve Oram
 * Diane - Nadia Albina
 * Swarm - Sam Spruell
 * Azure/Anna - Rochenda Sandall
 * Vinder - Jacob Anderson
 * Claire - Annabel Scholey
 * Ritskaw - Jonathan Watson
 * Kragar - Dan Starkey
 * Old Swarm - Matthew Needham
 * En Sentac - Sarah Amankwah
 * K-Toscs - Charlie Oscar
 * Wilder - Richard Tate
 * James Stonehouse - Paul Leonard
 * Wilma - Heather Bleasdale
 * Kev - John May
 * Jón - Gunnar Cauthery
 * Weeping Angel - Barbara Fadden

Uncredited cast

 * Children - TBA

Locations

 * Yaz and the Doctor were "top of the class" in a high-gravity circus workshop on Trapezium 7.
 * Dan arranges to meet Diana at the corner of Lark Lane.
 * Dan believes that Sheffield is "too close" to Leeds.

Individuals

 * A Foreman reminds Joseph Williamson that James Stonehouse is due shortly.
 * Diana warns Dan that Alan may ban him permanently.
 * Karvanista is angered by Dan talking about his mother.

Species

 * Karvanista is a Lupar, and the paired guardian to "[his] human", Dan Lewis.

Foods and beverages

 * Dan works at a food bank.
 * Wilma offers Dan soup, which he later regrets declining.
 * The man attempting to trick-or-treat from Dan is holding a carton of eggs.

Halloween

 * Halloween is on 31 October.
 * Dan gets trick-or-treaters at his house.
 * Dan initially believes Karvanista is wearing a Halloween costume.

Technology

 * The Doctor and Yaz are footlocked to a gravity bar.
 * Kill disks are set up by Karvanista to kill them.
 * The Doctor has accidentally blown up Karvanista's droid guards.

Story notes

 * Elements of The Halloween Apocalypse were teased in Welcome to the TARDIS... and The Flux is Coming....
 * The start of this episode offers a brief glimpse at the dynamics of Yasmin Khan's solo travels with the Thirteenth Doctor. In the interim period, the short story Black Powder, the first chapter of the comic The Forest Bride, the framing device to Knock! Knock! Who's There?, and the two webcasts associated with the #FindTheDoctor mystery ARG; A Message from Yaz and A Message from the Doctor, also featured this pairing.
 * This was the first Doctor Who television story to be set on Halloween, and the first sort-of "Halloween special".
 * Relatedly, The Halloween Apocalypse is set on the same day it was broadcast: 31 October 2021. This makes it one of only five episodes in the revived series to do so. The other four instances were The Big Bang for 26 June 2010, The Impossible Astronaut for 22 April 2011, part one of The End of Time for 25 December 2009 and Resolution for 1 January 2019.
 * When trying to release herself from the vocally-locked handcuffs, the Doctor claims that her failure to open them might be to do with the fact that she was Scottish when she set them up, and proceeds to attempt a Scottish accent. According to the BBC America subtitles, she first attempts to copy the voice of the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and then the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy).
 * The transmission of the episode was dedicated to the memory of Doctor Whos former Foley artist Julie Atkinson, who passed away on 28 July 2021.
 * The beginning of this episode marks the first time in a televised story that the TARDIS has an all-female crew.
 * The Flux threat acts similar to the antimatter from the DC Comics, in which the 1980s event Crisis on Infinite Earths had an antimatter wave destroy multiple universes. It is also reminiscent of the Nothing from The Neverending Story, which was a seemingly unstoppable force that swallowed up everything in its path. The Flux tears apart anything it comes across at a molecular level, making it similar to the effects of Davros' Reality bomb from 2008's The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.
 * Dan Lewis' apparent dislike for Leeds, and nearby Sheffield, is most likely banter, stemming from the historic rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Dan is a born Liverpudlian, and the city of Liverpool was historically part of Lancashire before the reform of county boundaries in 1974; both Leeds and Sheffield are typical Yorkshire cities.
 * Karvanista's attempt at hypnotism by swiping his hand across in front of Dan's face is similar to that of the "Jedi Mind Trick" from the Star Wars saga.

Ratings

 * Overnights: 4.43 million
 * Consolidated: to be added

Continuity

 * The Doctor mentions Nitro-9, an explosive invented by Ace. (TV: Dragonfire)
 * The Doctor is interested in learning more about the Division. She previously learned of her past lives as the Timeless Child on Gallifrey, and knows these memories were taken from her by this organisation. (TV: The Timeless Children)
 * The guns owned by En Sentac and K-Toscs are the same model as that owned by Gat, a member of the Division previously met by the Thirteenth Doctor. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * After regenerating, Swarm declares that he has been "renewed", (TV: The Power of the Daleks) "at last". (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
 * The Doctor mentions having attended numerous Liverpool F.C. football matches. (AUDIO: Something Inside)
 * The Doctor uses leftover hopper virus particles to help deactivate parts of Karvanista's ship. (TV: Orphan 55)
 * The Cloister Bell sounds as the Flux approaches. The Doctor explains this means the TARDIS is in imminent danger. (TV: Logopolis et al.)
 * The Doctor smashes part of the TARDIS in order to release vortex energy, implicitly from the heart of the TARDIS, as a last resort. (TV: Boom Town, The Parting of the Ways)
 * The Doctor expresses a long-standing interest in the end of the universe. (AUDIO: The Great War; TV: Utopia, Listen) The Eighth Doctor once managed to visit a different meaning of the end of the universe, particularly where it ends in space where he faced another orange gas like enemy in the Eminence. (AUDIO: Time's Horizon)
 * Yaz has been taught how to operate the TARDIS. The Doctor previously taught Polly Wright and Ben Jackson, (AUDIO: The Outliers) Zoe Heriot, (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods) Adric and Nyssa, (AUDIO: The Star Men) and Ace. (AUDIO: You Are the Doctor) Melanie Bush taught herself to pilot the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Quantum Possibility Engine) The Doctor also taught Donna Noble some of the basics. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) The Tenth Doctor also briefly assisted a range of former companions to help fly the planet Earth back home after the Daleks moved it. (TV: Journey's End) Clara Oswald was also capable of piloting a TARDIS. (TV: They Day of the Doctor, The Woman Who Lived, Hell Bent) Nardole was seen piloting the TARDIS, but was not taught on screen. (TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
 * The Doctor mentions Ryan and Graham's departure. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)
 * Upon meeting Dan, the Doctor says, "Nice to meet you, Dan. Run for your life." This echoes the Ninth Doctor's words to Rose Tyler when they first met. (TV: Rose)

Home video releases
to be added