The Halloween Apocalypse (TV story)

The Halloween Apocalypse, prefixed in various sources with either Flux or simply Chapter One, 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
The Doctor tells Karvanista that he has not beaten them, whilst she and Yaz hang upside down from a gravity bar. Karvanista, appearing as a hologram, denies this, informs them that they will die in 79 seconds, then vanishes. Yaz is annoyed at the Doctor, but they escape by grabbing onto the gravity bar like a trapeze when it drops them, and holding on when it breaks in half. They struggle to undo their handcuffs, but land safely on a mattress in the TARDIS. Karvanista told them that he was travelling towards the final hours of Earth, so the Doctor sets the TARDIS to go there.

In Liverpool, 1820, inside a tunnel, Joseph Williamson and another man discuss how more workers are needed. Outside, James Stonehouse berates Williamson on the irrelevance of what he is doing. Williamson claims that he has a reason, but that anyone he tells would go mad.

In Liverpool, 2021, Dan Lewis leads a group of visitors around the Museum of Liverpool, telling them about how great the city is. He is 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 isn't taking them to Earth. The Doctor experiences a vision. En Sentac and K-Toscs check if the Swarm is still contained. The Swarm taunts them before breaking free and killing them both, renewing himself as he does so. Yaz alerts the Doctor to a black liquid seemingly coming from the TARDIS, and she scans it with her sonic screwdriver, looks worried, but doesn't tell Yaz. She sets the dateline for 31 October.

Dan emerges from a foodbank, and gives a box of food and some sweets to two people dressed in Halloween costumes. Inside, Wilma offers to make up a box of food for him, but he declines. Something flashes by behind him, but he doesn't see it. It scans them both as they lock up.

Arriving at his house, Dan gives the last of his sweets to three small children who knock on his door. He refuses to give any to a man holding a carton of eggs who also knocks on his door, and finds no food in his fridge or cupboard.

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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
 * Children - TBA
 * Man - TBA

Locations

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

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.

Story notes

 * Elements in The Halloween Apocalypse were teased in TV: Welcome to the TARDIS... and WC: 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 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 "Halloween special". Doctor Who has historically had several Christmas specials and New Year specials, and even one Easter special, but this was a first for the televised DWU.
 * 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 22 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 subtitles, she first tries to copy the voice of the Twelfth Doctor and then the Seventh Doctor.
 * The transmission of the episode was dedicated to the memory of Doctor Who's 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 Cloister Bell sounds different now. Rather than the previous sound created by striking a gong underwater, it is now a crashing sound. That version was last used in 2015's Under the Lake.
 * The Flux threat acts similar to antimatter from the DC comics, where the 1980s event Crisis on Infinite Earths had an antimatter wave destroy multiple universes. 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, in the episode 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.

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)
 * The Doctor mentions Ryan and Graham's departure. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)

Home video releases
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