The Vanquishers (TV story)

, prefixed in the title sequence with Chapter Six and, in other sources with Flux, was the sixth episode of series 13 of Doctor Who. It formed the sixth and final chapter of the six-part serial Doctor Who: Flux.

It brought an end to the storylines of the Ravagers, and saw Inston-Vee Vinder finally reunited with his pregnant wife, Bel, after they spent most of the series looking for one another.

It was the first televised story to see the Doctor coming face to face with the embodiment of Time, although such a thing had previously been presented in the Virgin New Adventures novels.

The episode gave a similar ominous warning of impending doom for the Thirteenth Doctor, as had been previously given to the Tenth Doctor in the 2009 special Planet of the Dead.

Synopsis
Split across three realities, the Thirteenth Doctor has more than one problem to solve. The Division's base, way out in the Void, has been taken. Some unlikely allies have joined together, hoping to find victory in Earth's final hour. The Grand Serpent has been making plans, and the Doctor's oldest enemies hold the key to the Doctor's past, poised on handing her their final retribution.

Tunnels beneath the Earth lead to all kinds of places in space and time. As the final Flux event approaches, which door leads to victory? Last call before the end. It's time for contact.

Plot
The Doctor runs from Swarm, taking Tecteun's Ood with her. Swarm and Azure chase after the Doctor but the Doctor takes off her conversion plate just as Swarm touches her, causing her to be split into three parts between various locations: the Divison spacecraft, the Lupari ship, and the Liverpool tunnels.

On the Division spacecraft, Azure opens the fob watch to return the Doctor's missing memories to her, but the Doctor refuses to see them. Swarm repeatedly destroys the Illogical House containing her memories, causing the Doctor great pain. Back on the Division craft, Azure reveals that their plan is to alter the location of the final flux event from Earth to Time, releasing Time and using it to replay the destruction of the Flux, as they honestly believe that death is better than life. Meanwhile, The Ood attempts to slow down the effect of the Flux.

In the Passenger, Vinder and Diane run through the endless landscapes, while Diane explains that all the prisoners had been removed to be used in the Time Force by Swarm and Azure - they left her believing that she was insignificant. They come across a hidden security system that Diane had dug up. Reasoning that it was hidden to avoid interference, they shoot it causing the flight of steps Vinder arrived through to become active. They run up the steps out of Passenger and find themselves stranded in another unknown environment, where Vinder is able to contact the Doctor.

Yaz, Dan, Jericho, and Williamson take out the first wave of Sontarans with lightning from one of the tunnel doors before traveling to the present through another. They meet up with Kate Stewart who is leading a resistance against the Sontaran invasion. Suddenly one of the Doctors appears and is delighted to reunite with everyone, and excited to meet Joseph Williamson, who was on her list of people to meet. Kate reports that the Sontarans are harvesting human psychic operatives and taking them to the Dark Energy Camera in Chile, where they are being used to determine the date and location of the final Flux event. There has also been an unusual spate of Sontaran raids on corner shops.

The Doctor, Yaz and Dan travel to one in Liverpool and discover one Sontaran's weakness for their love of Earth chocolate. They promise the Sontaran an unlimited supply of chocolate if it will agree to deliver two volunteer psychic operatives - Claire and Jericho - to the Sontaran base. It agrees, and the team travel back to 1967, where they explain the situation to Claire.

On the Lupari ship housing Karvanista and Bel, another of the Doctors pilots it away from the shield formation to crash into the Dark Energy Camera in Chile where the Sontarans have set up base. They are stopped by a force shield and are captured, just like the Doctor intended. She sends Bel on a solo mission. As they are held in a cell on one of the Sontaran ships, Karvanista reveals to the Doctor that during her time working for the Division, he was her companion, but cannot say more about it as the Division put an implant in his brain that would kill him if he spoke of their time together. As the Doctor is taken away for interrogation by the Sontarans, they tell Karvanista that all of the Lupari were destroyed by the Sontarans. He howls in sorrow for his lost race.

During interrogation by the Grand Serpent, the Doctor tries to determine his species and planet of origin, angering him by labelling him a dictator and sounding an 'ego klaxon'. He tries to suffocate her from the inside using one of his snakes, but as she is not fully there he is unsuccessful. At that moment, the other Earth-based Doctor, with Yaz and Dan, arrives to rescue her, trapping the Grand Serpent in his own interrogation chamber, and rescuing Karvanista. At the same time, Bel downloads transmissions from the Sontaran ship.

The group meet back on the TARDIS, where transmissions reveal the Sontarans offering an alliance with the Cybermen and Daleks. Kate realises that in reality, the Sontarans are using the guise of a peace alliance in order to sacrifice them to slow the Flux, as a huge wall of matter, coupled with the matter-producing Lupari shield, should in theory cancel out the antimatter of the Flux. The Doctor sends Joseph Williamson back to his time, as he is too important to history, thanking him for his help in saving the universe.

After determining the details of the final Flux event, Claire and Jericho attempt to escape the Sontaran ship using transmat rings given to them by the Doctor. Claire is able to escape the Sontaran ship, but Jericho drops the ring and it is promptly destroyed by Sontarans in the chaos.

The Doctor then receives Vinder's signal and manages to track it to the unknown environment containing the Passenger. She takes the TARDIS inside to rescue them, reuniting Vinder with Bel, who reveals her pregnancy to him. Diane is less than happy to see Dan, as she blames his lateness to their drinks night for her imprisonment in Passenger.

In a turn of plans, the Doctor decides to give the Sontarans a taste of their own medicine.

The Dalek and Cyber fleets arrive in Earth's orbit for their alliance with the Sontarans. Naturally, the Lupari shield reforms so that the Daleks and Cybermen are no longer protected from the pull of the Flux. However, the Lupari shield actually reforms behind the Sontarans instead of in front, as the Lupari Commander Karvanista was able to reprogram the ships, whilst Bel and Vinder disabled the Sontaran comm systems. The Sontaran fleet is consequently wiped out, unfortunately taking Jericho with them, who remarks 'what an awfully big adventure'.

Some of the Flux makes it past the shield, so the Doctor, inspired by Diane's idea, uses the infinite matter within Passenger to absorb the Flux remnants.

Azure and Swarm bring the Doctor from the Division craft to Atropos to sacrifice her to Time, but since the Flux was destroyed thus failing to free Time, Time destroys them. Time lets the Doctor go but forebodingly warns her that the end is coming for her. Time warns of the forces of darkness 'and their master', before reunifying her three selves.

In the Liverpool tunnels, the Grand Serpent has tracked Kate down, but is surprised by Vinder, whom he does not recognise. Kate and Vinder force the Grand Serpent through one of the doors, where he is stranded on a tiny asteroid. Vinder and Bel decide to travel with Karvanista, who is less than happy with the arrangement. The Doctor says her goodbyes to Kate and Claire in 2021, hoping to see them again.

Back in Liverpool, Dan invites Diane to go for a drink with him, which they were unable to do due to what had happened. However, Diane, due to her experiences, turns down the offer. The Doctor invites Dan to join her and Yaz on their travels. After directing Dan to the bedrooms, the Doctor begins to tell Yaz about everything that has happened to her since their visit to Gallifrey, but they are interrupted when Dan cannot remember the instructions. Yaz leaves to help him.

The Doctor, not ready to face her past, deposits the fob watch containing her lost memories into the TARDIS interior, telling it to hide it until she really asks for it.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Dan Lewis - John Bishop
 * Swarm - Sam Spruell
 * Azure - Rochenda Sandall
 * Williamson - Steve Oram
 * Professor Jericho - Kevin McNally
 * Karvanista - Craige Els
 * Bel - Thaddea Graham
 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Sontaran Commander Stenck - Jonathan Watson
 * Grand Serpent - Craig Parkinson
 * Senstarg/Shallo/Kragar - Dan Starkey
 * Claire Brown - Annabel Scholey
 * Vinder - Jacob Anderson
 * Diane - Nadia Albina
 * Ood - Simon Carew
 * Voice of the Ood - Silas Carson
 * Passenger - Jonny Mathers
 * Stevie (Grand Serpent Victim) - Sonny Walker
 * Voice of the Daleks/Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs

Uncredited cast

 * Time - Sam Spruell
 * Time - Jodie Whittaker

Individuals

 * The Doctor gives Joseph Williamson a "Paul Hollywood handshake".

Story notes

 * This episode is set on the same day it was broadcast, 5 December 2021. This makes it one of only six episodes in the revived series to do so, following after The End of Time: Part One on 25 December 2009, The Big Bang on 26 June 2010, The Impossible Astronaut on 22 April 2011, Resolution on 1 January 2019, and The Halloween Apocalypse on 31 October 2021.
 * Incidentally, this means that both the first and final chapters of Doctor Who: Flux were broadcast on the day they take place.

Ratings

 * Overnights: 3.58 million
 * Consolidated: 4.61<Ø million

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * A COVID-19 banner emphasising the government advice of Hands, Face, Space can be seen in the Liverpool shopping mall, despite no further references to the pandemic as having taken place within the Doctor Who TV series. The pandemic has, however, been referenced in wider DWU content.
 * When the Doctor speaks to Yaz as Dan leaves to find his bedroom in the Doctor's TARDIS, Dan can initially be seen walking up the steps to the corridor but disappears when the camera zooms in on Yaz.

Continuity

 * The Doctor asks Karvanista about their past, revealing that she saw him in her past at the Temple of Atropos. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
 * Claire recalls the Doctor being taken away by the Weeping Angels. (TV: Village of the Angels)
 * Vinder tells Diane he has been "sitting down a lot recently". (TV: Once, Upon Time)
 * Dan realises him releasing Karvanista was what the wise man was referring to by "fetch your dog". (TV: Survivors of the Flux)
 * Yaz mentions how she received the Doctor's message to wait for her. (TV: Survivors of the Flux)
 * The Sontarans succeed in their invasion of Earth after breaking through the Lupari shield. (TV: Survivors of the Flux)
 * The Doctor deduces that the Grand Serpent was once a dictator. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
 * When able to see her appearance in another clone of herself, the Doctor remarks positively. Echoing when the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors made similar comments. (TV: Journey's End, The Almost People)
 * The Doctor is warned about her impending regeneration. The Tenth Doctor previously had similar warnings. (TV: Planet of the Ood, Planet of the Dead)

DVD releases
to be added

Blu-ray releases
to be added

Digital releases
to be added