Story 297d: Flux - Village of the Angels

In which the Doctor and her companions have escaped from the Temple of Atropos, only to discover that a Weeping Angel has taken control of the TARDIS...

This Angel had previously been interfering in their timelines.

In the Devonshire village of Medderton, Professor Eustacius Jericho is conducting experiments with a young woman named Claire who has been suffering terrible visions. It is November 1967, but she claims to have been born in 1985. Sure enough, the Doctor and Yaz had met Claire in present day Liverpool - just before she encountered a Weeping Angel. Claire is somehow aware that an Angel has taken control of the TARDIS.

In the ship, the Doctor performs a reboot which ejects the Angel, but leaves the TARDIS powered down on landing. They have arrived in Medderton, 1967.

The TARDIS has been mistaken for a real Police Box by an elderly couple named Gerald and Jean. Their grand-niece, Peggy, has gone missing - though Gerald is more angry that concerned. The Doctor picks up strange signals on her sonic screwdriver and goes off to investigate by herself, whilst Dan and Yaz elect to join the search for Peggy. An elderly villager named Mrs Hayward warns that an event from recent history - 1901 - is going to repeat itself, and warns the local vicar to count the headstones in his graveyard. He discovers one extra - a life-size angel...

The Doctor traces the signals to Prof. Jericho's home where she meets Claire, whom she recognises from Liverpool in 2021. Feeling ill, the young woman goes to the bathroom where she is shocked to see stone wings on her back when she looks at her reflection.

The Doctor meanwhile tears up Claire's drawings of her visions as they contain Weeping Angels - knowing that the image of an Angel can become one.

Dan and Yaz are walking across a field when they discover that the scarecrow ahead is actually an Angel. Their torches begin to fail, and then the Moon goes behind a cloud. They are attacked.

Meanwhile, far across space and time Bel continues to search for Vinder in her captured Lupari spaceship. Arriving on the planet Puzano she meets a man named Namaca, who tells her of a gathering where refugees can be taken to places of safety away from the Flux.

The Doctor, Jericho and Claire discover that the professor's home has now come under siege by an army of Angels. Claire tells them both that she has been having visions of the creatures since she was a child. She knows that the entire population of Medderton is about to disappear - just as it had done in 1901.

After their encounter with the Angel, Dan and Yaz have found themselves elsewhere in Medderton - but in broad daylight. They find the village to be deserted except for a young girl, who proves to be the missing Peggy. They are shocked to learn from her that they have been thrown back in time some 66 years. I 1967 Gerald and Jean have discovered that the village has been cut off - quite literally. At the end of a country lane they find themselves on the edge of space. An encounter with an Angel throws them back to 1901 as well. They come upon Peggy, Dan and Yaz, and the girl warns them not to go near another Angel which appears. They ignore her - and are reduced to dust. One touch from an Angel can send you back in time, but a second is fatal.

Dan and Yaz also discover that the village seems to be floating isolated in space, and Peggy recalls a phrase which an Angel placed in her mind - "quantum extraction".

Professor Jericho finds his home under attack from both within and without. Angels are breaking down the doors and windows, whilst Claire's drawings, even when burned, can become Angels. A rudimentary CCTV system put together by the Doctor allows another Angel to emerge from the TV screen.

Claire is convinced that the Angels are coming for her, due to her lifelong visions of the creatures. In order to learn more, the Doctor decides that she must make a psychic link with her to discover the truth.

Jericho will have to keep the creatures at bay as the Doctor links minds with the young woman.

She finds herself on a remote, windswept beach. Claire is here, accompanied by an Angel. It explains through her that it is an outcast from its kind - a fugitive being hunted by the others. It has possessed Claire in order to hide and now intends to use her to keep her pursuers at bay. If they let it go free, it will give them something which they are even more desperate to obtain - the Doctor.

It was this Angel which infiltrated the TARDIS, as it actually wanted the Doctor's help. It has been hiding from the main force of its kind, who want to capture the rogue as it was part of an Extraction Squad employed by the Division.

On Puzano, bel discovers that the person helping refugees flee the Flux is actually Azure, who is accompanied by a Passenger form. People are not being rescued - they are being imprisoned.

Bel manages to escape the collection field, taking Namaca with her. He is distraught at being left behind.

In 1901 Medderton, Dan and Yaz discover that the village is slowly being reduced in size as the boundary falls away into space.

Jericho is forced to break the mental link between the Doctor and Claire as the Angels are about to break into the basement where the professor's laboratory is situated. He tells them of a tunnel from this area to the open countryside. They enter this - only to find that there are Angels here as well which they will have to avoid - including stone arms emerging from the rock walls.

Peggy tells Dan and Yaz that a stone age monument on the edge of the village only appeared in 1901. They go there and discover a temporal barrier - with 1901 on one side and 1967 on the other. They cannot pass from one to the other. Mrs Hayward appears, and reveals that she is Peggy, grown-up. She had been spared by the Angels in order to stand witness to their actions.

Jericho is touched by an Angel and transported to 1901 where he joins Dan and Yaz, whilst Claire manages to stay in 1967. They have exited the tunnel at the monument.

When the Doctor emerges she is confronted by the whole Angel force, who capture her. She has fallen into a trap concocted by the Division, which is recalling her. her companions are horrified to see her transformed into an Angel...

Village of the Angels was written by Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton, and was first broadcast on Sunday 21st November 2021. It is the only instalment of Flux to have a co-writer credit.

It's also the best episode of the season-long story.

Other episodes might have Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and spectacle, and ultimately feel shallow for it - but this instalment has mood and atmosphere and a sense of substance.

It also has a cracker of a cliffhanger as the Doctor is transformed into a Weeping Angel.

There's actually a final sequence featuring Namaca and Vinder / Bel but it rather dilutes that cliffhanger as, for me, I'm really not at all interested in the couple.

Alderton had previously written The Haunting of Villa Diodati - another stronger episode of its particular season. The rustic setting of Medderton would not be out of her comfort zone, as she has written extensively for both Emmerdale and the revived All Creatures Great And Small.

The other thing of note is the appearance of Kevin McNally as Professor Eustacius Jericho. He had previously featured in the series as Lt Hugo Lang in The Twin Dilemma - from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Another returnee from the 1980's is Vincent Brimble, who plays Gerald. There's no way you would have recognised him, however, as he played the Silurian Tarpok in Warriors of the Deep.

You will recognise both his brothers - Nick and Ian - from many UK TV series and movies.

Playing Jean is Jemma Churchill. She is best known for school drama Waterloo Road and the revamped Upstairs Downstairs. 

Mrs Hayward is Penelope McGhie who is also a freelance drama coach. She appears in the final two Harry Potter films, in which she is one of the Death Eaters.

Peggy is Polly Polivnick. 

Already introduced briefly in The Halloween Apocalypse, we finally get to spend some quality time with Claire, who is played by Annabel Scholey. One of her many credits is providing voices for the Final Fantasy video games.

Also appearing in this episode is Blake Harrison, playing Namaca. he is the second of The Inbetweeners to be cast during Chibnall's spell in charge, following James Buckley's turn as Nevi in Orphan 55. Harrison clearly got the better deal.

Overall, probably the best single episode of the Whittaker / Chibnall era. The better ones are often those not written exclusively by the showrunner, which should have rung alarm bells had he not stood down the following year. 

Things you might like to know:

• The closing credits are split in two, with the Namaca / Vinder scene inserted.
• This is the only episode of Flux in which Karvanista, Joseph Williamson and Swarm are absent.
• This is the second instalment of Flux to be set of the date of transmission, though unlike The Halloween Apocalypse it's just the day and month - 21st November - in this case.
• Jemma Churchill and Vincent Trimble have a Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin connection. He featured in the classic BBC comedy, whilst she is the daughter of Pauline Yates, who played Reggie's long-suffering wife Elizabeth.
• Annabel Scholey was in the running to play both Amy Pond and Clara Oswald.
• The Doctor utters a couple of phrases better associated with previous incarnations: "When I say run, run!" and "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".