The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) reboots the TARDIS to force out the Weeping Angel, but it strands her, Yaz (Mandip Gill), and Dan (Justin Bishop) in the village of Medderton on 21 November 1967. Yaz and Dan join a search for a missing girl named Peggy (Poppy Dolivnicki) while an elderly lady named Mrs. Hayward (Penelope McGhie) tells the villagers they must evacuate. The Doctor finds Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) in his laboratory, conducting psychic experiments on Claire Brown (Annabel Scholey), who was sent back in time from 2021. Jericho’s home is surrounded by Weeping Angels looking for Claire, who tells the Doctor that Medderton is the site of a mass disappearance that night and in 1901. An Angel does indeed send Yaz and Dan back to 1901, where they find Peggy. Mrs. Hayward is in fact Peggy in the future.
Back in 1967, the Doctor, Claire, and Prof. Jericho barricade themselves in the basement. Claire reveals that she is becoming an Angel, her mind seized by its image in a premonition. The Doctor enters Claire’s mind to ban the Angel and finds it is the one who hijacked the TARDIS. It did so to hide from the other Angels, who are members of the Division’s extraction squad. The Rogue Angel had knowledge of the Division and offered to return the Doctor’s lost memories if she helps it escape.
When the Angels break in, Jericho disrupts the psychic link. They escape through a tunnel but the Angels send Jericho to 1901 and corner Claire and the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the Angels have taken the village out of time and space in order to capture the Rogue Angel. The Doctor tries to make a deal, but the Rogue Angel has offered up the Doctor for her own safety. The Doctor is turned into a Weeping Angel.
Meanwhile, Bel (Thaddea Graham) lands her ship on the planet Buzano, where she finds Flux survivors imprisoned by Passenger (Johnny Mathers) and by Azure (Rochenda Sandall). Bel gives Namaca (Blake Harrison) a message before pursuing Azure. In a rare mid-credits sequence, Vinder arrives on Puzano, finds Namaca and Bel’s message, and vows to continue searching.
The episode, Chapter Four of Flux, was directed by Jamie Magnus Stone and written by showrunner Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton, who wrote the also wonderful The Haunting of Villa Diodati episode. It received highly positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. The title comes from Village of the Damned, the film made of The Midwich Cuckoos novel, by the great SF writer John Wyndham and it reminds me of that story. The Doctor says to reverse the polarity of the Neutron flow, a joke that goes back to Third Doctor Jon Pertwee. This is the first time that someone has been killed by a Weeping Angel on screen. The Doctor tricks two of them into looking at each other. The episode, in my opinion, is wonderful, but I’m a big Weeping Angel fan. I think they’re the most intriguing monsters in Doctor Who.