Humanity is on the verge of extinction. The Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Sontarans occupy most of the planets. In the temple of Atropos, the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) leaps into the time-storm and opposes the evil Swarm (Sam Spruell) by hiding Dan (Justin Bishop), Yaz (Mandip Gill), and Vinder (Jacob Anderson) in their pasts. Dan experiences his date with Diane (Nadia Albina) until the Doctor appears as a hologram.
Swarm’s huge companion Passenger (Jenny Mathews) abducts Diane. Yaz talks with her Police partner and tries to teach her sister a video game but keeps seeing the Doctor instead. Vinder unhappily relives his time as assistant to the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson) and his subsequent demotion to a remote outpost, with Yaz as his superior and the Doctor as a hologram. Vinder begins to make video messages.
Bel (Thaddea Graham), a survivor of the Flux, hides from the Daleks in a forest, finds a Lupari ship and weapons, and escapes to the Cybermen Sector. Bel kills a boarding party, then confesses to the last Cyberman she kills that her mission is to search for her lover, Vinder. When the dying Cyberman says that love is not a mission, she replies that it’s the only mission. Bel finds Vinder’s messages and comforts their unborn child.
The Doctor jumps into her own timestream and recovers memories of being the Fugitive Doctor incarnation (Jo Martin). Three other former Division officers, including Karvanista (Craig Els) raid the temple to confront Swarm. Swarm appears in his original form and describes vessels, each storing hundreds of thousands of lives. The Fugitive Doctor has hidden six Mouri priests inside and releases them.
Back in the present, the Doctor finds the priests and encourages them to return to the temple, but the priests remove her past memories to protect her from the time-storm. An ancient entity named Awsok (Barbara Flynn) reveals that the Flux was deliberately created and blames the Doctor for it all. The Doctor returns Yaz, Dan, and Vinder to the present.
Azure reveals that they brought the Doctor to Atropos on purpose. Swarm reveals Diana’s entrapment. The Doctor and Vinder promise to help Dan get her back. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to return Vinder to his ravaged home planet and gives him a contact device. They take off, but a Weeping Angel jumps out of Yaz’s phone and seizes the TARDIS console.
This episode, Chapter Three of the six-part Flux, was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Azhur Saleem. Jo Martin was a surprise guest star as the Fugitive Doctor. It was reasonably popular, but some considered the story confusing, and bewildering, though jam packed with treats for the fans. I think both things are true.