Doctor Who Flux: 10 Huge Questions After The Vanquishers

9. What Exactly Did Kate Stewart Do?

Kate Stewart carved a disappointingly ineffective figure. Yes, she wasn’t going to have the resources of UNIT at her disposal given she had been forced to go dark by the Grand Serpent, but her role was almost completely superfluous to the plot. Off-screen, since she went undercover, she has been gathering intelligence on the Sontarans and knows that they are using human psychics in an attempt to locate the time and place of the final Flux event. That’s a key revelation, a neat shortcut for the Doctor to infiltrate the Sontaran operation, but it warranted some backstory, even if only a short flashback scene.

Kate is also trying to locate the Doctor, following the traces of Artron energy found on either a TARDIS or those who have travelled in one. Presumably, that’s why she is in the Williamson tunnels, though quite how the TARDIS got there from the UNIT offices is anyone’s guess. Kate could have been the one to bring the TARDIS to the tunnels, giving her a more active role from the start.

It’s hard not to avoid the conclusion that her reintroduction in Doctor Who Flux was to give a more plausible explanation for UNIT’s shutdown. Now we know why Kate and others hadn’t done more to challenge the government’s decision to cut the funding. There’s a clear set up for the organisation to return in one of more of the 2022 specials. Hopefully with Osgood and perhaps even one or two other familiar faces (Martha Jones, now divorced from Mickey, anyone?).