10 Simple Fixes That Would’ve Improved Doctor Who

The events of Flux sent The Doctor in all different directions to find answers and solutions. The story did, at times, feel rather jumbled and busy, which is perhaps why the big-bads of the series seemed to lose their steam almost as soon as they got going.

Now, Flux was already in a slightly unfortunate position with its reduced episode count, and there were already so many things to cover: Vinder and Bel; Jericho, Claire and The Weeping Angels; Dan, Karvanista, and Diane; the Sontarans, and Tecteun and The Division - to name just a few!

With so many individual storylines, it felt as though everything was incomplete - or at least, rushed to an ending. And with regards to those big-bads (Swarm, Azure, and The Grand Serpent), it would’ve been much better to have given the series a single, consistent, memorable villain, rather than three characters who all fell short of the mark.

The best candidate would’ve been Swarm, since Azure felt more like a henchman anyway. Swarm definitely had potential to be a truly remarkable villain, but was seemingly dismissed in exchange for The Grand Serpent halfway through the series! It was a bit jarring, to say the least, to suddenly be introduced to this whole new, seemingly disconnected story about the origins of UNIT, right in the middle of all those other storylines. And even worse, the Grand Serpent was just left on an asteroid at the end of the series, almost like Chris Chibnall had no idea what to do with him.

Now, imagine that same plotline but with Swarm - who we had already spent two episodes getting to know - as the mastermind, instead of the Grand Serpent. The audience would’ve been more engaged and the plotline itself would’ve felt more closely linked to the main events of the series.