Doctor Who The Flux: 10 Huge Questions After The Halloween Apocalypse
3. What Will Be The Significance Of The Tunnels?
Doctor Who wouldn’t be the same without its historical
episodes and Chris Chibnall has made sure there is a plotline set in the past
as part of this interconnected adventure. Joseph Williamson is a real figure
from Liverpool’s history and he did indeed construct a series of tunnels in the
Edge Hill area of the city between 1810 and 1840.
The intriguing thing, that makes this story so perfect for the Doctor Who treatment, is that it still remains a mystery as to why the tunnels were built. If they served no apparent function, was Williamson just some kind of mad eccentric or was he simply trying to create work for the unemployed? His philanthropism would no doubt appeal to Dan.
The fictional version of the character is just as reticent to explain the purpose of the tunnels as his real life equivalent. When challenged he talks mysteriously about something cataclysmic and impossible coming. Perhaps the tunnels are to hide people from the coming disaster.
Just as the Earth has been protected from above by the interlocked Lupari ships, perhaps the tunnels will also play a saving role. What we do know, of course, is that in Doctor Who where there are tunnels there are also monsters. Could something else be uncovered under the surface of the Earth? In trying to save people, will Williamson’s project do more harm than good?