Doctor Who: Series 13, Episode 2 – “War of the Sontarans” (2021)

*A few spoilers for “The Halloween Apocalypse.”*

So far, series 13 has been making the strongest showing for me of the Chibnal era. After an overly-busy but entertaining season premiere, episode 2 pulls our heroes in a few different directions but manages to hold together well as a cohesive whole.

After being hit by the mysterious force of the Flux, the TARDIS is pitched through time, and once it lands on Earth, the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan are separated through some sort of temporal disturbance. While the Doctor and Dan deal with a Sontaran attack on Earth in two different time periods, Yaz is flung across the universe to a crumbling temple on an impossible planet, where she meets a similarly temporal-storm-tossed Vinder.

Most everything about the Sontaran invasion works for me. The Sontarans can be hit-or-miss as baddies, but here, I think they’re used well. The Doctor is awesomely boss dropped into the middle of a Sontaran-hijacked Crimean War, and she gets a helping hand from the equally-boss Mary Seacole, a historical figure I’d never heard of before. Mrs. Seacole is wonderfully realized by the show, and the episode left me wanting to read up on her.

I’m not as impressed with Dan this episode, even though I can tell that the show is going for “impressive” with him. He emerges as a very “jump headfirst into danger to protect others” type, and while that’s admirable enough, it’s hard to tell what kind of contribution he can actually make. It’d have been one thing if he’d been traveling with the Doctor for a few episodes before getting separated from her and Yaz, but as is, when he asserts that he “has some experience dealing with aliens,” I can’t help but think, “Yeah, and that experience is being abducted by an alien that was trying to save your life – how does that qualify you to take on invading Sontarans?”

Yaz continues to display resolve in the face of danger and uncertainty, holding her own when she gets separated. She immediately starts trying to get the lay of the land, attempts to be a reassuring presence to the confused and distrustful Vinder, and presses through her fear when she comes up against the villains. Speaking of, I remain unsure about Swarm and Azure, who are decidedly creepy but still feel kind of generic to me. Vinder, though, can absolutely stay. Jacob Anderson (and probably my residual affection for him from Game of Thrones) is doing a nice job here, because there are still so many basic facts we haven’t been given about the character but his performance makes Vinder feel very fleshed-out.

Last week, my brain spent some time puzzling over how the various elements were all going to fit together and I was mentally jogging along to keep up with all the jumps and new characters/settings. Here, there aren’t as many conflicting plot threads. The Sontaran invasion gives the episode a greater sense of focus, while some of the major major elements of the season are starting to coalesce.