In releasing a video breakdown of Jodie Whittaker's era of Doctor Who.
The breakdown video, released to the official Doctor Who YouTube channel, served to explain the narrative arc of Doctor Who: Flux. The video contextualizes the events leading up to the season premiere and offers additional insight into Flux's various developments and eventual climax. It features Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker explaining the events of Doctor Who: Flux, with a general overview of the season's story and the intentions behind numerous characters' actions.
Since Chibnall took over as showrunner in 2018, there have been plenty of criticisms leveled at the show. Now, after season 13's finale, the need for a breakdown video at all highlights that Doctor Who: Flux was far less successful than the BBC would have hoped. Behind the scenes analysis is certainly nothing new, but the Doctor Who: Flux story breakdown evidences not only that the BBC's acknowledgment that the story failed to be sufficiently self-explanatory on its own merits, but also the other many mistakes of Doctor Who: Flux.
The reasons for this failure lie within the content of the video. It's a 15-minute long explanation of the exact intentions of Doctor Who: Flux, with plenty of emphasis on explaining the story - something that hasn't before been as necessary from an official source. However, with recent seasons of Doctor Who proving far more divisive and, ultimately, less successful than previous seasons, Flux seemed not only to continue that trend but to push it a little further, with many finding its explanation of the Timeless Child storyline to be at once confusing and underwhelming. The BBC releasing a video designed to explain the plot shows that they understand where Doctor Who: Flux failed, although whether or not the breakdown video is enough to salvage the failure of Flux remains to be seen.
It has actually been suggested that Flux hurt Doctor Who even more than Chris Chibnall's controversial Timeless Child revelation, as not only did it double down on the idea, but it failed to pay it off with any real conviction. Instead, Doctor Who: Flux's narrative was relatively weak, especially when judged against Chibnall's intentions as he sets them out in the breakdown video. It's clear that the showrunner had incredibly ambitious hopes for the storyline, but it simply failed to capture audiences' imaginations in the way that was intended, opting to instead make use of Chibnall's "tell, don't show" approach.
The breakdown video shows that the BBC knows that Doctor Who: Flux was a failure and that they saw the need to smooth over the shortcomings in its execution. Maybe the issue was simply in Doctor Who: Flux retconning Time Lord history over such a short span of episodes, but as the video reveals, Chibnall intended far more from the season than was adequately communicated by the six-episode arc. While the show is still enjoyed by a large and loyal audience, Doctor Who: Flux wasn't all it could have been, and the BBC has itted its failure with their 15-minute breakdown video.