What the Flux is going on with this new Doctor Who teaser?

Most of the big, exciting news in Doctor Who land (by which we mean the universe directly surrounding the series; we’re not just using that as a euphemism for the U.K. as a whole) has been focused on behind-the-scenes matters of late. Star Jodie Whittaker is officially now into the final part of her run as the long-running, much-running character, with one more season of the series, and three subsequent specials, set to finish out her run as the 13th Doctor. Meanwhile, Chris Chibnall is set to step down as showrunner, handing the duties back to Russell T. Davies, the architect behind the series’ massively successful 2005 revival.

All of which, while interesting, is obviously also kind of off to the side from the core Doctor Who experience, i.e., yelling a whole bunch of made-up nouns in an incredibly urgent tone, while stuff explodes as cheaply as possible in the background.

Luckily, the new teaser for the show’s 13th (revived) season is here to correct that deficit, with Whittaker taking center stage (and center frame) to declare that “The Flux is coming.” The Doctor then rattles off a bunch of Who heavies who’ll be accompanying…The Flux…name-checking the Weeping Angels, the Sontarans, and “creatures known as the Ravages,” who sound, and we hate to judge a book by its murder-cover here, like they might be bad.

All in all, a very cost-effective way to promote the upcoming series, which is set to premiere this latest season—apparently literally being titled Doctor Who: Flux—on October 31. The season is, per Deadline, set to run for eight episodes, and is reportedly even more serialized than the usual modern Doctor Who storytelling, running a single story across all of its installments. Although apparently dictated by COVID-19 concerns, that latter choice makes the season something of a deliberate throwback, since the pre-revival Doctor Who was well known for running its stories as multi-part serials.