There’s an adage online these days that goes, “do not kill the part of you that is cringe; kill the part of you that cringes.” This new version of Doctor Who is the living embodiment of that idea as it careens through the most ridiculous and enjoyable adventures in a generation.
The season launched this weekend with two episodes, both written by Russell T Davies. “Space Babies” is another space station episode, which is quickly becoming Davies’s best work. Meanwhile, “The Devil’s Chord” takes The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) to London 1963 to see The Beatles.
Of the two, “Space Babies” was definitely the better. Watching super-intelligent infants roll around in powered strollers while running a decaying space station was as jarring as it was adorable. Ruby and The Doctor are quickly pushed into the roles of foster parents as they try to find a way to save the abandoned children while avoiding a monster below decks.
If Alien (which the episode rips off shamefully down to the airlock scene and using flamethrowers) is a film about horrors of unwanted pregnancy, then “Space Babies” was a plaintive plea to take care of the children conservatives pretend to want when they ban reproductive choice. The world that built this baby farm was happy to leave the children to fend for themselves in a terminal situation while still making it impossible to turn off the machines that produces the children in the first place.
The parallels to places like our own Texas are impossible to miss, not the least because The Doctor and Ruby point them out in bald terms. It makes the episode slightly heavy handed in places, but the focus remains doing the right thing for actual children, not just hypothetical ones. Thus far, Ruby’s time in the Tardis has been an exploration of what it means to be a wanted child and an orphan at the same time. The Doctor dances around the mystery of her existence as well, recalling his own strange history as The Timeless Child and why he cares so much for everyone.
This makes the episode sound grim, but it is absolutely not. The dialogue from the space babies alone should warm the coldest heart (“my job is to pull these ropes. I don’t know what they do, but I pull them very hard.”). Without spoiling things too much, the day is saved by an enormous fart, which is par for the course for the writer who gave us The Slitheen. Even the scary moments are fun scary, like the robot shark on the train at the Houston Aquarium.
“The Devil’s Chord” is also playfully scary thanks to guest star Jinkx Monsoon as Maestro. Meastro is part of The Pantheon, a collection of vast, Lovecraftian beings from outside the known universe that are embodiment of concepts, in her case, music. The Doctor already faced the most famous one, The Celestial Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), last year in “The Giggle.” Think of them as a cross between Mister Mxyzptlk from DC Comics and The Dread Powers from The Magnus Archives
Maestro drops into 1925 London to suck the music out of a talented but unknown composer, and it reverberates through history until by 1963 music is all but extinguished. By the time The Doctor and Ruby land at Abbey Road (actually EMI) to watch The Beatles record their first album, music has become a sterile, lifeless thing that is leading to widespread war and desolation.
Doctor Who has never been very tight on plotting, and “The Devil’s Chord” has logistical holes wide enough to drive Taylor Swift’s tour caravan through and probably land her private plane on as well. If music is gone, why is there a record industry? How come “Carol of the Bells” in Ruby’s mind stops Maestro until it doesn’t? What’s with the tangible music notes?
These inconsistencies are generally waved away to make room for exquisite staging, Monsoon’s scenery eating, and a big dance number at the end. For longtime fans, the nonsense rests firmly on the show’s penchant for callbacks to Old and New Who. From taking Ruby to see her now destroyed 2024 as Four did to Sarah Jane in “Pyramids of Mars” to shots and themes right out of “The End of the World” and “Partners in Crime,” Disney Who smooths over the edges with comforting motifs from the past.
I do wonder how it plays to new audiences, though. This run has been a perfect place for new fans to jump in, and the Fifteenth Doctor has been excellent with the generalized position in these first few outings. However, without that “hold tight and pretend it’s a plan” style Whovians are used to, does the show comes across a little rickety? Say what you will about the Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whittaker era, that first season was rock solid when it came to its internal logic and rules.
Davis/Gatwa isn’t. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Fifteen is a very new sort of Time Lord, seeing the world brightly and fiercely. It’s like a homeschool kid discovering the internet for the first time, with all the mistakes and wonder that implies. As such, the episodes are playgrounds more than architecture, and ask the audience for a little faith for those magical moments.
It’s a small price to pay for the laughter and whimsy we’re getting. What these episodes lack in gravitas, they make up for in selling the idea of adventure.
Doctor Who airs on Disney+ on Saturdays.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
