Another week, another new Doctor Who. After a brief diversion to contemporary Earth for a UNIT story last week, we’re back with Team TARDIS this week. “The Story and the Engine” sees the TARDIS land in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2019. There, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda (Varada Sethu) are on the trail of a group of missing people.
Everything is tied to a mysterious new Barber (Ariyon Bakare) in town. This is a world where stories have power, and slowly, the stories are running out. Can the Doctor stop the Barber from getting his next haircut? Or will the Doctor be trapped, telling his stories forever?
WARNING – Spoilers below for Doctor Who “The Story and the Engine”
The Barbershop
The episode opens with the Doctor and Belinda landing in Lagos, Nigeria in the year 2019. Stepping out of the TARDIS, the Doctor uses the Vindicator and then quickly moves on with the episode. Between this and the brief, almost forced appearance of Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) in a flashback, it seems the episode doesn’t want anything to do with the wider arc.
This may actually work in the episode’s favour, but does mean that we remain clueless for another week. I’d also note that landing in 2019 is too close to contemporary Earth for my taste, but Ellams’ episode explores a side of Earth the show’s never touched. Exploring Nigeria felt like it was done with so much love, with even Ellams getting a cameo.
Why it took over 60 years to get an episode like this, I’ll never understand. Even setting at a barbershop, a place for story swapping, is just genius. A spooky barbershop down an abandoned back alley, that’s the peak of mysterious Doctor Who, just done through a different cultural lens. The episode not only stands alone, it stands out, and that’s awesome.
God of Stories
The previous owner of the Barbershop was Omo (Sule Rimi), explained as an old friend of the Doctor’s. It’s sweet, as is the prequel story available on the Doctor Who website. It also implies yet more offscreen adventures for the Doctor which is always good. His life after his experience with the Doctor creates a nice contrast to last week’s episode as well.
The real standout guest is the Barber himself, however. Mysterious, immortal, weaving legends through history, ready to destroy the gods after building them up for years. A voice that’s equal parts comforting and menacing, the perfect villain. The fresh ground the episode was treading and genuine mystery around him only served to make him more mysterious.
This was the first time, in far too long, that an episode made me question what was possible in the world of Doctor Who. A bit of commentary on the amount of Doctor Who stories there are, using stories to solve this story. Endlessly creative, and it plays out with some great tension elevated by Bakare’s next level performance.
The Unfinished Story
Writing about this episode, it would be impossible to not acknowledge the elephant in the room. While discussing his past with Abena (Michelle Asanti), the Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin) briefly appears in Fifteen’s place. On paper, it’s cool, and it genuinely took me by surprise. But she doesn’t need to be here, and deserves far better.
Outside of her introduction in “Fugitive of the Judoon”, Martin has only appeared in the Matrix, through a mirror in a flashback scene, and as a hologram to fool the Cybermen. Point is, she’s not appeared properly, in the flesh, since. While I think her Big Finish audio series is off to a great start, she remains criminally underused onscreen.
I want her to appear again, and this episode certainly demonstrates Davies’ openness to the idea. However, I would love for it to be in a more substantial capacity. The ambiguity about her place in the Doctor’s timeline feels like fertile ground for all manner of stories. This is especially the case if the season’s twist villain is a Time Lord.
The Story Chamber
The episode’s conclusion sees the Doctor and Belinda running through the back of the Barber’s shop. A long and winding series of tunnels, a maze, mapped into the Doctor’s hair by Abena. It’s powerfully rooted in very real history, told as a story to power the engine, involving slaves mapping roads to freedom in secret.
Visually, it’s presented quite well. The Barber’s story chamber is quite the set piece, littered with human history, writing, mythology, a life of service to the gods and art of storytelling. I thought the machine brain was suitably fantastical, and the montage of the Doctor uploading their neverending story to overwhelm it was awesome.
It’s a shame we didn’t spend more time here, or sitting with the Doctor saving the same gods he’s no doubt battled over the years. He even saves the Barber’s life, setting him up to collect even more stories, and forge his own. As epic as last week’s speech was, it’s nice to see the lighter side of the Doctor to close out the episode.
Conclusion
I went into “The Story and the Engine” optimistically but unsure of what was going to happen. The final product, while slow on the action, has a lot of heart and feels like a sweet cultural exploration as well. Ellams is a poet, which echoes through in the episode’s love for the written word, for symbols, and for stories.
While the season’s start was fine, it feels like a dramatic step up from last year. Next week brings us “The Interstellar Song Contest”, by Juno Dawson. Like all good Doctor Who, it could hardly be more different to what came before. As the last episode before the finale, it’s also bound to give us an idea of what the Doctor faces on May 24.
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