Doctor Who‘s Latest Story Was About the Power of Doctor Who Itself

As Doctor Who has, inch-by-inch, diversified the casting of its heroes, its willingness to archer stories straight influenced by those decisions has trailed a small behind. When Jodie Whittaker became the 13th Doctor, lone a fewer of her stories yet engaged with what it meant that the Doctor present inhabited a pistillate body. With the accomplishment of Ncuti Gatwa successful the TARDIS past year, his debut play tackled his presumption arsenic the archetypal Black antheral and the archetypal openly queer histrion to play the Time Lord to… mixed success, particularly connected the former.

But now, successful the strongest occurrence of his sophomore play yet, we person a communicative that nails exploring the Doctor’s latest identity, due to the fact that it allows itself the grace of being up beforehand astir engaging with that idea.

Last season’s “Dot and Bubble” played with the conception of the Doctor’s radical individuality by trapping him connected a satellite of achromatic supremacists being eaten by elephantine slug monsters, but by redeeming that uncover for its closing country arsenic a gotcha for the Doctor and the assemblage alike, the occurrence failed to truly prosecute with what it meant for the Doctor’s individuality arsenic a Black antheral to beryllium called into question extracurricular of a azygous moment. “The Story and the Engine,” then, by playwright Inua Ellams, stands arsenic an absorbing contrast. It is Gatwa’s archetypal Doctor Who publication written wholly by a idiosyncratic of colour (this season’s “The Well” was co-credited betwixt Russell T Davies and Sharma Angel-Walfall). It is besides a communicative that explicitly leverages Gatwa’s individuality arsenic a Black antheral to archer a communicative that tin lone beryllium told successful specified a circumstance.

But possibly astir crucially of each that successful contrast, is that it is simply a communicative that uses that individuality to archer a communicative of joy, of the universality and powerfulness of storytelling, thing that connects the Doctor to the radical they yearn to protect. And it tin lone bash truthful by intelligibly establishing that transportation betwixt the communicative being told, and its setting, to the Doctor’s existent individuality from the get-go.

© BBC/Disney

Where that communicative takes spot is Lagos, Nigeria, arsenic the Doctor and Belinda proceed to complaint up their “try and find 2025 London” instrumentality by hopping astir successful clip and space. Landing successful Lagos, the Doctor gets what helium needs astir immediately, but is reluctant to determination connected quickly: there’s a section barbershop, ran by a antheral named Omo (Sule Rimi), that helium loves visiting. We’ve seen Gatwa’s Doctor play with myriad styles, particularly with his hair, but arsenic Belinda points retired to him, helium has a monolithic clip vessel that does each that for him. The crushed Omo’s store is special, the Doctor argues, is due to the fact that it’s a spot that makes his existent incarnation consciousness seen, successful a mode helium hasn’t before.

Although it’s not the archetypal clip the Doctor has ever been Black (as we get a fantastic motion to with a little astonishment quality by Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor aboriginal on), having the Doctor articulate to Belinda his tendency to consciousness recognized and welcomed successful spaces arsenic a Black man–and having them both, arsenic the archetypal TARDIS squad wholly made up of radical of color, link implicit that successful their processing friendship–is an incredibly compelling idea, and it’s 1 that truly resonates compared to the times this Doctor’s radical individuality has been utilized successful stories lone to service arsenic a constituent of conflict, similar “Dot and Bubble” oregon briefly successful “Lux”.

After Belinda acquiesces and lets the Doctor cheque successful for a trim though, things footwear into precocious gear. It turns retired Omo’s store is nether caller management, a mysterious fig known lone arsenic the Barber (Ariyon Bakare), who has trapped Omo and respective different men there, wrenching the store retired of clip and abstraction to support them each successful an endless rhythm of haircuts and storytelling: their tales of past and story powering a monolithic mechanical spider that is whisking the Barber and his state Abena, the girl of Anansi (Michelle Asante), connected a quest for vengeance against the gods themselves. The Barber, it turns out, helped dispersed the myths of countless gods and folklores passim quality past by creating a Nexus, a literal web of storytelling and civilization that dispersed their scope and power but besides laid the cardinal groundwork for quality civilization itself, the enactment of sharing and processing thousands of years of stories, passed connected done generations. No longer needing him with the Nexus’ creation, the gods formed the Barber out, and present helium wants to destruct it, and instrumentality them with it.

© BBC/Disney

Much of this plays retired wrong the confines of Omo’s barbershop, an infinitely tiny abstraction for each these large ideas to burst retired of, adjacent if it’s besides revealed that said barbershop is presently temporally displaced and being carried astir an alternate magnitude by a elephantine mechanical spider. At times, “The Story and the Engine” threatens to suffer itself successful the strains of bandying astir each these big, heady ideas, but wherever episodes earlier it this play person deed those issues, here, it astir becomes portion of the metatext of Doctor Who itself. After all, arsenic this occurrence reminds us, what bigger communicative is determination retired determination than the Doctor themselves, countless lives lived implicit and over? The Doctor’s presumption arsenic this being who has seen truthful galore histories and futures is the crux of the full premise. It’s wherefore Omo tells the Barber astir them successful the archetypal place; it’s a communicative near untold—that the Fugitive Doctor erstwhile promised to escaped Abena from the clutches of her father, but failed to bash so, telling her and america successful a little infinitesimal that she was wrapped up successful a communicative for different time—that creates the struggle betwixt the Doctor and Abena successful the archetypal place.

It’s how, ultimately, the Doctor manages to prevention the day, tempting the Barber with himself arsenic the simplest communicative ever told: they live, they die, they are reborn. What saves the time successful “The Story and the Engine” is not needfully the Doctor’s brains oregon immoderate benignant of technobabble, it’s the precise information that they are the prima of the communicative that is Doctor Who, an ongoing, living, breathing communicative that stretches crossed beingness aft life, is shared betwixt generations of people. The Doctor isn’t conscionable a communicative of potentiality, but 1 truthful almighty it manages to overwhelm the Barber’s engine, freeing everyone trapped successful the store and guiding the Barber and Abena distant from their misguided quest for revenge.

© BBC/Disney

That mightiness beryllium a communicative that could’ve been told with immoderate incarnation of the Doctor–and that is arguably portion of the point, fixed it’s the Doctor’s communicative potentiality that proves cardinal to foiling the Barber’s plans. But “The Story and the Engine” besides straight engages with beats that re-iterate that this is simply a communicative that could person lone been told by pushing the Doctor’s communicative to a spot wherever radical of colour tin beryllium portion of it, arsenic well. It’s not conscionable successful the yearning for assemblage the Doctor seeks by going to Omo’s store successful the archetypal place, it becomes adjacent much important erstwhile Abena decides to assistance the Doctor by braiding his hairsbreadth with a representation to the bosom of the Spider truthful helium tin halt it, drafting connected real-world humanities traditions of braided hairsbreadth being utilized to fell messages and maps successful the epoch of colonialism and the enslaved trade. “The Story and the Engine” is laser-focused connected the powerfulness of Doctor Who arsenic a story, metatextually oregon otherwise, but there’s besides a batch of powerfulness successful however it chooses to archer this communicative intertwined with however it leverages Gatwa’s individuality arsenic the archetypal Black, queer antheral to beryllium a large subordinate successful that story.

This epoch of Doctor Who successful peculiar has been precise funny successful the metanarratives of stories, and with playing of consciousness of them for some the assemblage and our heroes alike. Sometimes it’s worthy celebrating for a moment, arsenic we get to here, that that communicative tin present assistance link adjacent much radical from antithetic backgrounds and invited them to beryllium a portion of it. And that’s conscionable captious a communicative to archer with the archetypal mainline Doctor played by a antheral of colour arsenic immoderate communicative of prejudice is.

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