We have known about one particular thing about this episode for some time. Maybe we didn’t know it was going to be this exact episode, but Jinkx Monsoon’s involvement has not been a secret. We’ve even been teased that their character will be called Maestro, throwing fandom into a state of fervour – Maestro is another word for Master.
Anyway, we’ll get to that. At the request of Ruby Sunday the Doctor takes them to Abbey Road, 1963, to meet the Beatles and hear them play for the first time. However, things aren’t right. The Beatles aren’t very good and music is seen as rather taboo in this time – quite the opposite to the swinging sixties known to history. Something is wrong – and the Doctor is scared.
Maestro is a rather terrifying other-dimensional being, “I am…MUSIC” which is a rather interesting idea and a welcome high-sci-fi concept. They have the ability to kill people by sucking the music out of them – literally – and when the Doctor encounters them he is physically scared. This brings in mind something like ‘the old ones’ of classic Who, and i’m not far off. We are introduced to the “Pantheon” and by Maestro’s obscure mentions and rather ominous threatening, we can assume these are massive, perhaps pan-dimensional villains akin to the aforementioned Old Ones, or the Eternals, or the Guardians. The Toymaker, for example, was another of “The Pantheon.” In a word, cool.
Well, I enjoyed Devils Chord far more than its predecessor. Its stupid, and ridiculous, and certainly #NotMyDoctorWho but i have long since decided that Dr Who isn’t what it used to be when i loved it, so its now just something i enjoy. And i used the word enjoy in a rather weird way, because i truly don’t enjoy it sometimes – the entirety of the Thirteenth’s series, i’m afraid, which suffered from devastatingly bad writing and editing and even performances (Jodie was great, but couldn’t hold it all together) and then of course theres the whole thing with Clara which made my eyeballs bleed. But i enjoy hate-watching it. Its literally the only program i’d ever do this with. If i don’t like a thing, i don’t watch it. Like, you wouldn’t hate eat cheese would you??
Anyway, the doctor who rant could literally fill pages and pages of the infinite interweb so i’ll get back to this episode in question. The setting – 1963 – is very important to Doctor Who, which is why it was positively awesome when Ncuti got a lovely scene with Ruby explaining about the First Doctor being over there in Totter’s Lane, and some very intriguing mentions of his grand-daughter Susan. We all know how sneaky RTD can be… is this a foreshadow?
I mean, most of new Who is fan baiting. Even at the very top of this review theres reference to the fans going apeshit because Maestro means Master. The Doctor has already spouted mentions of The Bishop and The Rani. Mrs Flood has probably a whole wikipedia page devoted to the theories that shes Ruby’s Mum, or The Rani, or… God herself. Who knows.
Oh. Well, this is a well timed rabbit hole. So, investigating something i thought of whilst writing the previous paragraph – about the actress Susan Twist, who has now appeared in Wild Blue Yonder, Church on Ruby Road, Space Babies and this one. Of course, fandom has gone wild, but i just read the most wonderful of theories. With his grandaughter Susan mentioned, and the song “Theres always a twist at the end”, everyone is thinking either Susan is returning – perhaps as Ruby’s mum, making Ruby the Doctor’s great-grandaughter, which to be fair, would be amazing – or that Susan may even be “The One Who Waits”… given that the doctor made a point of saying he never returned to see her. (canon, anyway – see Big Finish for other ideas)
I enjoyed the sweet little cameo by June Hudson, a doctor who legend – she designed the Fourth Doctor’s attire in his latter seasons, amongst many other things. I love cameos.
The absolutely nonsense musical number that concludes this rather absolutely nonsense episode, “Theres always a twist at the end” is a meta shout out to RTDs (and Moffats) rather cliche film-making trick at keeping the audience hooked. Of course, this is nothing new. James Patterson has written about 4,576 books with this exact narrative technique at the end of every page. There was a TV show in the early 2000s called 24- you might have heard of it, it was rather obscure – in which Kiefer Sutherland was invariably hit with a plot twist or a cliffhanger at the end of every bleeding hour. Hilariously, for all my nit picking, this was probably my favourite part of the Ncuti’s series so far. Dr Who is camp. It always has been, and it is never more so than right now, so who cares if theres an Over-The-Top dance routine that looks like something out of the West Side Story. The lyrics may be rubbish but the tune is catchy and its obvious that everyones having fun. Which is what matters.
So, in conclusion. I didn’t love this episode. I found Maestro’s dialogue and indeed performance a little too ridiculous. The Toymaker – or rather, Neil Patrick Harris – managed to toe the line of silly but Jinkx went too far. Again, the editing – far less so that Space Babies, i should add – was all over the place, with unwelcome speed-ups particularly in the music battle scenes. Lee Tamahori called, wants his camera trick back. BUT Ncuti and Millie again deliver excellent, watchable performances and i do like the ideas at the show’s heart. I just fear that the payoff will fall short of my expectations, which are always unfairly high. Its my fault really.
Oh, and if there was ever a better chance to include the phrase “GoodBye, Ruby Sunday” (instead of Ruby Tuesday, Beatles fans) then this was the episode. Sadly not.
the FANGG of HORROR ROCK 