TL;DR – A profoundly weird episode that leans into its weirdness in a way that made it profoundly compelling.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Doctor Who Review –

While this new era of Doctor Who has been a bit hit-and-miss for me. The episodes that have shined through all of that have been the ones where they dialled up the camp, or the weirdness or the absurd. Stories with real teeth that let the cast have a lot of fun with the concepts. There have not been many of them, but today, we get another to add to the pantheon.

So, to set the scene, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Miss Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) have landed in 1952 so they can use a Vindicator as a lure to get back to when Belinda was taken from. They can’t just go back normally because the TARDIS keeps bouncing off the day. But when they arrive in Miami, they find a cinema that has been boarded up with flowers of people missing. Fifteen people walked in three months ago and just disappeared from the cinema/picture house. A haunted cinema, it’s like catnip to The Doctor, but maybe they should have left this one alone. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

There is a lot to unpack here this week, but I wanted to start with how clearly the people behind the production this week love old projectors. Sure, the story revolves around them, and they are a main feature. But there is centring your story around them, then there is the love and detail that the episode shows. Every turn of the dial, every crank, every ream of film stock, all of it documented with loving care. I am not an old camera guy by any stretch of the imagination, but that love and care were kind of infectious, and you could not help but feel a bit of joy there.

There was also a lot to love about how weird this episode was. Mr Ring-a-Ding (Alan Cumming) made for a profoundly fascinating villain, in part because they let Alan Cumming really chew the scenery with this one. But also, the animated nature of the character allowed them to take some wild swings in both its depiction and in where they took the narrative. A villain whose whole gimmick was playing around with light finding themselves in cinema was an interesting choice that I think they made the most of. I liked the design of the main villain, who very much fit the vibe of the cartoons of that era. Some awkward Harbinger-ing aside, I feel it got to where it needed to go, and having a character of light drown in the Sun was an interesting choice.   

I was honestly surprised that The Doctor and Belinda spent only a small amount of time animated, given how much emphasis the promotion placed on that. However, that choice did mean that we got one of the wildest sequences in the show’s history, where they stampeded through the fourth wall like that horse in The Girl in the Fireplace. Having a meta-discussion between The Doctor and some Doctor Who fans exploring not only the narrative they are in but the broader fandom was a profoundly wild moment to watch. Putting aside all the many Easter eggs on an episode released on Easter and the quality Galaxy Quest reference. Writing characters that exist to criticise how bad your writing is, well, it’s a choice. It is both a love letter to fans and a bit of criticism, and it was fascinating to watch it unfurl. Also, the correct answer is The Empty Child.       

The things that didn’t quite work for me were, first, its exploration of race. It did feel like they originally were going to be a bit more critical about segregation, but they pulled back. This led to a more slapdash exploration, which is disappointing given that both of your leads would have had difficulty in this place and time. Indeed, a lot of that stems from the awkwardness of how casually The Doctor dismissed Belinda’s upset at the start of the episode, and then it stumbles on from there. Also, narratively, I was a bit disappointed as to how similar this episode was to The Devil’s Chord. I know there was meant to be a clear juxtaposition between light and sound, but there are allusions, and then there are similar beat-for-beat sequences. Also, we had better get some payoff for Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) this season.

In the end, do we recommend Doctor Who: Lux? Yes, we would. I am a simple man, and sometimes, it is nice to be reminded that we are 30 minutes in and it is time for the third act to start. Have you watched Doctor Who yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Doctor Who
Directed by – Amanda Brotchie
Written by – Russell T Davies
Production/Distribution Companies – BBC Studios, Badwolf & Disney+
Starring – Ncuti Gatwa & Varada Sethu with Alan Cumming, Linus Roache, Lewis Cornay, Samir Arrian, Bronté Barbé, Steph Lacey & Anita Dobson and Ian Shaw, Cassius Hackford, Millie O’Connell, Lucy Thackeray & Jane Hancock