Tripwire’s Man In Los Angeles Reviews Doctor Who Season Two: Episode Five The Story and the Engine

A Story About Stories

Tripwire’s man in Los Angeles Robert Cave takes a look at Doctor Who Season Two’s fifth episode The Story And The Engine…

The Story and the Engine
Written by Inua Ellams
Directed by Makalla McPherson

Yay! That was fun. Hugely enjoyable in a way that last week’s episode, no matter how well-crafted it was, and it was well-crafted, just wasn’t. IT also gave us something that we genuinely had never seen before. A proper Doctor Who adventure in Africa, as The Doctor goes to Nigeria!

Of course, Nigeria already has an important place in Who history; Nigeria TV was one of the many stations around the world that purchased the rights to show classic Doctor Who, and the channel was also responsible for returning multiple otherwise missing episodes to the BBC archive. Unfortunately, the country and the continent it sits in have been far less well served as settings for the Doctor’s TV adventures. True, South Africa has been used as a filming location for a few episodes, and there were even a few brief scenes, almost prefunctory scenes in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship set in “the African Plains”. But all changes here with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda (Varada Sethu) landing in Lagos. Their plan is to use the largest communication technology market in Africa to boost the the vidicator gizmo that the Doctor is using to help bounce the TARDIS into their destination: London, on May 25^th 2025 to get Belinda back home in time for her next hospital shift.

Not that this set up really matters. What does matter, and is quietly charming at the same time, is that the Doctor wants to visit a friend Omo (Sule Rimi) in his barber shop, a place that makes the Doctor feel accepted, at home and comfortable in his black body. As The Doctor, and through him, the show, now overtly acknowledges, “in some parts of the Earth I’m now treated differently.”

Even if virtually nothing outside of a brief establishing shot was actually filmed on location, the sheer exuberant joy Gatwa’s Doctor shows is infectious. Lagos is not his home, but it feels like home to him and in such a way that feels universally relatable. You want to be there in the thronging bustle and humanity of the market place. The rest of the plot, about a baber shop that runs on stories and the Barber (Ariyon Bakare) who is collecting them. But the barber who is really a nameless storyteller who is seeking to take revenge on the gods for their failure to credit him for his for his storytelling works. The whole thing is very much in keeping with what appears to be this season’s emerging theme of Doctor Who as a metafictive collection of stories about stories.

Yeah, the production is a little stagey, but that’s no bad thing, and it does makes a certain sense that the story is quite stagey. This episode’s writer, Inua Ellams, is an acclaimed playwright. His play, Barber Shop Chronicles, caught show runner Russell T Davies’ eye, and that very different play also provided the setting and flowed nicely into the overarching theme of stories about stories. It is also quite fitting that Ellams himself got to appear in his own story as one of the Lagosian stall owners Belinda runs into as she runs to the barber shop to rescue the Doctor. Perhaps we might see Russell T Davies pull the same trick someday. Maybe even before then end of this season.

Abena (Michelle Asante) was great as the daughter of the trickster god Anansi. I am a sucker for stories that allow even old gods to learn and grow, so I am definitely here for her decision to listen to Belinda’s advice not to use her hurt to lash out against others. Extra bonus for  Belinda for being good at her job of being a nurse in another episode.

I was also glad Abena got the opportunity to write her own story quite separate from the pantheon of the gods that seems to be the overarching threat of Doctor Who’s Disney+ era. And what a lovely surprise it was to see Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor again, apologising to Abena. Doctor Who fans have a love/hate relationship with unexplained mysteries, narrative gaps and dangling plot threads. We love them but also crave completeness and a tying up of loose ends. There is a reason that the mini adventure Night of the Doctor is so treasured by a sizable section of Who fandom. It gives fans 13 more precious minutes with Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor and it also closed the regeneration gap between the classic era and new eras. Similarly, Jo Martin’s presence in the Disney+ era promises that we may eventually see some resolution to the Fugitive Doctor’s story.

I liked The Doctor’s six-word story challenge, and although I could quibble that as “I’m” is really two words, what he wrote was actually an eight-word story, I won’t. It’s still a great challenge and well worth attempting whether you end up with a six-word story or something slightly longer.

Ironically, this episode’s resolution is ultimately brought about by the Barber’s story engine, being overloaded with 62 years of Doctor Who continuity. It is an experience that is no doubt familiar to many a new who fan, contemplating the necessity of “catching up” with every TV Who story ever made. Fortunately, as I think I have pointed out here before, you don’t need to watch every episode to be a Doctor Who fan. All you need do is enjoy a Doctor Who story. Go at your own speed, and pace yourself, if you don’t want to explode like an over-full giant galloping story-powered mechanical spider vehichle.

Which kind of brings me to what really made this episode so enjoyable to me: it was having a Doctor Who story set somewhere new, doing something different. Doctor Who has long had fans all over the world, and I look forward to seeing more Who stories set in just as many places, and more besides. Alien worlds, past present and future, everywhere. And next week we get to see the Interstellar Song Contest. I’m looking forward to it.

Doctor Who is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney Plus in the US