TV Review: Doctor Who The Space Babies and The Devil's Chord

Doctor Who needs no real introduction. My first memories of Doctor Who were posters of The Master during the early 1980s, and seeing episodes with the Psychic Circus during the mid 80s. It was deemed to scary for me to watch, and I wasn't ready to understand it either.

The Christopher Ecclestone series started the week before I got married. I watched it with great interest and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed David Tennant's Doctor, and although I saw less as time went on, still saw some of Peter Capaldi's episodes.

I also watched Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, but it didn't really work for me. The first few episodes were so different from the Doctor Who I had seen before. With dramatic changes such as a female Doctor and new companions, it would have been helpful (if not essential) to have carried over more of the core components of Doctor Who into this series: things like the Tardis, the sonic screwdriver, familiar monsters or villains, or supporting characters (such as UNIT).  However, these were absent from many of the episodes, especially the first few, and it felt far more like watching a new TV series instead of a continuation of an existing story. Subsequently, I gave up and only watched the last few Jodie Whitaker episodes, which interestingly featured many of the major monsters and villains from classic Doctor Who.

So, what did I expect from the latest regeneration of the Doctor? The return of Russel T Davies to the helm meant I was optimistic, especially after he conclusion of the Jodie Whitaker series. I didn't like the Christmas special, which was a strange musical, but I very much enjoyed the first episode of New New Who, Space Babies. It was cute, it was snotty, full of bodily functions and toilet humour, and a scary monster that is saved at the end.  This is definitely Dr Who, not just a generic sci fi episode, and it's good.

The second episode stands in stark contrast to the first, as a real psychological thriller. The androgynous Maestro is stealing music from the whole world, starting with London in the 1960s. The villain in this episode is not only stealing music but is a serial killer too. And the Doctor? Hero of countless Dalek battles, winner of the Time Wars?  He is, as Ruby points out, a coward. What's going on?  Yes, he's camp, OK, but a coward? This is new, and will need some explaining.

I like the cause and effect thread running through these stories: if you do tread on a butterfly in this universe, you do change history. If you let the Maestro steal all the music in the 1960s, then the 2020s look very different. We've jumped from Doctor Who's parallel worlds (Father's Day, etc.) to Star Trek or Back to the Future, where it's one timeline with consequences for stepping on butterflies, and you'd better be more careful, Doctor.  

The Maestro is the Toymaker's child - there's some motivation for you - and is truly scary, and clearly powerful and motivated.  For most of the story, the episode narrowly manages to avoid becoming a musical, and a disaster, and genuinely piqued my interest.  That was, however, until the musical number at the end.  I suppose it was as inevitable as the defeat of the Maestro (who I was hoping was the latest regeneration of The Master, but never mind).  Even my daughter, who has seen a handful of Dr Who episodes, said, "What on Earth is that?" as the musical number played towards the end of the episode.  Not obviously Doctor Who, is the answer to that one.

So, two good episodes that could have been better with a few minor tweaks.  I am a little irked by the introduction of all the musicality - first in the Christmas special, and now in a regular episode.  I do like music, but I don't watch Doctor Who for it - and it takes up so much unwarranted time in the episode that it almost looks like padding or filler.

Allons-y!