Doctor Who: Lux Review - 6 Ups & 4 Downs
9. DOWN - The God Of Light
Case in point; Lux Imperator, the god of light. When the Doctor and Belinda first meet Mr Ring-a-Ding is revealed to be the harbinger of the coming of Lux Imperator. The marquee for the (entirely fictional) Rock Hudson movie, The Harvest Bringer even falls apart to reveal the words "HAR B INGER"!
But then Ring-a-Ding says he's also Lux. So what, he's both harbinger and god? Okay, that sort of scans with Harriet Arbinger being both a harbinger and a vessel for Sutekh's influence. But if Ring-a-Ding is also Lux Imperator, why is he so serene when he becomes the "light of creation", both everything and nothing? Surely he already was, he's the literal god of light?
The script doesn't seem to know what, exactly, Ring-a-Ding and Lux are, and it might have worked better if there was a few more minutes on the runtime, or a clear distinction between both harbinger and god. Ring-a-Ding as the physical manifestation, Lux as the flickering and malevolent light inside the projector. Clearly the VFX budget didn't extend to creating two animated characters.
It's a fascinating example of how, even with the fabled Disney money, Doctor Who still doesn't have the time and money to realise its big ideas.