Doctor Who: Space Babies Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs
7. UP - Eric
Of all the Space Babies, Eric is the best one. His permanent look of consternation is utterly adorable, as is his frequent affirmations of love for Ruby.
The Doctor's speech to Captain Poppy is very sweet, but the connection between Ruby and Eric is the closest that Space Babies gets to having an emotional core. Which is why the scene where he seemingly gets offed by the Bogeyman works far better than it had any right to.
If there's an image that communicates the sheer madness of Doctor Who, it's surely Eric, in his motorised buggy, wooden sword in hand, trundling off to fight a monster. It shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did, and little Mason McCumskey's slightly frightened face really sold the horror of the moment.
And let's be real, how many of us briefly thought that Russell had just killed a Space Baby on primetime BBC1? While it was an obvious fakeout, the harshness of the cut between the Bogeyman and the Doctor and Ruby was seriously disconcerting.