Doctor Who: The Story & The Engine Review - 8 Ups & 2 Downs
A trip to the barber gives Doctor Who Season 2 its freshest cut yet.
A wise man once observed that "we're all stories in the end", and this week's Doctor Who is a celebration of just how powerful those stories can be. It's also an episode that feels more magical and mythical than anything we've seen so far in Russell T Davies' pantheon of the gods era.
But more importantly, it's a Doctor Who story that feels fresh and original, something that's been lacking in a series that has largely seemed content to play some of RTD's greatest hits.
Playwright and poet Inua Ellams makes his Doctor Who debut with an atmospheric chamber piece set inside a Nigerian barber shop. Ellams' script draws on his previous stage work, and brings a fresh perspective to the Doctor that really clicks with Ncuti Gatwa's interpretation of the role.
As well as subtly invoking the Pertwee era, Ellams' script also recalls The Mind Robber in its focus on an exhausted storyteller as the villain of the piece. And yet despite all this, the episode's Nigerian perspective makes everything old new again, ensuring that the neverending story of Doctor Who will continue.
10. UP - Inua Ellams
Inua Ellams is a welcome addition to the Whoniverse, delivering a story that – for the first time this year – doesn't feel like a Doctor Who episode we've seen before. Obviously, it shares DNA (and some cast members) with Ellams' 2019 play Barber Shop Chronicles, as The Story & the Engine also places the safe space of the barber shop at the centre of stories and storytelling.
Ellams seamlessly adapts his original play into something more Doctor Who-y, using sci-fi and mythic tropes to explore how stories can be appropriated and weaponised.
As well as being a playwright, Ellams is also a poet, and he brings this to bear in the dialogue. Look at how beautifully he sums up of the story of Doctor Who in six words:
"I'm born. I die. I'm born."
The poetry of Ellams' script gives us a Doctor Who that feels more mythical than anything we've seen so far in these supposedly mythic struggles between the lord of time and the gods of games, music, death or light.