This week on Doctor Who, the Doctor stops off in Lagos, Nigeria for a haircut at Omo’s Palace and ends up trapped with The Barber’s intent on collecting stories with a sinister agenda. 

While last week’s episode was a tried and true Doctor-Lite episode, and the episode before a chilling horror, this week’s episode marks new ground for Doctor Who with its first episode to be set in, and take influence from Africa and its culture.

Stories and Experiences 

The Story & The Engine takes a step to explore this Doctor’s experience being black in this incarnation. While it was mostly glossed over in the previous season, this season has made a point of alluding to The Doctor’s negative experiences in being a black person without an episode specifically addressing it. The show instead chooses to focus on the positives and this episode explores The Doctor spending time with, and feeling accepted amongst black communities. 

Ncuti Gatwa clearly relishes being able to explore this in the show and his, and The Doctor’s, enthusiasm shines through. Performances all around in this episode are fantastic from start to finish with Ariyon Bakare (the Barber) and Sule Rimi (Omo Esosa) shining alongside Ncuti. Omo and The Doctor’s clash over his perceived betrayal and laughter at the Barber’s reveal were standout moments of fantastic acting.

At the heart of the episode is the value of stories and experiences with the characters sharing stories to fuel the story engine, powering a giant spider-mech traversing The Nexus, a pocket of space weaved from stories. There’s a focus on the ability of stories to empower us, both physically with the Barber and on a spiritual and emotional level with the rest of the cast. The episode does it really well in particular with a favorite trope of Doctor Who – an empowering moment where the Doctor shows off his past, with archive footage of previous Doctors. 

Show, Don’t Tell

To this point, I’ve felt the episodes of this season have had an issue with pacing, often finding themselves rushing through to the conclusion in the last 10 minutes. It’s something that Doctor Who often does, but the pacing of the episodes goes a long way towards the episodes not feeling rushed, which is what has been missing in this run. This episode, while it does have a quick resolution towards the end of the episode, feels a lot better paced.

The episode being a bottle episode is a big factor in this. The single, small setting of the episode forces the episode to be an introspective one, driven by the characters. There’s no big action piece here to round off the episode, it comes down to wits and the power of The Doctor’s story, the “never-ending story”. It’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reflection of the Doctor’s life and the life of the show itself. 

This episode further toys with the idea that the Doctor is living within a fictional narrative, leading towards a finale speculated to be heavily meta, that will further explore the idea that the Doctor is aware of his status as a fictional character. This episode continues cheeky fourth wall breaks from both the Doctor and the show itself that have been infrequently present since the First Doctor wishing viewers at home a Merry Christmas during the first Christmas special ‘The Feast of Steven’ all the way back in 1965. 

Strength in new ideas

Safe to say then, that the episode is a great one. While plot wise, it is reminiscent of previous episodes where resolutions have revolved around the power of The Doctor’s past and story, The Rings of Akhaten being of particular note. The Story & The Engine finds strength in incorporating new influences and new ideas into the Doctor Who mythos.

The episode is a celebration of West African community and culture, providing comfort to a Doctor who despite the adversity many people frequently experience in day-to-day life, can’t help but only find the good in the world, and the people and communities welcoming and willing to provide a home to him. 

I felt last week’s episode was a bit of a wobble in quality for a season that has been particularly strong so far, but The Story & The Engine is a return to quality as we draw ever nearer to the season finale. 

Ben Newton Contributor

Ben is a big nerd, and has been gaming for as long as he can remember. His earliest memories being of playing DOOM with his Dad in the late 90's and he has recently been enjoying rediscovering all of the games he couldn't afford as a kid. His passion for gaming is shared with a passion for writing that he hopes to share by contributing to Smash Jump.