By Owen Quinn author
phoptos copyright BBC
So to be fair, I had to watch this twice just to get my head round it.
It starts off with a very creepy idea. Images from a cinema screen come to life and climb out of the big screen to attack the audience. This is steeped in shades of Sapphire and Steel, the Torchwood episode ‘From Out of the Rain’ (also writer by the creator of Sapphire and Steel; PJ Hammond) and ‘The Grudge’. What if the Big Bad Wolf climbed out of the pages of Red Riding Hood? The taking of the fifteen strong cinema audience is scary especially when you see them trapped in celluloid. It is no coincidence that a feature on the atomic bomb is on before Mr Ring A Ding’s cartoon.
How Ring A Ding is given life is also a nod to the horror genres; it is Final Destination in nature. A spoon placed in a certain place to reflect moonlight as fate lines everything up just in the right order is effective and plausible.
In an attempt to get back to May 24th 2025 to get Belinda home, the Tardis bounces to Miami, Florida 1952 where said cinema is now padlocked. However, the projectionist, Mister Reginald Pye lives behind padlocked doors playing movies to an empty theatre. While the Doctor uses the landing to triangulate a way back to May 24th, he is intrigued by the mystery and sways Belinda to come solve it.
Gatwa really shows his OTT happy Doctor here but it is balanced by darker, introspective moments. When he and Belinda have a coffee in a diner they as people of colour are not allowed to visit, he caps Belinda’s outrage at this racism quickly. The dialogue is delicious letting the darker Doctor peek out. But it is perhaps his conversation with grieving mother of Tommy Lee, Mrs Lowenstein, one of the missing that shows this best. Such is her grief that she sits watching the cinema at night for any sign of hope. She breaks the rules of the time to speak with two coloured people because her need to get her son back transcends everything else including segregation. She has renewed hope now that a police box has arrived. She feels finally she will get her son back. In a beautifully underplayed moment, the Doctor takes her and asks does the sight of the police box give her hope?
The look on his face at her answer speaks volumes. Remember when ‘The Moment’ in the shape of Rose told the War Doctor that the wheezing, groaning sound of the Tardis brings hope whenever it goes? In a series where no one seems to know who the Doctor is any more, he needs reminded of that. He has no idea how much he is needed given Earth is gone. The sheer joy on the Doctor’s face listening to a mother talk about her son is lovely. He just revels in the ordinary lives all around him because it is the one thing he will never have. Plus Belinda give us a new slant on time travel when they discuss Rock Hudson, star of the movie in the cinema. There is a sadness in seeing people in their prime and knowing how their lives will end.
As a side note it’s a pity they couldn’t have timed this season to have the finale air on the 24th May. The penultimate episode will instead air on this date.
When the Doctor and Belinda break into the cinema, they meet Lux who turns out to have a very familiar giggle and one of the Pantheon gods is revealed. This time, it is Lux, God of light, in the guise of Mr Ring A Ding.
This is actually a clever tale of grief and desire. Lux is trapped in the cinema as is Pye. Lux is trapped by his body and Pye by the loss of his wife. To co-exist, Lux uses the light from the movies to maintain his form while Pye is given a movie of his wife, whom manifests, allowing him to dance with her again. But this symbiosis is an unhealthy mobius loop which will never have a happy ending. And within the Doctor lies the light of a regeneration to give him a body much like Pinocchio wished for. He almost succeeds by draining The Doctor. The only way out is to set fire to the film reels. The explosion shatters the wall allowing daylight in from the sun. Lux overdoes on it turning him into infinity and becomes part of the fabric of the universe. Pye dies in the explosion finally reunited with his wife.
But there is no thanking the Doctor and Belinda who just slip off in the Tardis.
I think we’re watching clues here for the finale. When the Doctor and Belinda are turned into cartoons, they meet Doctor Who fans complete with T-shirts, 4th Doctor scarf and a sonic screwdriver, classic style. The Doctor discovers he is fiction and they discuss his past adventures, the favourite of which is ‘Blink’. Belinda’s retort that the episode sounds epic is funny, given the classic status of that episode. This could be a nod to the day Tom Baker knocked on someone’s door asking could he watch Doctor Who with them. To be honest, it threw me as to why this was included. It is a nice commentary on fans who point out the answer to stopping Lux has already been mentioned, just like when the 5th Doctor mentioned the gas lethal to reptiles in episode two of ‘Warriors of the Deep’ in Season 21.
D’OH!!!!!
With Mrs Flood appearing yet again to tell the Lowensteins to watch the disappearing Tardis, it struck me that Pye’s wife magically appearing to encourage him to give Belinda the matches to set the inferno to defeat Lux, was in fact Mrs Flood. In the same way she manipulated Ruby and Belinda, so Pye is the key to winning. Also why was the 11th Doctor soundtrack played when the Doctor realises that fans Lizzie, Robyn and Nassan will die when he and Belinda go back to 1952. They claim they are not important but in fact they are the heart of any show. Without them, there is no Doctor Who. Lizzie put me in mind of Bonnie Langford for some reason but what if their T-shirts hold the clues to what is really going on?
On each of their T shirts is the Meep, the UNIT logo and the Cyber doors from ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’ with Telos along the bottom. Now we are assuming Mrs Flood is the villain this season but who is she? The Meep said that a being with two hearts is rare and he couldn’t wait to tell the boss.
What if Mrs Flood is the boss and very familiar with two-hearted beings? What if she is The Rani from the 6th and 7th Doctors’ eras. However, the power to change reality itself belongs to much higher beings like the Black and White Guardians. The White Guardian fooled the Time Lords into sending Romana with The Doctor to find the Key to Time and the Black Guardian disguised himself as the White Guardian to trick The Doctor into almost handing over said key. They cannot exist without each other so do Lux and Pye reflect that? They die together both happy.
There was also the Mind Robber who wrote stories which came to life there and then. The 2nd Doctor saved him but has someone found a way to revive that power? Or are Lizzie, Nassan and Robyn the Gods of Ragnarok from ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ who presided over a psychic circus killing acts that failed to entertain? What if they’re enabling of the other gods to have sole power? If so, then the Mara needs dealt with too. Yes, the giant snake that tormented 5th Doctor companion, Tegan (Janet Fielding).
Whomever it is, this episode builds more intrigue while subtly exploring grief and how it affects us in different ways. Compared to last year, two good episodes in a row is a welcome Easter treat, because when we reach the finale, we will look back and see all the hidden eggs.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 