Photos copyright BBC
A barber’s shop where people go in and never come out, a wrathful God and the return of an old, familiar face that creates a plot hole.
From the beautiful opening where a story is animated in windows, the very first thing that this story brings to the fore is how being a person of colour now has affected the Doctor. In Lagos, he is treated like family and the barber shop , Omo’s Palace belonging to said Omo, is home just as his previous incarnation found a home with the Nobles and his third persona found it in UNIT. This is a nice reminder on how your colour reflects peoples’ attitudes. This is important not only for the audience but for the character of the Doctor himself.
In reality, we have spent so little time with this Doctor, that his time between stories and seasons should have been filled with countless adventures which we get to see when he puts out a forest fire in the opening animation. You can picture this happening and the home he found because of that is vital. The eleventh, twelfth and tenth Doctors’ eras all played on this, indicating a lifespan and more adventures than we are privy to. The Doctor has lived a long life outside of what we see as demonstrated by last week’s Shreek story.
Having the barbershop being in two places at once under the control of The Barber and his cohort, Abena is cool especially when the Doctor opens the door and is almost sucked into the Nexus, the Barber’s world wide web, on the back of a giant spider. There is a mythological stance here like Atlas holding the world on his back. But the Barber is quite insistent that he gets his stories and the Doctor is the greatest source of that yet leading to a nice Midnight nod.
When Omo says the Barber can let the others go now he has the Doctor, the betrayal the Doctor feels is palpable. Omo is no Clara whom was once asked by the Doctor, do you think I care so little for you that betrayal would make a difference? But I kind of wondered about this plot point. Omo did not summon the Doctor. He arrived by accident so the Doctor’s rage is questionable. Omo is throwing him under the bus to be sure but it could so easily have been that, only for the Vindicator being super powered by Lagos that he was ever there in the first place. Or is that part of the overall plot?
Another problem for me was the Doctor recognising Abena but not sure where from. Now I love an episode which sees the past Doctors all feature but the arrival of Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor is very welcome but very confusing at the same time. When the Barber is shown as a false god but a once human that has built the Nexus to sever the gods from humanity forever, it is then the Doctor relaises who Abena is. The Barber was the ultimate storyteller whom spread stories about the story telling Gods and with each story increased their power until he was cast aside. He has collected stories from pubs, barbers and confessional boxes and put them all in books making the Gods all powerful. They owe him but gave nothing. Now he wants revenge, to be the ultimate storyteller by killing every god which includes Abena.
The Doctor lost a bet with the god Anansi to trick him into marrying one of his daughters. Abena was that daughter and in an unexpected move, the camera turns to reveal our Doctor replaced by the Fugitive Doctor. She says it was unfair for Anansi to offer the bet and that she was a fugitive back then so could never take Abena with her. Abena lived in fear of being passed off by her father in a bet and she took her chance with the Barber. It’s great to see Jo Martin back but it causes a problem.
At the start of the episode, the Doctor says this is his first black body which the appearance of Fugitive Doctor negates. The fact that it is this version that Abena was relying on to save her also makes no sense as the Doctor has no memories of that incarnation. Does this mean he now has full memory of his time in that body or is it a clever misdirection to wink at the viewers? As I said, I loved to see her back but it raises too many questions. But as we see, the Barber’s story engine is powered now by all the Doctor’s incarnations who appear on the screens, some quoting lines, some not.
In the end, The Story and the Engine is my favourite episode so far because it is so beautifully written and serves Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor well. It’s just a delight to see everything resolved. Everybody lives. Given we have fought so many gods since The Giggle, it was in danger of being overkill between Lux, Maestro, Sutekh and the Toymaker. But to have the Doctor be able to see that for all their faults, humanity at this point is still reliant on them as part fo their very psyche, that he must save them for a change.
Doctor Who began all those years ago as an educational programe and Abena’s braid story I never knew about. I love when I leave understanding another culture a little bit more. Hopefully, this will inspire people, not just kids, to explore this further. But what I really came away with is the fact we are all the same. It doesn’t matter about what you look like on the outside. We all have a story. We all smile. We all cry. We all pee. We are all a pillar for others even when you don’t know it. Community breeds in the unlikeliest of places like the pub, like a barbers, like a bus stop. Stories keep us going every day whether it’s in a canteen or out having a smoke break. Stories can inflate egos. Stories can bring same egos crashing down. Stories enhance life and display tthe human tendency to exaggerate. Stories keep those we have lost alive and vibrant. Stories entrance young ones generation after generation.
If you are alone right now, you have a story. Reach out and tell it on whatever platform you have or maybe to the person in the chippy waiting for their fish supper. Every one of us make the world go round and it keeps us together in the end.
Everything is tied up and no twist this time; just simple good old fashioned story telling. Amy Pond once said, we are all stories in the end and this episode is not only a timely reminder of that but a subtle hint to read more. We have kind of lost the oral tradiions of the past save a few cultures and with heads in phones immersed with social media, we don’t talk any more. Not really.
Aside from my minor issues, this is as perfect as it gets. Beautifully written with words that embed in your brain and make you think.
By the way, who was the kid in the alleyway Belinda saw?
The Time Warriors and Beyond 