By Roy Mathur, on 2024-05-12, at 01:25:25 to 02:24:03 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
My monthly saunter around central London (as I muttered to my therapist on my final session, I am the king of London) was rudely interrupted by that mountebank, menace, and hazard to all of space and time known as the Doctor.
Worn out from my day out, then taking notes as one is watching live television, sucks some of the joy out of it, but here we are again with the latest New NewWho Doctor and my review of his first two post-Christmas Special stories. I planned to do this before midnight, but it took a little longer to organise my shownotes. Needless to say, this is something of a rush job, cranked out by a tired weirdo fuelled by Red Bull and fake Marks and Sparks Toblerone.
NB I'm not a New Who reviewer, I'm a classic Doctor Who revisiter, so don't expect much more after this one, though I might do an end of season wrap.
First listen to 7 min 44 sec of messy live commentary roughly taped on my phone, then I'll talk you through the story and my thoughts in a more cogent manner.
Space Babies is New Who's series 14/season 1 (post-Disney+ deal) premier/episode 1 (story 305 overall), broadcast in the UK on BBC One on 2024-05-11 at 18:20, and, like most of New Who, about 45 minutes long. It is two episodes in from new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa's initial appearance in the Specials, The Giggle (pod 515), when he bigenerates, i.e. splits from David Tennant, then his first solo story, The Church on Ruby Road (pod 517), in which he meets his newest Companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). It is the fifth story written by returning and original New Who producer/showrunner Russell T. Davies. It is available on BBC iPlayer by the time you listen to this.
The Doctor and Ruby arrive on a space station, then flee from a terrifying slimy monster on board. Cared for by their nanny Jocelyn, the space station is run by babies ("space babies"), who think Ruby and the Doctor are their mum and dad. The nanny, fearing for the babies, attempts spacing the Bogeyman, but when the Doctor realises that the Bogeyman is baby snot given form by the space station, he closes the airlock, saving it. The Doctor repairs the space station and invites Ruby aboard the TARDIS. They return to Earth to see her adopted mother, while the Doctor scans Ruby behind her back.
My thoughts...
That start sequence and end credits have a nice new purplish-pink colour scheme. I use similar tones in my own podcast cover art. The new theme sounds suitably epic; a continuation of what we saw at the end of The Church on Ruby Road.
The Doctor references the Timeless Child, that he was abandoned, then adopted, and how Gallifrey is dead.
I laughed as they hung onto the console as they floated away when the Doctor launched the TARDIS.
The new TARDIS console room is huge!
Contradicting the Doctor's poo-pooing of dire consequences, when Ruby steps on a butterfly, she changes the future, becoming some sort of insectoid, until the Doctor fixes the time paradox. It's very funny and a bone thrown to hard sci-fi nuts like me by referencing Ray Bradbury's short story A Sound of Thunder (1952).
We see flashes of the Doctor's fingernail sigils again. What's that about? When will we find out?
I'm finding the Doctor's positive attitude, despite being the last Time Lord (again), therapeutic. I have an inkling of that sadness from my own lack of familial connection. It's nice to see someone making the most of what this universe has to offer.
The sonic screwdriver mouse thingy is back. I don't know about that. It does not looks cool. It's too much like a cheap plastic remote pointing device. Come on, RTD, give him a decent screwdriver, man!
The Doctor fiddling with Ruby's phone, like he does for most of the companions, then asking her to call her mum reminded me how once a stranger, a terrifying giant in remote Alberta marched into my office and demanded that I phone Mum.
Along with the War Doctor (John Hurt), this is the second Doctor with facial hair. He certainly can pull off a suave moustache.
Ruby Sunday (who I keep calling Ruby Wax) reminds me of Clara Oswald. She's young, petite, pretty, has similar facial expressions, and is involved in some kind of weird time loop thingy too.
In conclusion, a light and funny story, the space babies were delightful and adorable, the Boogey Man being a literal bogie man was great, the subverted ending of Alien was hilarious. Yet another Scottish Doctor though? What is going on? When am I going to stop mentioning this? Probably never.
The Devil's Chord is story 306 (it's too complicated to reiterate all the stuff about seasons again), the sixth story written by showrunner Russell T. Davies, and transmitted right after Space Babies at 19:05. Ditto everything else I said about the production of Space Babies. Other notable cast includes the Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon, jinkxmonsoon.com: "RuPaul's Drag Race winner and All Stars 7 star Jinkx Monsoon is the "internationally tolerated" cabaret icon").
A piano teacher shows a little boy the devil's chord. A camp musical menacing creature calling itself the Maestro appears from inside the instrument, drains and eats the music from within the teacher's chest. The Doctor and Ruby go to 1963 to see the Beatles at Abbey Road. They see the Beatles and Cilla Black performing terrible songs. Apparently, no one cares about music anymore, a paradox that will destroy Earth. They narrowly escape the Maestro, who says the Toymaker is their father. The Doctor and Ruby are losing their fight, until Paul McCartney and John Lennon play a chord together and the Maestro gets sucked back into the piano. There's a big musical number at the end and the Doctor says to Ruby, "But there is one thing that I should warn you about, Ruby. And this is really very serious. With all of my adventures throughout time and space, I have to tell you... there is always a twist at the end.", before launching into his song, "There's always a twist...", etc.
And so to thoughts.
I'm not sure the Roman Catholic church never banned "the devil's chord. Ah, Black Sabbath's tritone, in the song Black Sabbath, on the album Black Sabbath.
The demonic Maestro is an annoying villain, but menacing, and with a great voice. The obnoxious characteristics no doubt passed on from their Toymaker dad.
I enjoyed the highly comedic scenes of Ruby getting sucked into a double bass and the poor Doctor into a drum, then pounded upon. "Argh!", he shouts.
The Maestro has a ukulele. As a ukuleleist and banjoleleist, I appreciate a god-level supervillain who's also into ukuleles.
The Doctor appears a little Jerry Cornelius in how I'd imagine the Michael Moorcock anti-hero might occasionally look. The winkle-pickers are a nice touch. I always wanted then, but my feet aren't narrow enough. Tangent: I read that the medieval fashion for pointy shoes buggered up one's feet, so maybe that's as well.
The ancient Aeolian wind harp is referenced by our literary magpie RTD. Be honest, RTD, how long have you spent surfing Wikipedia?
Overall very weird, very Grant Morrison, a bit Austin Powers, ending on a spectacular dance number, but with too much banal musical theatre, which I really don't care for.
Oh, it has been a busy time. After storming through the last of the Peter Davison era and covering the start of Ncuti's series, I am absolutely exhausted, so first a break, but then what? As I said previously, I won't be reviewing every new episode of New Who as it comes out, though I might just be persuaded by you to do a Ncuti end of season wrap up.
My subsequent plans for this podcast are very much what they were before. That is to finish revisiting classic Doctor Who and Hammer House of Horror. There may be changes after that. Perhaps I'll combine the podcast into a single format in which I do one detailed review and multiple shorter items in each episode. That would certainly make my life easier. What do you think?