“Space Babies”
Logline
Ruby learns the Doctor’s amazing secrets when he takes her to a Baby Farm in the future that’s being run by babies, but threatened by a bogeyman.
Written by: Russell T. Davies
Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson
“The Devil’s Chord”
Logline
When the Doctor and Ruby meet The Beatles, they discover that the all-powerful Maestro is changing history.
Written by: Russell T. Davies
Directed by: Ben Chessell
This thead is a trial balloon to gauge whether there’s interest in having ongoing “Doctor Who” discussion threads, or perhaps a local community.
I just finished watching Space Babies - I have to say, I missed this. It’s been a long time since Doctor Who was fun - I love all Doctor Who, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones) but my heart is really with the bizarre, campy, man-in-a-rubber-suit style episodes like this one. If anyone was worried this was going to get Disney-fied, this is RTD at the most RTD. I might as well have been watching the Ninth Doctor take Rose to the End of the World. Ncuti is the Doctor the very instant he steps on screen, and the Doctor/Ruby chemistry is absolutely perfect. I don’t love her being a mystery box but as long as the explanation is suitably weird I’ll go with it.
A bit of a new experience for me in that this time I got to watch it with my daughter — she’s nine and a huge Trek fan. She liked Church on Ruby Road and we watched a bit of other doctors, but I wasn’t sure she’d take to this, but she was just beaming the whole time. Bit of a new experience for me because other than some Tom Baker episodes on old VHS tapes, I was an adult by the time I came to DW. It’s fun to see it through the eyes of a child.
Also, uh, did the Doctor just suggest that the world of Star Trek is real in his universe?
My least favourite type of RTD episode is the Goofy RTD Episode, and this was definitely that. I doubt it will end up ranking too highly on my list by the end of the season.
That said, I always appreciate social commentary that’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and the episode delivered on that. And Ncuti Gatwa’s physical presence is something special - I don’t think we’ve seen that kind of physicality since Matt Smith.
This is obviously a sign that setting up this discussion thread was the right decision.