Subtle. Creepy. Meta.

As the dust and this episode both settle in my brain, those are the words that come to mind.

I thought Lux was pretty solid Doctor Who, and the messaging was fair and subtle — it came across more as informative, a reality check. 

It’s 1952 Miami, so segregation is very much a part of society, and Russell T Davies, writer and showrunner, doesn’t sugar-coat it; he just lays it out there. I welcome this change. 

I thought the character of Mr. Ring-A-Ding was marvellously performed by Alan Cumming, and there was a great deal of care that went into all the animation, and the style of it was accurate for the time. The creepy factor was heavy here, as advertised in the trailer — it did not disappoint. We encounter yet another god from the pantheon, as Lux is the God of Light, and thinking about it, Lux could have manifested in any number of ways, but the fact that he did so through film via moonlight was, I thought, inspired. 

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) getting animated, then slowly working their way back to 3D was also well done; forcing them to be honest with each other to flesh themselves out was nice. Speaking of getting fleshed out, the creepy factor multiplied when Lux started turning 3D with ever more disturbing detail.

I feel Russell did a solid job with the story as the whole. It seemed like actual Doctor Who. Darker, creepier, edgier. 

But now we address the elephant in the room. Or was there an elephant in the room? As the Doctor and Belinda continue to work their way back into reality, RTD takes advantage of the theme of what’s real and what’s fiction by having them pop out of a TV screen and step into someone’s living room. They then stand there and face actual Doctor Who fans watching the show. Thus stating categorically that the Doctor and Belinda are fictional characters. 

Or are they? The fans admit that it’s they who don’t exist — that they’re just fictional entities, part of Lux messing with our heroes’ heads, and they’ll probably cease to exist once their guests leave. But of course it messes with our heads too, as Russell takes the winking at the camera convention and turns the meta up to 11.

It’s no secret that I’ve had a big problem with Russell treating Who like a silly little joke, with a wink and a grin. But here, he doubles down and gives the impression that there’s a different fictional dimension that’s way over our heads and it’s all part of Lux’s scheme. And, in this one instance, I do think it works only because of the story presented. 

Then, as the credits run, we flip back to find that those same Who fans are watching them, and are now presented with a choice of opinions. Are they real fans who are watching the show from our reality, or are they still the fictional characters granted life, who simply did not disappear once the Doctor and Belinda left? That they’ve now been granted an ongoing life just to watch Doctor Who? 

Myself, I think it’s the latter, considering their earlier statement, and the fact that they seem to now realise they still exist and are giddy about it! 

Regarding their earlier scene, and the conversation between them and the Doctor and Belinda, the fans all choosing Blink as their favourite episode, while dismissing anything from RTD2 was amusing. 

Finally, how did Ncuti and Varada do? Well, Ncuti didn’t cry too excessively (just a little bit when the fans were explaining how they’re not real), so that’s something — kudos there. The “I’m Velma” comment, I’m sure, will cause teeth gnashing, but hey, Velma was the only real smart one in the gang, so better that than being the dog. 

The Fifteenth Doctor’s predilection for calling people “Babes” and “Babe”… You know what? The more he says it, the more it grates. Him calling Mr. Pie that sounded disrespectful. Him calling Belinda that sounds condescending and inappropriate in general. Intrusively over-familiar. He should really stop; it’s annoying.

Fashion. It’s funny; historically, the Doctor usually never cared about blending in fashion-wise in the past. It happened once in a blue moon, but it wasn’t the norm. Now, being a person of colour, and rarely being able to ever comfortably blend into history, he goes to great lengths to dress in era-appropriate clothes to possibly ease into society. Yet in truth, he really just likes to play dress up. When all is said and done, I suppose being a fashionista is better than being covered in question marks. 

I must say, when Ncuti’s got a script like this — well done, Russell — I like him more and more. It starts to get to a point where instead of him not being like the Doctor, it becomes okay for the Doctor to be more like Ncuti… which I know is heresy, but I can’t help it, I like the guy (except when the “Babes” gets out of hand). He’s kind of totally wrong for the Doctor, but he makes it work. Especially when the writing’s good. The guy’s magnetic.

Side note: Interesting that the Fifteenth Doctor referred to his energy as “bigeneration energy”. He could have easily referred to it as “regeneration” energy as well, but he didn’t. I hear something like that and it raises questions.

Such as, is bigeneration energy that different from regeneration energy?

If this Doctor exudes bigenergy, is that going to be significant when next he, what… bigenerates? 

Will he just sprout another Doctor while he’ll still go on?

Is the Fourteenth Doctor just going to be bigenerating next time, and sprouting out another Doctor while he still goes on? Or does he just go back to regenerating into… another Fifteenth? The “real” Fifteenth? Because the Fourteenth sprouting off another Doctor would be a Fifteenth A… or a Fourteenth B…

Did Russell really think this bi-generation thing through?

But I digress.

“I topple worlds. But sometimes, I have to wait for people to topple theirs.” That’s a great line.

Of course we got the pop in from creepy old Mrs. Flood. I dislike her more every time I see her. 

Random thoughts: I thought the method of dispatching Mr. Ring-A-Ding was simple and well done. Ending the threat by overloading it with what it wants is a bit of a cliche, but when you’re dealing with gods, you do what you must. The Fifteenth Doctor has been instrumental in dispatching four gods from the pantheon at this point. If they ever chat amongst themselves, they might start worrying. Or teaming up to combine forces.

The other pertinent point is, okay, they bounce off May 24th, 2025. They keep trying and trying and trying (stop beating your head against the same wall, dude). Here’s an idea: try May 23rd. If you still keep bouncing off, keep changing the date by a day earlier until you get success. Odds are, you might then see what’s coming. Just a thought. 

So. I have no doubt whatsoever that this episode is going to be hugely controversial. I’m very curious as to how this one will go over. My rating: 4 of 5, or 7.5 out of 10.