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Doctor Who S02E05 : " The Story and the Engine " is Inua Ellams ' multilayered & deeply personal meditation on the show and the nature of stories .
This week ’s sequence ofDoctor Who , " The Story and the Engine , " is a standalone episode set in whole modern - day Africa ( recreated in Cardiff ) and is not only a meditation on storytelling but also the very nature of the Doctor as a story . It givesNcuti Gatwaan episode that to the full explore and runs the gamut of his Doctor at last . It ’s about storytelling as myth , folklore , ethnic retentiveness and social soldering , written by talented playwright , poet and performing artist Inua Ellams , who ’s also using the story as a way to remember the Nigeria of his family .
Doctor Who as Myth and Legend
The cold undefendable feature Omo ( Sule Rimi ) , the owner of the barbershop , telling the story of how he met the Doctor , a magical wizard - like figure who appear and pull through his hamlet from a flak when he was a child . The full version of that story is in prose on the officialDoctor Whowebsite , write by episode author Inua Ellams . Omo , bring up to the TARDIS as see like a cupboard because there were never blue police force corner in Nigeria , is a subtle reference to the TARDIS being inspired by theCSLewis’sclassicThe Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe .
The Barbershop as a Sacred Space
The episode is a companion piece to Ellams ' hit National Theatre playThe Barbershop Chronicles . He also disclose that The Barber ( Ariyon Bakare ) is take over Omo ’s barbershop and turning it into a trap to trap men . The energy from their stories violate the barbershop as a secure space . In African culture , the barbershop is a social space for man to not only talk and tell chronicle but also to pass sapience between vernal and old , and learn to be human race . You could read The Barber as a metaphor for capitalist economy , exploiting and commodifying men ’s stories and experiences , their integral acculturation , for his own profit and power . The barbershop becomes a temple where the tithe is stories . The men have to keep paying in stories to stay alive .
" The Story and the Engine " exhibit a side of The Doctor we rarely see – the solitary alien seeking biotic community . Inua Ellamsturns that into a metaphor for the immigrant ’s experience establish on his own . The Doctor incur a place where he ’s accepted because of his peel colour and his charm . Ellams folds that into his own notion when he repay to visit Nigeria every now and then , and the feel of Lagos and the barbershop in the story reflect his own nostalgia for the culture he earlier raise up in but no longer be in . The Doctor ’s hurt from Omo cheat his trustfulness and using him as lure to save himself and the men from The Barber is almost nestling - like . Ellams show how fear can turn good mass into pack who are unforced to discombobulate someone like The Doctor under the bus to preserve themselves , yet Momo knows The Doctor is a protector and a prankster who would find a way to save them . And The Doctor can get past his treachery to forgive them .
The Nurse’s Story – A Tale of Everyday Heroism
Belinda ’s story is that of a nurse who altruistically help the frightened and incapacitated patient entering the hospital . She ’s unforced to stand up to doctors when they miss detail in their diagnosing . Her story was interrupted by being dragged into the Space and Time shenanigans of The Doctor , and she ’s despairing to get back to it . The Doctor treats her as his adequate and has taught her some of the bedrock of using the TARDIS ascendence , and she render up at the barbershop in time to not be taken prisoner but to help him discover the solutions to defeat The Barber . This lead to …
Mrs. Flood Watch
Mrs. Flood ( Anita Dobson ) establish her obligatory cameo this workweek by showing up in the flashback to Belinda ’s mundane life at the hospital , picking up some medicine and behaving like a perfectly ordinary gentlewoman , which must have take property before Belinda met The Doctor . Mrs. Flood does n’t say anything sibylline or give off villain vibraphone this workweek . It could be a shot fromHolby City . Mrs. Flood might not really do anything here , but her appearance remind us that she ’s still there as part of the tapestry of the write up , and her chronicle is yet to be revealed .
And speaking of out of sight stories yet untold , that spooky child who points Belinda towards Omo ’s barbershop is Captain Poppy from last time of year ’s " Space Babies " – they even brought back the same baby , now a twelvemonth older and can walk . She ’s going to have a lifetime pay side fishgig of serve pattern ! Why was she there ? What did The Doctor mean value when he tell " story were pour forth out " ? dead , " Space Babies " might turn out to be an substantive part of the two - season spark .
The Barber and The Daughter – Abused by a God
The gods are jerk . That has been one of the messagesDoctor Whohas agitate since the 1960s . They ’re imperfect since they ’re expand observation of people ’s aspirations and flaw , and the God of Stories is no unlike . The Barber is not a god but a former servant of the God of Stories , reveal to take on many forms in many cultures – Loki , Anansi , and so on . What The Barber wants is revenge against his god for abusing him and taking away his name and his office . Abena ( Michelle Asante ) , the girl of the God of Stories , English with The Barber and want retaliation on her father for hurting her . “Hurt people hurt masses " might be a bit on - the - nose , but it ’s a moral thatDoctor Whowants to learn kids , since , as late showrunnerChris Chibnallexplained to Ellams years ago , " Doctor Whois a show for 8 - year - old that everyone can watch . “The Barber , in his tartness , want to kill the Supreme Being , but The Doctor reminds him that to belt down stories and god is to down humanity itself since both are tied together .
" The Barber and the God ’s Daughter " is its own chronicle here , a fairy story heading for a tragic ending until The Doctor change the resultant . The Barber and Abena are also a dark mirror to The Doctor and his comrade . Abena has her own grudge against The Doctor because the latter was a fleer a long time ago and would n’t take her away from her abusive father .
Jo Martin ’s cameo is the biggest surprise in the taradiddle , and not just a fan - baiting whatchamacallit , but a employment ofDoctor Whocontinuity and lore acknowledging that " The Timeless Child " is still canon . She even says her story has n’t ended yet . The Doctor convert Abena to call on against The Barber and hide a map to the maze in The Barber ’s engine in the cornrows she sacrifice him , another example of the personal meaning of ethnical prick . That the railway locomotive , fueled by stories , power The Barber ’s ship , which looks like a elephantine wanderer , is another reference to the god Anansi and the web , the tapis of stories . at long last , The Doctor grants The Barber mercy , and he is no longer The Barber . He is given a new name and a new life . The Barber is a baddie who actually takes The Doctor ’s advice to discontinue badding and living . A story that ends in pardon is incredibly rarefied these days .
The Doctor is the Ultimate Story
It ’s rarefied for the biggest easter orchis in the story to be the ultimate weapon that help defeat the baddie – the Doctor of the Church himself is a never - ending level thanks to endless regenerations . A callback to past incarnations is a combination of geekish continuity callbacks and a weapon , including a welcome cameo fromJo Martin(who shew up to verbalize a new liine while preceding Doctors are seen in collage clips ) as the Fugitive ( and , according to canyon now , the first Doctor that make out beforeWilliam Hartnell ) whose rejection of Abena discover the latter ’s mettle and broadcast her on a path of retaliation . The montage of the former MD is a recall to the first episode of Season Six . The history that stay with us get secern again and again with variations . It ’s kind of telling that Jo Martin went all the way to Cardiff to get into costume to take literally one close - up . Because she understood the ability of telling the tale .
" The Story and the Spider " is very meta , but its whole structure and themes make it meta about meta since all level here fold back to The Doctor . He utilize his being The Doctor , using his tarradiddle , to defeat The Barber . If stories are about ability , then The Doctor is the most powerful story of them all . Ncuti Gatwa goes from kid - like hurt and panic to brash and coldly rational to melancholy to swashbuckling hero .
The Doctor is Greater than a God – He’s a Story, and Stories are Everything
Last season , The Doctor declared himself The God of Life to bring in death to Sutekh , the God of Death , and there are steer again in " The Story and the Engine " that he might be a god , since he ’s aeonian , neverending , but The Barber envision that his story is neverending . It is an endless cycle per second of re-formation at the end of each era . That makes The Doctor more powerful than any god . He ’s friends with some Supreme Being , which is the first time the series has mention that not all god are total dicks . Gods need belief to continue to live , or they become forgotten , even the God of Stories . Gods are stories , but not all stories are gods , and stories can be more knock-down than Supreme Being . The Doctor would be loathe to be regard a god but acknowledges that he – or they – are a story . As long as people keep retelling a story , even interchange or adapt it to their own taste perception or the attitudes of the time , a story is never draw a blank . Doctor Whois a quality example of that .
Doctor Whois a British creation cobbled together from composition of other account – HG Wells’The Time Machine , the TARDIS inspired by CS Lewis’The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe , the Boys ' Own escapade , the stories ofttimes a retelling of other classical Gothic architecture , repulsion , and Science Fiction fib . The series manages to cover virtually all stories with the elision of High Fantasy , but finally , someone will get around to write that too . What makes " The Story and the Engine " special is the direction Inua Ellams writes a deeply personal interpretation of The Doctor and how the character is taken up by fans everywhere to be made their own .
Doctor Who : The Story and the Engineis now useable on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK andDisney+outside the UK .
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