Physician Who’s Newest Story Was In regards to the Energy of Physician Who Itself

As Physician Who has, inch-by-inch, diversified the casting of its heroes, its willingness to inform tales straight influenced by these choices has trailed just a little behind. When Jodie Whittaker turned the thirteenth Physician, just a few of her tales in the end engaged with what it meant that the Physician now inhabited a feminine physique. With the arrival of Ncuti Gatwa within the TARDIS final yr, his debut season tackled his standing as the primary Black man and the primary brazenly queer actor to play the Time Lord to… blended success, particularly on the previous.

However now, within the strongest episode of his sophomore season but, we now have a narrative that nails exploring the Physician’s newest identification, as a result of it permits itself the grace of being up entrance about partaking with that concept.

Last season’s “Dot and Bubble” performed with the notion of the Physician’s racial identification by trapping him on a planet of white supremacists being eaten by large slug monsters, however by saving that reveal for its closing scene as a gotcha for the Physician and the viewers alike, the episode failed to actually have interaction with what it meant for the Physician’s identification as a Black man to be known as into query exterior of a single second. “The Story and the Engine,” then, by playwright Inua Ellams, stands as an attention-grabbing distinction. It’s Gatwa’s first Physician Who script written solely by an individual of coloration (this season’s “The Well” was co-credited between Russell T Davies and Sharma Angel-Walfall). Additionally it is a narrative that explicitly leverages Gatwa’s identification as a Black man to inform a narrative that may solely be informed in such a circumstance.

However maybe most crucially of all that in distinction, is that it’s a story that makes use of that identification to inform a narrative of pleasure, of the universality and energy of storytelling, one thing that connects the Physician to the folks they yearn to guard. And it may well solely achieve this by clearly establishing that connection between the story being informed, and its setting, to the Physician’s present identification from the get-go.

The place that story takes place is Lagos, Nigeria, because the Physician and Belinda proceed to cost up their “attempt to discover 2025 London” gadget by hopping round in time and house. Touchdown in Lagos, the Physician will get what he wants nearly instantly, however is reluctant to maneuver on rapidly: there’s a neighborhood barbershop, ran by a person named Omo (Sule Rimi), that he loves visiting. We’ve seen Gatwa’s Physician play with myriad types, particularly along with his hair, however as Belinda factors out to him, he has a large time ship that does all that for him. The rationale Omo’s store is particular, the Physician argues, is as a result of it’s a spot that makes his present incarnation really feel seen, in a means he hasn’t earlier than.

Though it’s not the primary time the Physician has ever been Black (as we get a beautiful nod to with a quick shock look by Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor afterward), having the Physician articulate to Belinda his need to really feel acknowledged and welcomed in areas as a Black man–and having them each, as the primary TARDIS crew fully made up of individuals of coloration, join over that of their creating friendship–is an extremely compelling concept, and it’s one that basically resonates in comparison with the instances this Physician’s racial identification has been utilized in tales solely to function a degree of battle, like “Dot and Bubble” or briefly in “Lux”.

After Belinda acquiesces and lets the Physician verify in for a trim although, issues kick into excessive gear. It seems Omo’s store is below new administration, a mysterious determine identified solely because the Barber (Ariyon Bakare), who has trapped Omo and several other different males there, wrenching the store out of time and house to maintain all of them in an infinite cycle of haircuts and storytelling: their tales of historical past and fantasy powering a large mechanical spider that’s whisking the Barber and his ally Abena, the daughter of Anansi (Michelle Asante), on a quest for vengeance towards the gods themselves. The Barber, it seems, helped unfold the myths of numerous gods and folklores all through human historical past by making a Nexus, a literal internet of storytelling and tradition that unfold their attain and affect but in addition laid the basic groundwork for human civilization itself, the act of sharing and creating 1000’s of years of tales, handed on by way of generations. Not needing him with the Nexus’ creation, the gods solid the Barber out, and now he needs to destroy it, and take them with it.

A lot of this performs out throughout the confines of Omo’s barbershop, an infinitely tiny house for all these huge concepts to burst out of, even when it’s additionally revealed that stated barbershop is at present temporally displaced and being carried about an alternate dimension by a large mechanical spider. At instances, “The Story and the Engine” threatens to lose itself within the strains of bandying about all these huge, heady concepts, however the place episodes earlier than it this season have hit these points, right here, it nearly turns into a part of the metatext of Physician Who itself. In spite of everything, as this episode reminds us, what greater story is there on the market than the Physician themselves, numerous lives lived again and again? The Physician’s standing as this being who has seen so many histories and futures is the crux of the entire premise. It’s why Omo tells the Barber about them within the first place; it’s a narrative left untold—that the Fugitive Physician as soon as promised to free Abena from the clutches of her father, however failed to take action, telling her and us in a quick second that she was wrapped up in a narrative for an additional time—that creates the battle between the Physician and Abena within the first place.

It’s how, in the end, the Physician manages to avoid wasting the day, tempting the Barber with himself as the best story ever informed: they stay, they die, they’re reborn. What saves the day in “The Story and the Engine” shouldn’t be essentially the Physician’s brains or any type of technobabble, it’s the actual fact that they’re the star of the story that’s Physician Who, an ongoing, dwelling, respiration narrative that stretches throughout life after life, is shared between generations of individuals. The Physician isn’t only a story of potentiality, however one so highly effective it manages to overwhelm the Barber’s engine, releasing everybody trapped within the store and guiding the Barber and Abena away from their misguided quest for revenge.

That is likely to be a narrative that would’ve been informed with any incarnation of the Physician–and that’s arguably a part of the purpose, given it’s the Physician’s narrative potentiality that proves key to foiling the Barber’s plans. However “The Story and the Engine” additionally straight engages with beats that re-iterate that this can be a story that would have solely been informed by pushing the Physician’s story to a spot the place folks of coloration could be a part of it, as effectively. It’s not simply within the craving for neighborhood the Physician seeks by going to Omo’s store within the first place, it turns into much more necessary when Abena decides to assist the Physician by braiding his hair with a map to the center of the Spider so he can cease it, drawing on real-world historic traditions of braided hair getting used to cover messages and maps within the period of colonialism and the slave commerce. “The Story and the Engine” is laser-focused on the ability of Physician Who as a narrative, metatextually or in any other case, however there’s additionally a variety of energy in the way it chooses to inform this story intertwined with the way it leverages Gatwa’s identification as the primary Black, queer man to be a significant participant in that story.

This period of Physician Who specifically has been very curious about the metanarratives of stories, and with taking part in of consciousness of them for each the viewers and our heroes alike. Typically it’s value celebrating for a second, as we get to right here, that that story can now assist join much more folks from completely different backgrounds and welcome them to be part of it. And that’s simply very important a narrative to inform with the primary mainline Physician performed by a person of coloration as any story of prejudice is.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and all the things you’ll want to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.