Doctor Who: The Story & the Engine ★★

“You must tell a story, Doctor. You must feed it. It is always hungry” – the Barber

Storyline
The Doctor lands in Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 to revisit his old friend Omo who runs a barber shop, but Omo and some of his regular customers have gone missing. The premises have been taken over by a sinister Barber, who is transporting them across space on the back of a giant spider, part of an engine fuelled by storytelling.

First UK broadcast
Saturday 10 May 2025

Cast
The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa
Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu
Omo Esosa – Sule Rimi
The Barber – Ariyon Bakare
Abena – Michelle Asante
Rashid Abubakar – Stefan Adegbola
Tunde Adebayo – Jordan Adene
Obioma Okoli – Michael Balogun
Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson
Paramedic – Simon Bailey
Consultant – Adrian Pang
Patient – Tessa Bell-Briggs
Market seller – Inua Ellams
Security guard – Funmi James
Poppy – Sienna Robyn Mavanga-Phipps
The Doctor – Jo Martin

Crew
Writer – Inua Ellams
Director – Makalla McPherson
Music – Murray Gold
Producer – Vicky Delow
Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson

RT review by Patrick Mulkern

Doctor Who as experimental theatre. Not a bad idea. You can’t fault the ambition, but the execution... Oh dear. Were this a play put on by one of the more avant-garde playhouses around the country, even the most receptive audience members might start creeping out before the interval.

Playwright Inua Ellams had a hit on his hands in 2017 with Barber Shop Chronicles, launched at the National Theatre in London, then remounted around the world to acclaim. The Story & the Engine is a brother to that, in that its action is largely constrained to a barber shop whose customers share stories.

The leap is to give it a Doctor Who spin so that the storytelling fuels gods and monsters, with the shop somehow still in Lagos but also on a journey through space on the back of a gigantic spider. Delirious and nonsensical barely cover the spectacle here, and, fatally, it’s hard to fathom what is going on – in actuality or allegory. The contained drama is never for a moment am-dram but it wavers between flaccid and overwrought – despite Murray Gold’s efforts to weave a magical spell.

The sense of fable is helped by artistic touches, including shimmering graphics as visual aids. More could have been made of these, displayed full screen. Best is the tale told by Abena about her womenfolk’s cunning strategy of braiding maps into hair to outfox their oppressors. And the Doctor’s new hairdo mapping a maze to reach the heart of the story engine is a clever idea.

The glimpses of old Doctors may help snoozing fans twitch back to life, but these are throwaway – even Jo Martin’s in-the-flesh cameo as the “fugitive” Doctor. We were hardly going to get Colin Baker’s Doctor coming into Omo’s for a fresh perm, but she is wasted. A full-on match between Jo Martin and Ncuti Gatwa would be welcome.

It is vitally important to have wider racial representation on screen. Ellams’s episode fulfils that aim and hands the Doctor a milieu where he feels he fits in. “It’s the first time I’ve had this Black body... Here in Africa, in that barber shop, I’m accepted,” he tells Belinda. He thrives in the buzz of the bazaar and feels he’s among his people. It’s a delightful moment for Gatwa’s Doctor.

It is, however, disingenuous to present Nigeria as some idyll. Significantly, the queer aspect of this incarnation is for once dialled down. He’s not calling any other chaps “Honey” or “Babes” in Lagos. The Sex Education storyline where young Eric (Gatwa) witnessed the difficulties of being gay in Nigeria remains fresh in the memory. The country is no Happy Place for gay, lesbian and trans people. They are criminalised by the state for being who they are, with a maximum penalty of death by stoning. Maybe one message a week is enough for Doctor Who, and there will be gaiety galore in the next episode, but it is a cardinal omission in The Story & the Engine.

Read more:

• Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review
• Episode 2 – Lux review
• Episode 3 – The Well review
• Episode 4 – Lucky Day review

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