Doctor Who: Series 15 (or 40 depending on how you count): Episode 2: Lux by Russell T Davies.
I did watch the last episode a second time but changed none of my comments. I do wonder if any of you people think it takes some kind of magic (sic) trick to write science fiction. Actually it doesn’t. The real science rarely reaches above O’level, mostly because it wouldn’t have a wide enough catchment area otherwise. The more speculative fiction is fairly common even to those not familiar with SF. The speed of life, time travel, robots, amongst others, are things most people know about, including the grandpa paradox.
Hence, a lot of SF can be given a short-cut because it’s familiar territory because it doesn’t need to be explained, and there can be more emphasis on other areas of science that are used. A lot of science is applied, and only a real need to cover what it does far more than how it does it. Within the plot of a story, you use this information to resolve the resolution. If you put enough of it into the story, the reader can infer what your version of reality is. Simple, really.
I suspect this episode will be remembered as the one with some animation in it, even if life coming off film has also been used in ‘Torchwood’. Was that also part of the pantheon effect even as far back as then? Watch out for memory and spoilers. There might be Who fans inside your television.
Unusual for recent Doctors, we have the Doctor doing science stuff with the TARDIS before appearing in 1952 America. Miami, to be precise, in the early hours of the morning. They also end up investigating a closed cinema. There’s also an acknowledgement that racism existed at the time in the USA. You would think the Doctor would have a perception filter. Then again, what happened to Belinda’s cardigan? Mind you, animating white might have been difficult.
I wonder how ‘Doctor Who’ fans are going to imagine that they don’t exist?
So much is a spoiler with this Har B Inger wanting to steal the Doctor’s regenerative energy to endow himself. You do have to wonder why it didn’t trigger a regeneration.
Of course the doctor sorts things out, and yet no one wonders what happened to the projectionist. Did he die in the fire that didn’t exist, and since when did American cinemas keep loads of film in a cupboard? Hmmm…maybe I’m being a bit too picky.
Oddly, this episode works quite well despite the animation having all the signs. Would it work? The Doctor is acting more like a Time Lord again, more so when he hits on his own history. If anything, one has to wonder why it took so long. Now it needs to be sustained.
‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ shows how it was done, exploring racism in sound effects. Feeling old when Ncuti Gatwa reveals the first film he ever saw was one of the Harry Potter films. He’ll be saying he didn’t see the first ‘Doctor Who’ back in 1963. Mr Ring-A-Ling is also one of the new gods pantheon, dominating light.
Its showtime.
GF Willmetts
19 April 2025
