Doctor Who: Lux – season two episode two recap
Doctor Who is not the only television programme that could have an episode revolving around a cartoon character being brought to life and escaping the screen, while also hitting beats about the loss of a spouse, the loss of a child and racial segregation laws in 1950s America, plus mind-bendingly meta fourth-wall breaks about the impact and future of the show itself, but there aren't that many of them.
This was an adventure where Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu spent nearly all of their on-screen time together, as Belinda got to grips with accompanying the Doctor on his travels. The highs – getting to dress up in a posh frock – were levelled by the lows: being on the receiving end of racist police treatment for entering a segregated theatre.
Linus Roache put in an affecting bit-part turn as Reginald Pye, the man who, exposed to the power of Mr Ring-a-Ding, trapped himself in the cinema as the only means of reliving precious moments with his late wife. His zeal for setting fire to old film canisters at the end might have been quite stressful for veteran Doctor Who fans who still lament the BBC's failure to preserve similar cans containing nearly 100 missing episodes from the 1960s.
The show has tacitly acknowledged its own fandom before, by effectively putting Ingrid Oliver's Osgood character on screen in Doctor Who cosplay, but the extended fourth-wall break in Lux took it to another level. It was a scene that managed to move the plot on, and act as showrunner Russell T Davies' love letter to what Doctor Who has meant to so many people over so many decades.
If there were any weaknesses, then Belinda could surely have run up those cinema steps faster when the Doctor was seemingly being dragged to his doom, and the resolution, as is often the case in this era, was a little hand-wavey. However, in its own way that was also quite moving, as Mr Ring-a-Ding grew into an 'Ugly Sonic' version of the character, and then transcended space and time in a setup reminiscent of the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey
What if Doctor Who was like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, with the audience also in it …
Maybe we overestimated the idea that the relationship between Belinda and the Doctor was going to be spikier than last year's instant friendship between Gatwa and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday. By the time they'd escaped being trapped as animations, these two were firmly in best buddy territory. This may be a factor of only having eight episodes a season instead of 13. The show doesn't seem to have the space for a slow-burn build of trust these days.
Don't make him laugh. Frankly, there may have been slightly too much revealed about Mr-Ring-A-Ding in the advance publicity, but him suddenly reprising the vocal motif of the Stooky Bill doll from 60th anniversary special The Giggle had at least been held back, and it was a genuinely jaw-dropping moment. Alan Cumming's voice work trod a fine line between him being a malevolent godlike antagonist, and simply a fun-loving cartoon guy that had come alive by chance and just wanted to see the wider world beyond the auditorium, even if it did mean trapping people on celluloid along the way.
We can be in no doubt that the show has veered far away from hard sci-fi and into the broadest of fantasy territories, as the Doctor faces a pantheon of gods that transcend the universe. Which god will he face next? And, right on cue, there was dear old Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood again, who had somehow also got herself to 1950s Miami in time for the denouement of the episode. We can expect to see a lot more of her …
During the final season of classic Doctor Who, 1989's flawed, baffling but brilliant Ghost Light featured a character who was also an eternal godlike being called Light. Played by John Hallam, he was attempting to catalogue all life on Earth, and getting incredibly frustrated about it selfishly insisting on evolving
In extended media the Doctor has visited an entire cartoon world. Steve Lyon's 2002 novel The Crooked World featured a cartoon Eighth Doctor on the cover and parodies of properties including Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry and the Road Runner
The Doctor calls Belinda Fred, and she calls him Velma, after the characters in Scooby Doo. Fred was also what the fourth Doctor threatened to call Romana when he deemed her full name – Romanadvoratrelundar – was too unwieldy to use in 1978's The Ribos Operation
When the fans were telling the Doctor that the sound of the Tardis brings hope, they were echoing the words Billie Piper said to John Hurt's War Doctor in the 50th anniversary special, when as The Moment she told him: 'You know that sound the Tardis makes? That wheezing groaning? That sound brings hope. Wherever it goes. To anyone who hears it, Doctor, anyone, however lost'
Glass half-full ratings person? Last week's The Robot Revolution was the second-most watched show on BBC One on Saturday. Glass half-empty? The overnight 2m viewing figure was lower than any episode in the previous season
Questioned after the premiere screening for the season, Sethu said Lux was the episode she was most looking forward to people seeing, endearingly describing it as her 'yellow dress moment'
Rose Ayling-Ellis! Ncuti Gatwa doing British Sign Language! In an episode that Russell T Davies has described as terrifying! We'll see you next week down The Well.
Season 2
Episode 1: The Robot Revolution
Episode 2: Lux
Episode 3: The Well
Episode 4: Lucky Day
Episode 5: The Story and The Engine
Episode 6: The Interstellar Song Contest
Episode 7: Wish World
Episode 8: The Reality War
Season 1
Episodes 1 & 2: Space Babies / The Devil's Chord
Episode 3: Boom
Episode 4: 73 Yards
Episode 5: Dot and Bubble
Episode 6: Rogue
Episode 7: The Legend of Ruby Sunday
Episode 8: Empire of Death
Christmas special: Joy to the World
60th anniversary specials
Special 1: The Star BeastSpecial 2: Wild Blue YonderSpecial 3: The GiggleChristmas special: The Church on Ruby Road
Flux / Series 13
Chapter one: The Halloween ApocalypseChapter two: War of the SontaransChapter three: Once, Upon TimeChapter four: Village of the AngelsChapter five: Survivors of the FluxChapter six: The VanquishersNew Year's Special: Eve of the DaleksSpring special: Legend of the Sea DevilsBBC centenary special: The Power of the Doctor
Series 12
Episode 1: Spyfall part oneEpisode 2: Spyfall part twoEpisode 3: Orphan 55Episode 4: Nikola Tesla's Night of TerrorEpisode 5: Fugitive of the JudoonEpisode 6: PraxeusEpisode 7: Can You Hear Me?Episode 8: The Haunting of Villa DiodatiEpisode 9: Ascension of the CybermenEpisode 10: The Timeless ChildrenNew Year's special: Revolution of the Daleks
Series 11
Episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to EarthEpisode 2: The Ghost MonumentEpisode 3: RosaEpisode 4: Arachnids in the UKEpisode 5: The Tsuangra CondundrumEpisode 6: Demons of the PunjabEpisode 7: Kerblam!Episode 8: The WitchfindersEpisode 9: It Takes You AwayEpisode 10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av KolosNew Year's special: Resolution
Series 10
Episode 1: The PilotEpisode 2: SmileEpisode 3: Thin IceEpisode 4: Knock KnockEpisode 5: OxygenEpisode 6: ExtremisEpisode 7: The Pyramid at the End of the WorldEpisode 8: The Lie of the LandEpisode 9: Empress of MarsEpisode 10: The Eaters of LightEpisode 11: World Enough and TimeEpisode 12: The Doctor Falls2017 Christmas special: Twice Upon A Time
Series 9
Episode 1: The Magician's ApprenticeEpisode 2: The Witch's FamiliarEpisode 3: Under The LakeEpisode 4: Before The FloodEpisode 5: The Girl Who DiedEpisode 6: The Woman Who LivedEpisode 7: The Zygon InvasionEpisode 8: The Zygon InversionEpisode 9: Sleep No MoreEpisode 10: Face The RavenEpisode 11: Heaven SentEpisode 12: Hell Bent2015 Christmas special: The Husbands of River Song2016 Christmas special: The Return of Doctor Mysterio
Series 8
Episode 1: Deep BreathEpisode 2: Into The DalekEpisode 3: Robot of SherwoodEpisode 4: ListenEpisode 5: Time HeistEpisode 6: The CaretakerEpisode 7: Kill The MoonEpisode 8: Mummy on the Orient ExpressEpisode 9: FlatlineEpisode 10: In the Forest of the NightEpisode 11: Dark WaterEpisode 12: Death In Heaven2014 Christmas special: Last Christmas
Series 7
Episode 1: Asylum of the DaleksEpisode 2: Dinosaurs on a SpaceshipEpisode 3: A Town Called MercyEpisode 4: The Power of ThreeEpisode 5: The Angels Take Manhatten2012 Christmas special: The SnowmenEpisode 6: The Bells of Saint JohnEpisode 7: The Rings of AkhatenEpisode 8: Cold WarEpisode 9: HideEpisode 10: Journey to the Centre of the TardisEpisode 11: The Crimson HorrorEpisode 12: Nightmare in SilverEpisode 13: The Name of the Doctor50th Anniversary special: The Day of the Doctor2013 Christmas special: The Time of the Doctor
Series 6
Episode 1: The Impossible AstronautEpisode 2: Day of the MoonEpisode 3: The Curse of the Black SpotEpisode 4: The Doctor's WifeEpisode 5: The Rebel FleshEpisode 6: The Almost PeopleEpisode 7: A Good Man Goes To WarEpisode 8: Let's Kill HitlerEpisode 9: Night TerrorsEpisode 10: The Girl Who WaitedEpisode 11: The God ComplexEpisode 12: Closing TimeEpisode 13: The Wedding of River Song2011 Christmas special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe
Series 5
Episode 1: The Eleventh HourEpisode 2: The Beast BelowEpisode 3: Victory of the DaleksEpisode 4: The Time of AngelsEpisode 5: Flesh and StoneEpisode 6: The Vampires of VeniceEpisode 7: Amy's ChoiceEpisode 8: The Hungry EarthEpisode 9: Cold BloodEpisode 10: Vincent and the DoctorEpisode 11: The LodgerEpisode 12: The Pandorica OpensEpisode 13: The Big Bang2010 Christmas special: A Christmas Carol
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