Doctor Who- Lux review

 

There are times when it seems like Doctor Who can’t offer anything new and is destined to run itself dry repeating variations on previous themes. And there are times- less so nowadays- when it excels by trying something new. `Lux` is by a long way the best episode since Russell T Davies returned to the show, surely the first classic he’s written in his second era. Its consistently interesting, throwing up the unexpected and visually manages to do something we’ve not seen before in the show. The sequence where Mr Ring-a -Ding steps out of the cinema screen was the most arresting moment of the earliest trailers; little did we know what an involving narrative it was to be a part of.

It’s not the sort of episode you could probably have done in many previous eras which relied on the fiction that the Whoniverse as we now call it is a reality in itself. Playing with ideas of what is real and what’s not has become a hallmark of Russell T Davies’ second era but I would suggest that it’s taken until this episode to get that balance right. I suppose he can’t win because if he carried on doing what had been done before people would say he’s run out of ideas. Try something new and people don’t like it. What newer fans may not know is that this is the whole history of the fan interaction with the series. Pick any era and you’ll find fan letters criticising the current showrunner / producer and Doctor. Yet the reality is the show must try new things; after all what other series allows quite so much potential to try anything. `Lux` is one of the more experimental Doctor Who stories yet so was `Blink` at the time. So was `Midnight`. And they turned out ok!

The episode calls to mind the sort of movie Joe Dante might make; a concept that can be both horrifying yet also whimsical. A story that bases itself on some sort of reality and then steps beyond. More than anything an episode that hits several beats, each of them distinct. It’s a story about missing family, about a terrible unexplained urban event, about the power of cinema, about love of course and also a reminder that old cartoons are a very short distance from being creepy. It’s also an episode that plays with the idea of fiction leading to a most surreal conversation in which the Doctor and Belinda chat with some Doctor Who fans! The official logo is even seen on their tv. While the series has toyed with self-acknowledgment before- notably in `Remembrance of the Daleks- it has never quite done it so this is a first.  

Initially `Lux` is a mystery, the Doctor and Belinda’s Scooby Doo references spot on here and once some of the letters fall off the cinema billboard to leave those spelling out Harbinger the audience is well ahead or so we think. The cartoon character Mr Ring- Ding seems extraordinarily authentic if you’ve ever seen animation from this period even down to having irritating phraseology and seeming weird to anyone who’s not seven. Voiced with versatility by Alan Cumming (and indeed sounding nothing like the actor) he is clearly hand drawn in vintage style. The composition between this figure and real-life actors is top notch. Yet elsewhere the visuals are kept simple- a traditional diner, a typical red seated auditorium, a delightfully dusty projection room. One very impressive thing is that the theatre is a set built on a studio lot; I thought they had found a lovely vintage cinema somewhere.

The narrative is filled with interesting visual moments beyond Mr Ring- a Ding’s forays beyond the screen. The most alarming is when we see the missing people living inside one frame of film stock. Already hinted in the trailers (in some ways a pity they revealed that) the Doctor and Belinda are themselves animated though for nowhere near as long as I’d expected. Instead, it leads to them becoming literally more `rounded` by speaking truths about themselves- both actors cary this scene immaculately. In fact, this must be Ncuti Gatwas’ most varied and nuanced work on the series yet.

 Once the Doctor and Belinda try to break out of their cartoon world, the episode tears down that fourth wall, literally a number of times, leading to their arrival in the living room where be scarfed and badged fans are watching. This could be awkward or cheesy or over sentimental but this is RTD writing to his peak so it works both as a tribute to fans and in the context of the story and we can relax and enjoy the familiar fan behaviour. It only makes sense though to do this in a story that is itself about fiction breaking through into reality.  After all the key date which the Doctor is trying to get Belinda back to is that of the premiere of the last episode of this season. Besides the first fourth wall break in the series was courtesy of William Hartnell some sixty years ago!

Given the wavering form of the show of late I was waiting for similar dips this time but `Lux` (the title was a big clue too) has enough energy to reach for a scintillating peak that is almost Spielbergian in aspect. A happy ending, yes, we deserve those sometimes and yet one that remains true to the build up and gifts us a final, glorious visual of the ever-expanding Lux heading into space and both infinity and oblivion. Along the way the episode manages allusions to film making and storytelling whether by references to continuity, emotional development making characters (literally) stronger and in the end burning the film stock. There’s also time to concisely reference the racism and attitudes of the time. Given its only forty five minutes long this is a script with a lot of interesting layers.

A succession of smallish sized guest roles fulfil their purpose admirably, notably Linus Roache’s cowed projectionist Reginald Pye, Lucy Thackery’s grieving, determined mother and Lewis Corney’s informative Logan who almost acts as a narrator (I thought he would turn out to be the Harbinger. Who was Harbinger actually?) Amanda Brotchie’s direction and Nick Dance’s photography achieve a lightness of touch and play into the magical elements of the story. What the episode also does is cement Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu as such a likeable team.

`Lux` works infinitely better than the enjoyable yet flawed `Devil’s Chord` with which  it has some narrative similarities. Where the whole Beatles thing was groansome and the dance at the end just silly, there’s much more focus to the happenings here. I was going to end by saying `Lux` is the best episode since…what? Well, I’m not sure but it’s certainly a long time since a new episode made me this appreciative.