In which the Doctor and Belinda travel to the city of Lagos in Nigeria, where his favourite barbershop - Omo's - is to be found...
In the shop, three young men listen as an older man has his hair cut. Images appear on the window, illustrating what he is narrating - the story of how a mysterious blue box appeared in the sky during a forest fire and saved a village, when a man in its doorway hosed down the flames until the inferno was quenched. This was when the older man, who is Omo, first met the Doctor and became his friend.
A red light comes on above an inner doorway and the building shakes, and one of the younger men - Tunde - states that they need the Doctor now...
The TARDIS materialises nearby. It is 2019, and the Doctor sets up the Vindicator then tells Belinda that he is going to get his haircut. She will wait in the TARDIS.
He approaches the shop, which sits in an alleyway, and sees a sign warning people to turn back. There are also Missing Persons posters on the wall depicting four people - Omo, Tunde, Obioma and Rashid.
The shop appears to be boarded up and derelict, but the Doctor enters. The door slams shut behind him and, at the same moment, a red light flashes in the TARDIS and a klaxon fills the air.
Obioma has just had his hair cut, but isn't leaving.
Demanding to know what has happened to the shop, Omo explains to the Doctor that it is under new management, and the Barber appears. He explains that this is his establishment.
The light turns red and a klaxon sounds - and Obioma's hair grows back.
Rashid begins to tell a story, and the light reverts to green.
The Doctor sees images moving on the window - but they are of monsters he has fought.
Omo explains to the Doctor that the chair, window and the Barber's clippers are all interconnected - and he must tell a story. The Barber states that "it" needs feeding, and is always hungry. He leaves for the back room, and a woman enters bringing food. Her name is Abby, and the Doctor has a vague recollection he has seen her before.
As the door closes behind her, the red light once again comes on, the klaxon sounds, and Belinda experiences the same in the TARDIS.
Abby follows the Barber into the back room, and the others explain that she is his assistant. They both used to work for her father but he was cruel to her and so they left him.
The pair are now keeping the men here, until they reach their destination. The shop is really in motion.
Omo explains that the Barber turned up one day with his own clippers and offered him a free haircut. He felt a strange sensation, like an electric shock. His door keys would no longer work, and he tried to keep people from entering but the shop seemed to accept a select few of Omo's best customers - the three young men. They are now forced to remain here and tell stories.
The Barber returns, with the red light and klaxon sounding. He asks who wants to go next, and the Doctor volunteers. When the cape is placed over him in the chair, he feels an energy surge and finds himself immobilised.
Instead of stories about his many alien enemies, he elects to tell the story of an ordinary incident which happened to Belinda at the hospital where she works. Despite having a family event to go to, she stayed on to look after a particular patient. Two weeks later they came back to thank her.
When he finishes, the green light comes on and the chair releases him. The Barber reports that the batteries are full, and the Doctor's hair grows back.
Abby reappears and the Barber informs her that with the Doctor's stories they will reach their destination rapidly as he is powering the Engine. She will be able to assume the throne and rule. He goes to check on the Engine. Abby uses a device to lock the door behind him.
In the TARDIS, Belinda asks the ship to locate the source of the light and sound - and an image of the barbershop appears on the scanner.
She leaves the ship and begins making her way there. As she gets closer, she sees a little girl walking alone who stops to look at her. She loses sight of the child - unaware that she resembles Captain Poppy, whom the Doctor and Ruby met on a space station orbiting the planet Pacifico Del Rio...
The Doctor is angry with Omo for having tricked him into becoming trapped here. He manages to open the front door using his sonic screwdriver - only to find himself being sucked out into a mysterious void. He drags himself back inside and discovers that the barbershop is actually sitting on the back of a gigantic mechanical spider, moving through a region known as the Nexus, travelling along what the Barber calls the World Wide Web. The doorway contains a space-time compressor.
However, moments later Belinda walks in from the alleyway, having ignored the warnings to turn back. She tells the Doctor about the red lights and alarms sounding in the TARDIS.
The Barber claims a number of different identities - all deities famed for story-telling, mischief and trickery. The Doctor denies this, stating that he has met some of them personally and doesn't recognise him. The Barber then states that he was human once, and is the person behind their stories - who made sure they got out into the world.
Abby then claims that he also made the Nexus.
The Doctor then recalls where he has seen her before. She is Abena, daughter of Anansi. She accuses him of having once abandoned her, when he was in another incarnation - that of the "Fugitive Doctor".
When the barbershop gets to the heart of the Nexus, the Barber intends to destroy the old gods and end their stories - taking over himself. The Doctor believes this could destroy the human race.
The Doctor is forced into the chair and Abena begins to cut his hair. Another of his stories is needed - to speed the spider towards its destination.
However, Abena has cut a pattern into his hair - a map to what lies beyond the inner door of the shop. She has come to accept the Doctor's warnings about the Barber - of how humanity needs stories - and accepts that he was unable to help her in their earlier encounter.
The Doctor and Belinda pass through into the back and through a maze of book-lined corridors.
The map leads them to the Engine Room, where a large organic structure sits. TV monitors show excerpts from the Doctor's life, in all of his incarnations. The Barber tells him that he has provided an eternity of stories to power the Engine - but the Doctor begins sabotaging it. He warns that the power will overload.
Everyone flees - the front door now leading back into the alleyway. The mechanical spider attempts to follow them out, but the Doctor uses the sonic to force it back inside.
It explodes in the Nexus.
The Barber has survived, now a powerless human being - his all-consuming purpose now gone. Those he made captive refuse to hold it against him as he was simply a victim of his obsession. He goes back into what is now an ordinary barbershop, and the Doctor tells him he will return soon for a haircut and to hear his story. Abena will leave to make a new life for herself, and the others return to their families.
Belinda tells the Doctor about the strange child she saw, and he thinks this was probably just leakage from his stories...
The Story & The Engine was written by Inua Ellams and first broadcast on Saturday 10th May 2025.
Ellams had been developing a script with Chris Chibnall for Series 13, when this was cancelled due to the pandemic and replaced with Flux.
Last time, I said how Series 15 was following the same pattern as Series 14. Does this still hold? Yes it does, as the fifth story of each features the Doctor's current ethnicity as a key feature.
As mentioned in discussing The Well, Ncuti Gatwa had wanted to do a story involving Nigerian deities, which RTD2 had failed to fit in with his own plans for the Pantheon of Discord. Knowing his star wanted to do a story based in Africa, Ellams was approached on Gatwa's recommendation - unaware that Ellams had already reached out to the showrunner.
Inua Marc Mohammed Onore de Ellams II was born in Nigeria in 1984, but moved to England aged 12, and three years later to Ireland. He is best known as a poet and playwright.
For inspiration, he looked to one of his best known plays - Barber Shop Chronicles, staged in 2017. This featured scenes from six different barbershops across the UK on one particular day, set against the backdrop of a Chelsea - Barcelona football match. Characters discussed a range of issues including racism, homosexuality and masculinity in the black community. For research, Ellams had visited barbershops in London and across Africa and recorded hours of candid conversation.
The same setting had formed the backdrop to a popular Channel 4 sit-com named Desmond's, which ran from 1989 - 1994. Norman Beaton played the title character, who ran a barbershop in Peckham, South London.
The story certainly shows its stage inspirations, as it is set almost entirely within the confines of Omo's barbershop and concentrates on the stories a small group of people tell in this situation. As well as the limited cast and setting, it is also dialogue-heavy. We do have some interesting visual imagery - the mechanical spider with the building on its back, the stories being animated on the windows, and the Engine Room with its huge gourd-like structure and multiple TV screens.
Welcome as these visuals are, we are for the most part stuck with a small group of (mostly) men talking in a room for much of the running time - and what they have to say isn't always clear. This is partly due to the sound mix, partly to do with accents, and partly to do with reams and reams of expositional dialogue. Truth be told, I really didn't understand it on first viewing, and had to visit a transcript site later to find out exactly what it was I had just watched.
In a nutshell, it is about the power of story-telling. Gods exist purely through the myths and legends told of them, and someone has to ensure these are told.
The Barber at first claims to have been all of these deities, but then claims only to have been the one to disseminate their stories and so keep them alive. The Doctor seems to think that the human race can't exist without stories.
You could say that all this is a metaphor for Doctor Who itself. The customers are the writers, with RTD2 acting like the Barber - the showrunner ensuring the series (the Story Engine) is fed and gets to its destination, i.e. a critical and popular success. We see lots of clips from previous stories feeding the Engine - the programme relies heavily on continuity with its past (even if egregiously abused).
Or, the Engine is the TARDIS, with the Barber as the Doctor and Abena the companion, having adventures (stories) as they travel along. The Barber also claimed to have had different incarnations in the past.
Actually, it's ironic that, if RTD2 is the Barber, then he should succeed where the latter failed. He has killed the gods (the Doctors) by ending their stories (the current hiatus) and the human race (the fans) are being left to suffer...
The main guest artist this week is Ariyon Bakare, who plays the enigmatic Barber. His work includes appearances in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Good Omens, and he is well known for playing Lord Boreal in His Dark Materials. In 2025 he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for Mr Loverman.
This is his second appearance in Doctor Who, having played the leonine alien Leandro in The Woman Who Lived.
Abena is Michelle Asanti, who has also appeared in the series before - as the neighbour of Maebh and her mother in In The Forest of the Night. She has featured on a number of Big Finish audios.
Omo is played by Sule Rimi, who featured as Lt Gorn in Andor and appeared in the 2024 remake of The Day of the Jackal.
The trio of customers are Stefan Adegbola (Rashid), Jordan Adene (Tunde) and Michael Balogun (Obioma).
Adegbola had previously appeared in Aliens of London and The Magician's Apprentice, and theatre work includes productions at the Globe and with the RSC.
Adene has appeared in The Sandman and Young Wallender, and Balogun has worked with the National Theatre as well as an appearance in TV series Sherwood. Balogun and Sule Rimi had worked with Ellams on a production of Barber Shop Chronicles.
Anita Dobson makes another cameo as Mrs Flood, this time playing Belinda's neighbour once again, seen when the Doctor tells the story of her day at work in the hospital.
Also making a return is Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps, as Poppy. We also get a cameo from Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor. This is very brief, and confuses as the Doctor isn't supposed to remember anything prior to the Hartnell incarnation.
Overall, visually impressive on occasion but a storyline I found difficult to get into. A story about story-telling, it naturally depends very much on dialogue and, whilst this is rich in metaphor and poetic as befits its author, is confusing on first viewing. Once you have an idea of what it is about then it does benefit from a second watch.
Things you might like to know:
- This story was originally intended to follow Dot and Bubble in Series 14, acting as a companion piece. In the first story, the Doctor's ethnicity was held against him, whilst the next story would have seen him able to embrace it.
- This is a very rare visit by the TARDIS to the African continent. It first arrived there in The Chase, when it visited a funfair in Ghana - though the Doctor wasn't even aware of the location at the time. Other than trips to Egypt in The Daleks' Master Plan and Pyramids of Mars, the only other visit I can think of is when the Doctor collects big game hunter Riddell in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, when he also picked up Nefertiti from Egypt. Egypt seems to be a popular destination as the Doctor also went there on one of his Christmas trips with Abigail and Kazran in A Christmas Carol.
- Controversially, the Lagos setting is of concern as gay people are persecuted in Nigeria - making it a poor choice as one of the Fifteenth Doctor's favourite places.
- Drone footage of a Lagos street market was filmed specially to act as establishing shots, whereas the entire production took place in Cardiff. The market scenes employed some 80 extras.
- Ellams has a cameo here, playing the market stallholder encountered by Belinda.
- Every previous Doctor is seen on the Engine Room TV screens - apart from the Seventh. Intended was a clip of the Doctor confronting Davros from Remembrance of the Daleks but this doesn't appear. Either it was cut, or that particular TV screen simply wasn't visible in the footage used.
- Rashid tells a story about the cellist Yo-Yo Ma visiting Botswana. This was an actual story told to Ellams by singer Bobby McFerris, which he later adapted as a poem.
- The Doctor claims that the TARDIS usually cuts his hair for him.
- The clips seen in the Engine Room come from the following stories / episodes: The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Tomb of the Cybermen, Spearhead From Space, Pyramids of Mars, The Five Doctors, The Ultimate Foe, Night of the Doctor, The Doctor Dances, Voyage of the Damned, Vincent and the Doctor, The Zygon Inversion, Heaven Sent, The Woman Who Fell To Earth, The Power of the Doctor, The Giggle, The Church on Ruby Road and Boom.
No comments:
Post a Comment