The Doctor Lux Out
Doctor Who - Lux
UK/USA 2025
Airdate: 19th April 2025
Warning. Some possible spoilers on overall arcs here.
Well colour me surprised. Yes, the latest Doctor Who story Lux is the clichéd old concept of a character, in this case a cartoon character called Mr. Ring-A-Dong and voiced by Alan Cumming, walking out of a cinema screen and coming to life to wreak havoc... but it’s also well done and, despite having a scene where the Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, is tearing up yet again... it’s a pretty great episode. So that’s two in a row good ones now, since the debacle of last year’s series. I’m so pleased this was this well put together.
And it’s a somewhat engaging story as The Doctor rigs up a Vortex Indicator, which he shortens to ‘the Vindicator’ to act as a slingshot from wherever he and his cool new companion called (for now) Belinda (played brilliantly by Varada Sethu) next land, to get her home to the date from whence she came in 2025, since the TARDIS keeps bouncing off from the spot.
And then they stumble upon a mystery of an officially locked up cinema in Miami in1952. There they encounter the latest in the long play story arc of The Harbinger in Lux, who is one of the Gods of The Pantheon, as indicated to the audience by vocalising the notes of The Giggle from the episode of the same name from 2023 (and reviewed by me here).
There was a lot of great stuff about this episode with the cartoon manifestation of Mr. Ring-A-Ding being just one of the more epic effects being squeezed into, what was actually a fairly intimate episode, I thought. I could have perhaps done without the joke where, being accused of being Scooby Doo by Belinda, The Doctor identified more with Velma but, it was certainly a fun way of referring to any sexual politics encompassed by the show in its current form, rather than shoving it down everyone’s throat like last year.
And I loved the whole, long sequence where The Doctor and Belinda were trapped in a film, initially as cartoon versions of themselves, before they realised how to get a mindset where they become more shaded and defined before they return to their normal 3D shape and way of thinking... albeit still trapped in the film for a fair time.
Another pleasure of the episode was a scene in the same sequence where three fans of Doctor Who watching at home were, quite respectfully I thought, shown to take an active part in the proceedings, even if it turned out that they (aka we watching at home) were a fiction too. But considering the way a lot of the fan base of the show has been turning against it in recent years (especially last year), I was impressed there weren’t too many blatantly sly digs at the viewers and I especially loved that the favourite episode of all three of them was one of the show’s classics, Blink, much to the current Doctor’s chagrin.
Now I thought the segregation of black and white people in places like diners and cinemas in 1950s America was either pushed too strongly or, I dunno, maybe not pushed strongly enough... I still can’t quite make up my mind. But it might be a matter of time that it was not pursued in a more damning way, when you’ve only got 45 minutes to present a story. That's okay though... it didn’t feel all that loosely balanced against the rest of the episode and I thought they just about got away with it.
I also loved that Mrs. Flood, once again played by Anita Dobson, turned up at the end in 1952 America (unseen by The Doctor and Belinda) and I’m guessing the importance of her character on events may be coming to the fore here. It’s interesting that she noted that the Doctor’s run would be coming to an end on May 24 this year, which is presumably the day on which this last series is due to put out its final episode. Is this hinting at my long suspected cancellation of the show? Quite possibly but I guess we’ll see in six weeks or so.
And that’s me done with Lux. The ending with the release of 15 captured presumed dead people seemed a little like the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it (a braver conclusion might have been to have their existences as trapped in celluloid burned up in the fire which occurs near the end of the episode) but overall I have to say I really enjoyed this one and am somehow looking forward to the third episode with a new sense of optimism... or at least hope. Fingers crossed the series continues in this light from hereon.
