DOCTOR WHO - THE DEVIL'S CHORD (2024)

DIRECTED by Ben Chessell

SCREENPLAY by Russel T Davies 

STARRING  - Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor,  Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday,  Jinx Monsoon as The Maestro,  Jeremy Limb as Timothy Drake,  Ed White as George Martin,  George Caple as Paul McCartney,  Chris Mason as John Lennon,  Phillip Davies as George Harrison,  James Hoyles as Ringo Starr,  Josie Sedgwick-Davies as Cilla Black,  Kit Rakusen as Henry Arbinger,  Susan Twist as Tea Lady.

PLOT - The Doctor and Ruby arrive in the early 1960's at Abbey Road studios on the day that the Beatles are destined to record thier first album. The two time travellers are here to see musical history in the making.

Only...something has gone wrong. The Beatles (and other recording artists) are producing lifeless music, devoid of heart or soul or imagination of any kind. It soon becomes apparent that history has been changed.

The Doctor finds the cause of this temporal disruption - an insane godlike being known as The Maestro. 

The Maestro is the child of the Celestial Toymaker and is every bit as insane, powerful and dangerous as thier father. The Maestro has taken music away from the people of Earth and without music to calm thier souls, the human race is heading towards madness and destruction...

DIALOUGE  - The Doctor (upon hearing Cilla Black's terrible new song ) - "Ohhhhhh Cilla !"

The Beatles - I've Got A Dog " I've got a dog. He's called Fred. My dog is alive, he's not dead. I love my dog, he loves me too. I haven't got a cat, only a dog. My dog, my dog, my dog, my dog. I've got a dog. I love my dog. He's my dog. He's not your dog. If you want a dog - get your own." - A song written by Lennon and McCartney after the Maestro has taken away thier song writing ability. Its still better than Maxwell's Silver Hammer though...

PERFORMANCES  - We get to see a new side to Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor in this episode. Up till now he's been joyful and energetic with a happy swaggering confidence about him. In the Devil's Chord, we get to see him properly afraid for the first time.

Coming up against the Maestro, the Doctor realises that he is hopelessly outclassed and way out of his depth. The last time the Doctor encountered a being this powerful  - the Toymaker - the Doctor was literally torn into two. Gatwa really sells the scenes where the Doctor becomes fearful and desperate - if the Doctor himself is this worried then theres no telling what this new enemy is capable of.

We also get to see a more sombre side to Gatwa's Doctor both in the scene where he takes Ruby to a potential future where The Maestro's actions have caused mankind to destroy itself, and also where he wistfully remembers his granddaughter, Susan, and his time spent in 60's London during his first incarnation. It's nice to see the new Doctor being given greater depth and this episode is probably Gatwa's best performance as the Doctor so far. Also, I love his outfit in this episode - with his retro suit and afro hairstyle The Doctor reminds me of Jim Kelly in Enter The Dragon.

Millie Gibson, once more is very good but sadly doesn't get much to do other than fullfill the standard companion role of asking the Doctor questions. She gets some nice moments where she's acting horrified at the post apocalyptic world the Doctor shows her, and Ruby's affinity for music is put over well but I think she still hasn't had her big moment yet. Hopefully that'll come in the next few episodes.

We get a truly memorable villian in the Maestro played by drag artist Jinx Monsoon. Looking like a portlier Cruella Deville with an "Angry Kid" hairstyle, The Maestro is by turns camp, sinister, menacing and operatic. A comedy grotesque shot through with seething, spitting venom. 

The Maestro is a totally unhinged character - one minute silkily smooth, the next flying into a tantrum. The Maestro is a psychotic spoilt child with the powers of a god. I've always been a sucker for godlike villians with reality warping powers, be it Q from Star Trek, The Trickster from Supernatural, Mad Jim Jaspers from Alan Moore's Captain Britain comics or even the Maestro's father - the Celestial Toymaker himself. The Maestro is a worthy addition to this pantheon.

A quick mention about the actors playing the Beatles - when I first saw photos of them I was a bit skeptical as none of them look particularly like the real fab four.  I needn't have worried though as the actors capture the essence of The Beatles very well which is what counts really. Chris Mason in particular gets John Lennon's voice and mannerisms spot-on.

SFX - Once again there's some decent CG work in this episode, particularly the deserted post apocalyptic London that we see at one point with it's bombed out landmarks and dark and dirty skies.

The killer music chords which attack Ruby (and others) are a bizzare and quirky concept that's pretty well done.

VIOLENCE  - The aforementioned killer chords are responsible for despatching a couple of supporting characters in this episode, in one scene a poor little old lady is killed by the Maestro courtesy of the chords.

RATING  - Before we discuss the overall episode there's one thing that must be mentioned...THAT ending. For reasons known only to Russel T Davies, The Devil's Chord ends with a cheesy song and dance routine where the entire remaining cast cavort across the screen like they're in an episode of Glee, performing a song called "Theres Always A Twist At The End". Its very camp, its very self aware and its one of those love it or hate it moments - I'm....in two minds about it.

On one hand, I can see what they where trying to do. RTD has said that he wants Doctor Who to become more experimental and this is certainly that. I like that its a blatant two fingers up to certain sections of entitled fandom that feels that Doctor Who should only do certain specific things and anything that veers from that narrow definition somehow isn't "proper" Doctor Who.

Also on a technical level the scene is lushly shot and well choreographed, its also quite funny and works within the context of story.

BUT... it also comes over as being a tad too pleased with itself. Its VERY self indulgent and to be honest the song itself isn't great. Its pretty cringeworthy in its way (but then Rocky Horror Show aside, I've never been a big fan of musicals, so maybe thats just me).

I also think it might be a bit TOO silly for anyone coming new to the show. The new era's mission statement is that it wants to draw in a new audience and I'm not entirely sure that including something so outrageous and divisive is necessarily the way to go about that. Doctor Who's done OTT camp before but never quite to this level.

I've already heared a few people say that with this moment Doctor Who has "jumped the shark". Of course, Doctor Who has "jumped the shark" many times over its sixty one year history and it always manages to jump back into respectability, so this probably isn't much of a problem. It still seems a bit risky though if you ask me. The last thing the show needs at this point is disgruntled and confused potential new viewers switching off after only two episodes, if nothing else it would be a shame after all the work the cast and crew have put into getting the show back on point. Just a thought...

That one small gripe aside The Devil's Chord is still a very fine episode of Doctor Who. Its a big step up from the previous episode and hints at even better things to come.

Overall 4 and a half psycho drag queens out of 5.