Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord (14x02)

Maybe I'm just a hater? I don't know. I liked this one better than the last in some ways, but I still... hmmm.

Cons:

So, I want to narrow in on what I was noticing about the Doctor and Ruby. There are plenty of moments when they play off of each other just fine, but they become pretty difficult to watch, for me, whenever they enter a mode I'm going to call "dynamic duo putting together the clues". It's that classic beat in many episodes of this show where the weirdness is happening, and the Doctor and his companion are riffing off each other, putting the pieces together, throwing out theories. The way these two do it is just... god, it's like, this weird manic energy where they don't actually riff, one of them just says something and the other one just repeats it in a high-pitched tone with a bunch of exclamation points. It's like they trying to manufacture the proper energy of invigoration by force, instead of their energies naturally feeding off of each other. I can't explain it any better than that.

I also feel like their affection for each other isn't earned; there are a couple of Ruby/Doctor hugs in this episode, the two of them reaching for each other when scared or in danger, that felt so proscribed to me. And there's this moment where Ruby is insisting, worriedly, "but you always have the answer!" and the Doctor has to give her the dire news that he doesn't know the way out of this one, and it just... I don't know. For one thing, this is only Ruby's third adventure with the Doctor, and he didn't have the answers the other two times either. For another, I think it comes a little too early in the episode to be this moment of despair before the turn to triumph, so it just kind of lands flat.

Also, I promise I'm not trying to be a hater just for the sake of it, but the premise of this episode was so thin on the ground. The Space Babies episode had the advantage of having a sort of cogent message, whereas here it's... if music goes away in the 1960s, by the 2020s, the whole world will be an apocalyptic wasteland? What? Like, this idea about music being the highest ideal of humanity, the thing that elevates the human soul... I guess there's sort of something there, but I kept thinking about people who don't like music or can't access it due to disability, or like... people who like music fine but appreciate other forms of art more. It just felt like such a strange thesis statement to state so concretely without really exploring.

And dear lord, the actors they got to play the Beatles looked nothing like them. Which is crazy because I feel like Beatles tribute bands and impersonators must be a dime a dozen, right? I literally had trouble distinguishing which one was meant to be John and which one was meant to be Paul.

Pros:

Again, I didn't hate this episode, I just... couldn't fully connect to it the way I really wanted to. Our Drag Queen villain, the Maestro, was delightfully wild, and I liked the visuals of the music battle, with the Doctor and Ruby getting trapped in instruments.

I also loved everything about the 1960s vibes, the costumes and the sets and that music number at the end: all a great deal of fun. The same-sex dance pairing moments I thought were really excellent! I also didn't mind the references to the overall plot that were woven in here. First, there's Ruby having a song buried within her from the day she was born, with unusual power that the Doctor, and even a god, can't quite understand. Then you have the Maestro departing with the threat that "the one who waits is almost here", so that's a fun bit of tension building.

And the scene where the Doctor teaches Ruby a harsh lesson by bringing her forward to 2024 and showing her the world in ruin... well. I already said I found this premise kind of shaky and uninspired, but I thought the object lesson on the delicate nature of reality was pretty impactful. Ruby listing the way that music and dancing made her life better also worked to personalize the dilemma of the episode for me.

I wish that instead of the Beatles finding inspiration inside their souls or whatever, it had turned out to be just... a random somebody humming a little tune alone in their home or something. The idea that you can't actually take music from people, and that Ruby playing that song on the rooftop inspired something in someone, that would have worked without it literally being John Lennon and Paul McCartney, you know? But even with that said, I did like the conceit of just a little idea in their head, pressed onto the keys of the piano, and that's enough all on its own to defeat our baddie.

I guess I'll stop there? I do feel like I'm on the outside looking in, so far with this season. I've been seeing fairly favorable reviews, and I guess for me it just feels like... well, the energy is certainly different, than it has been recently. But I'm not sure if different is actually the same thing as better? I'm happy that more risks are being taken, and I still have hope.

7/10