The Story and the Engine is the fifth episode of the new season of Doctor Who. It stars Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor and Varada Sethu as Belinda.
Spoilers ahead!!
General Thoughts on The Story and the Engine
I love the premise of this episode. I like that Belinda accepts that they’re in a time travel machine and that even though she really wants to go home, she can except this is what the Doctor needs right now.
While I don’t know how accurate the depiction of Lagos is, I love that it’s so colourful and bright. Also, I love that the Doctor wears appropriate clothing and clearly loves to be there.
I loved the way the stories were shown as if they were projected from their minds. It looked stunning and I loved the style of it.
Jo Martin’s cameo as the Fugitive Doctor was a welcome surprise. I hope we see her more since I enjoy seeing her as the Doctor.
Characters
The side characters in this episode felt very real and I love that they all talked about their families.
Omo was relatable. Anyone in his situation would have done the same thing to try to save themselves and Omo had no idea the Doctor would actually show up and be trapped with them.
I just wish that the Doctor could have taken them all to their important moments and put up the posters and warning signs to stay away from the barber shop. Especially since I’m not sure who put the warning signs up to begin with anyway.
Belinda being the person to talk to Abena in a little moment is so nice, especially since it makes sense for Belinda to know what to say, especially since she’d see a lot of rough situations as a nurse where she wished she could say something. The scene with her helping the old woman was fairly accurate to what I’ve seen and heard about doctors and nurses in hospitals. When the woman returned to thank Belinda, I teared up. So many nurses do not get the proper credit or pay for what they do.
Issues
My only issue with this episode is that once the barber tried to reveal who he was, only for the Doctor to discredit it, I spent the rest of the episode wanting to know who he was and what his name was, only for it to be revealed that he didn’t have one. I think that could have been made a bit clearer earlier on.
Overall Thoughts on The Story and the Engine
Overall, I enjoyed this episode. I don’t feel like there’s too much to say.
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Want to read another of my blog posts about Doctor Who? Check out my thoughts on the last episode, Lucky Day here.