The second episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who season two, Lux, is a clear sign that the show is on the up and up.
Doctor Who spoilers ahead.
The episode sees new companion Belinda Chandra and the Doctor arrive in 1952, Miami, Florida, during the Doctor’s continued attempts to try and take the sceptical nurse home to the date May 24, 2025.
A point in time that the Tardis is steadfastly unable to land on for some mysterious reason.
After convincing Belinda it’s worth the foray outside, the pair got suited up and stumbled across a chained-up cinema that appeared to have something sinister inside.
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Building on the themes from last season, we see both the 15th Doctor and his now South Asian companion have to reckon with the realities of time travel when you’re not an all-white Tardis team.
And the way this is woven into the episode feels natural like when the Doctor has to make sure state-sanctioned segregation won’t prevent him from talking to the mother of one of the victims who went missing on his trip to the cinema.
Or when it is just another mind game Mr Ring-a-Ding is playing on him.
When the Doctor and Belinda finally break into the picture house, that’s where the fun really begins. The Disney+ budget is on full show with a brilliantly animated villain (Mr Ring-a-Ding, voiced by Alan Cumming) unlike anything we have seen on the sci-fi series before.
The episode features all the good elements of the show, a heartfelt side character with a story you can root for (in this case, the carekeeper fuelling the villain’s power so he can keep the spirit of his deceased love alive).
And an edge-of-your-seat mystery – how to defeat Mr Ring-a-Ding – that comes to fruition with a slightly cheesy but quintessentially Whovian solution (while also tying into the bigger plot).
The highlight of the episode has to be when Belinda and the Doctor are turned into animations, a delightful bit of imagery with a brilliant solution that forwards the plot and their brewing connection at the same time.
As they reveal their deepest fears to one another in order to break out oftheir two-dimensional trap, it felt like a classic bit of Russell T Davies writing.
The element of the episode, which will no doubt be marmite to Whovians depending on their love of whimsy and the nonsensical is when the duo end up in a room with real-life Whovians in a meta, break-the-fourth-wall moment that they just about pull off.
No other show would be able to get away with it, but after 62 years of groundwork, it’s an endearingly cathartic moment that almost comes across as a love letter to the fans.
And for the people that really hate it, there’s always the skip button.
Overall, it comes across as a fun, original, breath of fresh air for the show.
It’s a memorable episode, and one of the best from Ncuti’s run, if not the best in several years with only a handful of one-off episodes reaching a similar standard such as Rogue and Wild Blue Yonder.
Most importantly, unlike last season where it felt as though Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and the Doctor didn’t get the chance to breathe and build their chemistry, it’s clear that Russell is taking a totally different direction.
And if the quality that has only increased from the first episode maintains (if not gets better), then we are in for a treat and a season that people will be running to rewatch.
One thing is for sure – Ncuti and Varada are whipping up something magical on screen.
Doctor Who airs on BBC One and iPlayer every Saturday.
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