"The Doctor! We need him now! It needs feeding!"
Doctor Who goes somewhere we've never been before, gives us a breathtaking study on the power of stories, community, heartbreak, the feeling of abandonment, and the grace of forgiveness. And I don't know if I'm qualified to talk about any of it. But let's give it a shot
Once upon a time, three men entered a barbershop. A place that they loved and where they felt safe as if it were their home. But when they entered, they found that the owner of the shop, a man who loved them as a father, had been o'erthrown by a new and evil master. A man who forced them to tell stories, for through the telling of stories he could give power to his wicked engine and bring his nefarious plans to fruition. And he would not let them ever leave. For the evil master needed men who loved that place.
First off, the basic central concept of prisoners being forced to power a machine that runs on the energy of stories is a really strong hook. At one point in the episode the Doctor refers to stories as a heart inside of a brain, and I honestly don't think I've ever heard a better description of what a story really is. But once we pull back from that central idea to see how it's implemented, things get interesting.
And here's the point where we should talk about things.
Look. There's a lot of this episode that's about what the barbershop means to black male communities. The Doctor gives us the basic overview of his perspective on it very early in the episode, and I have to say, I love that the show took a moment to openly acknowledge that the Doctor is in the body of a black man for the first time (timeless child notwithstanding - and we'll get to that) and that makes his life experience different.
I should be clear though, I'm a cis white man in the United States. Ncuti Gatwa is a Rwandan born citizen of Scotland. The Doctor is the Doctor. Two out of the three of those are in a position to discuss the significance of the barbershop in black male communities, and I am not one of those two. So, I'll beg your indulgence for just a moment and do my best to talk about how that aspect affects the episode as respectfully as I possibly can.
Here's the thing - and going into this, please know that I'm not trying to say that the situations are the same, I'm just doing my best to have an honest conversation about this through the only filter that I have available. Also, this seems like a great time to mention that if you are BIPOC - particularly BIPOC identifying as male - and you'd be up for giving me your thoughts on the significance of the barber shop in the comments, I would be beyond thrilled to have that conversation with you.
I do not know what it's like to walk through this world as a person of color. But I do happen to know more than a little about being the only gay firefighter in your department for a couple of decades. And, again, while I recognize that that's not exactly the same thing, a lot of it resonates. This is the context that I'm able to bring to this discussion, so I'm going with it.
Everything the Doctor says in that early scene is completely correct. The people there were my friends. The people there supported me. Many of them loved me. And it was impossible to be around them without on some level being aware that I was different. And that is exhausting.
One by one, the men took their turns sitting in the Barber's chair and told their tales, every story bringing the evil new master closer to achieving his maleficent ends.
But then a Doctor stopped by and it all got weird...
I kind of love this episode, but there's some stuff we need to talk about.First off, the basic central concept of prisoners being forced to power a machine that runs on the energy of stories is a really strong hook. At one point in the episode the Doctor refers to stories as a heart inside of a brain, and I honestly don't think I've ever heard a better description of what a story really is. But once we pull back from that central idea to see how it's implemented, things get interesting.
And here's the point where we should talk about things.
Look. There's a lot of this episode that's about what the barbershop means to black male communities. The Doctor gives us the basic overview of his perspective on it very early in the episode, and I have to say, I love that the show took a moment to openly acknowledge that the Doctor is in the body of a black man for the first time (timeless child notwithstanding - and we'll get to that) and that makes his life experience different.
I should be clear though, I'm a cis white man in the United States. Ncuti Gatwa is a Rwandan born citizen of Scotland. The Doctor is the Doctor. Two out of the three of those are in a position to discuss the significance of the barbershop in black male communities, and I am not one of those two. So, I'll beg your indulgence for just a moment and do my best to talk about how that aspect affects the episode as respectfully as I possibly can.
Here's the thing - and going into this, please know that I'm not trying to say that the situations are the same, I'm just doing my best to have an honest conversation about this through the only filter that I have available. Also, this seems like a great time to mention that if you are BIPOC - particularly BIPOC identifying as male - and you'd be up for giving me your thoughts on the significance of the barber shop in the comments, I would be beyond thrilled to have that conversation with you.
I do not know what it's like to walk through this world as a person of color. But I do happen to know more than a little about being the only gay firefighter in your department for a couple of decades. And, again, while I recognize that that's not exactly the same thing, a lot of it resonates. This is the context that I'm able to bring to this discussion, so I'm going with it.
Everything the Doctor says in that early scene is completely correct. The people there were my friends. The people there supported me. Many of them loved me. And it was impossible to be around them without on some level being aware that I was different. And that is exhausting.
The Doctor's explanation to Belinda about finding value in just being around people who see you as one of their own could not be more accurate. And how wonderful was it that the show positioned Belinda to be in the exact same position, have the exact same experiences, and know enough to let the Doctor go and be in his sanctuary for as long as he needed to be there.
This is something that the show could never have done until they had a completely non-white TARDIS crew, and this season has been doing an amazing job of exploring all of the things that could only be done with an entirely non-white TARDIS crew. When Belinda leaves, I will miss that more than I can say. Assuming of course that they bring white people back into the mix after she leaves.
And hey, can we take a moment to appreciate the detail of how the Doctor waltzed through the streets of Lagos full of joy and completely at home, whereas Belinda stumbled through them, fighting against the grain and hopelessly out of synch. I thought that was a really nicely observed detail that they could have skipped and I'm glad that they didn't.
That all said, this episode works well as a claustrophobic high-concept piece of sci-fi. Five men (and later Abby and Belinda) are stuck in a barbershop which is operating on what we might call 'Beetlejuice' rules', i.e. you can enter the door any time you like, but much like the 'Hotel California', if you try to leave you end up on a gigantic mechanical spider clambering in an airless void on a metaphorical web through the universe.
Look, I don't know what recording of 'Hotel California' you might have been listening to, but I clearly remember Don Henley mentioning Anansi and the vacuum of space.
Speaking of Anansi, and this might just be my prior experience reviewing American Gods, but the moment I saw the giant spider I jumped to the conclusion that that was who the Barber really was. Just as I was supposed to do. I couldn't have been more pleased with the Doctor laughing away the barber's claims that he was every storytelling god that ever was. I was even more pleased that he waited for Belinda to laugh it away first. Man, those two really have become a team in the exact way that the Doctor and Ruby never really did last season. And I was rooting for those two.
Above all, the thing that I respect most about this script is the way that it respects the viewpoint of every single character in it. Omo both genuinely thought that the Doctor would be all right and able to save himself AND also was all right with him not being all right and just selling the Doctor out to the Barber if it meant getting his other friends home. Omo's three customers were all basically good men, each dealing with what we might quote Tori Amos and call the 'Little Earthquakes' of their lives, AND willing to forcibly strap the Doctor into a chair to his death. Abby genuinely had her heart broken by the Doctor, and yet still found her way to forgiving both him and the Barber, rather than carrying the poison of hate in her heart. The Barber himself just wanted to be seen. To be given credit for all the work he had done. And was capable of recognizing that that had turned him to evil, that he didn't deserve the forgiveness that he was offered and still accepting that forgiveness with humility. And Omo was capable of understanding and forgiving the Barber just as the Doctor was capable of understanding and forgiving Omo.
Honestly, the amount of grace these characters showed to one another in the last five minutes of the episode. I just don't have words.
This is something that the show could never have done until they had a completely non-white TARDIS crew, and this season has been doing an amazing job of exploring all of the things that could only be done with an entirely non-white TARDIS crew. When Belinda leaves, I will miss that more than I can say. Assuming of course that they bring white people back into the mix after she leaves.
And hey, can we take a moment to appreciate the detail of how the Doctor waltzed through the streets of Lagos full of joy and completely at home, whereas Belinda stumbled through them, fighting against the grain and hopelessly out of synch. I thought that was a really nicely observed detail that they could have skipped and I'm glad that they didn't.
That all said, this episode works well as a claustrophobic high-concept piece of sci-fi. Five men (and later Abby and Belinda) are stuck in a barbershop which is operating on what we might call 'Beetlejuice' rules', i.e. you can enter the door any time you like, but much like the 'Hotel California', if you try to leave you end up on a gigantic mechanical spider clambering in an airless void on a metaphorical web through the universe.
Look, I don't know what recording of 'Hotel California' you might have been listening to, but I clearly remember Don Henley mentioning Anansi and the vacuum of space.
Speaking of Anansi, and this might just be my prior experience reviewing American Gods, but the moment I saw the giant spider I jumped to the conclusion that that was who the Barber really was. Just as I was supposed to do. I couldn't have been more pleased with the Doctor laughing away the barber's claims that he was every storytelling god that ever was. I was even more pleased that he waited for Belinda to laugh it away first. Man, those two really have become a team in the exact way that the Doctor and Ruby never really did last season. And I was rooting for those two.
Above all, the thing that I respect most about this script is the way that it respects the viewpoint of every single character in it. Omo both genuinely thought that the Doctor would be all right and able to save himself AND also was all right with him not being all right and just selling the Doctor out to the Barber if it meant getting his other friends home. Omo's three customers were all basically good men, each dealing with what we might quote Tori Amos and call the 'Little Earthquakes' of their lives, AND willing to forcibly strap the Doctor into a chair to his death. Abby genuinely had her heart broken by the Doctor, and yet still found her way to forgiving both him and the Barber, rather than carrying the poison of hate in her heart. The Barber himself just wanted to be seen. To be given credit for all the work he had done. And was capable of recognizing that that had turned him to evil, that he didn't deserve the forgiveness that he was offered and still accepting that forgiveness with humility. And Omo was capable of understanding and forgiving the Barber just as the Doctor was capable of understanding and forgiving Omo.
Honestly, the amount of grace these characters showed to one another in the last five minutes of the episode. I just don't have words.
Bits and Pieces:
-- I really, really like the way that Ncuti Gatwa cycles his accent into stronger African tones at key moments of this script. Orlando Jones used to do something very similar as Anansi in American Gods, and it was just as effective.
-- I really, really like the way that Ncuti Gatwa cycles his accent into stronger African tones at key moments of this script. Orlando Jones used to do something very similar as Anansi in American Gods, and it was just as effective.
-- OK, let's talk about it. I loved the Jo Martin cameo, with the reveal that it was her version of the Doctor that ran away and left Abby behind. And for the record, I am never going to complain about any amount of Jo Martin's Doctor in any episode. But it does beg the question as to how the current Doctor remembers any of that. Did he wedge that fob watch out of the console at some point while we weren't looking?
-- The Barber hacking off dreadlocks as he confronts the Doctor was an incredibly powerful image. And it was so effective the way that they showed his hair growing back between shots after.
-- I honestly didn't know about maps to safety being braided into slave women's hair, which is just such a wonderful and empowering detail. In my defense, I went through the American school system, and they actively try to prevent you from learning anything at all.
-- I'm not sure how I feel about the Doctor casually confirming that all those gods are real and necessary for humanity to exist. It worked for this story, but the implications are weird.
-- Both the costume and hair departments did absolutely amazing work in this episode, and they should never stop being congratulated for it. Specifically, my understanding (and again, sheltered white man in the US) is that the general sense of dress in Nigeria would be this exact blend of T-shirts and jeans, but also lots of brightly colored traditional items, and everything in between.
-- Lagos is indeed the communication nexus for sub-Saharan Africa, if my research is to be believed. I love learning things from this show.
-- This week we were in 2019. Close enough to 'present day' to eliminate problems, but far enough form the forbidden 2025 to not get in the way of the season long plot. I approve.
-- Was it weird to anyone else that the TARDIS is taking voice commands from Belinda?
-- I already mentioned it, but I loved that the Doctor forgave Omo.
-- It was a wonderful directorial choice that we didn't know if the barbershop window and its drawings of the stories being told was just a narrative convention or really happening for the characters.
Quotes:
The Doctor: "Omo, the owner, is a friend of mine. We met in a fire."The Doctor: "It’s a little hard to explain."
Belinda: "OK. Try explaining."
The Doctor: "We laugh. We tell stories. They..."
Belinda: "Treat you like one of their own?"
The Doctor: "Yeah."
The Doctor: "Because I have no home I’m what, I’m expendable?"
Omo: "Their families need them."
The Doctor: "And I have none, so I don’t matter?"
The Doctor: "I love this shop. I loved YOU, Omo. I thought it was a home for me."
Shit, that shift to past tense hurts.
The Barber: "The Nexus. I used to call it the World Wide Web, until the humans named something far uglier after that."
Abby: "Did he tell you to wait?"
Belinda: "No. I told him to go, actually."
The Doctor: "I know the gods. You are not them."
Belinda: "A beating heart inside a brain?"
The Doctor: "Brilliant. What else is a story?"
The Barber: "All I wanted was to be credited for my work."
The Barber: "I don’t deserve this kindness."
None of us do, pal. That’s why giving it matters.
I really loved this episode, despite its flaws. It brought us somewhere new. It showed us so much joy. And it demonstrated how important the grace of forgiveness can be. I can already tell you that in the future I'm going to re-watch this one a lot. In a way that I'm not going to for, say, 'Lucky Day'.
Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, retired firefighter, and roughly 78% water. You can find more of his work at the 42nd Vizsla. If you'd like to see his raw notes for this and other reviews, you can find them at What Was Mikey Thinking.
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