“The Story and the Engine” is quite the writing feat. Of all of the episodes this season—or last season—it feels like it has the most going on. Plotlines are not only densely interlocked, but the foreshadowing happens quickly and frequently. And, somehow, this episode is also one of the most expansive for the overall magical lore of Doctor Who.
Last week, we looked at a dragon who enjoyed bacon—as well as some other fun monsters.
This time, the scale is a little higher, but the food involved is just food.
I sadly disliked “Lucky Day” more than I expected. I get the vision. The idea is sound. Frankly, like a lot of episodes in this season so far, this is such a cool idea for a Doctor Who episode. But as time has gone on, I’ve been less and less fond of this one.
“Public Image” is a classic little horror story of an episode. There’s the tiniest cut back to the OIAR, but mostly we spend all the runtime with Heinrich Unheimlich.
Welcome to a world where people can pretend to be heroes and slay monsters!
“Dependents” is a sad, brutal exploration of trauma with excellent and heartbreaking acting from several of the voice actors. It’s shorter than a lot of other episodes but has managed to get a much deeper emotional response out of me than any other in the series. I am bummed out right now.
“The Well” is kind of everything I want from a spooky Doctor Who episode. It’s a classic science fiction horror scenario—abandoned, hostile location—with a pinch of cosmic unknowableness, and a slower pace to build that dread. It’s a shame that a few moments brought down the otherwise excellent experience slightly.
Welcome to the far, far future.
Every species in the universe has been at war with a single, pure-evil entity of impossible power. Every option has failed. The war will end with us losing.
Well, somehow I predicted right. “Circling Back” contains a standard horror story. The fact it also has a pretty strong push on almost all overarching plotlines was just a bonus.
Alright, “Lux,” I’m onto that game. Having canonical critics in the episode point out its flaws to prevent people from considering them flaws is a fun trick. Hilariously, I hadn’t been bothered—or even noticed, honestly—that Lux changed his plan halfway through. I had long ago just accepted that this was going to be a surreal episode that wanted to really play with the fourth wall and that it wouldn’t have much of a true story.
Imagine, dear reader, if you could know all there was to know about a planet. What would you do with such knowledge? What might you think of the universe?
“Scrutiny” is a lore dump episode for fans of The Magnus Archives, that also happens to contain one of the most emotionally brutal statements in the whole season. It’s barely even supernatural.
