Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “Lux”
“Lux” Has So Many Creative Storytelling Ideas In It
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.
In fact, I don’t think I can compare “Lux” to a normal Doctor Who episode. Even the other pantheon episodes like “Devil’s Chord” still had a sense of concrete rules and stakes.
A Lot Of Stuff Kind Of Just Occurs In This Episode
So, instead of any semblance of critiquing flow, pacing, or cohesion—of which this episode has very little—I’m going to take after “Lux,” and just present stuff. So, first a disclaimer, then a list of stuff I liked and didn’t like.
And that disclaimer is simply that I don’t know how well the episode handles the racism of the era. Specifically, how little it’s addressed by the storytelling and the characters. The Doctor doesn’t really give Belinda any time to process that aspect of the situation, even though it’s clearly quite a lot for her to think about. This is her first proper experience time-traveling, after all. I don’t really know how the series should’ve/could’ve handled it—that’s not my place to say—but it is noticeable.
Now, with that mentioned: onto the first section of the list. In the positive category, I love the esthetic of old rubber hose cartoons. I love having animation intrude on real-life scenarios. And I love when cutesy animation is used in a horror way. So, obviously, I was having so much fun anytime Mr. Ring-a-Ding was on screen. If you’re going to have a cosmic horror god inhabit a cartoon character and bring him to life, you may as well go all the way with it. Sure, have him pull people into film stock. Absolutely, have him bound by random cartoony rules. It would’ve likely been too much, but I would’ve loved some scenes of his physicality really intruding on the world. Have him break a door with an inflated fist or something. I doubt we’re ever going to get this character back—or any other animation episodes—so I want all the fun ideas possible.
“Lux” Could Have Gone Even Further With Its Plot
In the negative category, the episode mostly wastes the whole “pulled into movie world” thing. I did love that we had a brief scene of Doctor Who fans popping into existence—that part was great—but the rest of it felt arbitrary and chaotic. Your emotional depth determines your actual depth when you’re a cartoon? That was just an excuse for the Gallifrey reveal to happen. The thing with the racist police officer also comes out of nowhere. Lux never tries to trick them with a false reality again after that. Even the thing with forcing the film stock to burn from the inside feels too random. They just kind of stand there to do it, so it’s not even that cinematic. Before, I said I wanted them to put all the animation stuff in that was possible. This seems like “Lux” wanted to go over as many vintage movie camera factoids/older filmmaking concepts as possible instead. And that’s just less fun.
Some Of The Plot Solutions Feel Just As Arbitrary
And, finally, some more complicated opinions, some of which sound like nitpicks. I like how both Maestro and Lux want to end the world—presumably with nukes—because the sound of a dead world and the intense bursts of light of a dying one fit their vibes. It does feel a little like reusing the concept between two different villains, but maybe it ties into the overarching season’s secret, so I suspend my judgment. But I am a little less positive on how The Doctor defeats Lux. It sort of makes sense in the moment—and has weird implications about The Doctor Who universe going forward—but it’s odd that a light-based villain would find sunlight to be an issue. The less physical version of Lux was on the moon already, so why didn’t that cause issues beforehand? Is it because Lux made himself also his harbinger (however that is supposed to work)? I’m willing to accept a lot of magic hand-waving. Just give us a few things to hold on to here. This episode literally has canonical superfans around; they could’ve had a little scene debating the rules that also clarified things. There’s enough runtime here to just put something in for those of us who still pretend this series is bound by science fiction concepts.
But how does this all add up? So much good, so much bad, so much odd. Well, at least for me, I liked “Lux” well enough. I don’t want Doctor Who to get too meta. It’s already chaotic enough. But an episode that just wants to have fun with this campy premise, show off some cool animation tricks, and introduce us to more of the pantheon is a good enough reason for an episode.
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