“The Story & the Engine” is the fifth episode of the 15th season of the new “Doctor Who” series, also indicated as season 2, and follows “Lucky Day“. It’s available in the UK and Ireland on BBC channels and in many other countries on the Disney+ platform.
Beware that in various adverts and marketing materials, this season is promoted as season 2 passing through a new start with the production by Bad Wolf and distribution by Disney+, hence the double notation.
Note. This article contains some spoilers about “The Story & the Engine”.
The 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) has a new idea to bring Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) back by using existing communications equipment in Lagos, Nigeria. He takes the opportunity to visit his old friend Omo Esosa (Sule Rimi) but discovers that his barber shop has been taken over by a strange man, and the people in the shop are trapped. The Barber (Ariyon Bakare) wants to hear a story from the Doctor, and things get even stranger when Abena (Michelle Asante) arrives.
Stories are said to have an intrinsic power, but what if they could power something more than myth and legend? That’s what we get to see in this episode written by Inua Ellams. It’s a story with many ramifications, and the setting isn’t completely new to the author, who wrote a stage play called “Barber Shop Chronicles” a few years ago which received critic acclaim.
One could do anthropological analyses on the importance of stories, and this episode is also linked to the great story arc Russell T Davies has built with a pantheon of more or less divine entities. The stories linked to the pantheon tell of clashes between the Doctor and these entities, but they’re going beyond the simple concept of victory and defeat. In fact, in this case, there are some similarities with “Lux” with some people trapped, but this time, the sense of threat is rather vague, also thinking about the alarm that goes off in the Tardis.
Perhaps, there are even too many ideas linked to the stories and allegories linked to myths and legends. In my opinion, despite some weaknesses, the episode remains strong precisely because of the centrality of the concept of the power of stories. The Doctor’s story never ends, and the moments linked to his story offer considerable depth, especially for old fans who can fully recognize it in a few images.
Belinda’s story is important as well. For someone who wants to go home, she seems very comfortable in these adventures through space and time! Her story is shown in the shop’s window, which becomes a sort of theater that also shows the beginning of the opening credits.
In the final part, the story becomes more and more the Barber and Abena’s, as the Doctor discovers who they are and what they want. They collected the stories of others, but in the end, their lives are changed when they decide to build their own life instead of living it relative to someone else. It’s the old concept that life’s what you make it, and in this case, we could say that your own story is the one you write yourself.
These elements make “The Story & the Engine” a rather peculiar episode. Inua Ellams also wrote a prologue, published on the official website of the show. I suspect it’s an episode that will provoke a lot of discussion with contrasting opinions. I liked it, also for the moments connected to the Doctor’s story, which for me are always emotional because they take me back to so many past adventures.
