The Doctor faces a close shave with death!

Hoping to keep its hot streak going, “The Story and the Engine” focuses back on The Doctor and Belinda as they find themselves in Lagos, Nigeria, unaware they’ve been caught in The Barber’s vicious web.

Under New Management

Featuring The Doctor’s latest attempts to get Belinda back home, he decides that the next best place to create a Vindicator beacon is in Lagos, the communications capital of Africa. A city that this incarnation of The Doctor knows well, he uses this opportunity to check in with his old friend Omo, who owns a local barbershop. What the Doctor finds instead is a classic mystery setting.

Several men, including Omo, have gone missing. Investigating the issue, The Doctor quickly finds them only to be ensnared in a trap. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, his favourite barbershop has come under new management, and the cost of a cut is a story strong enough to satiate an unknown being’s appetite.

A Place to Call Home

An episode set in Nigeria is a first for Doctor Who, and navigating what is likely to be an unfamiliar culture to the wider audience can be a tricky business. Ellams, however, handles these problems well during the mystery’s setup by connecting The Doctor to the location and its people.

It begins by explaining that this incarnation of The Doctor feels a sense of belonging when he visits. It’s a place where he’s accepted, and his journey through the markets of Lagos resembles a spiritual homecoming.

As the story progresses, Ellams draws from his own experiences to weave culturally significant aspects into the world of Doctor Who. The barbershop and the art of storytelling are vital cornerstones of Nigerian, and more widely, African heritage and are paid reverence in the episode as pivotal plot devices to set the scene and the threat.

A Story of Revenge

While the episode starts great, the story unravels once The Barber’s motives are revealed.

With The Doctor, Belinda, and everyone else held prisoner on a mechanical spider powered by stories, The Barber wants to use it to traverse the nexus and erase the gods he created.

A commendable high sci-fi concept, it’s let down by a series of dialogue-heavy sequences that lead to little or no payoff or end up diffusing any potential tension. Moreover, aside from The Doctor and The Barber, the rest of the cast, including a cameo by The Fugitive Doctor, feel like wasted potential.

Other than watching events unfold, they never add anything noteworthy to the plot. It’s a shame, since their roles are all acted well.

While The Story and the Engine is a good first attempt from newcomer Inua Ellams, the story is not without fault. Taking the show to a new location, Ellams succeeds in weaving and utilising its culture throughout the story. Unfortunately, this isn’t matched by the climax, which ends up bogged down with dialogue-heavy elements and a series of events without proper payoff.

I Give The Story and the Engine: 6/10