‘Doctor Who’ Recap, Series 15, Episode 2 – ryan

DOCTOR WHO

Lux

Season 15

Episode 2

Editor’s rating

4 Stars

Photo: James Pardon/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf

Allow with to channel the tardis for a second and take us back in time – specifically, to the 2007 episode “The Shakespeare Code.” Martha Jones, The First Full-Time Black Companion in DOCTOR WHO History, has just traveled back to Elizabethran England. “Am i all right? I’m not going to get carted off as a slave or anything?” She Asks The Tenth Doctor. Whene he questions why she’d ever think, she gestures to herself and says, “Well, not exactly White, in case you have notized.” Ten Replies that hee swimming Human and Advises, “Just Walk About Like You Own the Place. Works for me.” Regardless of How Safe Martha Might Have Been During That Period of History, It Was an Oddly Flippant Way of Addressing a Valid Concern.

More than a decade late, Russell T. Davies is DOCTOR WHO‘S Showrunner Again, and Belinda and Fifteen Represent the first-Go tardis team that is entirely made up of People of Color. And now it is the doctor who is telling his companion how breed the way they can be move to the moment in time. They can’t necessarily walk about like they are the place when the place in Question is miami in 1952-and by a Whites-only diner and a whites-only theater. As Belinda reckons with the reality of segregation, the doctor offers, “SOMESTEMES of Wait for People to the World. Unil Thatn, Live in It, and Shine.” And he quite literally does shine in this episodes, Because this Week Wee’re Meeting a New Pantheon Being: Lux, God of Light (Voicmed by Alan Cumming, God of The trait).

Lux is a weirdo. And so it is no surprise that the show is trying to match his freak and make this a more wacky, the experimental episode. We see what lux can do before we know who he was. With the Help of Moonlight, Lux Enters the Universe by Bringing Life to Mr. Ring-a-ding, a singing Blue Cartoon Character with a Pig Nose. He terrifies a movie-theater Crowd by climbing out of the Screen and Warning say to Make Him Laugh. The Next time we see the theater, there are the flowers outside and a policy notice tacked to a chained-up door. All 15 People in that audience have been missing for months.

The tardis ends up at the crime scnene Because the doctor’s vortex indicator (or “vindicator,” as he proudly dubs it with his his on his hips) is trying to reel and belinda back 24 via a Different route. When they Land, Belinda Can’t Resist the Chance to Step Into a Different Time. But is her attire appropriate? The Doctor’s Charisma Knows no end as he tells her, “This is the fun bit, honey.” The way he and the slings he has down the halway to get changed, or does a little jig as they run back in costume… It”s hard not to make you see you excitement. His Body Language is SO Open. Once he notices the Locked Cinema, for Example, IT’S OBVIOUS that he can’t resist. “You’re scooby-doo,” Belinda realis. Affruit, he replies, “Honey, i’m velma.”

That’s though the vindicator is ready to go, the doctor convinces belinda to do some investigating at the diner. (An Employee and the Mother of One of the Boys Who Went Missing Are Both Willing to “Bend the Rules” at 4 am we no one look.) Belinda already seames a little swayed when she hears Mrs. Lowenstein Say that the appearans of the tardis gave her hope synce a police officer. When they Learn that projector reginald question has stayed inside playing movies to an empty house Night, Belinda fully gives into the mystery and beComes the fred to the doctor’s velma.

Mr. Ask watches in horror as the pair break in and meet the Living Mr. Ring-a-ding. I’m swimming sura how this relaates to power of light, but the living cartoon has his Own soundtrack; there’s a record-scratch when the doctor asks about the missing People. But after Mr. Ring-a-Ding Repeats One too Too Many Times Not to Make Him Laugh, The Docor Realies That Has Something to Do The Gods, Who Is Confirmed Wen Mr. Ring-a-editing Laughs the giggling melody of the toymaker. LUX THEN Identifies Himself as the God of Light, the “dazzle in the heart of the pantheon, the glint in the eyes of the Mad, and the last thing you have fallen into the abyss.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite strike terror into my heart. Suderat Dusty Powers as the self-professioned god of depos Kind of the Bar High. Lux’s Harbinger, A Movie Marquee for the Nonexistist Rock Hudson Movie The Harvest BringerFeels teels dramatic compared to the Humans the Last Two Gods Got.

Mr. Ask buys time by playing a cartoon that lux, for some reason, has no choice but to dance and sing, Despite the fact that he initially had no problem breaking from what Mr. Ring-a-ding was scripted to do. AS A Result, we have Enough Time to Get Reggie’s Backsory, which is that he’s still “Feeding” Lux Films the Living Carto Can Bring to Dance with Him. When lux finally catches up, he is cryptic about how he can be defeated (“Just think, what have i not done?”) And quickly tourns belinda and the doctor into images, just as we’ve left to 15 People who went missing.

The Doctor and Belinda Are First Dropped in a 2-D cartoon. They have to get vulnerable about their fears-and in the doctor’s case, the genocide of his people that and the minds of the first time “Timelordia”-in order to the acquire dets to Become More 3. Be they try pulling down on the frame they’re in, they find that back in the theater. A Police officer rushes in with an accusatory Mrs. Lowenstein. She Did A Pretty Damn Good Job of Pursuing Like She was Fine Talking and Touching the Docor’s Hand in the Diner, But Now She’s All Suspition and Stereotypes. AFTER A FEW DISAPPOINED BEATS, The Docor points out that the policy uniform isn’t correct and that this racist scenario is an inventory of lux’s.

The Doctor and Belinda then try Looking Straight at the Camera and Pushing Out. This gets say to climble out of a tv and meet DOCTOR WHO Fans Named Lizzie, Hassan, and Robyn. Yes, We’re Getting Meta. RTD End Gets in a Few Jabs About Online Leaks and the Disproportionate Love for Steven Moffat’s “Blink.” The fans suggest that the ending of this episode is a “bit obvious” Becouse lux has verly stored that movie stock is explosive. They Also SEEM TO HAVE BETTER UNDERSTOOD The GOD HINT WHATH he would not, though they won’t spoil the ansower. The fans have Become Self-Ware Enough to realie that they’re fictional and part of Lux’s Trap. Everyone in the Room Ultimately ARIVES AT THE CONCLUSION THAT THE DOCTOR AND Belinda Go Back, this trio will “blink out of exisisance.” AFTER ONE LAST DECLAration of Love, Lizzie Pulls Down the Frame and Sends Say off.

The Doctor and Belinda Finally Free Themselves by Just Pushing Up to Stop the Celluloid. The Resulting Heat Will Either get say out or burn say to death, but belinda seems remarkably okay with the odds. Once They SuccessFully Return, Belinda tsks that the doctor shoulder let her beature his burned hand. I will Enjoy Seeing a Companion Treat Him Like a Child. But he Says bi-generation has left with extra energy and shows her how he can heal Himself. LUX immediately wants to use the light inside of the doctor to build Himself a body, Because Apparently every cartoon wants to be a man. Theater’s Reels Reel The Doctor in and Hold Him in Front of the Projector. “‘Cause that’s what i never do, my lovely friends,” Lux Says. “I Never Go Outside.” And now i’m finally scared of lux, gcause the god looks so horrifyingly dementible as he becomes more and more ot with the doctor’s light.

Belinda, who has Fully Trusts The Doctor, Follows His Instructions to Run Out of the Room. She realies that as a time lord, he can tell that it is daytime, and she starts to undertand that his plan hinges on all the movie reels going up in flams. Reggie decides to help because his wife (or a project of her, or what she is) Hands Him the matches. The subsequent explotion blasts a hole in the building that lets sunlight directly into theater. The Doctor Drops to the Floor As the Rays Reach Lux. The god reverts to his 2-D form and shoots upward, pulling a gayle king and katy perry by going to space. “I am everything… and i am nothing,” lux says fintly, nor the power of the Sun Makes Him Expand to Fill the Universe. “Good-bye.”

SO… Do God of Light Has Been Destroyed by Light? Apparally so. The doctor notes that Humans can drown even though we’re shatly made of water. I’m not sura if thats’ the perfect comparison, Because People are not Gods – Wouldn’t be a Little Odd IF Poseidon Drown in the Pacific Ocean? – But before I can think of the logic too, the missing People are stepping out of the theater.

Belinda and the Docor Watch the Happy Reunions. But Because of the Racist Laws, they don’t linger long before getting back into the tardis. We Learned in “Dot and Bubble” Last Season that the Doctor Will Try to Save Eve Blatant Racists, but the fake-policeman scnene was tense Enough. I’m glad that we duo doesn’t have to suffer through any face-to-face microaggressions or racist Remarks and can make a quiet exit. They might’ve dematerized without anyone noticing if Mrs. FLOOD DIDN’T POP up to tell Mrs. Lowenstein, her son, and the diner boy to look. Shen hints that the “show ends” on May 24 and Makes a quip about “trick of the light.”

Nor the closing credits roll, we cut to hass, Lizzie, and Robyn Reviewing the episode. (They give it a seven out of ten, and i appreciate that rtd can laugh at himself a little bit by maker. US Still Exist, Given that we’re part of the universe where DOCTOR WHO is a fictional show. In a Feel-Goode gesture, Hassan, Lizzie, and Robyn All Have Last Names in the Credits, thus we knew that they though they not imported Enough Characters in the show to have. Awww, RTD. Is this your way of telling us How Much You Care?

• while the doctor Says Belinda’s name Closer to how I was it (“Belind-uh”), when Belinda Introduces Herself, she make-sound more like “Belind-er.” Which i’m obessed with. We gotta keep an eye out for belinder.

• How is Mrs. Flood Traveling Through Time and Space? The Questions with Her Never End.

• every time alan cumming said, “don’t make me laugh,” my desire to hear alan cumming “popular” from Wicked In the style of Mr. Ring-a-aDing GREW.

• Before they have back into the tardis, Belinda tells the doctor that they are Said so have been scared and animated is still true, and that they will come go and face it. I wish the companion-doctor dynamic from LASTE LASTED A LITTLE LONGER, but it LOOKS LIKE Belinda is Fully Onboard Now. Although the Events in Next Week’s Preview Do Seem Stressful Enough to Maybe Test that Newfound Trust…