19 April 2025

Getting a bit cartoonish (Review: 'Doctor Who', "Lux")

 Keeping this one short and sweet. Partly like a certain character in this. Partly.

  • This is Alan Cumming's second Doctor Who appearance. It is completely different from playing King James I in "The Witchfinders", but he is still pretty hammy.
  • Was the idea that Mr Ring-a-Ding's dialogue was limited to what he said in the cartoon?
  • I like that they're very open about Miami being segregated in 1952 from the get-go. 13 being a woman didn't get explored anything like as much as this.
  • Ncuti Gatwa is great in this, being wonderfully flamboyant in a way that no other Doctor has been before a since.
  • Varada Sethu is doing pretty well as Belinda. In fairness, she happily assists when the Doctor asks to investigate the spooky cinema. Sorry, picture house.
  • We really should have had a bit longer with the cartoon stuff. It was too brief before they returned to 3D.
  • Well, I can't say I was expecting that bit with the fans at all. Full props to RTD though for having "Blink" (written by Steven Moffat) as their favourite story.
  • It's a pity that the current TARDIS set is so big that we can't get any other rooms.
  • Why is there a South Asian History Advisor in the credits here?
Conclusion

To be honest, breaking the fourth wall here was something that could have gone badly wrong - and indeed the story admits as such. It doesn't go badly wrong, but it would have done had it not been for Ncuti Gatwa's performance.

6/10

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