*Premise spoilers*
This episode takes some big swings, and while some of them fall kind of flat, I ultimately enjoy it a lot. It’s a strong second adventure for Fifteen and Belinda together!
The Doctor has promised to take Belinda home, but some unseen force is preventing the TARDIS from returning to her time. They make a pitstop in the hopes of creating an anchor back, but of course, the Doctor can’t just pop in and out. It’s 1952 in Miami, Florida, and a movie theater of people went missing under mysterious circumstances. The Doctor wheedles Belinda into helping him investigate, and they’re soon faced with the startling image of a cartoon come to life.
There’s an assortment of twists here, some of which work better than others. After previously appearing on Who as King James I during the Thirteen era, Alan Cumming shows up in a voiceover role as Mr. Ring-a-Ding, the cheerily malevolent cartoon wreaking havoc on the theater. I knew I recognized the voice, especially when he sings his theme song, but I couldn’t place Cumming until the credits (I blame the American accent—it’s been too long since I saw the adaptation of Annie that he was in.) On the whole, I think the show does a nice job with Mr. Ring-a-Ding. He’s an annoying cartoon character but also a creepy agent of chaos, and the scene where he and the Doctor first meet is particularly good!
There’s a short animated section that doesn’t fully work for me, but I like some of the creative devices shown as the Doctor and Belinda try to escape from Mr. Ring-a-Ding. This is a story, not just for movie nerds, but for old-timey movie-making nerds.The Buster Keaton fan in me enjoys seeing the projectionist in a critical role, along with the way the episode uses the actual frame of the screen as a setting.
Given that this is 1952 Miami, segregation is a factor in this story. I’m glad that the episode doesn’t ignore it, and I appreciate the acknowledgement that, even in the Jim Crow South, not every single southern white person was 100% devoted to segregation. However, the way that they address it feels kind of handwavy. Like, “Yes, this is a thing that the Black Doctor and his brown companion have to deal with, so we’ll bring it up a few times, but it doesn’t fundamentally impact the episode.” And the Doctor’s own perspective on it rubs me the wrong way. I understand that, due to history/timelines, the show isn’t going to have the Doctor “solving racism” or anything, but he goes along with things too much for my liking. He and Belinda are the only people of color in the episode, and he’s sort of accommodating to white racist systems, acknowledging them and working within them without pushing back at all. Again, I understand why the show doesn’t have the Doctor solving racism here, but that doesn’t mean the Doctor can’t do what he can to make a difference in the lives in individual people—we could’ve gone more the “not the whole town, just save someone” route.
Okay, onto the Doctor-Belinda interactions, which are again my favorite part of the episode! Belinda is still cautious/skeptical of the Doctor. Multiple times in this episode, we see her sort of get drawn in and then pull back, especially with the issue of returning to her own time hanging over her head. When the Doctor asks who Belinda has back home, they have a lovely conversation about her parents, which ends with her earnestly telling him, “And I would really, really like to see them again. Please.” She’s excited to see 1952 but initially pushes back at his desire to investigate the cinema mystery. A major scene in the episode hinges on them opening up to each other about their concerns and fears.
I also enjoy the way Belinda takes the air out of the Doctor’s sails with some of the nonsense he usually pulls off more successfully. Last week, she was thoroughly unimpressed by the phrase “timey-wimey,” and this week, she’s still hung up on him not going by an actual name. In the middle of a tense, suspenseful scene, we get this whispered exchange between them:
BELINDA: “Really? Just ‘the Doctor,’ always?”
THE DOCTOR: “Yeah.”
BELINDA: “Ridiculous.”
Also, they both look darling in their 1950s clothes, and they tease each other about Scooby Doo, including the Doctor cajoling Belinda with, “There is literally an old caretaker in a haunted cinema”—Ncuti Gatwa’s delivery here is just to die for! I think they take some big steps together in this episode, so I’m curious as to what their interactions will be like next week. Have they got all the way to a more “typical” Doctor-companion relationship, or will Belinda still be holding the Doctor at arm’s length to an extent?
No comments:
Post a Comment