Doctor Who Season 14 Episode 2

If you have been waiting for the new season of Doctor Who featuring Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor, you will be pleasantly surprised that the first 2 episodes were released at the same time, and rightly so. The first episode of this season has caused very mixed feelings amongst fans, but you can read what we said about that in our Episode 1: Space Babies review. Episode 2 however, was a different story. Be prepared for slight spoilers below, there is a lot to talk about.

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The Review

Image by BBC Studios Production

The Devil’s Chord, as the name suggests, is a music themed episode. In the opening scene, we see a young boy in 1927 being taught piano when Maestro (a god?) reveals themself and rids the world of music… well sort of. We then find The Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, travelling to 1963 to see The Beatles recording their first album. Then in a moment which felt like it came from absolutely nowhere, The Doctor and Ruby have a little heart to heart where The Doctor talks about the demise of his people and his home planet Gallifrey – a story fans have heard a million times over and was even mentioned in the previous episode for the new fans. In this heart to heart Ruby learns that The Doctor has a granddaughter who he presumes to be dead. 

This is a massive throwback to the very first season of the original Doctor Who released in 1963, a pleasing throwback to something that happened in the Whoniverse more than 60 years ago, although I am not surprised – with Russel T Davies in the hot seat again we are sure to see a lot of older plot lines revisited since he has done this very well in the past. This sweet moment did unfortunately feel a little thrown in though, one minute The Doctor was happy, the next… dead granddaughter.

Image by BBC Studios Production

After their deep discussion, we move forward to Abbey Road Studios, where we see a younger Cilla Black and The Beatles about to record their very first album which turns out to be a silly nursery rhyme about a dog. It sounds ridiculous but it played out in quite a funny way. The casting of The Beatles missed the mark a little, with John Lennon wearing his iconic glasses which came into play in 1967 and Paul McCartney looking like he could be 1963 McCartney’s dad. 

The episode then takes another dark turn with The Doctor scared to face someone with power equal to that of the Toy Maker – if you missed the 60th anniversary 3 part special, you might want to do that now, since it seems to be the fundamentals of this season. After some drama, and tears, The Doctor challenges Maestro to a musical battle. This musical battle was something else! It took the serious undertones of this episode and made them very fun, in a similar fashion to the music battle in Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness or even the rock off we see in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. Normally I would hate scenes like this, but it worked very well. I did however hate what came next…

If you didn’t already think the Goblin King song featured in the Christmas episode was weird enough, this episode ends in another musical number, and I hated every minute of it. Don’t get me wrong, I am open to musicals (Wicked was the best live performance I have ever seen) but this was so out of place and so terrible. They tried to pass it off as The Doctor and Ruby making the first proper song with the artists shown throughout, but then why are they playing keyboard with the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing. The song was good, but added absolutely nothing to the episode whatsoever.

Image by BBC Studios Production

This season of Doctor Who sees the Doctor more frightened than he ever has been before. It has been an interesting change to see, but I do hope we see him overcome his fears as sometimes it comes across as unnecessary overacting, as seen in episode 1 – it will be interesting to see this Doctor’s character development. Speaking of development, I am going to make a crazy assumption here and say they seem to be setting up for the big reveal of Ruby to be a relative of The Doctor, perhaps his granddaughter, which I honestly would love to see. If that is the case, they better have a good reason as to why she has forgotten him. Perhaps she has never met him, a great granddaughter maybe? I can’t lie and say I’m not hyped to discover who she is and where she came from, I just hope it’s not another River Song situation.

In spite of the slight overacting, random tone shifts and the crazy dance number at the end, this second episode was pretty good. It was great to see the return of Russell T Davies shine throughout with the same creepy undertones he has delivered before. Ncuti Gatwa’s performance is as brilliant as expected, he really is the star of this show. I absolutely love his dynamic with Millie Gibson, they could not have picked a more perfect pair.

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Where to Watch Doctor Who Season 14?

Doctor Who season 14 can be watched live on BBC One or streamed on the BBC IPlayer for UK residents and Disney Plus for non UK residents, with new episodes releasing weekly.

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