Finally, I have time to rewatch and write up the new Doctor Who episodes; I should have "The Devil's Chord" up tomorrow or Thursday. And yes, I'm going with series fourteen, not season one. I understand that this is the big relaunch, but we didn't have a sixteen year gap this time, we had a thirteen month one, and then we had four specials before the season actually started. It actually feels quite comicbook-y: Doctor Who, Volume Three, Season One. Still, I just don't think it'll stick. They tried this with series five back in 2010, and that didn't even last until the DVD release. There's also the weirdness of following the sixtieth anniversary specials with season one. In old money, this is season forty.
Anyway, that's by the by. What's more relevant is that if this is the big relaunch, then "Space Babies" is a very odd choice for the first episode. A quick glance at people's responses online - when you ignore the Telegraph and the Daily Express and individual pearl-clutchers freaking out at the dreaded woke - shows that as many people hated this as loved this. Just from personal friends and acquaintances, I'm seeing long-standing fans and those tuning in for the first time deciding that no, they're not watching this crap. Then again, I'm also seeing some of my hardest of the hardcore fan friends embracing it wholeheartedly.
"Space Babies," then, is a Marmite episode, but then, I've always never had a particular like or dislike for Marmite. I enjoyed it, altough it certainly wasn't among the greats, and I sincerely doubt it will top many fans' best-of lists. I definitely enjoyed it more on second viewing. There's a lot more going on under the hood here than it appears at first, but that doesn't matter if people aren't sticking around to pay that much attention.
For one thing, this is RTD's second go at season one, episode one, and this hits a lot of the same beats as the first couple of episodes of Eccleston's series back in 2005 (and it still seems unreal that that was almost twenty years ago). On the other hand, there's the sense that RTD's learnt a lot from Moffat's stewardship, particularly the late Matt Smith era of series seven, when compressed storytelling reached a truly frenetic pace. This barely stops for breath, but when it does, it hits us with emotional scenes that have a fairytale quality to them. The snowfall in the middle of a space station is pure Moffat, as is the underlying idea that stories are vital to human development, even if that means conjuring up a bogeyman.
So, while the essentials are there to introduce Doctor Who to a new audience finding it on Disney Plus for the first time, it's all done much faster. Back in the old series one, RTD was almost too cautious about drip-feeding the series' backstory. Ruby's been through Doctor Who 101 by the end of act two, and the Doctor's even namedropped the Rani (the only one of the other Time Lord titles we've actually heard before, so I'm even more convinced the Duchess will turn out to be her in the "Rogue" episode).
While some moments virtually replay key scenes from the Eccleston series - most notably the view of Pacifico del Rio from the space station visually echoing the view of the dying Earth from Satellite Five in "The End of the World" - there are striking differences. There's no evocative but exceptionally cheap "Outside those doors it's the New Roman Empire," this time we're right back in the Jurassic period. It's a visual extravaganza that has no bearing on the immediate plot, but serves the purpose of showing us the TARDIS can take us anywhere and anywhen. Then we have the almost gratuitous butterfly moment, which seemingly exists purely for the visual of Ruby becoming a butterfly-lizard-woman to drop into the trailer. Nonetheless, this all ties into the greater story arc of history suddenly becoming dangerously malleable, which has been running along since "Wild Blue Yonder." The "butterfly compensator" might be a stretch, but there's the sense that the rules are very much in flux now.
Most significant from a character standpoint is the Doctor's attitude to being the Last of the Time Lords again. It's a bizarre situation that RTD killed off the Time Lords, only for Moffat to bring them back and then Chibnall to kill them all again. The use of the word genocide appears significant in light of current, horrific events, but surely this was being filmed too early for that to factor in? Regardless, the Doctor isn't weighed down by centuries of guilt and loneliness anymore. He's revelling in the fact that he's still alive and enjoying the universe. It's a massive difference in characterisation. It's also significant that the Doctor is still referring to himself as a Time Lord, in spite of the revelation that he's adopted. The one doesn't cancel out the other, and I'm glad that RTD included this.
All of that, and I haven't even touched on the Doctor and Ruby as actual characters, or Gatwa and Gibson's performances. I think it would be hard to say that, whatever you think of the episode overall, they are anything less than captivating together onscreen. Gatwa's Doctor is, at once, the Doctor through and through, and completely different to previous incarnations. It's also a totally different kind of difference to how Eccleston did it back then. Gatwa is magnetically charming, unapologetically camp, joyfully alive and exuberant. He's a streak of glorious colour on the screen, embodying a Doctor who is empowered by their compassion and lust for life.
Millie Gibson, meanwhile, is almost as good as Ruby. She can't compete in the charisma stakes with Gatwa, but then, very few people can. She's gives a hugely likeable performance as a character who is convincingly swept up in the excitement of the Doctor's life, while equally terrified by it and haunted by her own questions of her past. The description Gatwa's given of the characters as naughty schoolfriends really comes through in this episode; they're thick with each other but without any romantic or familial side. Linking them by making Ruby a foundling and playing up this new side to the Doctor's backstory is a canny move, one which provides a bond that we've never really seen between the Doctor and their companion. It also doesn't hurt that they have to be the most gorgeous Doctor-companion pair we've ever had.
The Space Babies themselves are the questionable part. It's a choice, certainly, making an opening episode about a bunch of hyper-educated toddlers realised by unconvincingly synced superimposed mouths, something which has never worked convincingly on film or television. It's incredibly twee, and understandably a make or break move for some viewers. On the other hand, this is, we must remind ourselves, essentially a kids' show. Some episodes are skewed more that way. It's the same with the bogeyman, a wonderfully designed creature, but one that becomes a grotty joke when we learn that it's a literal snot monster. Yet I can imagine children in the audience howling at that one. The Slitheen were an arguable misstep back in the old series one, but kids loved them and they didn't do the show any harm. Is the snot monster any different to flatulent aliens? At least the fart jokes are subtler this time.
Where the babies work, once you accept the cloying sweetness of the idea and the visual, is in the emotional impact. How can anyone not feel something when Captain Poppy reveals that she's never been hugged? (I hugged my little girl a lot during this episode.) The faux reveal that the nanny is actually Nan-E, the Nanomatrix Electroform, is then broken by the true reveal that it's a real person after all. Gold Rosheuvel is very good as Jocelyn, and when she speaks about hiding so that she and the babies wouldn't have t watch each other die, it's heartbreaking.
While it's kids' stuff on the surface, RTD's habitual anger and cynicism isn't far below. The fact that the baby-making machine has to be left active by law, churning out children who are then abandoned and left to die, is such a scathing indictment of recent American legislation (not to mention a dozen other countries around the world), that it deserved to be shouted louder. Add in a quick attack at the UK's attitude to refugees and it's clear that the silly stuff is there to sugarcoat some serious themes. Unfortunately, for all its power, the overriding theme of found family overcoming abandonment is lsot on anyone who turns on and sees a toddler in a buggy as captain of a space station and switches right off again. But the kids won't, and the sooner they hear these messages, the better.
It's all wrapped up nicely, leaving us with a hint of things to come. The sneaky bio-scan of Ruby is another thing that recalls Moffat's era, both the confusion around Amy's pregnancy and the "impossible girl" mystery of Clara, while the Doctor's steadfast refusal to take Ruby back to the day of her birth lest she cause a catastrophic paradox shows they haven't forgotten the chaos Rose caused. Doubtless this will all come into play in the final two-parter.
Setting:
- Wyoming area, 150 million BC.
- Baby Station Beta, orbit of Pacifico del Rio, AD 21,506.
- Brachiosaurus did indeed live around 150 million years ago, and its remains are found in the Morrisson Formation, a region that spans Colorado and Wyoming. So top marks there.
- The bogeyman skulking about the darkened corridors had a hint of Alien about it, and its almost getting sucked out the airlock reminded me strongly of the Newborn suffering that fate in Alien Resurrection.
- The Doctor says that they should go visit Star Trek, a crossover that RTD's been wanting to do since he first brought back Doctor Who.
- With that in mind, having the original crew of the station wear very Starfleet-esque uniforms is a nice touch.
- As well as the Rani, the Doctor mentions Time Lords known as the Bishop, the Conquistador, the Pedant (that'd be me) and the Sagi-Shi.
- The Doctor states that there's no one else like them in the entire universe. There's literally two of you, mate.
- "This is the worse thing that has ever happened to anyone!"
- "Most of the universe is knackered, babes."
- "I've met a million ugly bugs - I'm an ugly bug!"
- "No one grows up wrong."
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