Critical popcorn

“Isn’t the universe mad?!” exclaims the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) at one point in Space Babies, the opening instalment of Doctor Who‘s 40th/14th/1st season (depending on how you’re counting). It feels like a mission statement, not only for the episode itself, but also for the entire run: Doctor Who is back with a bang, and it’s bigger and madder than ever before.

The episode starts with a Classic Who-esque recap of the ending to The Church on Ruby Road (which despite being a Christmas Special seems to be very key in the overarching narrative of this season), leading into an admittedly overlong exposition dump from the Doctor to introduce new viewers. Usually the whole Last of the Time Lords, etc. speech, is saved for slightly later (see Gridlock or The Beast Below), yet Russell T Davies‘ script rattles through it all before the TARDIS even dematerialises.

Space Babies makes for an odd season opener: it’s clearly trying to appeal to new viewers with such an emphasis on introducing the Doctor and the universe around him through Ruby’s (Millie Gibson) point of view, but it’s also suffering from “difficult second album” syndrome after the Christmas Special set everything up (an appropriate comparison might be Davies’ New Earth, which opened the 2006 season).

It does feel like an episode aimed at Doctor Who‘s younger audience (which is by no means a bad thing), with the titular space babies behaving more like 6-year-olds and scared of the Bogeyman in the basement – not to mention the all-too-short dinosaur appearance near the start. The talking babies sometimes stray into the uncanny valley, although it never detracts from the emotions of each scene. The Doctor comforting Poppy is a nice heartfelt moment from this more emotional incarnation, while the episode as a whole makes for a good showcase of Ruby as a companion, looking after the space babies (influenced by Carla) and ready to protect them from the Bogeyman.

Speaking of which, the Bogeyman itself looks incredibly spooky…when we can actually see it properly. There’s some choppy editing whenever the creature appears on screen, as if it wasn’t as effective on camera as the creative team had intended (which seems odd considering how creepy it looks even in Doctor Who Unleashed). The comparisons to Alien are obvious, although the late-in-the-day narrative turn to make the Bogeyman sympathetic doesn’t quite work as well as intended (even if it makes for a great character moment for our new Doctor).

The epilogue with Ruby returning home for Christmas was a nice touch, while the snow sequence (or is it salt?) poses many questions for later on in the season, but it’s not a particularly strong opener, perhaps justifying the double-bill approach. All in all, Space Babies is a silly, breezy episode chock full of exposition and info-dumping but with a slither of horror thrown in for good measure.

And, as it’s a double-bill, our review blog continues with The Devil’s Chord…

Doctor Who returns to BBC One next Saturday at 18:50 Join us for our series blog review next week