It’s a hard day’s night for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) in the second episode of Doctor Who‘s double-bill season premiere. The Devil’s Chord, penned by showrunner Russell T Davies, is an improvement on Space Babies; a more confident outing with clear stakes, rubbish songs and an out-of-this-world villain.

A lot was said in the lead-up to The Devil’s Chord about it being ‘the Beatles episode’ or ‘the 60’s episode’, but let’s be honest, it’s Maestro’s episode. Maestro is an excellent new villain: camp, menacing (the reflections were a brilliant touch), flamboyant and enormous fun to watch. Jinkx Monsoon is delightfully evil in the role, savouring every syllable of dialogue in the script. It’d be easy to describe them as a ‘Panto villain’, although I worry that some may find that in some way insulting (it certainly shouldn’t be). There’s something instantly memorable about the character, from their look/s to their use of musical notes as tentacles, wrapping around their victims and whirling through the air (even going so far as to murder June Hudson, who designed Tom Baker‘s iconic ‘plum’ Doctor Who costume)!

I was surprised how much this episode tied into last year’s anniversary special The Giggle, considering that the 2024 season was billed as a ‘clean slate’ for the programme, although it’s great to see Doctor Who explore the Pantheon of the Gods even further after the Toymaker (even going so far as to make Maestro a child of the Toymaker). It’s some great universe-building, even if the hints about Ruby’s birth and The One Who Waits are dependent on where the rest of the season takes us. Maestro gives Doctor Who a more fantastical element which is fun and unique, although I can understand why some fans will be wanting more ‘hard’ sci-fi.

There’s a real sense that the Doctor is on the back foot throughout the episode, with Maestro suddenly emerging through the piano on the rooftop, cornering the TARDIS duo in post-apocalyptic London (in a nice homage to Pyramids of Mars), blowing up the sonic with the power of their voice and forcing the Doctor into a music battle. In fact, the Doctor doesn’t even save the day, instead getting close before he and Ruby become trapped in musical instruments and Paul McCartney and John Lennon have to save the day instead (yeah, it’s a bit corny, but it works). Having started off the episode as an excitable and easy-going Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa brings a great sense of vulnerability to the character as he’s pushed to his limits.

There had been speculation that The Devil’s Chord would be Doctor Who‘s first musical episode, and while it isn’t that, it certainly is a music-themed episode. I enjoyed the rubbish Beatles and Cilla Black songs near the start (even with some… interesting casting decisions for the performers), as well as the meta-gags with Ruby playing her own theme and Maestro playing the Doctor Who title music. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the musical number at the end, even if it was very well put together from a visual standpoint. This is perhaps Murray Gold‘s best Doctor Who score since Heaven Sent (the composer even cameoed near the end).

Overall, The Devil’s Chord was a great second outing for this season with some dynamic camerawork courtesy of director Ben Chessell, a fun script and a top-notch villainous performance (the tease of the Harbinger at the end makes me hopefully for a Maestro rematch sometime soon). There’s a couple of interesting points: the Susan reference was very on-the-nose, as if Davies is setting something up there, while the 6-month time-jump between Space Babies and this episode is a little odd.

In an episode about the death of music, Doctor Who proves that these things can always simply regenerate…

Doctor Who returns to BBC One next Saturday at 18:50

Join us for our series blog review next week