TV Recap: A Mysterious Barber Shop in Lagos Showcases a New Voice in “Doctor Who” Storytelling
An entirely new type of Doctor Who episode takes us to Lagos, Nigeria for our deepest look yet into the mind and soul of the first leading black Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa. Here’s my spoiler-filled recap of “The Story & The Engine."
The episode begins with a man (Omo Esosa, played by Sule Rimi) telling the story of a village on fire when he was younger, while receiving a haircut. We see animated depictions of the man’s story on the wall of the barber shop, while the man tells of the Doctor’s arrival to the village to help put out the fire from his magical blue box. When he finishes telling the story, he and the other patrons of the barber shop look with bated breath at a red light, which turns green – giving them all a sigh of relief.
Tunde (Jordan Adene) asks Omo if he’s sure the Doctor will come, to which Omo says he always shows up when needed. Then, sirens begin to blare and the barber shop starts to shake, as they say “the Doctor, we need him now. It needs feeding!" This brings us to the title sequence, which cleverly begins on the wall in the same fashion as the story from before.
We then jump to the TARDIS, where Belinda (Varada Sethu) is still adamantly asking the Doctor to try and get her home. He decides that taking the TARDIS to Lagos would be a great idea, specifically to Omo’s barber shop. Landing in 2019, he explains to Belinda that the reason he goes to the barber shop is for the company of people like him. Even though he is a Time Lord, this is the first time he’s had this Black body, and in some parts of the Earth, he’s now treated differently. But at Omo’s, he’s accepted and is able to forget. Sympathizing with the Doctor, Belinda tells him to go to the shop while she waits aboard the TARDIS.
On route to Omo’s, the Doctor begins to notice that things are not quite what they seem. As he gets closer, signs warn people to turn around, while missing posters of the four men from the barber shop, including Omo, can be seen. Using the sonic screwdriver to enter, the Doctor is reunited with Omo and the other men in his seemingly normal barber shop. Omo notes that there is new management, and the Doctor is introduced to the Barber (Ariyon Bakare). Following some in-fighting, the Doctor realizes that everyone’s hair is immediately growing back following a haircut. In order to appease something, the patrons must tell a story – which has become exhausting to them at this point.
After Rashid (Stefan Adegbola) tells a story, he says that he doesn’t know how much more he can take of it. “The tension is getting unbearable." We find out that the drawings in the window from earlier are seen by the characters, serving as a visual representation of the stories. A woman (Michelle Asante) then appears, who the Doctor appears to recognize. He finds out the four men are being kept there by the Barber and the woman until they reach their destination, to continue fueling the engine with stories.
As alarms blare, it’s time for another haircut, and this time it’s the Doctor’s turn. He tells a story about Belinda helping a woman out in the hospital, even though it wasn’t necessarily her responsibility to do so. The story serves as a way to showcase the kind of caring person Belinda is. During the story, we also get the briefest of cameos of Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) picking up her pills at the hospital. The Doctor’s story ends up giving massive fuel to the engine, more so than the other four combined.
Back on the TARDIS, alarms are blaring there too, trying to alert Belinda of the Doctor’s danger. The TARDIS shows her the barber shop and she leaves to head through the streets of Lagos to find it. Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers that Omo sold him out to the Barber, which he takes deeply personally – recalling back to what he was explaining to Belinda earlier. Trying to leave, the Doctor opens the door – which instead of being in Lagos reveals them to be somewhere in outer space, on the back of a giant, mechanical spider, no less! They all nearly get sucked out into the vacuum of space, before the Doctor is able to close the door again.
The Barber reveals they are on board the Nexos, which has a time-space compressor built into the door frame, allowing the barber shop to be in space and Lagos at the same time. The door only lets the Barber and the woman out, putting them in total control. However, getting in is another story, as Belinda shows as she walks into the shop. The Barber then reveals himself to be all of the gods of stories from history combined – he is them all. The Doctor doesn’t buy this though, and after breaking the Barber down, he reveals he’s actually the one behind them all. Being once human, he explains his backstory following each of the storytelling gods, making them more powerful and longing for more stories. They only insist on the stories now because of him and his work. The Nexos was also made by the Barber, out of a strand of the god’s blood.
The Doctor then remembers who the woman is, calling her Abby. She grew up terrified that someone would win her in a bet, and had heard of the Doctor. She had hoped that the Doctor would save her, but instead left her. The Doctor apologizes that he couldn’t take her with him, before the camera pans over to reveal a surprise appearance from Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor (an unknown incarnation of the Doctor first introduced in the Jodie Whitaker era). She explains to Abby that she was a fugitive then, and that’s why she couldn’t take her. She says “I was busy in a different story, that might be finished one day."
The Barber reveals his plan to destroy all of the gods, to give him purpose outside of their whims. The Doctor is being forced to get another haircut, and he refuses. Abby instead decides to tell a story, while the Doctor sits in the chair. She braids his hair in the form of a map that he can follow to reach the engine, which he does after escaping the room with Belinda. In the engine room, they find the titular engine, which looks like a giant brain. Belinda begins pulling wires as the Doctor tries to disrupt the flow. The Barber arrives, and the Doctor has reconnected the engine to him – revealing his stories in a clever way to show some clips of other Doctors as Fifteen’s theme triumphantly plays. The Doctor gives a brilliant line to explain – "My body is like a barber shop. All of them inside, telling stories, bickering. I will not fail them."
As the Barber begins to realize the futility of his plans, the Doctor pleads with him to let everyone else out, which he does. He tells Belinda to leave, telling her he’ll follow right behind her. In the last moment, he and the Barber escape before the Nexos is destroyed, but leaving the barber shop intact in Lagos. All of the men trapped give their thanks to the Doctor before heading off to their families. The Barber is distressed, not knowing what to do with his endless life anymore. Omo, despite having been trapped by him, shows kindness and decides to retire from the barber shop. The Barber decides to take over the shop. He and Abby make up and then go their separate ways, as the Doctor and Belinda walk back to the TARDIS. Belinda notes having seen a spooky kid, which the Doctor did not see. He explains that the stories were leaking out and getting mixed up.
I feel like I’ve said this a lot recently, but this was a story quite unlike anything Doctor Who has ever done before. It makes full use of having a Black Doctor by telling a story that could really only be told with a Black actor. While I absolutely admire the different kinds of storytelling on display here, it didn’t completely work for me. Part of that comes down to it being a very talky episode, with not a lot of stakes involved. I did audibly gasp when the Fugitive Doctor appeared, something I did not expect, and I wonder if she'll make a bigger appearance later on in the series. It would be a shame to have just brought her back for one 20 second scene. All in all, I enjoyed the episode, but it’s definitely the weakest of what’s been a very strong season so far.
Next week, the Doctor's quest to get Belinda back home to Earth leads to a space station hosting the famous Interstellar Song Contest. But a harmless night of fun soon becomes a battle to survive.