Doctor Who (2023) 1-02: The Devil's Chord (Quick Review)

Episode:

877

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Serial:

306

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Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Ben Chessell

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Air Date:

11-May-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing another episode of Doctor Who already. They went and aired two of them on the same day and it's not even a two-parter. Now that I've seen Space Babies I'm wondering if a decision was made to pair it with another story to show new viewers that Doctor Who had some range to it and it wasn't always going to be... babies in space.

In fact, I'm not even sure this was originally meant to air so early in the season. The series is filmed in two-episode production blocks, each handled by a different director, and this was shot in the same block as episode 6. Then again, maybe everything is going as planned. After all, Doctor Who hasn't filmed a season in order since 1987. The classic series didn't even end with the last serial produced.

Okay, there will be Doctor Who SPOILERS below, but only as far as this episode. I won't spoil what happens next. I actually have no idea what happens next.

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RECAP

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The Doctor and Ruby head to 1963 to watch the Beatles record their first album, but instead of expensive-to-licence Beatles songs, they're playing trash, because a evil music clown has stolen music from the world. They try having Ruby play piano on a rooftop but Maestro scares the Doctor away, like the Toymaker scared the Doctor in The Giggle. The heroes visit the present day to find that humanity has destroyed themselves, so they return to the 60s to challenge Maestro to a music battle. The Doctor comes close to just guessing the entire series of notes needed to banish the trickster god but messes up at the end and is trapped in a drum. Fortunately, John and Paul wander over to a piano outside and save the day by playing the epic chord from the end of A Day in the Life (I got that reference!)

Then everyone dances for three minutes as Murray Gold plays the piano.


REVIEW

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I've been trying to figure out the exact moment that The Devil's Chord started to lose me, and I think it was the scene in the very beginning where the name in the book magically changed to 'HARBINGER' and Maestro started pulling CGI notes out of a guy. It's just not my kind of thing, I'm not into this kind of fantasy.

Okay, maybe that's not entirely true, as I like the reality-warping Q in Star Trek. I loved Farscape's Looney Tunes animated episode. I'm a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Legends of Tomorrow fan! But Doctor Who needs to work a lot harder to make me buy into this kind of stuff and 'the Doctor poured some salt on the floor a few episodes ago and now magic exists' hasn't done the job.

Also, Jinkx Monsoon does a fantastic job as the all-powerful antagonist, that was some good casting, but underneath the performance Maestro is basically just an evil music clown that yells at people and climbs out of pianos. They're an uninspired cover version of the Toymaker playing in a second-rate remake of The Giggle.

The episode's not objectively terrible though, at least not according to IMDb. Lots of people love this story, it's been getting some good user ratings.

There's stuff I liked about it too. Like the Doctor and Ruby dressing up and playing around, and Ruby taking the lead on getting them inside the studio. I liked that Susan got a mention (and there's no way that isn't leading somewhere).

I think I liked Ruby playing the piano on the roof, bringing music back to London. Or bringing it back to the three or four people who popped their heads out of windows at least. It seems that their new Disney budget hasn't radically changed what the series is able to put on screen, but they were all different windows though, I checked.

Well okay, the windows were the same, but the walls were different.

Plus the shot of the Doctor and his companion staring a devastated London was definitely a step up from what we got in Pyramids of Mars.

The scene contradicts Space Babies, where Ruby changed instantly after stepping on a butterfly, but I guess spending six months as a time traveller has made Ruby a bit more resistant? Or perhaps this is what the TARDIS' butterfly button does.

Pyramids of Mars, Part Two

They'd originally intended to recreate this trip to the devastated present day in the first season of the 2005 series, in the episode The Unquiet Dead, but they couldn't find a way to make it work without killing the tension.

I guess Russell T Davies has been regretting it for all this time, as he's finally found a way to make it happen. The TARDIS feels like less of a sanctuary when you've got a mad god trying to play it like an instrument, or whatever was going on there.

Incidentally, the TARDIS' colour scheme in this story made it look amazing. This season is going to force me to post a new screencap of the console room for every episode review it seems, as it's always got a new look to show off. Much like the Doctor, in fact, as it turns out that Fifteen's signature style is that he never wears the same outfit twice.

He's also showing a bit of range in his personality this episode as well, as he's actually scared and Ruby actually points out that he's never scared. Well, except for in the story immediately preceding this one. So that's 100% of episodes so far this season.

We do see him acting a lot more serious though. He's actually troubled and that's something different from this post-rehab Doctor. It's exactly how the Doctor was acting in The Giggle when he was facing the Toymaker however, and that makes this feel even more like a retread.

Part of the problem I had with the episode, is that if the Doctor's facing a all-powerful god, then he can only win by figuring out the arbitrary way to banish them, which in this case was a chord. But he couldn't deduce the chord logically, science wasn't going to help him here, he just had to... use his years of experience and loss and play from the soul? I dunno. All I know is that he plays far too well to hit a discordant note at the end like that and screw it up.

Speaking of souls, the Doctor outright states here that his was split into two, so there are two separate Doctors now, each presumably with their own line of regenerations. Even though 15 mentioned that he got the benefit of 14 doing rehab in the future... man, I don't even know anymore. This is RTD Doctor Who - logic and science will not help you here.

The important thing is that the Doctor and Ruby needed to win a music battle, so they just magically played a bunch of genres in perfect sync, with magic notes hopping out of the piano, and it just so happened to be the best song in the world.

But, oh no, the Doctor couldn't figure out the last note in the ultimate banishment spell, so he got sealed into a drum. Which is weird, because you can't fit people into drums... unless they're babies I suppose.

At this point I'd just assumed that Maestro had magicked everyone else out of the building, so I was a bit surprised when Paul McCartney and John Lennon strolled down the hallway and found the piano.

Fortunately, the Doctor's notes still hung above it, which would've freaked me out to be honest. I'm not going anywhere near a piano with CGI notes floating around it.

So this is a rare case where the Doctor was utterly defeated and was only saved due to the random interference by musical geniuses who had no idea that anything was even going on. Even with Maestro stealing their music, they still had it in them to hit that last note and break the spell, because they're the Beatles. Well, two of them anyway. We don't need George and Ringo to save the world I guess.

It was a bit of a Shakespeare Code ending, with the historical figures using their genius to resolve the crisis. Except here they were barely in the episode, and were depressed and out of character the whole time. Didn't really work as well.

And then there was a three minute dance number at the end, though I only found out that it went on for so long when I went back to take screencaps.

Full disclosure, I was watching the episode with my brother and when the music started I gritted my teeth and I endured it for 20 seconds until I just dropped my notepad and left the room. That dance number was the last straw that broke me. I just needed to escape and be somewhere else, so I went over to an open window to listen to the rain, and it was some of the best rain I ever heard.

It was an actual relief to get away from this episode and I haven't felt that negatively towards a Doctor Who story since classic serials like The Gunfighters and The Web Planet.

Oh and what was with all the fourth-wall breaking, with the Doctor saying he assumed the music was non-diegetic? I admire RTD's enthusiasm and boldness, but maybe he should try fixing the show first before he breaks anything else. And if you're going to have the villain playing a lead-in to the opening titles, give us a proper piano version of the whole theme.


RATING

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I like to compare episodes to other stories to decide what rating they should get, and I guess the obvious choice this time would be The Shakespeare Code, with its historical setting, the use of magic, the creative genius saving the day, and so on. It's not my favourite episode to be honest, but I feel like Martha got a lot more to do in that story than Ruby did in this one.

Oh hang on, I could compare this to Remembrance of the Daleks, as the two stories both take place in 1963 London! Man, that serial had some good explosions. The Devil's Chord has no explosions, so it has failed there as well.

But I suppose the best comparison would have to be with The Giggle, as this is just the same thing except worse. I'm not saying that it's objectively bad, there are some good lines here and lots of fans clearly enjoyed the episode a great deal, but for me it gets...

2/10

While I'm watching an episode I'll occasionally note down what score I'd give it, and update it as it goes on. I was actually starting to think "Maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe I should bump this up to 4/10, it's not as bad as In the Forest of the Night or Sleep No More". But then the 'twist' happened and I left the room. If I leave the room during an ep it gets a 2 or lower. You could say "At least the moon wasn't an egg," and argue that makes this better than Kill the Moon, but the dark truth of Doctor Who is that the moon is an egg in every episode.

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NEXT TIME

Doctor Who will be back with its third episode, Boom. But next on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the third part of The Last Jedi, covering another 25% of the movie (more or less).

What did you think about The Devil's Chord? I'm honestly curious, as it feels like I'm a real outlier on this one.