Doctor Who Season 14 Premiere Review – Slightly Off Key, Baby

For those of you, like me, who are longtime Doctor Who fans, you’ll know that the road to get to Doctor Who Season 14 was anything but straight. Things had been going well with “NuWho” for a while, but with “The Flux” event that ended Jodie Whittaker’s run, things got a bit…well, timey-wimey. Tennant was back for a three-episode “epilogue” to his story while bringing in Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor, who then got a Christmas Special to welcome not just his character but his first companion in Ruby Rose. And now, we have the two-part premiere of Season 14 via “Space Babies” and “Devil’s Chord.” My initial thoughts? They weren’t bad…but they did feel “off” at times. You know, like a bum note at the end of a tune?

I’ll start with “Space Babies,” which honestly did well up to a certain point of “welcoming back” both older fans and newer ones to the series. That includes giving Ruby Rose an “exposition dump” on who the Doctor is, what the Tardis is, and the adventures they are going to have together. If you’re in the know, it’ll seem a bit on the nose, but remember, this is the first full season to premiere on Disney+, so a recap of this nature is fine.

Anyway, after a random flick of the Tardis (and Ruby causing a literal butterfly effect), they end up on a space station nearly 20,000 years in the future that is run, literally, by babies. Why? Because it’s a “baby farm.” Before you flip, it’s a place that’s meant to help with human populations that have gone sterile or had certain catastrophic issues in the past (one of which apparently involves kissing too much…?), and thus, it’s a vital part of keeping certain species alive.

One thing I appreciated about the first half of the episode wasn’t just the cleverness of the idea of a “baby farm,” but seeing both Ruby and The Doctor’s reactions to everything. While it’s true that Ruby comes off as an amalgamation of multiple other companions from the past (including Amy Pond, Clara Oswald, and more), she does have some unique notes (pun intended) and how she reacted to both the site of the world the station was hovering around and how she handled the babies was proof of that.

The Doctor consoling the “Captain” with his speech of “no one is born wrong” felt very beautiful and genuine, even if that message got a bit muddled at the end.

No, I’m not talking about the very obvious “Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice” storyline that filled the first half of the story. I felt it was rather apt, including Ruby’s reaction to how it “wasn’t that strange” that the business in charge of the place would abandon the babies after forcing their birth…as that’s something very common on Earth, and she knows it.

Anyway, as it turns out, there’s a “Boogeyman” in the station, and the two need to find a way to get rid of it and save the babies from the station, eventually dying out. Overall, it was an okay episode, complete with several unique twists, including what the “Boogeyman” was made from.

My problem was with the ending, including how they SAVED the Boogeyman from the “Nanny” and the scenes surrounding it. For example, longtime Whovians know that The Doctor DOES kill or allow people/beings to be killed. I can personally cite examples of that across numerous Doctor personas. However, the determination to save The Boogeyman just because “it was the last of its kind” felt hollow given the build-up to it. And to see the babies wanting to save it, although it freaking them out to high heaven, just from video footage, felt just as odd.

Furthermore, they literally just sent the station into flight to a plan that could take them in…and they just assume everything is fine once they get into orbit? It’s a station; it doesn’t dock! Yes, that might be my “writing brain” kicking in; others probably noticed that flaw, too.

Anyway, moving onto “Devil’s Chord,” the second episode of Doctor Who Season 14 I felt was stronger than the first, but again, certain things tripped it up.

In this one, Ruby wants to visit Abbey Road and see The Beatles record their first album. First of all…that’s awesome, and as The Doctor noted, you’d think someone would’ve thought of that before. Second, seeing the two react to dressing up in ’60s garb and geeking out over certain things, like crossing the literal Abby Road, was adorable. More on the “dynamic duo” near the end!

The problem? Well, music is gone from the world because a being called “The Maestro” took it all for themselves. Oh, and The Maestro is the child of The Toymaker. Oops.

The concept of “without music, the world goes sour” felt perfectly like Doctor Who in the theme and message. After all, who hasn’t wanted to dance when they hear their favorite song or sing to themselves when they feel down and need something to keep them going? Having this applies to The Beatles, one of the greatest musical groups ever, and hearing Paul McCartney and John Lennon lament not being able to live the lives they want to while foreshadowing their futures was truly fun.

Plus, whether you like to admit it or not, The Maestro felt like an “early season” Doctor Who villain, complete with the over-the-top nature of their persona. Yes, it did get a bit much at times, but that’s how it goes with this series sometimes.

My problem with the episode was two-fold. First, I didn’t like how The Doctor ran away from The Maestro when they first appeared. In the previous episode, The Doctor questioned WHY they ran away, and there was a logical explanation. Here…not so much. They basically backtracked on the “I’m always curious about something new” and turned it into “I can’t beat that.”

Except he’s The Doctor. They’ve faced gods and powers of infinite measure multiple times in the past. They even faced off against the actual Devil and gods like Zeus! Yet, it’s The Maestro who sends them running? That makes no sense.

To add to the confusion was the inconsistency of The Maestro’s powers. We see them kill people with music, yet the “hidden song” of Ruby’s heart can beat them? Or The Doctor and Ruby doing a duet on a piano could beat them? Not to mention, The Doctor being able to summon most of the “banishing notes,” only to fail on the last one so John and Paul could do it together, was…a bit much.

And don’t get me started on the musical number…well…actually…

If I were to give a big “bum note” to this two-part premiere, is that they REALLY hammed it up at times, which has been evident in things like the Christmas special via the “Goblin Song” and other things. Was it fun? Sure. Did it make sense? Not really. And then, when you add the numerous “baby overload” scenes in the first episode, I have to wonder if Disney is having more of an effect on Doctor Who Season 14 than we would initially expect.

Plus, while I love Ncuti and Millie Gibson’s chemistry, it can sometimes be a bit…overpowering, including in multiple scenes where they were basically screaming instead of talking and I thought my ears would bleed. Not to mention, having ANOTHER companion be a “Deus Ex Machina” mixed with a “season-long mystery” is a bit old hat at this point.

Even still, I do feel this is a positive start to Doctor Who Season 14. It’s clear that “Space Babies” and “Devil’s Chord” were meant to be light, fun, and unique while also teasing all that’s coming. I’m curious to see where it goes from here, and that’s enough for me.