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The Story and the Engine exploits the introduction of the Pantheon to tell us a magic realist story. It is more restrained than the likes of The Giggle, The Devil's Chord and Lux and, I would say, the better for it. It exploits the magic to focus in on the people, their interactions and their history. It's an oddball episode that plays it straight.

I did have to watch it twice to figure out what was going on, and I'm not sure even now I quite understand why the Doctor was so angry with Omo, but it then it repays rewatching. It is also, of course, something contextually very different from anything Doctor Who has done before.

I'm very pleased that the casting of Ncuti Gatwa gave Doctor Who the push?/impetus?/excuse? to do a story like this, something that takes us to an Earth-based time and place beyond the somewhat UK/European focus of most of the series history. I'm also very pleased that so much effort went into treating the material respectfully - not least getting a well-respected Nigerian-born playwright to produce the script - though I somewhat suspect that getting a well-known playwright on board (at, I believe, Ncuti's suggestion) came first and the rest followed from that.

I think I need to watch it again at least once to decide what I really think about it, but I think that in a good way and I am looking forward to my next rewatch.

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sir_guinglain

I was puzzled by this one at first, but watching it again I realised that paying attention to each line was rewarding. This was a sidestep from the way other episodes of the Fifteenth Doctor's era have treated gods, and it was the better for it.

From:

A lot of the pantheon stuff was fun but sort of mindless. I think this more thoughtful exploration of the concepts was a useful counter-balance and arguably something we could have used more of.

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purplecat

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