The Devil's Chord
May. 22nd, 2024 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatI enjoyed this hugely, but as with Space Babies, I've no idea what the general public will have made of it.
I know very many people who dislike musical numbers in TV shows, and a smaller number who dislike musicals full stop. Why, they ask, have all these people just stopped and started singing and dancing? I, on the other hand, am pretty much sold if there is a musical number. I just accept that this is the way things happen in this world. I loved the way this one came out of nowhere with the pun of a Twist at the End (and an actual twist in the appearance of the Harbinger). I immediately watched the sequence on YouTube two or three times after I saw the episode (though admittedly I was stuck in a hotel room thanks to a cancelled flight, so didn't have a lot else to do). Err, yes, a better song would have been nice. I don't particularly object to the song, but it wanted to be a real toe-tapper and it wasn't. To be honest, the Goblin song was a bit disappointing too. I understand that the rights to Beatles songs are both complex and expensive but a) I'd have happily sacrificed the space babies for Twist and Shout and b) if you can't get a Beatles song what about another sixties classic and c) well, failing all that you are Disney - Murray Gold has many talents but writing a real belter of a song and dance number doesn't appear to be one of them.
Anyway, I loved the song and dance number and I'm honestly happy for this to be the song and dance Doctor - why not*?
Surely the rest of the episode is largely irrelevant, no? Perhaps not. Like Space Babies, I'd rate the rest of the episode pretty middle of the road though in a "fun, but silly" way rather than simply a "meh!" way. Drag is not an art form I'm familiar with. Maestro was drawn with broad strokes, but I assume that was the intention and the costumes, particularly the first one, were fabulous. Lots of it didn't make a huge amount of sense, some of it was deliberately surreal, and occasionally it wasn't really clear what the point of the action was (the music battle). This felt even more like an updating of one of the stranger Sylvester McCoy stories than Space Babies did.
I'd rate it a bit above Space Babies. The Devil's Chord had sweeps and flourishes - Ruby's tentative piano playing swelling into an orchestral lament as the Doctor looks out over London; June Hudson (bless her) playing Claire de Lune; even the deliberate artificiality of Maestro's confrontation with the Doctor and Ruby in 2024 - not to mention the sonic screwdriver doing something sonic for once and cancelling all the noise. There was a lot going on here that added texture to the story.
Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson continue to be a delight together as the Doctor and Ruby - I loved the fun they were having dressing up, and dancing back across Abbey Road at the end. I do wonder if this was originally planned for later in the season though. There is a familiarity to the way they are interacting with each other that seems precipitate for Ruby's second trip in the Tardis and there is mention of it being July when the last episode ended at Christmas.
*Don't answer that.
Honestly, when it comes to Doctor Who, I'm usually all about the plot, but sometimes something is just its own thing with its own logic and somehow still manages to be Doctor Who and The Devil's Chord (for me) was one of those things.
I know very many people who dislike musical numbers in TV shows, and a smaller number who dislike musicals full stop. Why, they ask, have all these people just stopped and started singing and dancing? I, on the other hand, am pretty much sold if there is a musical number. I just accept that this is the way things happen in this world. I loved the way this one came out of nowhere with the pun of a Twist at the End (and an actual twist in the appearance of the Harbinger). I immediately watched the sequence on YouTube two or three times after I saw the episode (though admittedly I was stuck in a hotel room thanks to a cancelled flight, so didn't have a lot else to do). Err, yes, a better song would have been nice. I don't particularly object to the song, but it wanted to be a real toe-tapper and it wasn't. To be honest, the Goblin song was a bit disappointing too. I understand that the rights to Beatles songs are both complex and expensive but a) I'd have happily sacrificed the space babies for Twist and Shout and b) if you can't get a Beatles song what about another sixties classic and c) well, failing all that you are Disney - Murray Gold has many talents but writing a real belter of a song and dance number doesn't appear to be one of them.
Anyway, I loved the song and dance number and I'm honestly happy for this to be the song and dance Doctor - why not*?
Surely the rest of the episode is largely irrelevant, no? Perhaps not. Like Space Babies, I'd rate the rest of the episode pretty middle of the road though in a "fun, but silly" way rather than simply a "meh!" way. Drag is not an art form I'm familiar with. Maestro was drawn with broad strokes, but I assume that was the intention and the costumes, particularly the first one, were fabulous. Lots of it didn't make a huge amount of sense, some of it was deliberately surreal, and occasionally it wasn't really clear what the point of the action was (the music battle). This felt even more like an updating of one of the stranger Sylvester McCoy stories than Space Babies did.
I'd rate it a bit above Space Babies. The Devil's Chord had sweeps and flourishes - Ruby's tentative piano playing swelling into an orchestral lament as the Doctor looks out over London; June Hudson (bless her) playing Claire de Lune; even the deliberate artificiality of Maestro's confrontation with the Doctor and Ruby in 2024 - not to mention the sonic screwdriver doing something sonic for once and cancelling all the noise. There was a lot going on here that added texture to the story.
Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson continue to be a delight together as the Doctor and Ruby - I loved the fun they were having dressing up, and dancing back across Abbey Road at the end. I do wonder if this was originally planned for later in the season though. There is a familiarity to the way they are interacting with each other that seems precipitate for Ruby's second trip in the Tardis and there is mention of it being July when the last episode ended at Christmas.
*Don't answer that.
Honestly, when it comes to Doctor Who, I'm usually all about the plot, but sometimes something is just its own thing with its own logic and somehow still manages to be Doctor Who and The Devil's Chord (for me) was one of those things.