Maestro

Story: The Devil's Chord
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

I had been somewhat skeptical of this episode going into it.  I had worries it was going to be a musical episode, and for the record I hate musical episodes of shows.  The only show to do it good was Buffy and then everyone thought they could do it and they've all failed.  Also, I am a huge Beatles fan, like I know a lot of pointless information about that band that a lot of people do not know. This is not a brag, this info has never come in handy in my life, I just like reading about them and watching documentaries about them and such. I have seen the Beatles Anthology a LOT.  So seeing their so-called Beatles and seeing poor middle aged pudgy Paul when he is supposed to be like 21...I just had this feeling I was going to find this one hard to buy. And it was not that bad Until they did a full on musical number and then it was terrible, luckily, it was saved for the end and I didn't have to sit through 45 minutes of it.  

Ruby requests to see the Beatles record their first album, and they get there and find not only do the Beatles look terrible, but also they are singing garbage songs that no one wants to listen to. It turns out the entire world has been made devoid of music, due to a magical being known as the Maestro, who arrived in 1925 and stole it all.  It turns out the Maestro is the offspring of the Toymaker. So both planted the seed of their plan in 1925 and both are undone by the Doctor later on.  Huh.  If they do not succeed the world without music descends into war and a nuclear winter. The stakes are pretty high then.

The Maestro is a very campy villain, campier than even the new version of the Toymaker had been.  I expected little else when being portrayed by a drag queen.  While I will maintain this is a fairly lousy version of the Beatles, at least they are not a main focus of the episode, even if they are the reason they arrive and technically it is Lennon/McCartney that saves the day...they are not on screen for long.  The episode is decent.  I think it was better than "Space Babies,"  but man I have to ding it points for the awful musical ending. I get why its there but it just doesn't work for me. 

 NEXT TIME: Return of Moff