The Barber

Story: The Story & the Engine
Written By:  Inua Ellams
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

Being that the Doctor has no real home and is currently experiencing being black for the first time, he has really come to find his home away from home Earth isn't always as kind to him as it once was.  As such he has found some solace and home and happiness by visiting a barbershop in Nigeria.  He makes a stop off to this barber shop only to find that while you can enter it from Earth, you cannot leave. There is a new barber holding men hostage, they must tell stories while he cuts their hair in order to power his story engine, which takes his crazy spider ship across the universe so he can get to some Gods and kill them for revenge.  

It's a perfectly weird kind of  story that Doctor Who does quite well.  While this feels pretty original, it also just felt like the kind of story I could imagine listening to on Big Finish on a rainy day.  It just works for me.  I liked the previous series but this one is capturing that classic Doctor Who storytelling a bit better. And while I won't pretend Belinda is a fresh new character with a ton of depth or anything, I think I so far like her as a companion a bit more than Ruby.  Neither character is (so far) topping any lists for me, but I prefer Belinda I suppose.  

Anyhow, that's it.  This is a simple cut and dry Doctor Who story, with a simple yet wild premise...executed exactly as it should be.  I call that a win.   

NEXT TIME: Die Hard Meets Eurovision