15.3: The Devil’s Chord

In which I hear music…

Broadcast: May 2024

Watched: November 2024

“Sound and vision!”

I sort of love that there’s an episode of Doctor Who in which you know the world’s gone wrong because John Lennon says, “I’m no good at anything”. Anyway: this is not normally the bit of TV I appreciate, but by far the most interesting thing about this episode is the direction. It’s weirdly avant-garde.

It’s beautifully put together, with loads of very deliberately composited shots and striking visuals. The Abbey Road crossing. The Maestro appearing in a piano or reflections. The Doctor and Ruby being imprisoned in a drum and a double bass; the musical notation being used to tie the doors shut. There’s the gorgeous sequence – a Get Back reference? – with Ruby playing piano on the roof, while the Doctor watches the (strikingly multicultural. for the London of 1963) skyline. There’s the properly wonderful sequence with no sound whatsoever, in which neither how the Doctor does it nor how Maestro undoes it is clear but it doesn’t really seem to matter. Plus, there are lots of beauty-of-the-mundane shots of corridors that remind me of Wes Anderson – probably because, as noted, I don’t generally notice direction and thus lack the language to describe it.

There are also loads of bits that break the fourth wall. Mastro looking at the camera or playing the opening notes of the theme tune, the closing bars of which play tinnily from the TARDIS jukebox. The final, terrible musical number. (It fits with the story, but come on, it’s dreadful. Also there isn’t always a twist at the end of every story, so we should probably assume it’s a “SUSAN TWIST IS SIGNIFICANT” joke.) The theme of the story, combined with the dance sequence and the fact it’s now summer for Ruby – she also says stuff like “You never hide!” having known the Doctor for three minutes – make me wonder if this was originally supposed to be episode 6, but was brought forward to go out alongside Eurovision.

I quite like that it isn’t that music has been stolen, it’s just that people hate it now. The joke of the bad Beatles song is very funny, at least partly because it feels like a worse but plausible addition to the bit of their canon that gave us Maxwell’s Silver Hammer or Octopuses’ Garden. Regarding the actual Beatles, the voices are perfect – you can tell which is which – but they all look slightly wrong, except McCartney, who looks entirely wrong. (Also, did Lennon wear glasses this early? Are they trying to make him more identifiable?) George Martin, at least, is very well cast.

The “music battle” is delightfully camp, more dance than fight: they just sort of move round each other while bashing a piano. It’s also incredibly unclear what killing someone with music, or removing it from the world, actually means – it doesn’t map onto anything, it’s purely symbolic. Very little of the episode seems to make literal sense. But if you can appreciate Jinkx Monsoon’s performance, which is obviously brilliant (I have friends I shan’t damn by naming, who think otherwise), then this is delightful – so good I forget how good it is unless I’m watching it because all I can think of is that bloody musical number. I like that Doctor Who has actually got weirder under Disney, though: that feels like a statement of intent.

Is the chord at the end the one from A Day in the Life? I love that even though there’s no actual Beatles song, music is saved by Lennon and McCartney playing together.

Other things:

• The London geography visible from the roof of Abbey Road is very obviously wrong and equally obviously I found that annoying.

• The pre-credits, like that of The Giggle, is set in 1925. I wonder why? Anyway the incidental music in this scene is oddly 80s.

• Ncuti outfit watch: a red polo shirt, then blue suit and afro. I've also written “flashback to hat”, no idea why? Oh, and Susan Twist this week is the tea lady.

• Regarding the Pantheon: so, Doctor Who has gods now? That feels inspired by “great old ones” from Virgin books. Which in turn was a lift from Lovecraft, or course.

• “Genocide rolled across time and space”... This week we get another attempt to show history can and does change now, presumably to raise the stakes. It's very Pyramids of Mars oh shit that's a clue isn't it? Anyway: this week it doesn't just snow, it rains ash on the London of 2024.

• The song hidden deep inside Ruby’s soul is the Carol of the Bells, the soundtrack from the Christmas special. Cool.

• I hadn't heard of the Mrs Mills Piano and on goggling a) yes, she was real, and b) I'm fairly sure it’s a joke.

• The Doctor on genius: “Oh I would never call myself that”. Sure, Jan.

• The random Totters Lane/Susan references are obviously intended to mislead. “You have children?” “I did have, I will have” – which suggests strongly that Susan's coming back, even if not this season.

• “The one who waits is almost here”. Evil Susan, you heard it here first.

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