TV Review: ‘Doctor Who’ Episode ‘Lux’ Utilizes the Show’s Increased Budget for the Better

The decision to make the 15th Doctor era of Doctor Who equal parts fantasy as it is sci-fi has been a controversial one. And whether you’re going to like the latest episode, “Lux,” is basically down to whether or not you’ve accepted the fantasy elements in Doctor Who. For those who accept that the series is always changing anyway (and was always thinly veiled fantasy from the get-go), it’s a fantastic episode that has a lot of fun spending the new Disney budget. But for those who are less likely to accept change, this episode isn’t going to go over well.

I’m tempted to put my spoiler warning really early for this episode, because this episode reveals what it’s really about fairly early. So consider this your spoiler warning right now.

In “Lux,” the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his new companion, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), are having trouble getting Belinda back to her home on May 24, 2025. They need to land somewhere on Earth to get a sort of anchor to pull them towards 2025, so they stop off in Miami, Florida in 1952 to find an abandoned movie theater where 15 people disappeared. It turns out that an unlucky coincidence has caused the god of light, Lux Imperator, to inhabit a 1950s cartoon called Mr. Ring-a-Ding (Alan Cumming), and the Doctor must find a way to free the 15 disappeared people from a living cartoon gone mad.

This is one of the most well-rounded episodes the show has had in a while. It goes from darkness to wacky self-parody to metaphysical and epic. It’s moving through a lot of different things, and its accomplishing them all very well.

Mr. Ring-a-Ding is a great send-up of early animated characters, and the voice of Alan Cumming (making his second Doctor Who appearance, the first being as a very flamboyant King James in the 13th Doctor episode “The Witchfinders”) does a fantastic job of straddling the line between silly and sinister because Lux has to somehow be both a silly joke and a terrifying reality at the same time. Alan Cumming is one of the few actors who could pull that off.

But the reason everyone is going to be talking about this episode is because of the meta moment when the Doctor and Belinda go through a television screen and end up in the living room of some Doctor Who fans. It’s a bizarre little sci-fi moment, but somehow gets added poignancy when the fans have to sacrifice themselves so that the Doctor can go on to defeat Lux. It’s a difficult balance between humor and drama that is pulled off beautifully.

So-called fans who think the series is too “woke” aren’t going to appreciate the show taking a moment to pay tribute to Rock Hudson and shine a light on a gay man who died of AIDS at the height of the AIDS crisis. It was actually not that closely related to the plot; it just felt like something that Russell T. Davies, the writer and showrunner, wanted to add in because the show is that dedicated to queer visibility.

The episode also had to make some acknowledgment that the Black 15th Doctor and his British Indian companion don’t have the easiest time traveling to certain places and times, and 1952 in Miami, Florida is one of those places and times. The Doctor’s speech about why he refuses to let segregation laws get to him was eloquent and beautiful and capped off with a smile that, with that haircut and that suit, made him look a bit like the great Sammy Davis Jr.

In fact, there’s a certain flamboyance about the 15th Doctor that you can’t help but notice. Ncuti Gatwa puts a lot of his queer self into his performance, and that shines through in the growing relationship between 15 and Belinda. He treats her the way any gay man treats his closest straight girl friend. The moment when Belinda called the Doctor “Scooby Doo” and he answers “Honey, I’m Velma!” has a lot of queer-coded energy to it that you can’t miss. 

As I asked last week, is this enough to save the series? It’s definitely an outstanding episode that explores new ways to tell a story and gets a chance to poke fun at the series as a whole. But is it actually going to bring about the ratings spike that the show needs to survive? Considering the malaise within the fan community, I worry that nothing may bring that ratings spike that the show needs. But while people aren’t watching, the show is coming up with some really interesting stories and really utilizing its bigger budget. I just may be watching it do that alone.

Rating: 95/100

Doctor Who is now streaming on Disney Plus.

Featured photo courtesy of James Pardon/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf