***The following is a detailed recap of the episode "Lux,” and it contains major spoilers for the episode. You can also read our spoiler-free review here.***

In 1952, the pre-film clips play in the Palazzo cinema of the latest atom bomb test on the Gaumont British News as a few people in the audience watch. Up in the projection booth, a man (Linus Roache) stirs his drink and leaves the metal spoon on the table. He goes into the other room and chooses a film reel which he then sets up to play. It’s a cartoon featuring Mr. Ring-a-Ding (voiced by Alan Cumming). A blue-skin cartoon character is approached by a female character with yellow skin (voiced by Millie O'Connell) who asks who he is. He says, “Don’t make me laugh!” He then starts singing that he’s Mr. Ring-a-Ding. The moonlight shines down through the skylight in the projection booth and hits the spoon on the table, bouncing up onto a poster then floating like dust into the light from the projector and down onto the screen. Mr. Ring-a-Ding asks the girl her name, and she says it’s Sunshine Sally. He says not to give him sunshine, because he’s more interested in moonlight, that icy cold beam of Heaven touching his sole and giving him life. He asks people in the audience what they think and then talks directly to a man in the audience. He says if he won’t tell him he’ll have to find out for himself. He says they are going 3-D as he climbs out through the screen and repeats again not to make him laugh.

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) talks to Belinda (Varada Sethu) as he works under the console of the TARDIS. He questions she left Earth May 24, 2025, which is the one time the TARDIS can’t reach. He tries to move them again, and they bounce off the date. She questions he can’t get it fixed and says that he’s a Time Lord, to “take it back to Time Lordia; they must have garages.” He says he wishes it was called that, but Gallifrey. She says to go there, and he just says not today. The Doctor says he never asked her, but who does she have: a girlfriend, boyfriend, other friend? She says she has her mom and dad. Her father works in taxes and her mother is a violinist in the orchestra.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has been putting together a device, a vortex indicator that he’s naming a “vindicator” that he says should be able to get her home. When they land it will cast out a signal like a fishing line to that date and they will use it to pull the TARDIS in like a hook.

The Doctor lands the TARDIS, and they have reached Earth but bounced all the way back to 1952. He says since she wants to go home that he will pop out on his own, but of course she wants to see the past. Belinda realizes she needs clothes, and he says, “this is the fun bit, honey,” and rushing, grabs her hand, pulling her through the doorway. They come back out dressed for the decade. He takes the vindicator, and they exit the TARDIS.

Belinda is shocked to see they have moved in space as well. He tells her they are in Miami at the Palazzo at 4am. He says they got dressed up for no one to see, but since it’s 1952 that might be wise. The marquee lists “The Harvest Bringer” with Rock Hudson, and she talks about it being odd knowing his future.

The vindicator charges up, and he looks at the cinema doors, asking who chained up the cinema. She says it looks like someone has died, because there are flowers and notes at the door for multiple people. He reads one card that says “Come back, Tommy Lee.” There is a sign that says the theater has been closed by the ordinance of the Dade Police Department.

The vindicator makes a noise, and the Doctor says it’s a direct line back to 2025. They might need to land a couple more times to triangulate the signal. She is ready to leave, but he stops her. She questions he wants to investigate the spooky old cinema and says he’s Scooby-Doo, but he replies, “Honey, I’m Velma.” He tells her they could risk a coffee, and they go to the diner across the street.

A young man working at the diner, Logan (Lewis Cornay), tells them that fifteen people all went missing from the picture house one night three months ago. He tells the woman sitting in a booth, Mrs. Lowenstein (Lucy Thackeray), that they are asking about the Palazzo. He says her son Tommy Lee went in and wasn’t seen again. She says she will talk to anyone about her son, if he will bend the rules. He says he doesn’t have a problem with it; no one will be looking at that time of night. Belinda is confused what she means, and the Doctor points out it’s 1952 Miami, so the diner is segregated, and she would be included in “blacks.” They are breaking the law by being in there. She’s upset, but he tells her to save it for later, because they are busy. She asks how he can say that.

DOCTOR: I have toppled worlds. Sometimes I wait for people to topple the world. Until then, I live in it, and I shine.

The woman tells them about her sixteen-year-old son and that the police searched the theater again and again but didn’t find anything. The Doctor asks if they searched at night. She doesn’t think so and asks why he asks, and he tells her, because things are different at night. She says she comes to the diner all the time and sits and waits for her son, which she will do forever. She tells him that she thought they had given up until someone delivered “that thing” that says “Police Box.” He asks her if it gives her hope, and she says that it does. He takes her hand and tells her that hope can change the world. He introduces himself and says that he will try to find her son.

The Doctor and Belinda walk outside and can hear a movie playing. Logan tells them it gives him the chills that you can hear the old movies playing at night. Belinda questions he thinks it’s haunted, but he says the old projectionist, Reginald Pye is still inside. He got arrested, but they had no evidence. They closed the Palazzo, and he stayed on as caretaker, and every night the movies keep playing to an empty house. The Doctor wants to investigate, and Belinda finally agrees to go, calling him Velma, and he calls her Fred.

He uses his sonic to spark and break through the chains on the fire exit.

Inside, a Western is playing. They look up at the projection room calling for Mr. Pye. The Doctor tells him that he knows it’s a segregated space, but they wanted to say hello. Mr. Pye tries to motion for them to go away, but they don’t see him. Suddenly the movie stops, and the curtains around the screen close. Belinda yells up that Logan from the diner told them about him and that they want to talk to him. He begs for it not to hurt them.

They suddenly hear tap dancing, but don’t see anyone. A spotlight goes on, and Mr. Ring-a-Ding comes out in front of the screen, singing and dancing.  He stops and asks them who they are. He starts singing again when the Doctor asks who he is. The Doctor suddenly says cut, though he’s not sure why he’s saying it to the cartoon, but he stops dancing none-the-less. Belinda asks how it’s being done, because the technology is way beyond anything in 1952; they didn’t have holograms. The Doctor tells her it’s not a hologram, but a living cartoon and that he’s not made of celluloid but light, light come to life. The Doctor asks him how he exists, and he says he wishes he knew and cries to violin music, doing a bit, saying he’s the only one in the world like him and questions that no one cares about him. Belinda notes he’s got his own soundtrack. The Doctor says that fifteen people went missing from the building and asks if he knows what happened. Mr. Ring-a-Ding says that they disappeared, and he appeared. If the Doctor solves that mystery, the poor lost souls might come back. She asks what he’s a cartoon of, because his skin is blue, and he has a nose like a pig. He just says not to make him laugh. The Doctor asks if there is a reason they shouldn’t be making him laugh. The Doctor, realizing something is wrong, tells her to get back. Mr. Ring-a-Ding calls him clever and tells him not to spoil his surprise. The Doctor asks again who he is. Mr. Ring-a-Ding says, “Don’t make me laugh, because it sounds like this,” and then he makes the melodic “giggle” that we’ve heard before on the series.

The scene shows the outside of the building, and some of the letters fall off the marquee, leaving it to say “Harbinger.” The Doctor explains that the gods of chaos have harbingers. Mr. Ring-a-Ding says that he is known as Lux Imperator, the god of light. He is the dazzle at the heart of the Pantheon and the glint in the eyes of the mad. He’s the last thing you see before you fall into the abyss. The Doctor tells her to run. He asks him if he thinks they can escape from him, from light itself.

Suddenly the cartoon of Mr. Ring-a-Ding singing starts playing on the screen behind him, and, having no choice, he starts singing and dancing again. The Doctor realizes that Reginald has done it, because he must stop to sing and dance to the song.

They go up to see Reginald, and he tells them they were supposed to get out. He continues, saying that he couldn’t stop it, but the Doctor wasn’t blaming him, but questions why he plays him movies in the dark. Reginald says that Lux says it feeds him. She asks why he doesn’t just run away, and he says that he showed him so much joy. He was married for twenty years and was so lucky until his wife went to cross the road, and he’s been alone ever since, until Lux came. The Doctor asks him what he did, and he tells him that he brought her back. The scene shifts to show Reginald watching a film of his wife (Jane Hancock) until suddenly he’s dancing with her. She’s  black and white at first like in the film but soon changes to full color. Reginald says to the Doctor not to tell him she’s not really there, because if that thing is real, then so is she.

The song has stopped. Belinda says she wouldn’t worry though, it’s not much of a chase, as Lux struggles up the steps, complaining he was big when he arrived and that he should never have learned perspective. Belinda questions he’s a god, and the Doctor tells her that “it’s all a game to them, but the games are deadly.” He says that there are forces beyond this universe, and they think they are so clever, but they are children, and when these vast creatures deign to look down on them, their entire reality is in danger.

Belinda notices a film strip hanging with fifteen frames, one for each person. The Doctor says that the police searched the building but didn’t look in there. She questions he photographed them, but the Doctor tells her that no, he trapped them in film. The god of light has turned them into an image.

Lux knocks to be let in. The Doctor asks Reginald if he entered the world on the big screen, which he confirms to be the case. Lux slides under the door in 2-D then turns more 3-D again. He questions Reginald is giving away his secrets and says while holding a flame that film stock is flammable and threatens his wife, suggesting she could burn. Reginald cowers and begs him not to do that.

The Doctor asks Lux how he entered the world.

LUX: I’m a two-dimensional character. You can’t expect backstory.

The Doctor says that he knows how the gods work, and he is honor-bound to tell him. Lux says that it’s the chance of moonlight with reflection and electricity. Then, Lux says suddenly, that if he knows so much, he must be the one: the enemy of the Toymaker, the decomposer of Maestro, the killer of the god of death. The Doctor confirms he is and asks how to stop him; he’s bound by the rules to tell him. Lux asks him what it is that he has not done. The Doctor gets upset, because that is a riddle, not an answer. Belinda tells him to let the people go, but he says he’s immortalized them on film and can do the same for them. He turns the projectors at them, and they are suddenly animated.

She asks him what they do, and he says he doesn’t know: he’s got a two-dimensional brain. She says she gets scared being with him and worries he won’t ever get her home, and she suddenly becomes more 3-D. He says she was sad and became more dimensional - she acquired depth. He tries saying he didn’t tell her everything, and that they can’t go back to his planet, because Gallifrey is a ruin and he’s the last of the Time Lords. They keep going. He’s says he’s scared he won’t be able to get her home, and it could mean something really bad has happened in 2025. They turn real again and hug. She asks how they get out of the cartoon, and he says they’ve “been framed,” and they need to break it. They pull down on the frame, spinning the film faster until they have escaped.

A police officer (William Meredith) comes in, followed by Mrs. Lowenstein, and tells them to put their hands up. Belinda challenges they’ve done nothing wrong, but he says they are in a space reserved for whites, and he doesn’t know how things are done in the Caribbean, but they are different here. She’s offended he called her Caribbean. Mrs. Lowenstein says that the Doctor is the troublemaker and knows something. Belinda defends that he offered to help her. The officer asks what he knows. The Doctor just says that their continuity is terrible, because they are in Miami-Dade County, and he’s wearing a uniform of the NYPD and to try harder. They are still inside a film. The Doctor pulls down more frames and tells Belinda that scrolling it up and down won’t work; they need to go out. They walk closer and peer out from the screen. She touches the screen and asks what happens if they push, and the glass falls and shatters. They crawl through and end up in a living room with three people staring at them.

There is a man and two women. Hassan (Samir Arrian) is wearing a shirt that says UNIT and a scarf like the Fourth Doctor. The first woman, Lizzy (Bronté Barbé), is wearing a red fez and Cyberman t-shirt. The third, Robyn (Steph Lacey), who holds a toy sonic screwdriver, is wearing a shirt of the Meep. Behind them, around them, and even on the walls are an assortment of Doctor Who paraphernalia.

The man asks “Doctor, is that you?” Lizzy says that it’s Belinda like “Miss Belinda Chandra!” Belinda questions how she knows that, and the Doctor asks them who they are. Hassan tells him they are their biggest fans. Lizzie is excited and says that it is so “Galaxy Quest.” She hugs the Doctor, and the man hugs Belinda. Robyn says she knew it was going to happen, because it was leaked online. #RIPDoctorWho. After sitting down, the Doctor questions that he is fictional. They explain that they watch him on the TV. Lizzie says she’s seen every episode.

Belinda says she knows she’s real; she can taste her tea, and she can remember her parents. Robyn questions if she means her mother who plays the violin.

The Doctor asks them what their favorite adventure is. All three of them say “Blink,” but he questions that it’s not the “one with the Goblins” and that he even met the Beatles. They won’t budge. He asks, “Not the one where I am standing on a land mine?” referencing “Boom.” Belinda asks what happens in “Blink,” and Hassan says it’s the story where you’re not allowed to blink. Belinda says sarcastically that it sounds like an absolute epic.

Robyn says that the story they are in right now though, is a bit obvious, the ending, telling them out loud that old film stock is explosive. The Doctor says that that won’t work: they can’t blow up Lux, because he’s made of light. She says he’s right, but questions what he doesn’t do. Belinda says they don’t know and to tell them, but they can’t. Belinda says they are annoying, and Lizzie says a lot of people say that, but they don’t care. She then suddenly gets sad, not about that. but that they are wasting their time only because they are actually the ones who aren’t real. Robyn says that they are the kinds of characters that don’t have surnames, part of the trap so Lux can play with their minds. Hassan says that they are cleverer than him though, because they learned from the Doctor, so they worked it out and can set them free. Lizzie says it’s time for them to go back and fight Lux and beat him, for them. The Doctor starts to say there must be something they can do, but they rush them out: it’s time for the third act. Belinda doesn’t understand until the Doctor points out that they will “blink out of existence” once the two of them leave. Hassan says it’s been worth it to meet them. Robyn says that she met her two best friends thanks to them. Lizzie says that maybe now and then they can think of them, and they might live on just a little bit. The Doctor sheds a tear. Lizzie says to go and save the world and that they love them. She pulls down the screen and they are gone. Belinda cries, hugging the Doctor.

Belinda tells him they have to go back and fight Lux and that maybe his life isn’t so mad after all. He says there is only one more thing they can do: they need to stop the film itself. When the celluloid stops, it burns. The heat from the projector is so strong that the reel catches fire. It will either set them free or burn them to death.

The scene changes to show them on the screen. They hold the frame still, and the film burns, and they fall out.  She questions it’s real this time, and he shows her the burn on his hand. She tries to help, but he tells her he’s fine, because Time Lords have their own medicine: bi-generation. It’s left him with a little extra pocket of energy he’s been saving just for that.

Lux shows up and says he likes it. The Doctor says whatever he has planned, he has matched him, so to let Belinda and Reginald go. Lux tells him that he’s the most amazing creation: he has light within him that builds a body. No wonder the gods of the Pantheon fell, because they were saving the Doctor for him. He says, “get him, girls,” and the projectors turn on and film strips come out from the projection both, wrapping around the Doctor’s wrists as Lux says to “reel him in” and “light him up.” Belinda shouts after him as he is pulled to the wall. Lux again asks what the one thing is he never does. The projector goes on and shines on the Doctor and Lux says to let the light of a Time Lord build him a body. Lux questions, doesn’t every cartoon want to be a man? Because that’s what he never does: go outside. He’s trapped in the dark. He says that the great out there holds such promise; he’s seen it. The most savage light of all, the glow of the atom. The regeneration energy flows out of the Doctor and into Lux. He says to think of all the fun he will have: the blossom of a nuclear light unfurling all over this tiny little world.

The Doctor tells Belinda that Lizzie, Hassan, and Robyn told them what to do. They told them the plot. He asks if she trusts him, and she confirms she does now, even if she didn’t before. He says then to trust him now more than ever, because he is a Time Lord. She asks what that means, and he says it means he knows what time it is and to run.

Lux starts to grow. Belinda, as she rushes out of the room, realizes it’s daylight. She tosses the film reels on the floor.

Lux turns three-dimensional.

Belinda goes to Reginald for matches: the whole thing has got to burn. He doesn’t want to help, but then a vision of his wife holds out the matches to him and says that she loves him. He says he misses her, and she says to find her. He takes the matches. He comes out and won’t give them to Belinda, telling her instead to run. She takes off.

Meanwhile, the Doctor’s two hearts beat as the energy pours out of him.

Reginald lights the matches and throws them at the film reels, starting a fire.

Belinda makes it back out into the theater again and yells seeing the Doctor dying, but the flames start to engulf the place, and an explosion knocks the Doctor down from the wall. Sunlight comes through the hole in the wall. Belinda helps the Doctor up. She asks what they’ve done, because Lux feeds off of light. The Doctor says that the sun has two billion times more energy than the biggest nuclear bomb on the planet, and it’s all his. Lux continues to grow as they run outside.

Outside the theater, Logan asks if they saw the explosion. Lux continues to grow. Belinda questions he won’t stop, and the Doctor says that that is the point. He grows beyond the buildings and keeps going, saying “the light of creation” in awe. He grows to the size of the universe and says that he is everything, and he is nothing.

Belinda questions Lux was made of light. The Doctor says that we are 60% water, and we can still drown. That’s why Lux stayed inside. They gave him all the light in the universe, and that’s what he became, light without end. Belinda says he’s actually a god now, infinite, invisible, intangible. The Doctor just says “amen.”

They hear something, and the Doctor breaks the chains on the door. All fifteen missing people come out of the theater. Mrs. Lowenstein rushes to her son. The Doctor tells Belinda that according to the laws of the land, sunlight doesn’t suit them.  She tells him the things they said while they were scared, they are still true, so they will go out and face them together.

Tommy (Cassius Hackforth) questions what happened, as it was night. Logan tells him that was three months ago. Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) comes over and tells them, “if you want to see a good show, darling, I can recommend this one,” and she points to the TARDIS as it disappears. She says she has to warn them though: limited run only; show ends May 24th. Tommy asks how they disappeared like that: it’s like a special effect like the movies. She tells him it’s a trick of the light.

The end credits start, then suddenly, Lizzie says she really loved it, but marks it down to a seven out of ten, because it gave away the ending in the middle, and the villain’s motivation changed. Hassan says that technically, it’s puppets that wanna be boys, not cartoons. The three are shocked they are still there and laugh.