Following the review is a detailed recap. Both contain spoilers for 2.05, “The Story & The Engine.”

The fifth episode of the season of Doctor Who, “The Story & The Engine,” just dropped on Disney Plus. In the episode, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) visits his old friend, Omo (Sule Rimi), who runs a barbershop in Lagos, however, upon entering a place where stories hold real power, he discovers that a mysterious figure known only as the Barber (Ariyon Bakare) has taken over, and no one is able to leave.

This week’s episode of the series touched on themes of belonging and community, which is universal and relevant and I enjoyed. Overall, story-wise it was interesting, and I liked it, because was a novel idea, and the notion of stories actually having true power was a unique concept, and visually bringing them to life the way they did on the screen was smart. Adding in the regrowing hair, though a bit silly, made sense with the plot and was unexpected. The creature was also very different, and I appreciated how they incorporated both African culture as well as various gods into the story. Although I’m not quite sure we needed another storyline involving the gods, this one was done in a way we haven’t seen, and I’m really curious to see why some of the barber’s “stories” involved the Doctor and what that actually means. I also really liked how this time, by the end of the episode, the villain was able to change, as was not the case last week, so it was fun to mix it up.

That being said, I have a couple problems with the episode. The main point, which is a big one, is that once again Belinda (Varada Sethu) was sidelined. We are only getting eight episodes this season and have not had much time to get to know Belinda as a companion, and once again, she was cut out of the episode almost entirely, and it’s becoming a problem. The writers want us to connect with her and her relationship with the Doctor, and viewers need the time to do that.

The other thing that irked me a bit was the Doctor’s friendship with Omo. The scene where the Doctor realized he betrayed him was emotional and played well, but the scene at the end did not, in my opinion. While I do get that the Doctor forgives people and therefore wasn’t surprised that he did, the way the scene played out at the end of the episode didn’t work for me. I bought that he was hurt earlier in the episode, but the way he just brushed it off in the end felt disingenuous.

Other than those things I mentioned, I overall was fairly pleased with the ambitious episode; however, those things meant it was good rather than great like it could have been, and with such short seasons, we need more great.

RECAP

A man named Omo tells a story while he’s getting a haircut at the barbershop of when he was a boy and there was a fire destroying the forest. On the interior of the window is an animation of a village on fire that changes as he talks. He says that suddenly there was a man in a blue box who put out the fire and scattered seeds who went by the name the Doctor.

He, along with three other men in the room, stare at the red light on the wall until it goes out and the green light comes on. The one man, Tunde (Jordan Adene), questions that he is sure the Doctor will come, and Omo tells him that yes, he always comes when he is needed.

Suddenly the red light goes back on and an alarm goes off, and the room shakes. Tunde says that they need the Doctor now, because it needs feeding.

Meanwhile, Belinda tells the Doctor that he needs to get her home, and he tells her he is doing all he can. Suddenly he gets an idea and wonders why he didn’t think of it before. They can boost the Vindicator if they go to Lagos, Nigeria, because it has the largest communications technology market in Africa. Plus, it’s near Omo’s Palace, his favorite barbershop. He tells her about meeting his friend Omo during a fire. Belinda questions that the TARDIS does his hair, which it does, but says he doesn’t go there for haircuts. As they land in 2019 and he takes a reading with the Vindicator, he explains that his body changes a lot. This is the first time he has had this black body, and some parts of the world treat him differently, but in Africa, in that barbershop, he’s accepted and able to forget; they treat him like one of their own. She tells him that although he may not be human, that is the most human thing and to go ahead and visit and take as long as he needs. She stays behind in the TARDIS.

The Doctor walks through the market talking to the locals, until he gets to an empty alley where he sees a sign that says to turn back. On the walls of the buildings are missing persons posters, including one for Omo. He continues until he gets to the shop, using his sonic screwdriver to scan the door.

Meanwhile, inside, Omo’s hair has grown back, and Obioma (Michael Balogun) is telling a story while he gets his own hair cut. The Doctor enters and the door slams behind him. At the same time, the cloister bells go off and everything goes red in the TARDIS. Omo says that he told them the Doctor would come. The light changes to green. The Doctor greets Omo but then notices that Obioma and the other two men, Rashid (Stefan Adegbola) and Tunde, are from the missing posters outside.

The Doctor comments on the state of the place, saying that Omo’s standards have slipped, but he says that it’s not him; there is new management. The Barber welcomes the Doctor and says that he’s been expecting him. The Doctor asks him why the street is deserted, why Obioma isn’t leaving, and why they are on the missing posters. The Barber tells him that no one can leave. Obioma says that he is the all-knowing Doctor who is supposed to save them but doesn’t know anything. The Doctor asks what he’s supposed to save them from.

The light turns red, and the alarm goes off again. The Barber asks who is next. Obioma’s hair regrows, and Tunde says that they are running out of stories. Rashid gets in the chair and tells a story, and the light turns green. The Doctor is impressed by the images on the window and says that the drawings are a visual interpretation of the story. He starts listing aliens he has met, but Omo tells him he needs to be getting a cut for it to work; it’s all connected, the windows, chairs, and clippers. The Barber tells the Doctor that he must tell a story and feed it; it’s always hungry. The Doctor asks who is hungry, and Tunde tells him that the Barber and his assistant, Abby (Michelle Asante), control it.

Abby enters bringing food and shuts the door, and the TARDIS alarm goes off again. Belinda tries to talk to the TARDIS.

The Doctor says that he recognizes Abby, but he doesn’t know from where. She scoffs and walks off. The Doctor asks what he did, and Rashid tells him that they know who he is and calls him an intergalactic busybody Time Lord, the last of his kind. Omo admits he told them about the Doctor. How could he not? He’s the greatest story he knows. The Doctor asks why he knows Abby’s face. Tunde says that she told him that they both used to work for her father, but he was mean, so they left. Now they are keeping them there until they reach their destination.

Omo tells him that the Barber turned up one day and offered to give him a haircut in his own shop. He thought it was a nice thing, so he agreed. He brought out his own clippers, and as soon as they touched him, a sort of current ran through the whole shop, and like magic, like witchcraft. It seemed to transfer itself, its soul, to the Barber. He tried to leave but his keys didn’t work. He tried to stop his clients, but the shop demanded a select few. The ones who loved the place pushed in. He has known the men there for decades, and they are like sons to him. Each of them tell the Doctor how they came to be there and who they have waiting for them at home.

The alarm goes off again. The Barber comes out and asks who’s next. The Doctor tells them they don’t have to say anything and that he will speak. When he gets in the chair and the Barber puts the cape around him, the Doctor cannot get up and struggles. The Barber tells him to tell a story. The Doctor says he’s changed his mind. Omo tells him to tell a big story, it will be easier for him.

The Doctor tells them that they want a story about Weeping Angels and Ice Warriors, but nothing is more vivid than an ordinary life. He tells them a story about Belinda and how hard she works as a nurse. The men are surprised that his pictures on the window are alive (ie a video rather than drawings). She is ready to leave for the day when the doctor calls her in to take a woman’s vitals. She notices something the doctors didn’t and tells them how to treat her. Two weeks later when leaving work, she is greeted by Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) and the woman she saved, who stops to give her flowers for saving her life.

The light turns green. Abby says that the batteries are full, the fullest they’ve been since the early days. The Doctor gets up and is weak. Omo helps him, telling him that the first time is the hardest, and that from now on it will be as easy as getting a haircut. The Doctor’s hair grows back. The Barber tells Omo that he was right: the Doctor’s stories alone can super-power the engine. Omo tells the Barber he can let them all go now. Abby tells the Barber that they will get there sooner, and he can finally take the throne and rule fairly. He tells her he must recalibrate the engine and check the stasis field for structural damage because of the raw power. Abby uses a remote to seal the door and then goes in the back with the Barber.

The alarm goes off again in the TARDIS. Belinda tells the TARDIS to locate the origin, and it shows her a picture of the barbershop. She rushes out into the street and through the market.

The Doctor questions that Omo planned this, and he says that he has to get the men home. The Doctor asks him if he means because he has no home, he is more expendable. He says that their families need them, and the Doctor says that he thinks because he has none that he doesn’t matter.  Omo tells him that he has stories, and that is all he was thinking of. The Doctor tells him that he loved the shop; he loved him. He thought it was a home for him and he was safe. The Doctor is upset and tells them that the Barber isn’t there now so to open the door and go. They tell him that they can’t, because there is nowhere to go; it’s different from inside. The Doctor goes to the door, and Omo tries to stop him. The Doctor gets upset and tells him not to ever talk to him again. He trusted him with both of his hearts. He uses his sonic on the door as the men freak out, worried about what will happen. He opens it, and the alarm goes off, and they all grab onto something as they are pulled towards the door, the Doctor hanging onto the door frame. Outside all around is a web in outer space. The camera pulls back to show the building is on the back of a huge spider wearing a tribal mask. The Doctor makes it back inside and slams the door. The Barber and Abby come back out.

Meanwhile, Belinda walks down the alley and sees the signs warning of danger. She sees a giggling child who waves at her. She then notices the missing posters. She continues on to the barbershop.

The Barber tells the Doctor that the shop is in outer space and in Lagos at the same time and explains that the structure he saw is the Nexus. There is a time-space compressor that goes between the two places that is built into the doorframe that only lets him and Abby out, and he controls it. The Doctor asks where they are going, but he tells him he will find out soon enough.

Belinda enters the shop, and the door shuts. The Doctor hugs her, saying that it took her long enough and that he knows the alarms must have been going off in the TARDIS.

Abby knows she is the nurse from his story and asks if she is his companion and if he left her behind and told her to wait. Belinda tells her that she told the Doctor to go. She then realizes they are all missing and asks the Doctor who they are, which he says he’s still figuring out.

The Doctor insults the Barber. They are all scared of him, and he hides his identity like a coward, a troll on the web. He announces that they will leave there, because there is nothing he can do; he has no real power. The Barber questions he wants to know who he is and tells the Doctor he goes by many names. As he tells the story and cuts his own hair, the window shows images again. He says he was Anansi, the man-spider, as well as other gods that he lists. He says he has been them all, in many cultures, in many worlds, in many incarnations. He says that it doesn’t matter what he is called, it matters who he is and what he does. The Doctor questions he was all those Story Lords. Belinda is also suspicious that he was all those gods, and then they both start laughing at him. The Doctor says that he is lying. He met those he talked about, including Anansi, who purposefully lost a bet to make him marry one of his daughters. He knows the gods, and he is not them. The Doctor asks him who he really is. He says that he was the one behind them all. He was once human. Whenever they told stories, the storytelling gods would grow in power. The gods needed to strengthen their bonds with humanity. He told their myths and legends and printed them, so the gods could be worshipped. They only exist now because of him and his work. He also built the Nexus. He explains that he wanted something like the brain that could expand and make connections between ideas. He took a strand of their god’s blood and essence and built a model, a web-like structure that they expanded to what they all saw outside, cross-connecting concepts, cultures, and ideas. The Doctor asks him how he collected the stories. He continues cutting his own hair as he tells him that he started small: a pub lit by candles, a Catholic church confession box, a coal-powered theater, an electric cinema, a space opera. Among the images on the window is an image of Pilazzo (see episode 202), complete with TARDIS, and a rocket that looks similar to what Belinda was taken away on in the premiere. He continues that he had the idea to power the vehicle with the stories themselves. He worked for centuries, and all he wanted was to be recognized. They told him that he should know his place. He primed the Nexus so well, that it worked without him, so they threw him out, and all he salvaged was his Story Engine. He says that he will have vengeance.

The spider stops moving, and Abby says that the engine burned too much energy holding them together when the Doctor forced the door open. Typical Doctor, irresponsible.

Suddenly the Doctor recognizes who Abby is. She is actually named Abena, the daughter of Anansi. She tells him that he is not worthy to speak her name. She grew up trapped with her father, terrified someone would win her in a bet. She heard about him traveling through time and had faith he would help, but instead he left her and humiliated her. He tells her that he is sorry he couldn’t take her with him. He remembers himself as the Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin) and tells her that he was a fugitive back then, that her father was wrong to offer that bet, and he was busy in a different story that might be finished one day. Belinda questions he took the bet, but he tells her that he tried to lose it.

When the Doctor asks where they are going, the Barber reveals they are traveling to the heart of the Nexus. Abby says that they are going to install the shop there and make him storyteller supreme, a trustworthy and careful god. The Doctor questions he told her that, knowing he is lying, because that would make him everything he hates and despises.

The Doctor eventually gets him to tell him his plan, and he says it’s to cut all of the gods out of memory. The Doctor says that severing the gods from the story web, cutting them from their essence, will kill them. Belinda points out it would kill Abena’s father, and the Barber tells her that that is his gift to her, because of what her father did. The Doctor says that humans are tied to the gods; destroying them would harm the very essence of humanity. He questions the others knew about the plan, but they didn’t. The Barber tells the Doctor to sit and talk as the alarm is going off again. Tunde tries to convince him to sit, because they want to get back home to their families, but the Doctor says he can’t help the Barber do it. Belinda tells Abena that hurt people hurt people. She knows her father hurt her, but the difference between good and evil is what we do with that pain.

The Doctor promises he will get them home, but Obioma and Rashid ignore him, forcing him into the chair as he struggles. Abena suddenly yells for them all to stop. She says that she will tell a story. She tells the Doctor to please trust her. He sits down and she braids his hair as she tells her tale. She says that in the time of slavery and deep suffering, the slaves who escaped would go back to try to free others. Slaves were not allowed to carry paper and were always searched, but the women were clever. They could make their hair into shapes and patterns and in one style it could be braided to the scalp, curving like roads or paths, so the women would weave maps into their hair and pass it on. The slave masters never checked their hair, so they shared the routes like that and escaped to freedom. She finishes with his hair.

The Doctor uses the sonic to make the lights go out and tells Belinda to follow him. They rush out the door into the back. Abena gave him the map to their freedom. He feels the braids to know which way they need to go, and they weave their way through the hallways.

The barber, angry she did this, tells Abena he is revoking her access and uses his remote on the front door. She says he lied to her for years. He says he will handle the others and chases after them.

The Doctor and Belinda follow the map to a door. Inside is a room with a bunch of artifacts from different cultures as well as the Story Engine, which is emitting whispers and looks like a huge brain. It is covered with masks, one of which screams. The “brain” opens up like a tree. Inside is a beating electronic heart that opens at his touch.

The Barber is getting closer, and the Doctor tells Belinda to go to the control desk and start ripping out all the wires. He needs to disrupt the flow of power, so he uses his sonic on the heart.

The Barber comes in and rushes over to look at the controls and tells them that they have done nothing; they are still on track. He will cut the gods off, and they will shrivel up and die. Belinda questions he did everything to kill them, and he tells her they deserve it. She tells him that’s rubbish; it’s his ego.

The Doctor asks if he wants to hear a story. Belinda tells him not to give him any more power, but the Doctor says it’s really short. He met Hemingway and challenged him to see how good he was, telling him to write the shortest story he could, which he wrote in six words. The Doctor then tells the Barber his own short story: “I’m born. I die. I’m born.” More energy is fed i to the machine. The Barber asks him how he is giving it power when he’s not connected to him. The Doctor tells him that the engine is connected to himself, his stories, his voice. He tells him to look, and the televisions that are around start going on, each showing a clip of a different incarnation of the Doctor. He tells him that his body is like a barbershop: all of them inside, telling their stories, bickering. He will not fail them. The videos are also playing on the window in the front room. The alarm starts going off.

The Barber laughs that he told a never-ending story and gave him never-ending power. Belinda tells him that he’s taken out a third of the engine; he can’t process that power. The engine could overload and explode, and they will all be sucked into space. The Barber questions the Doctor would do that, because the stories say he protects life. The Doctor tells him that that is what he is doing. If he destroys the gods, he wrecks seven billion lives. It’s between seven billion or them. He says that he controls the engine, but the Barber controls the doors and to let them out. He was once mortal. Their lives and stories will end because of him and asks if he wants that. The Barber finally takes out the control and unlocks the front door. The Doctor tells Belinda that the shop is compressing, so the corridor is now a straight line and for her to go; he’ll be behind her.

The others go through a portal in the front door into the outside world while the Doctor stays with the Barber and asks him what his six word story, the essence of his life, would be. He wants him to live long enough to write it and not to let it be how his story ends.

Belinda eventually goes through the door, yelling for the Doctor, and he comes out with the Barber at the last moment. He uses his sonic and the spider is sucked in as the door closes. The spider explodes.

Tunde thanks the Doctor for keeping his promise, then turns to Abena and says that the Doctor rescued them, but she kept them alive. He, Rashid, and Obioma bow before her. She tells them to rise and to go to their families.

The Doctor talks to the Barber, who says that all he wanted was to be credited for his work. He spent his entire existence serving the gods and asks what he will do now. He tells him to do what he does best, keep collecting stories and start his own barbershop. Omo says that there is no need, as he is retiring. He tells the Doctor that he thought he could handle anything. The Doctor says he can, because he looks after him too. Omo says that he should have protected him and that he’s sorry. The Doctor says he’s sorry too, and they hug.

Omo offers to help the Barber up. He tells Omo he doesn’t belong there or even have a name for people to trust, and Omo tells him to use his father’s name. The Barber thanks him and says he doesn’t deserve the kindness.

Belinda asks Abena what she will do now, and she says anything she wants. Belinda says she understands if she hates the Barber, but Abena says that she won’t have that in her heart, and repeats what Belinda said before, “hurt people hurt people.” She says imagine that a mortal is teaching a god life lessons.

The Barber puts back on his jacket and the Doctor says he will be back for a haircut and for the six-word story and wishes him luck. Abena leaves, and the Barber goes back into the shop.

As they walk through the market, Belinda asks the Doctor if he saw a child and tells him about the spooky kid she saw. He tells her that he didn’t see anything, but the stories were leaking out, getting mixed up. As they enter the TARDIS, she tells him that he has to tell her about Omo.