With snot monsters, a spaceship powered by nappies and the bad Beatles, the opening double bill of Ncuti Gatwa’s time as the Doctor is full of fun and frolics … if a little forgettable plotwise
At last we get to see the big bold reimagining we’ve been promised since May 2022 when Ncuti Gatwa was unveiled as the new Doctor. There were a lot of knowing echoes of the last time Russell T Davies reset Doctor Who – and not just in the self-conscious recap of the show’s whole premise that took up a large chunk of Space Babies. We also had a time-travelling phonecall back to mum, a monster made of snot and a spaceship powered by the collective methane of a bunch of space nappies, which called to mind the burping bin and farting Slitheen of the 2005 revival.
Space Babies wore its politics on its sleeve as well, cramming in references to the US abortion debate, immigration and asylum seekers, and with the destruction of the Time Lords and Gallifrey now firmly labelled a genocide.
