What a lovely exploration of African gods, the tradition of storytelling, and Nigerian culture as a whole. And the idea that our “villain” is a mortal who was used by the gods for his stories, desperate to regain control not only over the tales that he lost to them but to make a name for himself out in the pantheon of gods (there’s definitely an AI allegory there as well – a “god” that eats the stories of normal people and repurposes them for its own use without offering a bit of credit to those who wrote them) is a different story with roots still in old tales from mythology. There are plenty of stories of gods tricking mortals into revealing something only to take that piece of information and use it as their own. Strong writing, powerful performances, a great episode.
Now, as someone who checked out of Doctor Who mid-way through Matt Smith’s run in the title role (one too many dips into the Weeping Angel well by Steven Moffat turned me off the series), I have to admit I needed to do a bit of research to understand the connection between The Doctor and Abena – just who was that woman who popped in to share the story of how she left Abena behind after winning her hand in marriage in a game? Well, in case you didn’t come back into the Who fold until recently, that was apparently the Fugitive Doctor, who appeared in the Timeless Child arc during the Thirteenth Doctor’s (that would be Jodie Whitaker’s version when Chris Chibnall ran the show) run. I don’t really have time to get into that (apparently very controversial) storyline, but this was a nice hat tip to that part of The Doctor’s past – and another way to continue to canonize something that divided a chunk of the fanbase.
As for how this story fits into the larger tapestry we’ve been exploring with the Fifteenth Doctor’s run, it slots in nicely around the various gods The Doctor has gone up against over the last season and a half. We’ve seen him going toe-to-toe with major and minor gods, besting each and every one. But it was a good reminder to see that he’s not the only entity in the universe who has run ins with these larger-than-life beings (I did get a chuckle out of the various mundane things The Doctor has gotten up to with gods when they aren’t trying to destroy him and Earth). As with all stories about gods, they are more than willing to mess with mortals of all stripes, taking from them what they want and leaving them broken and wishing they hadn’t helped the gods at all. It was also interesting to see how a desire for vengeance led a mortal to imitate the very gods he wants to take down. While the barber felt used and discarded by the gods, he was more than willing to do the same to the men in that barbershop – using their stories as the fuel to help him achieve his revenge.
If there’s one universal truth about stories of revenge, it is that once enacted, it will leave the person seeking it feeling just as empty and bereft as when they set out to achieve their revenge. And we could easily see that the barber was heading down that exact path. From kidnapping those men to trying to rope The Doctor into his scheme, he was becoming no better than the gods who placed him in that position. A great moral to a beautifully realized story. Yes, we didn’t really move the season arc along all that much – save for additional bonding between The Doctor and Belinda – but this was such a lovely episode I’m not all that frustrated by that (although we did get yet another Mrs. Flood cameo, this time at the hospital with Belinda). I’m all for a serialized story, but these small asides that are rich with cultural touch points, excellent storytelling, and strong performances are more than worth the deviation in my book.
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