The Devil’s Chord is the first time this new era of Doctor Who has picked a villain back up. We just saw the Toymaker in the 60th anniversary, and Maestro is the Toymaker’s kid. So it’s still part of that whole family of gods, whatever they’re called. Didn’t he say his legions were coming? His legions are coming.

This is the second episode of season one, or series 14 everywhere else in the world, with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby, the Doctor’s companion. It was kind of groovy, and I had a good time with it. We watched it together on Mother’s Day and talked it through right after, so that’s what this is.

We spoil the crap out of stuff. If you haven’t seen it yet, go do that first.

A Music Teacher Finds the Chord

They waste no time. In the cold open we’re introduced immediately to Maestro, played by a drag queen, and I thought that opening was so interesting because of who does the summoning.

Normally with stuff like this, it’s someone in the past who’s smart enough to pull it off. You’ve got all these genius people. This guy’s a music teacher. He finds the devil’s chord and it brings Maestro out.

And normally the Doctor lands in the past, things have already started to change, he encounters the person who did it, and they have to somehow reverse it. He did that with Shakespeare, where Shakespeare had to be the only person who could undo the thing. They do that a lot, where the one who did it is the one who has to fix it. Not this episode.

The second Maestro comes out you hear it. The giggle gets called, and literally the next line out of the Doctor is, that was the giggle. So good for you. All the points.

The connections to The Giggle were very good, and this is a new kind of villain we haven’t seen in a long time. A really creative one, too.

Ruby Wants the Beatles

It’s a simple premise. Of all the things in space and time, Ruby decides she wants to see the Beatles record their album, and the Doctor’s genuinely taken aback by it before he finally says, that is amazing. People always want the Titanic or Mars or Bethlehem. He names the famous things everyone wants to go see, and she picked this.

He also continues the practice of referencing people in time that he’s hung out with, and I’m like, right on, good for you. It’s interesting with this Doctor, because his regeneration was so close to these episodes. It’s not like he had any time in between. Other Doctors regenerated, went off, and finally found the companion in whatever the next episode was, so you could sit there and go, okay, there could’ve been a hundred years where this version met somebody. I tend to think he’s referencing the grander scheme of his existence.

The Red Nail Polish

The boy in the beginning, we see him again at the end, and I’m like, that’s the boy. A harbinger.

And there’s a thing from the end of the 60th. When he lost his tooth, a woman picked it up. Somebody with red nail polish. I don’t know if that was Maestro or if we have somebody else coming.

I feel like that’s a dangling participle, because Russell T Davies is known for leaving things for other people to grab on to later. He likes to leave ways in for future writers to be able to play with stuff. So I don’t know. One thing I do know: in a recent interview he promised we aren’t getting the Master. No connection to the Master this season, no current plans to bring the Master back. The Master’s been used ad nauseam at this point. Okay, fair enough. I’m down.

A World With No Music

The point of all of this is that Maestro has stolen music. People have no songs in their hearts. Maestro’s consuming them, and that leaves the world with no music.

Ruby doesn’t understand why it matters, so he takes her to the future to show her. We don’t change it, and this is what we get. And Maestro was waiting, because Maestro recognizes immediately that Ruby’s different. There’s something about Ruby.

They hotfoot it back in the TARDIS to the only place he can go, which is the last place he was. Boom, they show back up at the studio, and this is where Maestro looks haggard.

Maestro wants to trap Ruby and makes her start to sing, and Ruby starts singing something different. Maestro goes, there’s something hidden, you have a song you’re hiding in your heart. It was a Christmas song. And snow, just like that, starts to fall.

This Creature Is Very Wrong

Maestro keeps saying it. She’s broken. This creature is very wrong. She’s not right. That’s a cosmic entity trying to tell the Doctor something, and I think the Doctor takes it to heart, because at the end of the other episode he’d already turned on this biometric scanner thing. Matt Smith did the same with his companion a few times when he thought something wasn’t right. This Doctor’s trying to figure her out. Ruby doesn’t add up.

Last episode, when Ruby says she wants to go home, the Doctor gives her a key. And he says to her, I can’t ever take you back there, because if I take you there something’s going to break, something’s going to go wrong, and we’re going to end up with the horrible, darkest of paradoxes.

He speaks with the gravity of a Time Lord. That’s always the sign of a good Doctor for me, when a Doctor can really pull on that and seem like the thunderhead underneath the goofy immortal idiot.

Not Having a Look Is the Look

By the way, new outfit again. He doesn’t have a look. Or that is his look, not having a look. As soon as they had the opportunity to go to the wardrobe he was like, oh, we’re doing this.

Most Doctors have one or two outfits. The Ninth Doctor would change his jumper and that was it. Matt Smith had the same suit and changed his bow tie, maybe, the blue one or the red one. So if having fashion sense is a characteristic of this Doctor, that’s kind of cool. I’m down.

I’ll say it again like I said for the last episode: they’re definitely laying the groundwork for a new generation. What an opportunity, to have a Doctor you can cosplay any way you want. Are you dressed nicely? Done. Or maybe get the jacket. I know there’s a website that tracks the outfits people wear, and the jacket’s an actual one that can be purchased commercially, not a Doctor Who costume thing. He’s wearing designer stuff. Very cool.

Also, in the 60s he had an afro. I like that one. Super groovy.

It Takes a Musical Genius

We did get to see the Beatles, but I think the Beatles were a misdirect. I thought it was going to be like some classic episodes, where the Doctor’s running around with them the whole time. They do play into it later.

It takes a musical genius to banish Maestro, because it took a musical genius to release them. The Doctor tries, and he almost gets it right, but he screws up at the end. So what does Maestro do? Kicks the piano out into the hallway. And who’s waiting out there? John and Paul McCartney. Not the real ones, obviously. But it’s so cool. You can see the notes magically floating in the air, they manage to find the final note, and poof, Maestro’s getting banished.

The Doctor clearly knows there’s something going on with Ruby, and I think we all do too. There’s a Christmas song locked in her heart.

The Verdict

Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord lands at an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

I asked for the number across from me first and got an 8.5. I think that’s fair. I gave it an 8.5 too. I did like the last episode’s story more, but I gave this one a half point just for how fun it was.

There’s dancing. And why would I bury this: at the very end the Doctor breaks the fourth wall, winks at us, and it becomes a musical number. It’s hilarious.

Early on I could see there’s money in this, because they play real songs associated with the 60s. Past Doctor Who had to use discount cover versions of things. Overall I was really impressed with it, and I’m excited for next week too. It looks like it’s going to be fun.

What did you think of The Devil’s Chord, and who do you think picked up that tooth? Let me know. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.