Space Babies

There’s never such thing as monsters, they’re just creatures you haven’t met yet.

The Fifteenth Doctor

Warning: This review contains spoilers. For my spoiler-free review, click here. Otherwise, come back once you’ve watched Space Babies!

Synopsis

Ruby learns the Doctor’s amazing secrets when he takes her to the far future. There they find a baby farm run by babies. But can they be saved from the terrifying bogeyman?

Review

We’re back with the Doctor and Ruby and pick up straight off from where we left them at the end of The Church on Ruby Road and it is good to have them back. We’re off to the far future and a space station for the first part of this story.

Space Babies does have a lot of heavy lifting to do in establishing the show for a new audience. Of course, Russell T Davies has history of doing this, having rebooted the show in 2005 with Rose, and Series One generally, and Space Babies owes a lot to those stories. There are a few nods to The End of the World, especially when the Doctor and Ruby stand in front of that view window and in Ruby’s call to Carla, which echoes Rose’s call to Jackie. On the other hand, Space Babies also revels in the fact that Doctor Who has been an ongoing series since 2005, so it almost feels as though the new audience just needs to accept things and get onboard. We get mentions of the Rani, the fact that the Doctor is a foundling and the existence of Gallifrey and the genocide of its people. It’s the show almost setting out its groundwork and it feels although the cards are well and truly on the table for the new viewers. The story is wise to keep the Doctor and Ruby moving throughout this, as whilst this is all information that is old hat to longstanding fans, it’s quite heavy and mixed up with moments of humour, like the stepping on the butterfly sequence in pre-historic times or the Nan-E filter. There is also a good message about refugees, which is what the Space Babies are, and the fact that they have to get to a place of safety, rather than that place of safety reaching out to them and the station being abandoned due to a recessions, but the baby creating process was not shut down.

Ultimately though, the plot is light and whilst the twist about the station creating not only the titular babies but the Bogeyman is clever but perhaps not entirely original. The idea of a space station being crewed entirely by babies is amusing and enjoyable, even if the CGI for their mouth movements is not quite right and there are moments where the babies’ facial expressions really do not match how they are supposed to be feeling. As a relatively new parent, I know how difficult it is to get them to smile on cue, so this is definitely unfair criticism and I do not think babies talking will ever look entirely organic. I did not like the editing around the Bogeyman, with the mixture of security footage and seemingly glimpsed shots of this foe, which make it difficult to really feel as though you ever really know what they look like until the scenes where Jocelyn is trying to eject the creature out of the airlock. It feels as though the story has been cut down unnecessarily, which effectively means that the Bogeyman’s ultimate fate feels rushed. The story draws parallels between the creature and the Doctor, stating that they are both the only ones of their kind, but the Space Babies are not shown finding that out. It is not explained as to why they have suddenly gone from being terrified at the mere mention of the name to imploring Jocelyn not to kill it.

I’ve read a lot of online discourse about how Russell T Davies has changed as a writer, but the denouement of Space Babies does nothing to convince me of that. The toilet humour involved in this story definitely reminded me of the farting Slitheen in Downing Street in Aliens of London and World War Three. That’s something that I didn’t like about Russell T Davies’ original run and it’s something that I still can’t get onboard with all these years later. I think it’s a case of personal taste really, as I’m sure I’ll be coming across as really humourless, but perhaps it’s because a pile of dirty nappies just fills me with existential dread! Ultimately though, as a series opener, Space Babies feels as though it is definitely in the middle of those we’ve had in the modern era.

The episode’s strength is definitely the performances of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, who have really great chemistry. They caught and kept my attention from the first moment and the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby have a lot of promise moving forward. Gatwa has had more screen time than some of his predecessors by the time they get to the start of their first proper season, but he does feel established. There is clearly a mystery about Ruby’s origins and some of the better scenes are between the two of them, like when the Doctor starts to put connections together and then we have the snow. I’m intrigued to see where this is all going with her and what her origins could be.

Verdict: Space Babies might not be the best opening episode but it does its job effectively. Gatwa and Gibson are great together. 6/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Golda Rosheuvel (Jocelyn Sancere), Michelle Greenidge (Carla Sunday), Angela Wynter (Cherry Sunday), Mason McCumskey (Eric), Sami Amber (Voice of Eric), Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps (Poppy), Shola Olaitan-Ajiboye (Voice of Poppy), Cadence Williams (Voice of Sandra), Param Patel (Voice of Marcel), Lonnee Archibong (Voice of Adjani), Jesus Reyes Ortiz (Rico Trieste), Yasmine Bouabid (Lucia Colasanto), Susan Twist (Gina Scalzi) &  Robert Strange (Bogeyman).

Writer: Russell T Davies

Director: Julie Anne Robinson

Producer: Vicki Delow

Composer: Murray Gold

Original Broadcast Date: 11 May 2024

Behind the Scenes

• The first episode featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday not to be a special.

Cast Notes

• Golda Rosheuvel previously appeared in Torchwood as Dr Angela Connolly in Dead Man Walking and Exit Wounds.

Best Moment

I really like the flashback to The Church on Ruby Road

Best Quote

How do you keep going?

For days like this, Ruby Sunday. I don’t have a people, I don’t have a home…But I don’t have a job either. I don’t have a boss, or taxes, or rent, or bills to pay. I don’t have a purpose, or a cause, or a mission, but I have…freedom. That’s why I keep moving on, to see the next thing, and the next and the next. And sometimes…it looks even better through your eyes.

Ruby Sunday and the Fifteenth Doctor

Previous Fifteenth Doctor review: The Church on Ruby Road