The Devil’s Chord

I can’t fight this.

The Fifteenth Doctor

This review contains spoilers. For my spoiler free review, click here.

Synopsis

The Doctor and Ruby meet The Beatles but discover that the all-powerful Maestro is changing history. London becomes a battleground with the future of humanity at stake.

Review

The Devil’s Chord is a story that masquerades as a celebrity historical, whilst it is actually much more significant. It brings us face to face with one of the first of the Toymaker’s legions, teased in The Giggle, in the form of Maestro.

The story centres around the absence of music, caused by the God Maestro, which leads to a decline in humanity’s fortunes. Russell T Davies’ story states that this ultimately leads to a nuclear winter, which we see through a sequence that harks back to Pyramids of Mars, where Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor does something very similar when Sarah maintains that the Earth didn’t end before she was born. I really like the concepts behind this episode, even if it is not the celebrity historical that it would appear to be on its surface. It’s nice to see the show continue to be inventive and enjoyed the majority of this episode. The story explores what would happen if music was removed from the world, which removes all colour and joy from the world, which contrasts two scenes on the rooftop of the EMI Studios at the beginning and end of the story really nicely.

I am a big fan of The Beatles, so was quite excited about having a show set around them, however, they do not feature as much as would be expected and in fact, George and Ringo do not feature very much at all and there is no Beatles music at all. The closest we get is possibly Paul McCartney’s song about his dog, which is a precursor to Martha My Dear. I think that the overall story is a good enough way of getting around the latter though. The conversations that the Doctor and Ruby have with Paul McCartney and John Lennon during the tea break is one of the highlights of the episode, and I did quite like the fact that Lennon and McCartney were crucial to this story’s conclusion by completing the chords of banishment. Despite not using any of their music, it may have been a nice touch to have had Lennon and McCartney play the iconic E-chord from the end of A Day In The Life rather than a seemingly random one.

I do have a problem with the musical number at the end of the story. Whilst I appreciate what the story is trying to do in the conclusion, celebrating the return of music to the world, but I really felt as though this bit did not work at all. The song is not strong enough and the choreography is not good enough either. I like musicals and do not object to songs entering into Doctor Who but I think that they need to be better than ‘There’s Always A Twist at the End’. I like Murray Gold’s music generally but I feel like he can’t write things like this. It feels like an afterthought and left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of this story, which I really enjoyed otherwise. I think that after The Goblin’s Song and now this, the show should avoid this for a little while now. This felt more self-indulgent though, with the cameos from Murray Gold and two people from Strictly Come Dancing. It is a shame really considering what a strong job Ben Chessell does of directing this story that this last bit does let the episode down.

Jinkx Monsoon is not someone who I was familiar with prior to her casting in Doctor Who, but she puts in an absolute show-stealing performance here and steals the show from under the noses of Gatwa and Gibson. Maestro is the daughter of the Toymaker and the God of the essence of music, feasting on the music not being made, and feels quite terrifying. As they want toThe cold open and scenes where they kill the old lady who plays Claire de Lune on her piano are really sinister and they are marvellously over the top throughout. I’m not sure whether we will see Maestro again given the conclusion of the story, but I would welcome it.

The Doctor’s reaction to Maestro really helps sell them as a genuine and quantifiable threat to the Doctor more genuinely, although it is worth mentioning that this follows on from the Doctor noting that he was afraid of the Bogeyman in Space Babies. The fear in the last story was being artificially created by the Bogeyman, whilst Maestro is more deserving of that fear. Given that the Doctor was only able to defeat the Toymaker with the assistance of his predecessor, the terror that Gatwa shows when he and Ruby hear the Giggle before the God of Music appears feels completely justified.

The dynamic between the Doctot and Ruby continues to shine. There is a time jump between those two stories, which I admittedly missed the first time around, as Ruby is stated to be from June 2024 which implies that they have been travelling together for a little while now. I love Gatwa and Gibson’s enthusiasm when they decide to go to 1963 to see The Beatles recording their first album and their reactions when neither they nor Cilla are producing good music. There is also a really lovely moment when the Doctor talks about the fact that he is living in London at this time in Shoreditch, which leads to the Doctor telling Ruby about Susan. I really liked the musical number that Ruby performed on the roof of Abbey Road which felt really powerful. We get more mystery about her origins here, which are intriguing but I hope we get some hint of where this is going soon.

Verdict: I really like the majority of The Devil’s Chord, with the exception of the song at the end. 8/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Jinkx Monsoon (Maestro), Jeremy Limb (Timothy Drake), Kit Rakusen (Henry), Sherinne Kayra Anderson (Tea Trolley Lady), Ed White (George Martin), George Caple (Paul McCartney), Chris Mason (John Lennon), Philip Davies (George Harrison), James Hoyles (Ringo Starr), Chan Shoker (Studio Producer), Josie Sedgwick-Davies (Cilla Black), Susan Twist (Tea Lady), Simon Jason-Smith (Vinnie), Laura June Hudson (Elderly Woman), Murray Gold (Himself), Shirley Ballas (Herself) and Johannes Radebe (Himself).

Writer: Russell T Davies

Director: Ben Chessell

Composer: Murray Gold

Original Broadcast Date: 11th May 2024

Behind the Scenes

• The Beatles previously featured in The Chase, as part of the opening sequence on the time-space visualiser. This featured footage of the band on Top of the Pops, which ensured that the footage of them performing survived as other performances had been wiped.
• The story is partially set on 11th February 1963, the day on which the Beatles entered the EMI Studios to record their first album, Please Please Me.

Cast Notes

• June Hudson was a costume designer for Doctor Who during the late Tom Baker era and designed the plum costume the Fourth Doctor wore and his scarf. She had previously been in consideration to appear in Mummy on the Orient Express.
• Jeremy Limb is the son of Roger Limb, who composed music for Doctor Who storied including Terminus, Black Orchid and The Caves of Androzani.

Best Moment

I really loved the silent sequence. It was two minutes of pure tension with effective story telling.

Best Quote

Previous Fifteenth Doctor review: Space Babies