Lux

I’m a two-dimensional character, you can’t expect back story!

Lux

Synopsis

The Doctor’s quest to get Belinda home takes the TARDIS to Miami in 1952, where an abandoned cinema is hiding a terrifying secret. Can the Doctor uncover Lux’s power?

Review

The obvious starting point in comparing this story is to The Devil’s Chord. Both stories introduce a member of the Pantheon of Gods, first introduced by the Toymaker in The Giggle. They are both bold as a result and trying to touch on territory that Doctor Who has shied away from in the past. Whilst I enjoyed The Devil’s Chord, with the exception of the song at the end, I feel that Lux is much more competently delivered. Perhaps that’s by virtue of coming after The Devil’s Chord and the events of the last series.

Set around the mystery of the disappearance of 15 people at the Palazzo movie theatre in Miami, Lux takes place in a time of segregation. I think Russell T Davies tackles this well, having it acknowledged and respecting that the audience will know what it means. The characters in the story, apart from those in a simulation by Lux, seem happy to bend the rules slightly. The cinema and diner are both segregated spaces, but neither Logan, Mrs Lowenstein nor Reginald Pye seem to be that bothered about enforcing it. Davies gives the Doctor a decent speech about how it’s something that’s almost too big for him to fix, which I felt showed a very mature approach to it.

There’s a lot to like about Lux, but Russell T Davies does do a good job of conveying the effect of loss on those left behind. Mrs Lowenstein states that she will sit and wait for her son, Tommy Lee, forever when she speaks to the Doctor and Belinda in the diner, whilst the cinema that robbed her of her son looms in the background. The projectionist turned caretaker, Reginald Pye, stays in the cinema running movies at night in order to feed Lux, just so that he can have more time with his dead wife. It’s all really rather well observed, and whilst it is not the focus of the story, Davies captures these well. His writing focuses more on the impact on other humans than either Steven Moffat or Chris Chibnall’s, and I think it’s a real strength of Davies’ writing.

There is one element of this episode which I am sure will be controversial; the section where the Doctor and Belinda literally break the fourth wall and climb into the living room of Doctor Who fans. Doctor Who has always been meta about the show existing within the continuity of Doctor Who; in Remembrance of the Daleks, for instance, the story cuts away from a television show just about to show a new science fiction programme on 23rd November 1963. This feels like a more explicit, and potentially more confusing moment, as we are told that they are manifestations of Lux and destroyed once the Doctor moves on, but they are still alive at the end of the episode. Hassan, Lizzie and Robyn are quite an affectionate approach towards Doctor Who fandom, who have been brought together by the show and love the central character unreservedly. I was worried at the start of this sequence, but I was pleased to say that it largely addressed the majority of my concerns quite quickly. It’s pleasing to have a nod to a previous score, in Murray Gold’s A Sad Man in a Box, which comes straight from the Eleventh Doctor’s era.

With the story focusing on an animated antagonist in a mostly live-action story, Mr Ring-a-Ding works really well and there are no moments where it feels as though he isn’t really there interacting with the characters. The moment when he comes out of the screen in the cold open was rightly front and centre in the advertising for this series, as it looks fantastic. Lux is brilliantly brought to life by the vocal talents of Alan Cumming, who does give him the out of this world kind of magnitude that a character like Lux needs. This is, after all, a character who is capable of generating his own diegetic soundtrack when he’s trying to tell a sob story about his past. Lux’s motivations are rather muddled, as is pointed out in the post-credit scene – there’s no indication before that he is wants to become a real human. In terms of execution, however, there are no problems with the animation or the performance behind Mr. Ring-a-Ding, nor when animating the Doctor and his companion.

You’re a Time Lord. Take it back to planet…Timelordia.

Oh, I wish it was called that. The name is Gallifrey.

Belinda Chandra and the Fifteenth Doctor

The dynamic between the Doctor and Belinda continues to delight. Belinda continues to be incredulous about just how weird travelling with the Doctor is, from his name to the adversaries that he ends up fighting. Despite her original antipathy to travelling with the Doctor, on learning that they are in 1952 Miami, she immediately wants to go out and explore, and despite the Vortex Indicator finding a link to 2025, she does not protest them staying to investigate the mystery. I feel as though the series’ reduced episode count might have meant that Belinda becomes a much more willing companion much more quickly than she would have done otherwise. I wrote in my review of The Robot Revolution that the show has to be careful about how Belinda is written, as a companion who really doesn’t want to be there could get irritating quickly. Belinda’s indifference seems to be a front. She just wants to ensure that she can get back to her parents, but like the Doctor, she is lonely, and both she and the Doctor understand each other better after the events of this story. This is because it allows both to be vulnerable and relay their concerns about getting Belinda home. The Doctor is able to be honest about being the last of the Time Lords far quicker than he has with some of their other companions. Ultimately, though, this feels like it is one of Ncuti Gatwa’s best performances to date. His delivery of the speech about waiting for people to topple their world is really well delivered, and he approaches Lux with appropriate levels of fear and outrage.

Verdict: Lux is a lot of fun, combining a good story with good performances from Gatwa, Sethu and Alan Cumming. 9/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Varada Sethu (Belinda Chandra), Linus Roache (Reginald Pye), Alan Cumming (Mr Ring-a-Ding), Ian Shaw (Newsreader), Cassius Hackforth (Tommy Lee), Ryan Speakman (Husband), Millie O’Connell (Sunshine Sally), Lewis Cornay (Logan Cheever), Lucy Thackeray (Renée Lowenstein), Jane Hancock (Helen Pye), William Meredith (Policeman), Samir Arrian (Hassan), Bronte Barbe (Lizzie), Steph Lacey (Robyn) and Anita Dobson (Mrs Flood).

Writer: Russell T Davies

Director: Amanda Brotchie

Producer: Chris May

Composer: Murray Gold

Original UK Broadcast Date: 19th April 2025

Behind the Scenes

To follow

Cast Notes

• Alan Cumming previously played King James in The Witchfinders.
• William Meredith appeared as Kevin in Arachnids in the UK.

Best Moment

I really like the cold open. It does a really good job of establishing how Lux comes to Earth and starts the story off with a real bang.

Best Quote

I have toppled worlds. Sometimes, I wait for people to topple their world. Until then, I live in it and I shine.

The Fifteenth Doctor

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