Doctor Who Season 15 Episode 5 Review

Season 15 Episode 5 of Doctor Who is the first misfire of an otherwise great season, offering a story that gets lost in its own needless complexities.

These similarities seem too deliberate to be coincidental, and the pattern only continues with Season 15 Episode 5, which shares an unfortunate quality with the previous season’s fifth episode, “Dot and Bubble”: they’re both the weakest story in their respective seasons.

“The Story & The Engine” follows the Doctor and Belinda (Varada Sethu) in modern-day Lagos, as the Doctor decides to visit an old friend: the local barber, whose life he once saved from a devastating fire. However, as he arrives at the familiar barbershop, the Doctor soon learns that something more sinister is at play; the building is filled with missing people, and none of them seem willing to leave.

The episode begins strongly, with the Doctor taking his time to solve the ominous mystery at the center of the story – there’s plenty of tense, atmospheric writing that really brings this location to life, and Gatwa’s performance is just as commanding as ever. However, the episode fails to uphold this momentum for long, swiftly getting lost in the weeds of its own needlessly complex mystery and giving viewers little reason to care about the answers. There’s so much gruelling exposition in the second act that merely consists of characters explaining their backstories and motivations in painstaking detail, but we barely know these characters enough to even understand what they’re talking about.

Season 15 Episode 5 also commits one of Doctor Who’s most frustrating sins: the whole episode is resolved by the Doctor remembering something that has never actually been shown on the show, making it impossible for the audience to actually solve the mystery alongside the protagonist. This feels like a messy sequel to an episode that doesn’t even exist; the screenplay staggers for half its runtime offering the context that viewers need for the big reveal to even make sense.

This is a really underwhelming way for such an interesting concept to play out, and it’s frustrating to imagine how compelling this could’ve been as a two-parter. With more time to flesh out these characters instead of merely letting them monologue for twenty minutes, “The Story & The Engine” could’ve been a great adventure. There’s a real cultural authenticity to this Nigerian adventure, with the Doctor finally exploring his newfound heritage in a way that feels earned and compelling whenever he’s interacting with the locals – offering a side of the Time Lord that’s often lost in his intergalactic travels.

Ultimately, “The Story & The Engine” is the first notable misfire of Doctor Who’s fifteenth season. On the surface, a story that facilitates the Doctor’s personal and cultural development like this feels like such a natural progression for this season, which has been otherwise rooted in intergalactic adventures and sweeping stories of divine pantheons. But none of its character work feels earned, which makes it difficult to care about any of the emotional beats that come in the final act – there’s no reason to feel emotional about a redemption arc that takes little more than five minutes. There are a couple of subtle Easter eggs that long-time fans may find rewarding, but this feels like the first true “filler” episode of season 15. 

Episode of Season 15 (also known as Season 2) of Doctor Who, named “The Story & The Engine,” is now available to stream globally on Disney+, and on the BBC iPlayer in the U.K.