Doctor Who’s journey towards inclusive representation in its casting has been a gradual one, yet its narratives haven’t always fully explored the implications of these casting choices. Jodie Whittaker’s tenure as the 13th Doctor, while groundbreaking, only occasionally delved into the significance of the Doctor inhabiting a female body. Similarly, Ncuti Gatwa’s arrival as the first Black, openly queer actor to portray the Time Lord in his debut season grappled with his identity with varying degrees of success, particularly concerning his racial identity.
However, Gatwa’s sophomore season has delivered a standout episode that masterfully explores the Doctor’s identity, embracing the concept openly and honestly. Last season’s "Dot and Bubble" touched on the Doctor’s racial identity by placing him on a planet populated by white supremacists being terrorized by giant slugs. However, the episode’s delayed reveal felt more like a plot twist than a genuine exploration of the Doctor’s experience as a Black man. "The Story and the Engine," penned by playwright Inua Ellams, marks a significant contrast. It’s Gatwa’s first Doctor Who script solely written by a person of color, a narrative that directly uses Gatwa’s identity as a Black man to tell a story that could only be told under these circumstances.
More importantly, it’s a story of joy, celebrating the universality and power of storytelling, a force that connects the Doctor to the people they strive to protect. This connection is made possible by clearly establishing the link between the story being told, its setting, and the Doctor’s current identity from the outset.
The episode unfolds in Lagos, Nigeria, as the Doctor and Belinda continue their quest to fine-tune their "find 2025 London" device by flitting through time and space. Upon landing in Lagos, the Doctor quickly obtains what he needs, but he’s hesitant to leave, drawn to a local barbershop run by a man named Omo. Gatwa’s Doctor has experimented with various styles, especially with his hair, but as Belinda observes, he possesses a time ship that can effortlessly accomplish such transformations. The Doctor explains that Omo’s shop is special because it makes his current incarnation feel seen, a feeling he hasn’t experienced before.
Although this isn’t the Doctor’s first incarnation as a Black person, the episode acknowledges Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor, it’s the first time we see the Doctor explicitly express his desire to feel recognized and welcomed as a Black man. The developing friendship between the Doctor and Belinda, the first TARDIS team composed entirely of people of color, as they connect over this shared experience is compelling. This resonates deeply, especially when compared to instances where the Doctor’s racial identity was used solely for conflict, like in "Dot and Bubble" or briefly in "Lux".
After Belinda concedes and allows the Doctor to visit Omo’s for a trim, the story takes a dramatic turn. Omo’s shop is now run by a mysterious figure known as the Barber, who has trapped Omo and several other men, pulling the shop out of time and space to keep them in an endless cycle of haircuts and storytelling. Their tales of history and myth power a massive mechanical spider that is transporting the Barber and his ally, Abena, the daughter of Anansi, on a quest to avenge the gods. The Barber reveals that he helped spread the myths of countless gods and folklore throughout human history by creating a Nexus, a web of storytelling and culture that expanded their influence and laid the groundwork for human civilization. After the Nexus was created, the gods cast the Barber out, and now he seeks to destroy it and take them down with him.
Much of the story unfolds within the confined space of Omo’s barbershop, a tiny area filled with grand ideas. The barbershop is revealed to be temporarily displaced and transported through an alternate dimension by a mechanical spider. "The Story and the Engine" navigates the challenge of balancing these expansive concepts, but unlike previous episodes this season, it manages to incorporate them into the metatext of Doctor Who itself. After all, the episode suggests, what story is bigger than the Doctor, a being who has lived countless lives? The Doctor’s knowledge of history and future is central to the premise. Omo tells the Barber about the Doctor, creating a conflict when the Fugitive Doctor promises to free Abena from the clutches of her father but fails to do so.
Ultimately, the Doctor saves the day by offering himself as the simplest story ever told: they live, they die, they are reborn. It’s not just the Doctor’s intellect that saves the day in "The Story and the Engine" it’s the fact that they are the star of Doctor Who, an ongoing narrative shared across generations. The Doctor isn’t just a story of potentiality, but one so powerful it manages to overwhelm the Barber’s engine, freeing everyone trapped in the shop and guiding the Barber and Abena away from their misguided quest for revenge.
The story could have been told with any incarnation of the Doctor, highlighting the Doctor’s narrative potential. However, "The Story and the Engine" engages with beats that re-iterate that this is a story that could have only been told by pushing the Doctor’s story to a place where people of color can be part of it, as well. The yearning for community the Doctor seeks by going to Omo’s shop in the first place, and the decision of Abena to braid the Doctor’s hair with a map to the heart of the Spider, drawing on real-world historical traditions of braided hair being used to hide messages and maps in the era of colonialism and the slave trade, highlight the importance of this story. "The Story and the Engine" is focused on the power of Doctor Who as a story, metatextually or otherwise, but there’s also a lot of power in how it chooses to tell this story intertwined with how it leverages Gatwa’s identity as the first Black, queer man to be a major player in that story.
This era of Doctor Who has been very interested in the metanarratives of stories, and with playing of awareness of them for both the audience and our heroes alike. Sometimes it’s worth celebrating for a moment, as we get to here, that that story can now help connect even more people from different backgrounds and welcome them to be a part of it. And that’s just vital a story to tell with the first mainline Doctor played by a man of color as any story of prejudice is.
