After a winter break, The Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) is back for further adventures with new companion Ruby Sunday, who on the basis of these two new episodes, much more important than she lets on to be, similar to a Donna Noble or a Clara Oswald. But more interesting is the soft reboot provided by the hand of Disney, who is now the American distributor of the program....this is not your grandpa's Doctor Who. This is not even your dad's Doctor Who. This is a whole new shiny beast.
The premiere episode, "Space Babies", is a shaky start. The first five minutes or so are an encapsulated discussion of the last 60 years of the show, simplified and dissected so the brand-new Disney viewers won't get sucked into the series long and often contradictory history. All you need to know is this is the Doctor, some bad shit happened to him, but now he's better, and he's here to have some fun!
The main premise of the episode, a space station manned by babies after their parents were forced to leave, is pretty ridiculous, but it is amazing to watch the babies zip around in their computerized strollers like little Daleks. It becomes clear that this series is tired of timey-wimey explanations for itself and is moving from science fiction into fantasy. Which is fine as a stylistic choice but jarring if you're still holding out hope for the old style Doctor explanations for everything. In both these new episodes, the Doctor freely admits he has no idea what is happening but is curious to find out.
Not much happens in this first outing, there is a lot of exposition and place setting for elements that will come back later in the season (Ruby's powers, Ruby's mother, The Toymaker's "legions") but there's very little at stake here. There is no villain per se, and the crisis is averted relatively quickly. Poor Ruby doesn't get to do much other than gawk in surprise and get a bucket of snot dumped on her. No, really.
The saving grace here is the Fifteenth Doctor himself, who is solid magic and lights up the screen with his very presence. Even he manages to make the weird-looking new Sonic Screwdriver look cool. And you can't help but wonder the playlist he has on the new Tardis jukebox. He's just effortlessly charismatic, which helps elevate a very silly script.
"Space Babies" isn't a great episode, it's a necessary precursor to the rest of the season. But viewed on it's own...it's just another episode. My grade: C+
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