REACTION: The Devil's Chord - Doctor Who

Reaction to Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson in S1E2 - The Devil's Chord
also known as S14E2
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BBC iPlayer episode description: 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.
You're watching The Shallow Proclamation. Doctor Who fans Paul (who's seen all the episodes) and Thomas (who's been watching from Christopher Eccleston onwards) are working their way through all the Doctor Who content.
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[@derrenlodge6502]

Fact for you: The music teacher is played by Jeremy Limb and he is the son of Roger Limb,who composed incidental music for some of the Peter Davison Doctor Who stories.

[@ShamrockParticle]

Plus, the other death, the old woman, was a costume designer for the show. June Hudson.

[@theadamabrams]

I saw a comment elsewhere that the musical was re-balancing the fact that the universe had been _without_ any music for so many years. Like a compressed spring extending way past its equilibrium upon release, then settling back to usual. That makes a lot of sense to me and makes the musical much more palatable to me; I just wish the show itself had given that explanation!!

[@friendlyotaku9525]

According to Benjamin Cook in the original script it is mentioned the music number is an aftershock of Maestro's meddling, with music returning to the world, and this makes sense since Maestro is very much like the Toymaker and when he was defeated his domain lingered for a bit afterwards so the same is true here seems!

[@kevinmerchant2478]

I think the Doctor is in the Land of Fiction...

[@jamesa.fitzpatrick1566]

OMG your faces when the musical number starts needs to be a meme. lmfao Thomas, your knowledge of 1970s/1980s movie musicals is impressive.

[@JosephHaig]

If there was a "twist at the end" didn't they think to do Twist and Shout? It wasn't written by the Beatles so it shouldn't have had the same copyright problems as the rest of their music.

[@ZakhadWOW]

Licensing costs, genius. DUHHHHHH. Doesnt matter WHO wrote ir. Njo need to pointlessly drive up costs.

[@ShamrockParticle]

The doggie song was well-constructed, trying to feel like an amateur band circa 1863. Murray nailed it. The sonic scene was pretty cool too. Not sure why they changed it from a screwdriver in appearance to a video game controller, though

[@jamesa.fitzpatrick1566]

Did you spot June Hudson, Tom baker's costume designer, as the old woman?

[@TheShallowProclamation]

No I only heard someone mention it on the Blue Box Podcast. Amazing cameo.

[@Nosregni]

If the ending song had been only half as long or less, it could’ve worked. Or at least they would’ve got away with it.

[@ShamrockParticle]

Take out the needless expisition and references in what was said to be a reboot and it'd have been better.

[@russytherutan]

Think for your live season 7 review you should either start or end it with your performance of there’s always a twist in the end. It would be such fun. I really enjoyed this story and so far this season gets better with every new episode which is the way to go.

[@TheShallowProclamation]

🤣

[@joshuajoshua2732]

I'm glad we got a mention of Susan but i'm hoping they don't bring her back it's been almost 60 years since her last appearance i felt the ship has sailed with that character and i'd rather they just leave the character best remembered as she was personally in my opinon. I did like this episode much much better than "Space Babies" and i agree with Paul the only bit that ruined it for me was the singing and dancing at the end that was just too silly.

[@paulhunter6178]

The Devils chord struck a bum note, But my, it's an improvement on Babies in Space. More highs than lows, in this episode But Maestro honey, Where's the BASE? Susan Twist is indeed an actress - and played Rosie Banks in Brookside in the late 90's.

[@Paul-gh6ng]

As previously mentioned, Thomas will come across a similar scene to the one where it shows the world where Maestro wins

[@kemmdog4444]

I liked the homage to a scene from a classic Doctor Who story. I think Paul might know which one I’m talking about.

[@TheShallowProclamation]

Pyramids!

[@KarlWitsman]

In bringing it to Disney, I hope that this isn't what they think that American audiences want? At least not this American, I feel like Paul on this one.

[@oldhollywoodfan2727]

Susan has appeared in lots of Big Finish audios.

[@almighty7621]

even fought in the Time War

[@CaptApril123]

The rooftop scene made the episode.

[@HellfireComms]

Boom beats this due to having a stronger script, but I'd call this my second favourite episode of the season. Jinx Monsoon does a great job as Maestro.

[@binrotheheretic8174]

Think pretty much agree with paul (i ve only watched both episodes once at midnight) but that musical number just ruined both episodes because there's no reason for it (other than being on Disney?) to the extent of being unwatchable - previously only achieved by the wrb planet .... Maybe it will sit better in a season context?

[@HellfireComms]

Can't disagree more, it was just a fun sequence and I don't understand people's aversion to it at all.

[@stephenreed2093]

If I ever rewatch this episode, I shall stop it at the wink.

[@stephenreed2093]

If Maestro is music, why doesn’t the character sing all their dialogue? I’m not a fan of musicals, but even I think this episode wasn’t musical enough.

[@geetee4459]

I don't mind musicals ('My Angel Put The Devil in Me) and i kind of appreciated the concept of this show but the Beatles/Cilla did not work for me and neither did Maestro. Luckily I can forgive a bad Who episode and hope for the next or the one after.

[@robert_bbiii]

I liked the message of the of the episode. Loved Gatwa and Gibson. My issue with Jinx is they started at 11 and stayed there. Needed to bring it down a bit in some scenes. I get what they were doing with the song at the end but it didn't flow and felt tacked on. I get music is back and a big number was needed to show it but there could have been a better way to do it.

[@adamcarlson2192]

Agreed, music had returned to the world for the first time in 40 years, it should have been... something. But that musical number just felt overlong and cringe.

[@robert_bbiii]

@@adamcarlson2192 have it start with the Beatles and Cilia Black recording the song with the Doctor recording it then have that bring it out in everyone, the orchestra plays, people dance. Cut a few minutes out. Makes it feel more organic and does the same thing.

[@hbomb6775]

maestro's mouth is huge

[@Andyssea]

So is his face

[@mark-s]

I gave it a 7 better than space babies which I disliked like the Susan mention but what spoiled it was the musical ending

[@rdkarlov]

I've been following your channel from the first video ever released and I thank you very much for your work. Concerning this new era of the show, so far I haven't been enjoying it much. "Boom" is however a much better effort than "The Devil's Chord" and the utter stupid "Space Babies". "Space Babies" makes anything from the Chibnall era look good.

[@TheShallowProclamation]

Thanks that's really appreciated. Have to say I'm in agreement on Space Babies.

[@MichaelPhillipsatGreyOwlStudio]

I don't personally like the idea of all these other rogue Time Lords with definite article names. It's too self-aware, and it takes something away from the Doctor, the idea that he's just one of a big troop of Time Lords who left Gallifrey society and went around with pretentious names. But that's RTD for you, anything to make the show as campy and OTT as possible, an explosion of incoherent concepts and endless fan service, like Doctor Who confetti.

[@TheShallowProclamation]

Yeh I'm generally in agreement.

[@happyman050]

are we back in the land of fiction ie the mind robber

[@johng5859]

I didn’t like this one at all. Although the premise was a good one, I thought the execution was very self-indulgent, and there was a lack of genuine threat. It’s beginning to feel as if every supervillain in the show has to be OTT, larger than life, and camp - Maestro falls squarely into that category, and it’s starting to get a bit boring. How about an understated, menacing villain for a change? I just didn’t feel that RTD was taking this one at all seriously, and it made it hard for me to care. I thought the Fabs were rather underutilised, given they were one of the episode’s big selling points, and the song at the end was terrible! I like the idea of the musical number being indicative of a universe going awry, but even if that does prove to be the case it is still a terrible way to end the episode. This is a pernickety point, but it also seemed odd that the Doctor should mention the smog of December 1962 - a genuine historic event - but say nothing about the fact that February 1963 was slap bang in the middle of Britain’s coldest winter of the 20th century. It didn’t appear to be snowy, or especially cold, when he and Ruby were up on the roof… I did like the mention of Susan, and I think that could be of potential significance for later in the season, though my hopes for her return have been raised and dashed so many times now I am not going to get too excited. The Chris Waites and the Carollers poster is another reference back to the very first episode, as they are mentioned by Ian in a conversation he has with Susan. Talking of lost chords, on their classic 1968 album In Search of the Lost Chord, The Moody Blues said that it was OM, for reasons I have never quite worked out...

[@calliesanderford3410]

Interesting reaction. Not a fan of this episode.