The Story & the Engine

"The Story and The Engine" is a fine episode, though not without its flaws. It starts off rather slowly, and the plot can be quite confusing at times, making it a challenge to stay fully engaged in the early half. That said, there are highlights. Most notably, the appearance of the Fugitive Doctor, which adds a jolt of energy to me and to the episode. The hour overall wasn't completely wasted, but it didn't captivate me like other episodes this season have. It's certainly the strangest entry so far, not necessarily in a bad way, but not entirely in a good one either. I wouldn't call it my least favorite, but it's definitely not among the ones I enjoyed most.

Yeah that's right i think this is the best episode of doctor who I've ever seen in ever This episode is unique as you hear so many storys in 1 episode. The doctor visting a barber shop isn't something we've seen before which is the thing I like about doctor who they is so many episodes in total and they will always be new things we haven't seen yet. They was a little bit of confusion I had about a character camo in this episode which didn't make sence maybe i missed something but I thought the doctor couldn't remember i wish the cameo was longer but thats fine maybe one day we will get a spinoff of that.

I rate this 10/10 because of the really amazing story telling and as I say the best episode I've ever seen of doctor who 👏

The Doctor visits his barber Omo in Lagos, who's vanished along with a few customers.

As always I'm basing my review on my opinion after the first watch. As a huge fan of the show it appealed to me, but this plot is not for the casual viewer, they'd vacate pretty quickly.

I think it's going to need a couple of re-watches to try and work out exactly what's going on, as this is definitely one of the more complex storylines.

Great visuals, some truly incredible concepts, the whole storyboarding idea I thought was incredible.

My frustration, I waited for an exposition, for a big reveal, we had one unexpected and brief appearance, but not perhaps the one I'd hoped for. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole gods angle being used week after week, can't we have some monsters back, is that perhaps why the viewing figures are suffering?

I thought Ariyon Bakare was terrific, he gave a great performance, the man is simply oozing with charisma and presence, I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again.

The Mrs Flood theme is now starting to feel a little tiresome, we've had her popping up now for a very long time, they're guilty of over egging the pudding somewhat.

I liked it, I wanted to love it, but I'm finding the obscurity a little frustrating, Mrs Flood is one thing, but now they've thrown another one in.

6/10.

This episode is important, and while I do have my problems, it's great that this story can be told on Saturday night TV.

That being said, despite the good acting, brilliant cinematography, and like i say, great concept, the pacing was beyond poor. At the end of the day this was a 10-15 min idea that was stretched out across a 50 min episode. This series has had a pacing problem from the off, but usually it's that there's too much content and not enough time, but this is the inverse.

I felt like it should've been a Big Finish episode, it would've worked so much better as an audio story. I don't agree that this episode is anywhere near a 1 star, but the reviewer who gave it that score IS right when they say this episode is a load of waffle. We needed more from it, not just some tacked on fan service.

The Spider looked cool, the concept was also interesting and clever, the ambience and the thriller holds dearly in what was an interesting idea, inspired plot, decent direction was let down by pacing issues. The acting was mostly fine, the Doctors anger and rage was a nice moment, the Spider almost getting to Earth had showed fear and promise due to the gritty nature. And the stories were animated in a decent way, the siries is shaping up to be a good story arc and features the Pantheons of discord and paints them in an interesting way. The episode also delivers on Engaging us with the old style stories, and the colourful and fun props, very good.