Doctor Who S2E5 The Story & the Engine ★★★☆☆

I think this is my favourite of the series so far. I think it does have a lot of problems—the story feels like it’s jumping around between things that don’t gel well with the more sci-fi-y elements clashing with the storytelling theme, the cast of the barbershop are not fleshed out at all other than Omo, Belinda suddenly being so at home on the TARDIS now that she is knowingly laughing along with the Doctor about hanging out with the gods and spouting technobabble.

But it is bursting with charm, throwing out a lot of great ideas and manages to be more than the sum of its parts. I like the Doctor setting down some roots on Earth (and not just in England) and then feeling betrayed that he is still seen as this outsider spaceman, the emphasis on storytelling and exploitation and commodification of it and how the African oral tradition doesn’t fit easily into that. Though it does feel a bit backwards then in the end that the engine is overloaded by the weight of the story of Doctor Who the television programme.