Doctor Who gets political (almost) and perhaps just a little contradictory in the process
For all that it delves into folk horror tropes (and, admittedly, makes fun of them along the way), the latest episode of Doctor Who is concerned with a very different type of horror altogether — and it’s one that showrunner (and episode writer) Russell T. Davies has touched on more than once before in his career.
It’s particularly ironic that Davies — a man whose writing is so eager to please that he has no shame titling an episode ‘Space Babies,’ and having that episode end with a space station that literally farts its way towards a better future — is so suspicious of populism, but it’s a thread that has run through so much of his work. The populist appeal of ’73 Yards’ politician Roger Ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard) and his Albion Party is the true danger at the heart of the episode, although that’s purposefully hidden for more than half of its runtime behind a disguise of Davies playing with the mystery of the old woman haunting Ruby, and the disappearance of the Doctor. His absence is, admittedly, very noticeable in this episode; Ncuti Gatwa’s presence is so magnetic that when he is basically gone for the entire runtime, the episode drags a bit as a result. Sorry, Ruby (Millie Gibson).
Ap Gwilliam is, in many ways, a call back to Harold Saxon, the Prime Minister that was actually the Master in the third season of Doctor Who back in 2007’s ‘The Sound of Drums’ and ‘Last of the Time Lords’ two-partner; while Saxon’s political party was purposefully never mentioned, he too was another charismatic leader whose vague menace is entirely overlooked by a populace so eager for someone to act as savior and solution for all their ills that any potential problems are ignored. Of course, the Saxon story is, to some degree, more optimistic about human nature, given that there was literal mind control involved, whereas Roger Ap Gwilliam’s success is just down to… well, base human nature, really.
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