Here we embark on a thrilling new journey with Doctor Who, reimagined with Disney's financial backing and influence, alongside a fresh incarnation of the iconic Time Traveler. Is it a captivating tale? Let's delve deeper and discover the truth.
The story commences right where the disastrous special left off, with Ruby Sunday stepping into the TARDIS unexpectedly. We are introduced to the Doctor's origins, not the controversial Timeless Child narrative but rather how he was embraced by Gallifrey. He stands as the final remnant of the Time Lords, and we're about to embark on an epic adventure spanning the vast expanse of time and space. For long-time devotees, this background should be familiar territory. For newcomers, it's an enchanting primer to the mythology, cleverly sidestepping the more controversial aspects.
After a journey back to the dinosaur-ridden era of America, Ruby inadvertently steps on a butterfly, altering her appearance. But, remarkably, the Doctor manages to resurrect the butterfly, and Ruby is restored to her original form. As they arrive at their next destination, a distant future, the Doctor is unnerved by a deafening noise and seeks solace in Ruby's embrace. Our Doctor, it seems, harbors a fear of monsters. However, as the plot unfolds, they find themselves in a bizarre baby farm, a facility designed to boost the population. Our storyteller, Russell, seamlessly weaves in a social message, highlighting that "worlds can spiral into madness and outlaw kissing." These babies are being nurtured for a distant colony, one that they are currently overlooking.
Echoing Russell's maiden space tale from 2005, Ruby fiddles with the phone and manages to ring her mother, almost a carbon copy of Rose's scenario, albeit lacking its captivating charm. Suddenly, a pram appears, revealing babies who can speak and surprisingly claim to be in charge of the space station. They believe Ruby and the Doctor are their parents, despite their illogical reign. Recalling Russell's infamous remark comparing Davros to wheelchair-bound individuals, one wonders what he'd make of these wheeled infants.
The Doctor engages with Poppy, sharing his unique origins and significance. Nan-E, the robotic guardian of the children, replaces the Disney-inspired Wall-E and reveals her true purpose. As the Doctor descends, he encounters the Bogeyman, terrifying the children. Instead of comforting them, he teasingly shouts "Bogeyman!" causing them to wail and himself to chuckle, raising questions about his moral compass.
Finally, the Doctor decides to take action. Nan-E guides him to Portal 3-5-7, their salvation. On the journey, the Doctor realizes Ruby's connection to this recurring baby motif, puzzling over its significance while flashbacks of the church scenes mingle with the current scene. Oddly, snow begins to fall within the spaceship, as if a memory is bleeding into reality.
However, their conversation was abruptly cut short by Nan-E, who emerged from behind the console, revealing herself as a flesh-and-blood individual. She ushered the pair into her control room, where she disclosed that the crew had departed due to the economic downturn, and the Babystation had been shuttered by the government to save costs. Yet, she explained, the law mandated that the birth machine must continue operating, thus their current predicament.
Nan-E's true identity was Jocelyn, the station's accountant, who had remained behind to safeguard the children. Her heart could not bear to witness their demise, and so she had taken refuge behind the console. This station, with its limited resources of food and air, was now a closed fortress. Fortunately, Portal 3-5-7 possessed additional air reserves, though the station itself was immobile. The Doctor and Ruby pondered whether they could seek assistance from the DuBarryDuPlessy organization, a refuge for displaced beings, but they knew they had to "physically arrive on someone else's shores" to qualify for aid.
At the heart of their dilemma lay the Bogeyman. The Doctor pondered why this entity had scared him into a flight, which was unusual behavior for him, except perhaps in the instance of Jodie Whittaker's incarnation, who had literally screamed and fled from a tiny creature.
One of the infants, Eric, summoned his courage and ventured out of his pram to confront the Bogeyman. Realizing their oversight, Ruby and the Doctor hastened downstairs to intervene. Alas, the Bogeyman had vanished, and Eric was missing as well. His pram was overturned, and he was nowhere to be found, until they discovered him hidden within one of the lockers.
Six years ago, the menacing Bogeyman emerged from the shadows. As they traversed a vast corridor, laden with sticky, ghastly slime, the Doctor's keen mind pieced together the puzzle. Two machines loomed in the distance—one above, nurturing infants, and another below, birthing the fearsome Bogeyman. It was a tale spun by sinister software, designed to terrify those helpless babies through the power of fiction.
So, what was the Bogeyman composed of? The answer was simple—bogeys. The sneezing noses and the viscous slime all converged, unraveling the mystery of why the creature shed its skin. The pair fled through the labyrinthine space station, with Joce valiantly banishing the Bogeyman into the void of space. She swung open the airlock, unaware that it held one of her own innocent children.
The Doctor, devoid of his sonic, resorted to tactics reminiscent of the ancient Doctors of the past? No, he entrusted Ruby with a mission to find Jocelyn. Meanwhile, the Doctor himself tackled the airlock, with oxygen levels hovering dangerously below 4%. He summoned all his strength to seal the airlock and press the button, sealing the Bogeyman's fate.
With the Bogeyman subdued and its terror quelled, it howled, presumably trapped within the airlock for the foreseeable future. We were left to imagine the creature now tamed and under control. The Doctor ingeniously harnessed the methane from baby nappies, propelling their ship towards a new horizon.
As they prepared to return to the TARDIS, the Doctor entrusted Ruby with the TARDIS key, inviting her to join him on his journey. At least for one season, before she embarked on a new path. As they stepped into the TARDIS together, the Doctor cautioned that they could not revisit the church on Ruby Road. It would create a dangerous paradox, and he vowed to avoid such a fate—perhaps until the latter part of the season.
