If there’s one thing Doctor Who has always excelled at, it’s spinning big ideas from the smallest of places. In Series 15, Episode 5, "The Story and The Engine," showrunner Russell T Davies and writer Inua Ellams deliver an episode that is equal parts fable, science-fiction parable, and emotional character study — wrapped in a deeply mythic package.
Set in Lagos, Nigeria in 2019, the episode opens innocuously enough with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) hoping to visit an old friend named Omo, a barber with whom he shares a deep and colourful history. What follows is anything but simple: a barbershop trapped on the back of a dimension-warping spider, a mysterious entity called the Barber who feeds on stories, and a tangled web of myths, memories, and unresolved trauma.
This is Doctor Who at its most allegorical. The idea that storytelling can power worlds (or engines) is not new, but rarely has it been rendered with such rich, cultural specificity. The episode draws heavily on West African mythology, especially the trickster figure of Anansi, and blends it with the show’s sci-fi DNA to dazzling effect.
The Barber himself, played with mesmerizing presence by Ariyon Bakare, is both whimsical and menacing. At first, he claims to be the god behind many names, before admitting he was only ever a servant to greater powers. Cast out and vengeful, he seeks to unmake the very system he once sustained: the Nexus, a web of stories that keeps divine and mortal realms in balance.
Belinda (Varada Sethu), still learning what it means to be a companion, gets another strong outing. Her grounded energy complements the Doctor's theatricality, and her reaction to the barbershop's strange physics — and the monstrous spider beneath it — is spot-on. But the emotional core of the episode lies in Abena, played with strength and vulnerability by Michelle Asante. As it turns out, she’s not just a narrative wrinkle, but a powerful reminder of the Doctor’s own past mistakes. Her relationship with the Doctor, who knew her father during his Fugitive incarnation, adds another layer of richness to Gatwa’s portrayal: warm, regretful, and quietly haunted.
Abena’s decision to braid the Doctor’s hair — transforming a cultural ritual into a cartographic act of defiance and healing — is one of the most beautiful visual metaphors Doctor Who has used in years. It is an act of reconciliation, of control, and of legacy.
Director Makalla McPherson ensures the surreal visuals never overwhelm the intimacy of the episode. The spider, the barbershop’s skewed architecture, and the swirling energy of the Nexus are all rendered with bold clarity, but the story stays grounded in character. Every revelation feels earned, even as the plot becomes increasingly fantastical.
It all culminates in a classic Who sequence: the Doctor offering himself as the solution, fuelling the story-engine with his own infinite tale. But when that sacrifice threatens to destroy the structure entirely, it is not just techno-speak that saves the day, but empathy. The Doctor convinces the Barber to let go of his vengeance and join the survivors. It's not just a victory over a villain; it's a victory over despair.
By the end, everything resets — but something fundamental has changed. Omo, having witnessed the consequences of his choices, retires and gives the shop to the very man he once feared. Abena walks away with newfound agency. And the Doctor, once again, learns that no story is ever truly finished.
"The Story and The Engine" is visually rich, thematically ambitious, and emotionally resonant. It dares to ask what stories mean when they are taken from their tellers, and how redemption might live in the space between myth and memory. Most importantly, it reminds us that Doctor Who isn’t just about saving the universe. Sometimes, it’s about saving a single, sacred story.
It’s one of the most lyrical, surprising, and thematically satisfying episodes of the Gatwa era.
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