Doctor Who has always been a show that has tried out new and fresh ideas and while some of those ideas haven't always landed. The ones that do tend to stick with us such is the case with the episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today as while the season that this episode is apart of isn't the strongest season of the show out there this episode is one of the more better episodes due to the fact that has an original idea for a villain and so then join me as I review the episode that tries to make cartoons scary with the episode in question being called simply just "Lux" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when fifteen people all go missing in a theater in 1950's Miami it's up to The Doctor and Belinda to work what happened to them before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As while the episode is rather light on plot with it being hard to work out just what the main plot of the episode is meant to be alot of the time when the episode does focus on it's plot that's when the episodes plot gets to be more fun as this is a rather out there and weird plot and yet it also feels oddly at home in this new season of Doctor Who but at the same time tho this episodes plot and they that it's structed does feel oddly reminiscent of the previous seasons episode "The Devil's Chord" with there being alot of scenes in that episode that are just straight up copied in this episode even down to the episode using a character from the same group which is a character from the pantheon of gods which is something that does make this episode feel like a carbon copy of that episode but in all fairness to this episode tho it's plot is one that could be seen as being rather fun as well as they do take the time to loving poke fun of how cartoons where seen back in those days which was nice to see but at the same time that is screen time that is taken away from giving us more plot relevant information with the plot of this episode also being rally rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor , Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra and Linus Roache as Reginald Pye. Also starring in this episode is Cassius Hackforth as Tommy Lee , Millie O'Connell as the voice of Sunshine Sally , Lewis Cornay as Logan Cheever , Lucy Thackeray as Renée Lowenstein , Jane Hancock as Helen Pye , William Meredith as A Policeman , Samir Arrian as Hassan Chowdry , Bronté Barbé as Lizzie Abel , Steph Lacey as Robyn Gossage , Alan Cumming as the voice of Mr Ring-A-Ding and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the series main regulars turning in some really good performances which is to be expected from them at this point in time and even Varada Sethu who only really joined the show in the previous episode despite her playing a different character on the show in the last series still does do a really good job and is really likable in this episode with her Ncuti having some wonderful chemistry together which is not all that surprising as Ncuti can have chemistry with a blank of wood with the only thing that lets the pair of them down acting wise being the fact that when they are turned into cartoons there acting is a little it wooden and stale with the best actor in this episode being Alan Cumming as he can be both hilarious and terrifying as this films creepy cartoon villain Mr Ring-A-Ding with his performance reflecting the villains more cartoonish nature with it being as over the top as it needed to be for certain scenes but then when his acting needs to be more serious he becomes more terrifying with this coming through in his final performance as the character as even tho it's only a voice over role Alan still does give it his best and because of that Mr Ring-A-Ding himself really does become all the more memorable as a villain because of it with the acting that's in this very episode not really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so bad as it gives none of the episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that rally does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Real SFX and BBC Wales Graphics. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with it being obvious that the team doing the CGI for this episode had alot of fun with the shots that they had to do as the very idea of having cartoon come to life and try and take over the world is something that does allow itself to have some really fun looking expressions which is something that the makers of this episode do take full advantage with Mr-Rig-A-Ding really being the only big CGI effect in the episode outside of a few shots on the outside where they replace Wales with 1950's Miami and yet you can tell that even tho this episode was basically made on the cheap as there's only one main location all throughout the episode the effects budget for the episode was really high as when Mr-Ring-A-Ding does go fully 3D he looks really creepy with the fact that they had a cutout version of him on set is something that really does help out in the long as while he was never going to really look like he was actually there on the day due to the fact that he's a cartoon character it is something that does help with matching the characters eye lines with the only effect that does let the episode being the fact that you can tell right away that they didn't actually film in Miami which is something that was always going to be the case but the effect does look rather cheap which is something that does make alot of sense as they put more time and effort into making the episodes villain look as good as they possibly could have done.
This episode was pretty divisive when it first came out due to the fact that it has The Doctor and Belinda quite literally break the fourth wall and talk to fans of Doctor Who. Which to be fair isn't a bad scene in it's own right as the three fans are purely there for comedic effect and that's it but at the same time tho the show has never openly admitted that it's just a show and that's really it before now so it will of course be really jarring to see happen in this episode as it does fell like that the makers of this show are making fun of the fans rather then making us laugh with them and heck they even have one of the fans say the hashtag #RIPDoctorWho at one point which was something that alot of fans were using when talking about the show when if they wanted to have this scene be this weird and funny scene they could have found a way to do it without breaking the fourth wall and without having jokes in there that feel like there taking aim at Doctor Who fans in general as they could have had the three fans be these weird , quirky but lovable characters that you want to get to know more about and that you want to see more off and yet they don't do that this is despite the fact that here scene is actually a key plot point in the episode as one of the fans called Lizzy straight gives The Doctor the idea of how to beat Mr-Ring-A-Ding in the first place which is something that does come into play just a few short scenes later and while them essentially sacrificing themselves is a great way to up the threat level for the episode it also amounts to nothing as they come back for lame joke during the episodes mid credits scene which makes there sacrifice pointless in the grand scheme of things.
The villain in this episode oddly enough doesn't really have an end goal in mind as for a large of the episode he's just after any kind of light that he can get from the theater and that's really it. With him really only getting a real plan when he finds out that The Doctor is a time lord with him then deciding that he wants as much light as he possibly can do which to be fair is a fairly solid plan to have and yet at the same time for an episode that did have alot of promise to it its also a really weak plan as well as this is a character that gives you permission to go as out there and as weird as you want to with your main villain plan and yet the makers of this episode don't do that rather they instead play it safe and go with a really boring plan that doesn't allow for your main villain to actually do all that much in the episode which fair enough is something that does work for the villain as this is a character that doesn't really know all that much about the outside world outside of what he's learned from watching movies which re at best lies when it would have worked just as well if Mr-Ring-A-Ding had a more out there and weird plan like maybe he wants to use his powers of light to take over the world and make the whole world be a cinema so that the whole human race can feel as trapped as he's felt for the months that he's been stuck in the theater but in saying this tho having is plan just be light and having him be defeated by the very thing that he wants the most is oddly poetic as it's basically boils down to the old saying of be careful what you wish for because you just might get it and in this case Mr-Ring-A-Ding was defeated by the very thing that he wanted light.
To be fair it was really fun seeing both The Doctor and Belinda turned into cartoons with them having these really stilted movements to them which makes them like the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. With the thing that lets this small piece of the episode down being just that it was only a really small part of the episode and yet the BBC put this scene in alot of the trailers and teasers for this season which did give of the impression that it was going to be a lot more longer then what it ended up being in the first place but to be fair the makers of this episode do use that one scene to get across the fact that both The Doctor and Belinda are scared abut the things that are going on with The Doctor being scared that he will never be able to get her home due to the fact that something might have happened to Earth and Belinda being scared by the fact that she might miss the people that she loves the most and yet even so something that they never address this season while they can't land exactly on May 24th they never state why they can't land one day before and just stay there for twenty four hours but going back to the cartoon whilst it was fun seeing those characters as cartoon characters the whole segment did feel like it was making fun of cartoons and how classic cartoon characters don't have much in the way of dimension when it would have been more beneficial of that part of the episode didn't do that and instead chose to just be a fun segment as we have The Doctor and Belinda in a cartoon so much more fun would it be to have those characters act all cartoony and yet they don't do that infact they barely move at all which is something that does make the scene as a whole alot less fun to watch as we're not getting the chance to see just what the makers of this episode could do with the characters as fully done cartoon characters.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty four minuets and three seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this show and to be fair the episode does have the perfect amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet un saying this tho this episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the episode doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot in the first place with the episode being more focused on letting us know that this episodes villain is a cartoon character then it is in giving us a reason to care about the characters and to care about the plot of this episode with it feeling like that the plot of the episode was being treated as an afterthought as the plot of this episode doesn't get alot of focus and plot development with the same thing also being true for all of the episodes characters which is fine for The Doctor as you could argue that he has well over sixty plus years to get his character development and yet for characters like Belinda who we are still getting to know and Mr-Ring-A-Ding those are characters that really did need to get some sort of character development as that would have given us the audience a reason to care for these characters and to want to see them make it out of the episode alive and yet the episode doesn't really give us any of that when it had more then running time in order to give the characters some character development and still the story as well as it does in the final episode and yet for one reason or another the makers of this episode thought that it was best not to give any of the characters the character development that they really all needed to get but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really goo pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. While the episode really only has the one action scene near the end of the episode this is something that does make alot of scene as there's no way that you could have a good looking action scene with a cartoon character taking on two live action characters and with the episode putting more of a focus on comedy then action it does make sense that this episode would have just the one action and yet at the same time tho having more then one action scene in the episode even if it's brief one would have gone a long way into showing us the audience why Mr-Ring-A-Ding is a threat to The Doctor with the episodes best action scene of course being it's only action scene where we get to see the episodes main villain essentially suck the life force out of The Doctor in order to build himself a real body all the while Belinda is is busy running around grabbing all of the film stuck so that she can light it on fire something which would kill of the episodes main villain and while it's not her that delivers the blow as that honor goes to the projectionist Reginal Pye it's the fact that it gets done in the first place with it somehow blowing a huge hole in the building so that sun light can come thus allowing to Mr-Ring-A-Ding to essentially drown in the light with that action scene being a really tense scene just due to the fact that it's The Doctor himself who almost dies with it also being a really fu scene to watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst this might not be the best episode of this season of Doctor Who it's also not the worst one either with this episode actually trying to do something new by giving us a cartoon villain that helps to make the episode as good as it is and while the writing by Russell T. Davies isn't that good as it feels like he was just copying what he really did in "The Devil's Chord" something like "The War Between The Land And The Sea" does prove that h wants to he can still write good Doctor Who it's just that this episode isn't the best episode that he's written in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a gran old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally sued in this very review ell then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , Tardis . Wiki and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Tardis . Wiki really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Tardis . Wiki really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.