May 12, 2025
The writer of the latest adventure discusses the importance of giving credit, the Fugitive Doctor, and the episode’s connection to Dot and Bubble…
In The Story & the Engine, the Fifteenth Doctor visits a barber shop in Lagos, Nigeria – a place where he has found a sense of community and belonging. This is a familiar theme for episode writer Inua Ellams, who is also known for his poetry and playwriting; including Barber Shop Chronicles.
We spoke to Inua about how he developed this story as both a native to Nigeria and long-time Doctor Who fan, the power of storytelling, and how The Story & the Engine unexpectedly connects to some of the Doctor’s previous adventures…
The Story & the Engine is now streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ where available.
The Story & the Engine explores identity, community and history all through the lens of storytelling. How did you develop the idea for this episode?
I had been wanting to write a Doctor Who story for some time, and Ncuti [Gatwa] wished for me to write one too! I had a much larger story idea, and Russell [T Davies]'s suggestion was, “How about something set in one location?” and so the barber shop idea came about from this. I think of story ideas as different logs in a fire, you know, just waiting – suddenly there was a spark, and it roared to flame.
This story sparked from something I read in lockdown which angered me, about uncredited artistic work. I initially thought about Anansi as a character - perhaps being the hive of all stories, but never credited for it. So that was loosely where the idea began to percolate. When I read stories of Anansi as a trickster figure, and how he sometimes treated his children, I developed the idea of a mortal being the one to lift up all the gods; and that's when I settled on the Barber being the one carrying this hive of stories and never getting credited for that work.
The Doctor lands in Lagos in 2019. It’s rare for the series to visit the recent past, is there something about that year in particular that’s relevant to you or the story?
We were trying to create a story that was sort of in keeping with the world of my play, Barber Shop Chronicles, which was set around that time. The play is centered around different barber shops across Africa and the UK – so in my ‘Inua Ellams Cinematic Universe’, this is sort of a different story in a parallel world.
I like the idea that the Doctor’s adventure in the barber shop somehow ignites the events of the play in another world – but ultimately that’s not serious, just me playing 3D chess with myself and all my different characters!
Are there any influences or references to Nigerian culture or storytelling/folklore that Doctor Who fans may have missed in the episode?
We shot a much longer sequence near the end that we couldn’t fit in; where the Doctor and Belinda enter the Story Engine and find items, icons of all stories ever told, in the ship. The Story Engine operates much like the TARDIS – bigger than it seems! So there are icons for everything – we mention Hemingway, there are three of his books on the shelf. We see a plaque of a bronze from Benin City, my ancestral home in Nigeria. There are gingerbread men, references to Hansel & Gretel, One Thousand and One Nights – talismans to every story ever told.
Amongst those are icons specific to West African folklore, but there’s also East African, Western, Scandinavian, Asian, Indian – everything, crammed into the Story Engine. I honestly couldn’t believe the amount of detail put into that set; it was like a candy store!
The Story & the Engine also has big implications for the concept of Gods within the Whoniverse. Are there any other characters of folklore you think would make for a good Doctor Who story?
As Ncuti has said before, I’d really love there to be an Orisha story, where the Doctor meets the West African deities. I’d also really want him to spend some time in ancient China – they have something like two dozen thunder gods! Also the Ramayana, an epic from ancient India. My friend Vinay Patel dipped a bit into Indian history with the Partition in Demons of the Punjab, but I’d like the Doctor to meet some of the Hindu myths and legends, there’s so much there.
Jo Martin makes an exciting cameo as the Fugitive Doctor! How did this appearance come about?
This was Russell’s idea, and I fell deeply in love with it and wanted it to happen. We just get a brief glimpse into what the Doctor was doing while she was a fugitive, there’s still so much mystery surrounding that. And in an episode that features lots of Doctors, it’s a nice appetiser for the audience to remind them that there’s someone else here with a whole minefield of adventures and stories that we haven’t dipped into.
As for the Fifteenth Doctor, this episode deals quite closely with his own sense of identity and community in Omo’s Palace. How was it to explore this side of the character?
I wrote this episode kind of ‘in conversation’ with Season 1’s Dot and Bubble, lots of people who have seen that episode get what it’s about. The Doctor’s anger and frustration at the end of that episode – it’s why he needs a place like the barber shop, but it is also why he feels so emotional about Omo’s betrayal in the episode. It hits really deeply for him. I often want to suggest that people watch Dot and Bubble and The Story & the Engine back-to-back, to really understand what the Doctor is feeling here, his sense of need and what Lagos means to him.
The opening scene, when the Doctor walks through the market and is in utter joy – I cried when I saw the rushes, because it just clicked. It’s what I miss and love about returning to Nigeria – so understanding that need within the Doctor, and seeing it play out onscreen, was humbling.
As well as Barber Shop Chronicles, do you have any recommended stories or media for Doctor Who fans who loved this episode?
I wrote a book of poems called The Actual, and there are a couple of poems inside that book that my episode references. They’re recommended for adults as they contain strong language, but those were spinning in my head when I was writing The Story & the Engine.
I mention the TARDIS in one, and reference Back to the Future and the quantum realm – that one’s about the birth of hip-hop, but also its relationship with West African symbolism. If you can find those poems, you might be able to read some of the seeds of my episode.
The Story & the Engine is now streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ where available.
