Lux

Written by Russell T Davies

“I think we’re being... animated!” 

The Doctor’s quest to get Belinda home takes the TARDIS to Miami in 1952, where an abandoned cinema is hiding a terrifying secret. Can the Doctor uncover Lux’s power?

Plot

Miami, 1952. As fifteen cinema-goers watch the 1935 animated short ‘Mr Ring-a-Ding Goes to Town’, a suspicious beam of moonlight is reflected into the film’s projection. Suddenly, the titular cartoon character onscreen takes a sinister turn and begins addressing his viewers directly – before emerging from the screen itself, to the audience’s terror!

Meanwhile, the Doctor sets up a Vortex Indicator (or “Vindicator”) in the TARDIS to help triangulate their route to take Belinda back to May 24th 2025. They land in Miami in 1952, next to the Palazzo Cinema – which has been chained up and abandoned, with tributes and condolences outside. The Doctor convinces Belinda to stick around and solve the mystery.

The pair discover that fifteen people went missing from the cinema three months ago, and the projectionist, Reginald Pye, is holed up in the abandoned building. Breaking in to find Pye, the Doctor and Belinda instead come face-to-face with the real-life cartoon character, Mr Ring-a-Ding. Initially amazed, the Doctor describes him as “light come to life” - but becomes suspicious when the cartoon dodges their questions about the missing people and repeats his catchphrase “Don’t make me laugh!” To the Doctor’s terror, Mr Ring-a-Ding laughs just like the Toymaker and Maestro – revealing himself as Lux, the God of Light, and a member of the Pantheon of Gods!

Making a quick escape, the Doctor and Belinda find Reginald, who admits he has been ‘feeding’ the cartoon with the light from old films, in exchange for a filmic recreation of his late wife. Mr Ring-a-Ding follows them, and reveals that the missing people are captured on a film strip in the projection room. Before they can figure out how to defeat him, Mr Ring-a-Ding turns the cinema projectors onto the Doctor and Belinda, manipulating the light to trap them within the film strips of his domain as 2D cartoon characters.

The Doctor and Belinda attempt to escape the film domain by opening up emotionally; which fixes their two-dimensional state, but doesn’t free them. They instead try pushing through the ‘fourth wall’ – stumbling through a television screen and into a living room full of Doctor Who fans, halfway through watching Lux!

The fans explain that they watch the Doctor and Belinda’s adventures as fiction, and then discuss how to defeat Mr Ring-a-Ding. The fans acknowledge that they are in fact the fictional ones, set as another trap for the Doctor and Belinda – but the Doctor’s influence made them want to help him. With love and farewell, they send the Doctor and Belinda back through the film strip.

Waiting for them back in the real world is Mr Ring-a-Ding, who identifies the light of regeneration within the Doctor. He reveals his plan to steal this light and create a more solid body for himself, before seeking the light of a nuclear explosion! Capturing the Doctor and siphoning his energy, Mr Ring-a-Ding begins to grow in size.

Attempting to aid him, Belinda runs into Reginald who takes it upon himself to destroy the film stock by setting it alight. The resulting blaze blasts a hole in the cinema, exposing Mr Ring-a-Ding to the light of the sun. As he absorbs the light of creation, the god keeps expanding, eventually dissipating into nothing. With his influence at an end, Mr Ring-a-Ding's captives are free to leave the cinema. And as the Doctor and Belinda depart in the TARDIS, onlookers watch in wonder – until Mrs Flood appears, claiming it as a “trick of the light”! 

Concept Art

Behind the Scenes

• Penarth Pier in Wales was used as the location of Miami 1952, with the pier building being decorated to become the Palazzo cinema.
• Mr Ring-a-Ding is voiced by Alan Cumming, who previously appeared in the Whoniverse as King James I in The Witchfinders.
• Mr Ring-a-Ding's design was inspired by characters of the Fleischer Studios animation era of the 1930s. He was animated by VFX studio Framestore, who used classic hand-drawn animation techniques similar to the style of the era.