The Story & the Engine

Written by Inua Ellams

"It is always hungry - we must feed it."

In Lagos, the mysterious Barber reigns supreme. The Doctor discovers a world where stories have power, but can he stop the Spider and its deadly web of revenge?

Plot

In a barber shop in Lagos, Nigeria, a group of men take turns telling stories - which come to life on a window blind, like pictures on a screen. One tells a story of a terrible forest fire, in which a man in a flying blue box came to save the day...

Still trying to get Belinda home to London, 2025, the Doctor lands the TARDIS in Lagos, 2019 - a place where he admits he has found a community, namely at the barber shop of his friend, Omo. Belinda encourages him to go for a haircut; but on his way, the Doctor notices missing posters for Omo and some other men. As soon as he steps through the barber shop door, alarms start blaring back in the TARDIS!

Inside the shop, the Doctor discovers Omo and the missing men – Rashid, Tunde and Obioma. The sinister new Barber, seemingly Omo’s replacement, claims they need to ‘feed the beast’. An alarm goes off, red lights flash, and Rashid sits down to tell a story as the Barber cuts his hair. When they are finished, the light turns green; the Barber tells the Doctor they cannot leave, and it is his turn next, as “It is always hungry”. The men’s hair begins to grow back rapidly...

A woman named Abby enters (setting off the TARDIS alarms again), and the Doctor feels he recognises her. Taking his turn in the chair, the Doctor tells a story of Belinda working as a nurse, saving a patient’s life. When he is finished, Abby states that his story has powered ‘the Engine’ like nothing else so far – and that the Doctor will fit their needs as promised. Furious, the Doctor forces the shop door open. He discovers that outside, they are in space – and the shop sits upon the back of a gigantic, half-mechanical spider: Noctis Inknid, the Story Engine! The Barber explains that the stories fuel the beast to travel across a massive web in space known as the Nexus.

Belinda leaves the TARDIS to find the Doctor – and spots a curious child on her way to the barber shop, who disappears. Entering the shop, Belinda reunites with the Doctor as the Barber reveals his ‘real’ identity. Claiming to be the true myth behind all the Storytelling Gods, he fails to convince the Doctor, who has met them all. In reality, the Barber was a servant of the Gods, who was cast out after his creation, the Nexus, rendered him redundant. In this moment, the Doctor also recognises Abby as Abena, the daughter of the god Anansi – whom he previously met as the Fugitive Doctor.

The Barber reveals he plans to reach the heart of the Nexus and destroy the Gods, consequentially ending storytelling amongst humanity. As the Engine destabilises, Abena cuts and braids the Doctor’s hair, disguising the Engine’s schematics in his locks. Pursued by the Barber, he and Belinda navigate their way to the core of the Engine. Telling the story of his own, long life, the Doctor overloads the Engine – and convinces the Barber to reclaim his own story and set the prisoners of the shop free.

Escaping the Engine, the trapped customers thank the Doctor for saving them, and Abena for caring for them. Omo forgives the now directionless Barber, granting him both his father’s name and his shop. The Doctor finally tells Belinda the story of how he and Omo met as the TARDIS departs. 

Concept Art

Behind the Scenes

• Episode writer Inua Ellams makes a cameo in this episode as a market seller.
• Jo Martin returns in a brief cameo as the Fugitive Doctor, appearing onscreen for the first time since The Power of the Doctor.
• Ariyon Bakare, who plays the Barber, has previously appeared in Doctor Who alongside Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor as Leandro in The Woman Who Lived. Similarly, Michelle Asante (Abena) previously appeared in In the Forest of the Night.