Doctor Who 14x2 Reaction! - "The Devil's Chord" 

My take on the episode turning into a musical at the end is that it was reality snapping back like elastic. We went from no music to ALL the music before finding equilibrium and settling back to the normal amount of music.

Maestro was played by drag performer Jinx Monsoon. Every line reading was unexpected, but brilliant.

This pairing of doctor and companion has SO much promise. They’re rewriting the relationship dynamic and I LOVE it

"where is my mom?" "You're standing on her" Damn dude! 😂

I enjoyed this one so much, not sure if you noticed but the woman who played the tea lady in the cafeteria has been in other episodes, space babies, church on ruby road and she played the maid with Issac Newton in Wild Blue Younder. Great reaction

If you pay attention to the twist sing and dance number if you look in the hallway in the cafeteria door you see the actual twist Harbinger is standing in the doorway.

The billboard near the end is a callback to the very first episode in 1963, An Unearthly Child. The Doctor's granddaughter, Susan Foreman, was listening to the fictional band, John Smith and the Common Men on the radio. Ian Chesterton, her teacher and soon to be companion of the Doctor, tells Susan that the lead singer was formerly the frontman for another band known as Chris Waites and the Carrollers. I don't think it really meant anything then or now, but was a fun, deep dive Easter egg by Russell T. Davies. Although you have to wonder.... while John Smith is a very common name, is this perhaps where the Doctor got his alias? "There's always a twist at the end!" Interesting to note that actress Susan Twist has played FOUR characters over the past few episodes: 1) Mrs. Merridew, the maid of Sir Isaac Newton, in Wild Blue Yonder, 2) an unnamed patron at the club in The Church on Ruby Road, 3) former crew member Gina Scalzi in Space Babies, and 4) the lady serving tea at the commissary in The Devil's Chord. Knowing RTD, this can't be a coincidence. I wouldn't be surprised if we see her again...

A lovely cameo from the legendary June Hudson, costume designer for Doctor Who in the 1970s and early 80s (she came up with Tom Baker's iconic look!) as the elderly woman playing Clare du Lune alone in her small flat. And now a personal theory: we've seen winks to camera and references to non-diegetic sound in this episode, not to mention the closing song and the zebra crossing meets giant keyboard from BIG dance at the end; Space Babies referenced the tropes of children's fiction and the existence of the TV show Star Trek; Wild Blue Yonder saw the Doctor and Donna quoting characters from the TV puppet show Thunderbirds, and The Star Beast featured a villain straight out of a comic book. So is the One Who Waits perhaps the Master of the Land of Fiction, from the Second Doctor's era? After all, the Land of Fiction was created by the Gods of Ragnarok, Great Old Ones from the Seventh Doctor's era - ancient godlike creatures that existed before the current universe came into being... which suggests the Master of the Land of Fiction has been waiting around a long time.

"The Doctor is the oldest one." THAT WOULD BE INSANE.

This episode was SO FANTASTIC.

So the first song that played from Ruby is the same tune from A villain in the Spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures The Trickster is a being that only causes chaos and I’m pretty sure they say he is a being from the Pantheon I’m actually thinking the trickster is the oldest that maestro talks about.

The episode starting in 1925 is a cute nudge to the toymaker since he arrived in that time as well a few episodes ago

Great review as always! In the terrible twist song at the end you will see Murray Gold sitting at the piano, he's the composer of all the great music in Dr who

Thank you, Derek! ⏳ I'd never seen *Jinkx* *Monsoon* perform before... but, jeez, I want more of 'Maestro' in upcoming seasons!

Final note,A Day In The Life

It's sometimes hard to tell whether reactors recognize that The Twist was a dance craze, though it peaked a bit earlier than 1963.

The album that changed my life was 'Ok Computer' by Radiohead.

Another Beatles fan! So much they got wrong about the Beatles (not to mention 1963 fashion). Though since this was an alternate history I suppose I can take it. Still seeing the mop tops in 63, Lennon with the round glasses (not till 66-67), Lennon was already married with a kid. And none of them could read music (so he would not have been able to read the notes). It was almost a great episode but somehow it felt a tad weak. But it had some fun bits. I would have liked to have seen a little more time with the Beatles especially as they were the ones who played the banishing chord. RTD was a master of character detail and development on his first run on Who but I’m not seeing it here. Almost, but not quite. However your comment regarding Maestro is interesting… Maestro consumes and destroys music. Is Maestro the music industry? The Beatles were massively ripped off by the Suits. That’s kinda funny if in a way Maestro reflects the Suits

I liked everything about this episode. It was perfectly weird! 🤣

Nobody puts Ruby in a cello!

It depends whether you count the Christmas special in the numbering, which it traditionally has not been but I think Disney is.

Harbingers are only there for the coming, so if someone else comes through, we will see Harbingers again. The Pantheon consists of beings that existed before time and space, for our purposes they are considered gods because their powers are immeasurable. The Lord Temporal may have been a time lord or it may even have been a Doctor that trapped Toy Master. They left or were forced to leave just as reality came into existence and these old gods adapted themselves to aspects of our reality and the things the beings of this reality coveted. Music,games, tricks, the Doctor has faced three of them before Maestro and the Toy Master again recently and it almost killed him. More siblings of the Toy Master are coming, his dad may be coming and Ruby is either a child of the Patheon or one of them reborn and doesn’t know it. This season is setting up some really big stuff. The oldest one is older than the Doctor, the old ones existed before humanoid beings, the Doctor’s lifespan is a blink compared…unless the unknown Doctor that we just met isn’t the only one. 🤔

I wish since this is on Disney Plus outside the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland the episodes were longer. There’s freedom in the BBC schedule to allow it (and it’s premiering at midnight on iPlayer anyway and the broadcast the next day is a repeat). Dunno how Ireland is handling it tho but both eps feel a little squished so far, we are already getting references as to conversations that never made it into the final edit like when the doctor said to Ruby “When I first met you I mentioned the toy maker” but he didn’t in yeh finished ep and all that push the button stuff in space babies is prob a set up on a scene at the start involving the jukebox that RTD got excited about in interviews as it was the first scene but obviously got cut out of the final edit.

Yeah, I loved the episode yet despite the music focus of it the ending felt disconnected from the actual episode. To me it felt like a tacked on, non-canon music video though the presence of the harbinger kid seemingly proves otherwise. A big, spontaneous musical number with visual effects would have made sense when the Maestro was still around so that their presence explained it, but for it to take place at the end with no explanation given doesn’t make coherent sense. Still, it’s overall a great episode and was amazing to meet such a memorable villain.

I enjoyed the episode, but the musical at the end was straining.

hey stinky the twist song was great ok a fun episode

sleepy waffles is HOT!!!!!!!!! Love the reaction too

Great review as always. Also in the terrible twist song at the end, you see Murray Gold sitting at the piano. He's the composer of all the great Dr who themes and music.