Many years ago, I went to see The Bootleg Beatles in concert and they were incredible; performing a show that presented the Fab Four from their earliest days right up to their acrimonious split. From back in the middle of the auditorium, they looked exactly like the real deal – the spitting doubles of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr! However, I then saw them being interviewed on local TV and I realised that close up, they didn’t really look anything like the Beatles at all. The illusion was all in being slightly removed from the action and when it was brought into sharp focus, the illusion was shattered. Why do I bring this up in a Doctor Who review? Well, I think you can guess.

Prior to the screening of The Devil’s Chord, Doctor Who Magazine unwisely printed a cover featuring a pastiche of the famous Meet the Beatles album cover. Shown in such stark detail, it was evidently clear that the actors chosen to play John, Paul, George and Ringo look entirely unlike them, prompting a minor furore online (it doesn’t take much these days). The pity of it is that it really isn’t such a big deal in the actual show; seen through the window of George Martin’s control booth (the actor chosen to play Martin, by the way, is perfect), the illusion works. George and Ringo are little seen after this, but Paul and John get dialogue (of course) and it’s passable. They may not look anything like them (and John wore National Health specs in 1963) but at least they cast authentic Scousers.

In my review of Space Babies, I posited that Doctor Who’s ‘light and fluffy’ approach to publicity was not doing the series any favours. Now, if that is true of the first story, it goes double for The Devil’s Chord. For a long time, the only thing that anyone knew about this story was that it was to star Ru Paul’s Drag race winner Jinkx Monsoon, followed eventually by the news that this was a story involving The Beatles. I have to admit that because of the emphasis on her (and I use the pronoun used by Millie Gibson on Doctor Who Unleased) past glories, I was expecting Monsoon’s character, named eventually as the Maestro, to be overbearingly camp, at the expense of being in any way menacing or threatening. How wrong could I be?

Extremely, as it turns out, because although Jinkx Monsoon’s costume and publicity shots scream high camp, her performance is utterly terrifying! She’s a genuinely menacing presence in this and when she narrows her eyes and bellows in that harsh voice, there’s a terrifying sense that there is no limit to her cruelty and insanity – and she could literally do anything! It’s an extraordinary performance and it was a real revelation to me; I feel genuinely ashamed that I was anticipating something arch and campy, but in fairness, it was the archness and campiness of the publicity which led me to that conclusion. The Maestro is supposed to be one of the Toymaker’s pantheon of mischievous gods – his daughter no less – but I have to admit that whereas I found him simply unhinged, I found her genuinely malevolent!

The idea that the Toymaker is only one of a whole army of malevolent deities seems to be at the centre of the new series and it certainly makes for an interesting story arc. I only hope that with the frequent references to the Doctor being an orphan, Russell T. Davies won’t be tempted to go down the route of making the Doctor the child of the Toymaker; that would be such an unbearably cheap and fanwanky idea that I’d lose all confidence in the series. Fingers crossed he doesn’t go there though, because The Devil’s Chord handles the Doctor’s past very nicely, having him look out over London (actually Cardiff) and explain to Ruby that somewhere out there in 1963 is a much younger/older version of himself, with his granddaughter Susan. Ncuti Gatwa is so good in these quiet scenes and they do his acting ability so many more favours than all the running and shouting.

Gatwa and Gibson look fantastic in this episode, the decision is to not have either of them in a regular ‘costume’, allowing them to treat us to the Doctor in a sharp blue suit, Chelsea boots and afro hair. Ruby meanwhile has a mini-dress, kinky boots and short beehive haircut. None of these fashion choices would have been widely available in 1962, except perhaps for the blue suit and all originate from the late 60s, but like John Lennon’s anachronous penny glasses, the episode paints a broad picture of the 1960s rather than an entirely accurate one. The beginning of any decade usually looks more like the one that preceded it, so the early 60s looked more like the 50s, the early 80s looked more like the 70s etc. This doesn’t always come across great on TV though, so the broader strokes are understandable. The London of 1963 is quite nicely represented by wisely keeping the location stuff quite small, mainly revolving around Abbey Road studios – at the time called EMI Recording Studios – which is also effectively recreated.

The Devil’s Chord has a lot going for it; Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson and Jinkx Monsoon are on excellent form and they’re given plenty of meaty dramatic dialogue to work with. The Maestro is a genuinely terrifying villain – literally the stuff of nightmares – and it’s refreshing to see the Doctor displaying some actual fear of one of his adversaries instead of taking it all in his stride. The scene which plays out in complete silence is a work of genius and destined to be what people remember most about this episode. The ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’ inspired musical face-off between the Doctor and the Maestro was a little predicable, but fortunately it was a red herring and the villain is defeated in a much more creative manner involving John Lennon and Paul McCartney. George and Ringo are sadly relegated, as so often occurs in the media.

After the disappointing Space Babies, I have to say that I really enjoyed The Devil’s Chord. It seems a much sturdier representation of what Russell T. Davies is trying to achieve with this new series than its wishy-washy predecessor. There’s a lot of colour, fun and nostalgia on display, but it doesn’t overpower the essential drama that’s at the heart of the story. In another universe, there’s a version of The Devil’s Chord where Jinkx Monsoon camps it through the roof and Ncuti Gatwa beams and grins throughout all his dramatic scenes – and it’s nowhere near as good! If you’ve got strong actors like Gatwa and Monsoon, you’ve got to use their dramatic skills and you’ll get an end product like this. I can totally understand why the BBC and Disney+ chose to release this at the same time as Space Babies, as it certainly left me feeling a lot more positive about the series ahead.

However… there’s always a twist at the end.

I’m not opposed to the idea of Doctor Who having a musical episode. In fact, my friends and I talked about it many years ago, long before the series revival in 2005. And I was fully expecting something musical at the end of this episode because RTD had already said there would be – and it’s the Beatles, so why wouldn’t you? But OH, MY GOD! That awful song! I was expecting something that represented the vitality of the 60s music boom, the originality of the early Beatles, but instead what we get is something that sounds like it was knocked up by a holiday camp entertainment committee for their copyright-free 60s night! What happened, Murray Gold? You’ve written amazing songs for Doctor Who in the past. Song for 10 was beautiful! But this frenetic pap just made me cringe to the very core of my being.

I know Russell T. Davies had commented about how they couldn’t include Beatles songs because they are so expensive to license, but surely they could have afforded to re-record Twist and Shout? It’s not a Lennon/McCartney composition and it’s not on the Northern Songs catalogue, so it could have easily been afforded on a Disney+ budget. It’s a much better fit for the music of that time, it’s inextricably linked to the Beatles (although it’s not originally a Beatles song) and it’s on Please, Please Me! Including an original song feels indulgent to me, as if they were saying, “oh, we can do as good as the Beatles”. Sorry Russell, sorry Murray, great episode in every other respect and all, but no. No, you can’t.

‘Doctor Who – The Devil’s Chord’ is available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ in the USA and other international territories.