'The Devil's Chord' won't work for everyone - Doctor Who review

A playlist of videos covering the issues with the BBC and transphobic reporting: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWFOeT2jEofVIDW9X3OL7G… Ok so people are throwing examples of Doctor Who forth wall breaks at me left and right that I’d forgotten or didn’t know about, you don’t have to provide anymore. I think the reason this one (specifically the “nondiagetic” line) hit me different in a bad way was that in my mind there’s a difference between acknowledging the presence of an audience (as in Heaven Sent and Before the Flood) and acknowledging the artifice of a TV show. While they’re both forth wall breaks, there’s a difference between addressing the camera with a little wink for a moment, and suddenly going “Hey, can we stop filming for a minute?” and walking off set, and the nondiagetic line is closer to that latter for me and thus feels more disruptive. I dunno if I’m the only one who makes a distinction like that, but here we are.

I kinda think the Doctor was getting ready to pull out the psychic paper but Ruby found a non-psychic paper solution before he had a chance 😂

Maybe because I’m British, I saw this as tapping into the tradition of ‘pantomime’ rather than drag.

The rest of Toymaker's children have a very hard act to follow.

I think the musical number was the lingering effects of Maestro being there. Like the state of play at the end of the giggle.

Headcannon: The Maestro introduced the Toymaker to the Spice Girls.

I think the whole point of the maestro was that they didn't allow you a moment to breathe, and that's where the doctor's fear came from. He wasn't given a moment to think, and the ones he had were only seconds. It heightened the threat of the maestro imo.

"The Lost Chord" didn't fully summon Maestro I think. They showed up in 1925, which was the same year The Toymaker set The Giggle on the first television. I assume when the Doctor cast the salt at the edge of the universe in Wild Blue Yonder, it was that same year which summoned all these gods.

The ruby playing her own theme on the piano rooftop scene and pure silent scene so maestro wouldn’t detect them was imo top top tier I loved them two moments in particular It just felt like it was in the wrong point in the season, it should be mid season imo and would explain the “you always know” randomness and the skip to the June July sentence (it felt very like they threw it in earlier than intended to fit with Eurovision night) Also the “I thought that was non-diegetic” did give me a giggle

My 12 year old was listening to this just now on our way to swim team practice. He just asked if Miss Frizzle was a Time Lord and if the Magic School Bus was a TARDIS. I told him that would explain so much.

"This is not for me. But I'm glad it exists" is such a healthy attitude to have for most art (hateful propaganda excepted), regardless of medium. So thank you for saying it.

The Devil's Chord is less burlesque than it is pantomime, which makes Maestro's character more understandable. They are also personifying a loud, insatiable hunger, which is "always turned up to eleven". I really didn't find this too OTT. In this episode, they're a 'dame' rather than a drag queen, and evil dames are usually driven by one or two dark motivations. I think that with 'the Lost Chord', we can step away from music theory and look into musical mythology instead. I think it goes back to Jimmy Durante and his song 'The Guy who Found the Lost Chord' and the Moody Blues made a concept album 'In Search of the Lost Chord'. The Whoniverse has become open to gods and fairies, so the whole realm of imagination has access now.

i was trained as a classical pianist growing up and i actually loved this episode lol. the music notes are the "reversing the polarity of the neutron flow" thing of the episode. the overall theme of the episode of music as a form of human expression resonated really deeply with me. maybe the fact i didn't know anything about the beatles helped too lol

The Doctor and Rubys reaction to the bad music is everything to me.

They have briefly featured the psychic paper in The Church on Ruby Road when the Doctor shows it to Ruby at the club saying "Health and Safety, gin and tonic division".

So, the Doctor has broken the fourth wall a few times on television in the past, unambiguously. The first big one is in Part 7 of The Dalek's Masterplan, "The Feast of Steven", which was the first Doctor Who Christmas episode, and which ends with William Hartnell literally looking into the camera, raising a toast and saying "And a happy Christmas to all of you at home!". The episode is lost, in fact it's the only episode where every known copy was definitely destroyed, so not having seen it is a near-universal state, now. The other big one was Tom Baker in the Invasion of Time, failing to use the sonic screwdriver to open a big wooden door, looking directly into the camera, something Tom did that wasn't scripted, and saying "Even the Sonic Screwdriver won't get me out of this one", when he's alone in the room. It's pretty definite. There are a lot of other arguable ones, but those two are clear cut.

I didnt see Maestro's energy as 11 the whole time. I saw her singing, playing piano and investigating during the silence as her regular energy level, like an 8. But when she growled or got frustrated and yelled, or got angry that she couldn't get the music from Ruby, that was a higher energy for me (11).

also if it doesn't lead to something, I'm headcanonising the recognition of the diegetic music as The Doctor loving adventuring so much that they create music in their own head

I don't think this would have worked if it wasn't at 11 the whole time. I really enjoyed this episode.

Yet here I am as a Non Binary person who felt Maestro was the best villain since Missy