Lux (2025) Review and its enjoyable ride

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Since Russell T Davies returned to Doctor Who in 2023 there has been a focus upon godlike characters which have put the Doctor on the back foot with villains like the Toymaker, Maestro and Sutekh. This has opened the door for more experimental and different storytelling with stories like the Devil’s Chord. This route was continued with Lux, but how much steam does it have left? Let's find out.

The plot of Lux involves the Doctor desperately trying to get Belinda home as they continually keep bouncing off May 24th, 2025. They end up landing in Miami 1952 where the Doctor plans on using a time vortex indicator to pull them into the correct date. However, the Doctor is intrigued by an abandoned and chained up cinema where the movies keep playing every night to an empty house. Upon investigating the Doctor and Belinda discover the cartoon character of Mr Ring-a-Ding brought to life by Lux Imperator the God of Light who they must stop at all costs.

Lux isn’t a dissimilar story to the Devil’s Chord last year. They are both historical storylines which involve godlike characters, and both the second story in their seasons and very experimental in their own way. I think Russell T Davies is aware of this and it's somewhat a repetition of tropes and ideas that he has managed to pull off. The success is the fact that you have a different companion on board the Tardis. Belinda is very much a contrast to Ruby, and similarities in the formula allows Russell T Davies to show the contrast in the dynamic and relationship.

It's Belinda’s first adventure in the Tardis and it's very different from Ruby’s. Ruby wanted to explore the universe and was excited about the prospect of going back in time to see the Beatles, whereas Belinda just wants to get back home. There is a different vibe and feel to the dynamic of the episode as a result. I think you can also feel an advancement in the era in the way Season 2 seems to have a darker and more mature edge than Season 1 did. The Devil’s Chord was a very light-hearted adventure with darker undertones to it and is clearly trying to entice a younger audience. Lux is a much more openly dark story and is evolving with the younger audience which Season 1 was designed for.

The 1950s America setting automatically has something very creepy and disconcerting about it. There is something very nostalgic and appealing about the 1950s vintage setting and the aesthetic and style of the era, which is wonderfully recreated within Lux. However, there is also something very chilling about the 1950s in nature.

I like the way the story acknowledges the backwards laws of America at the time and the way people of colour were treated. There is a danger to the Doctor and Belinda stepping into an era of white supremacy where racism is enforced and there is a lack of rights for people of colour. The story acknowledges the facts of history but does not define the story by it. Lux is a story of escapism and adventure and doesn’t get tied down by its racist setting and environment. However, at the same time, it validates the struggles and problems of marginalised people living during the 1950s and the hostility and cruelty they had to go through.

I love the night cinema setting. It gives the story a sinister and unsettling darkness to home in on, which the story is elevated by. You have an inherent mystery mixed with darkness, curiosity and horror which has the essence and feel of Doctor Who. The simple setting of an abandoned cinema, which plays to an empty house, has a disturbing and horrible creepiness to it, which feels worrisome, and it draws the audience in. There is something frightening about what happens at night, which the story is aware of. The night feels more isolated, with a sense of greater uncertainty and danger. It feels like evil and cruel things are able to slip by unnoticed and you are more helpless as a result. Russell T Davies focuses his script on this sense of creepy uncertainty.

There are also very personal stakes which gives the story a sense of real emotion which I really like. 15 people having gone missing inside the cinema already, has a sense of sadness to it and an intrigue for the story to base itself around. Tommy Lee’s mother gives the story a sadness, as well as a victim to propel the story, motivate the Doctor and give the whole thing a point. The story is more meaningful because of its visible victims and tragedy. The story is at its strongest in the first half with its sense of darkness; as things go on and become more experimental, it pushes itself in more directions where it has less success.

The villain of the story is Lux Imperator, the God of Light, continuing the trend of gods in the Fifteenth Doctor era, this time voiced by Alan Cumming; a well-known film actor who previously played King James 1st in the Witchfinders. I really like the idea of Lux as a villain and the idea of a cartoon character coming to life. The animation of Mr Ring-a-Ding is based upon the Fleischer studios animations, particularly of the 1930s. These were very innovative at the time and have a boundless creativity and striking visual style that is wonderfully recreated. The animation of Mr Ring-a-Ding and the melding of animation with live action characters is very impressively done. Mr Ring-a-Ding has the characteristics of the hand drawn animation and style and sensibilities of the Fleischer studio animations. There is something subtly uncanny and creepy about the animation style which Lux exploits to its advantage with a very malevolent character. It mixes the nostalgia of 1930s animation with a sense of danger. The exaggerated movement of the animation feels full of life and menace. Alan Cumming also expertly brings the character to life with a striking voice which defines the character.

Alan Cumming gets the essence of the chirpiness of the persona of Mr Ring-a-Ding but can flip the character easily to become unpredictable and dangerous. The problem is that I don’t think the character is as well thought out and defined as some of the previous godlike characters. The Toymaker and Maestro had motivations which could easily be understood. Maestro wanted to steal all music and creative talent and there were devastating consequences and also a character which could be hated with malicious and selfish intent. I think the purpose of the god of light is less clear. There is a creepiness and a horror to Lux trapping the 15 missing people on film and the Doctor and Belinda being trapped on film and trying to get out of the frame.

The problem is that it’s a relatively low scale story and as things go on; they try to amp things up. There is talk of Lux taking advantage of the light of the atom bomb reflecting the anxieties of the era, but there is a lack of specifics. There aren’t many real and concrete stakes to be feared because Lux feels more ambiguous and abstract in terms of the threat he actually poses to humanity, which hinders and hurts the overall story. The Toymaker and Maestro felt refreshing, but as things go more down the path of gods, things have become slightly derivative. I’m not very fond of Lux using regeneration energy to build himself a body. I’ve never really liked regeneration being used as a story mechanic outside of the regeneration itself. It feels like it cheapens the impact and specialty of the regeneration. This started as a trend in the Matt Smith era and has never been something I have liked. I also take issue with the ending of Lux. The light being too much for the villain to bear and him floating away and being dispersed feels like a very pathetic end. It lessens their overall threat when you think of how little they would be able to do and achieve. It feels lazy to have endings where the situation naturally solves itself. Whilst the characters have some agency in this, Russell T Davies veers too close to this trend.

Lux plays with some very bold visual ideas and meta-aspects and is to be admired with the way it pushes beyond the conventional. I liked the scenes of the Doctor and Belinda trying to get out of the frame. However, I think the story could have done more with this and didn’t achieve its full potential. This is a drawback of the short runtime of modern Doctor Who. The animated sequence and part inside the frame felt more like a gimmick and sequence rather than an effective commentary on narrative and stories, which I think it was going for. The Doctor and Belinda fighting the traps of a narrative designed for them would have been cool to have a whole story around. It could have provided clever commentary on narrative tropes in media and the meaning of stories to people which I don’t think the story gets to the root of. The Devil’s Chord had a very clear message on the power and importance of music and artistry. With Lux, you have a lot of combined sequences which don’t fully pull off the core idea. It's entertaining and creative and works to some extent, but I would have liked more of what it has to offer.

The part I wasn’t a fan of was the sequence of the Doctor and Belinda bumping into a bunch of Doctor Who fans. This is the most meta and self-aware Doctor Who has ever gone, and I’m not entirely opposed to the concept. It would have been better as a throwaway and simple joke rather than an extended scene. Going this self-aware pulls me out of the reality of the world and suspension of disbelief which Doctor Who has created. It felt very cringey and the emotion and acting felt unnecessary and didn’t hit in the desired way. Stories like the Mind Robber, Under the Lake/Before the Flood and the Devil’s Chord lean in meta directions, but I feel they did take this scene too far. I understand the message that Doctor Who has impacted many fans across the world, but the execution is shoddy. The fact that the fans are shown to be nothing, but one note characters and socially inept and overly annoying weirdos feels like a stereotype from the 1980s-90s which should have been avoided.

You have Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor who is once again fantastic. He melds an ancient professor and adventurer with a sense of youth and recklessness and is characteristically the Doctor. He just oozes cool as a personality and it’s great to see him thrive on screen. Ncuti Gatwa’s energy and movement in the 1950s clothes is just wonderful, and the curiosity of the Fifteenth Doctor is an aspect of him I really like. He is automatically intrigued by the chained-up cinema and cannot resist going in and investigating. He feels like a character who is lured in by and cannot resist trouble. His compassion, care and warmth towards Mrs Lowenstein and the loss of her son is wonderful, he shows a lot of open kindness towards her. The Doctor is motivated by the Tardis as a symbol of hope which gives him a sense of duty to help which I really like.

I love the proudness and the confidence of the Fifteenth Doctor even within a very bigoted and difficult era of human history. The 1950s puts limitations on the Doctor as a black man, but that isn’t going to stop him from expressing himself, showing his dominance and being who he is. His interaction with Mr Ring-a-Ding is very interesting. He shows a lot of intrigue towards Lux as a being of pure light. However, the fear of his performance in facing another god has a great amount of emotion and sincerity. Ncuti Gatwa sells the stakes of the situation very effectively. There is a bonding and connection between the Doctor and Belinda across the story as the Doctor becomes more honest and open about their situation and I like the trust they build with each other.

Belinda Chandra played by Verada Sethu is a character who I am really liking. She feels like a breath of fresh air and a rejection of a lot of the tropes of what a companion is meant to be. There is a sense of lostness in her character, which defines her. Belinda’s home and relationship with her parents gives her a feeling of identity and roots her as a character. It fleshes Belinda out with a sense of her home and family life. Belinda has people who she cares for which she is trying to get back to and there is a real purpose to Belinda’s journey back home. She isn’t above the excitement of time travel as she still takes thrill in the idea of being in the 1950s. However, it's shown to be momentary and making the best out of the situation as she wants to very quickly get back on the case of getting back home. Her challenging of the Doctor and his attitudes towards the past creates valuable conflict and feels very authentic. There is bonding between the two across the story as Belinda learns to trust the Doctor which was a necessary development.

The guest cast of the story is small but still very strong. You have Reginald Pye played by Linus Roache, who is the projectionist of the cinema. He portrays the part as a hurting romantic. He has clearly suffered from the loss of his wife, and you do feel for him. It makes sense how Lux has such a hold and control over him. His sacrifice at the end to defeat Lux felt fitting for his character. Mrs Lowenstein is played by Lucy Thackeray, and she portrays the part of a grieving mother rather well. You feel for her grieving and her lost relationship with her son. The Whovians named: Lizzie, Hassan and Robyn played by Bronte Barb, Samir Arrian and Steph Lacey are the weak points of the guest cast. They have very little to work with, but the performances feel cringey with clunky and forced delivery.

Lux is directed by Amanda Brotchie, who is well known for series such as Gentlemen Jack and the Letdown. I think the story is opened in a brilliant way. The panning shot across the cinema has a very gentle movement and naturally introduces the audience to the victims of the opening scene in a human way where you feel for them when they are disposed of. There is a natural creepiness and moodiness to the setting which Amanda Brotchie takes advantage of. The movement to the exploration of the 1950s cinema is shot in a very simple and scary manner. It homes in on the danger and darkness of the era with natural movement and eeriness. Amanda Brotchie allows visual fun on screen whilst framing it in a very confined way. This works marvellously with the Doctor and Belinda stuck inside a frame shot. The simplicity allows for the strongly demonstrated visual idea.

So, overall, how did I feel about Lux? I think it’s a very enjoyable, entertaining and fun episode of Doctor Who, which pushes boundaries and attempts to go somewhere different, but it does have mixed results. I love the creepiness of the isolated cinema and night setting of the 1950s. It homes in on a terrifying anxiety and sense of disconcertion. There are also personal stakes and an intriguing mystery which pulls the audience in. Mr Ring-a-Ding is a very impressively constructed piece of animation and Alan Cumming finds a blend between chirpy and fun whilst also having an unpredictable and cruel edge. I think the character does feel derivative of other godlike characters and the way he is defeated comes across as pathetic and lessens their overall threat. As the story delves deeper into its meta commentary, I do think it starts to lose its way. It explores interesting ideas with the Doctor and Belinda being stuck inside a frame, but I don’t think it explores the full potential of its meta take on narrative tropes. It’s a story that is very entertaining with a fun villain, but it could have taken its ideas further.