I Really Think Doctor Who Season 15’s Animated Sequence Is The Most Creative Thing The Show Has Done In Years

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 15, episode 2, “Lux.”Doctor Who season 15, episode 2, “Lux,” included a scene so cool that I’m struggling to remember a time in recent history when the show thought so outside the box, and it ranks near the top of the best moments in an episode that was littered with awesome sequences. “Lux” was a roller coaster ride that gained a new member of the Doctor Who season 15 cast when it introduced Alan Cumming as Mr. Ring-a-Ding/Lux Imperator, and it does so by blending live-action footage with 2D animation.

However, the installment doesn’t restrict itself to using animation to bring Lux to life, as the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) also make the jump to another medium. By the end of “Lux,” season 15 had set itself a very high standard thanks to the increased budget for Doctor Who‘s Disney era dovetailing perfectly with a fascinating script from showrunner Russell T. Davies. The gimmick isn’t something that can happen all too often, if ever again, but I’m glad it took place at all.

Doctor Who Season 15’s Animated Sequence Was A Breath Of Fresh Air

It was great to see the Doctor in 2D

Doctor Who has been going for so long now that it has managed to boil things down to a specific formula. Granted, there is still quite a lot of wiggle room within Doctor Who‘s typical blueprint, but there are certain things it never does and that I never expect it to do. The animated sequence of the Doctor and Belinda in “Lux” definitely falls into that category for me, as did the heavy dose of animation used to bring Lux to life in general.

Despite seeing the trailer and being ready for Mr. Ring-a-Ding to enter the physical realm, I was unprepared for the Doctor and Belinda’s animated sequence. Something like that always stood on the precipice of being too much, or just coming across as downright cheesy. It did do a little bit of the latter, but no more than a lot of Doctor Who turns out to be. Thankfully, it not only sits perfectly among the rest of the installment but also stands out as one of the most original and creative decisions I’ve seen from the show in years.

Fifteen & Belinda Being Animated Was Hilariously Self-Referential

Davies didn’t shy away from meta jokes about animation and storytelling

Despite the scenario being quite a worrying one within the world of the show, the Doctor and Belinda still found time to make me laugh during their time as animated characters. It took everything very literally, and the fact that they freed themselves from the cartoon by sharing their deepest secrets to “acquire depth” was just as clever as it was on-the-nose. That being said, when it comes to dealing with members of Doctor Who‘s Pantheon, it always helps to resort to unorthodox solutions – and this certainly is that.

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You Probably Missed Doctor Who Season 15, Episode 1’s Subtle Fourth Wall Break

Doctor Who’s Disney era has made a habit of quite clearly breaking the fourth wall, but one example of this in season 15’s opener is easy to miss.

Even before this scene, Lux was also making self-aware jokes about animation. While he was struggling to climb the stairs, winded from his forced dance number, he dropped a comment about regretting learning what perspective was. He was huge when he first emerged from the screen at the beginning of the episode, but must have gradually become smaller and less physically fearsome after adapting to the scale of his surroundings. In an episode like “Lux,” it would have been a waste not to include worldbuilding dialogue like this – especially with all the other recent fourth-wall breaks.

I Couldn’t Help But Be Reminded Of Another Long-Running Show That Went Animated

Supernatural’s crossover with Scooby-Doo came to mind

Watching “Lux,” especially the Doctor’s animated scene with Belinda, immediately brought to mind a 2018 episode of TV from a completely different show. Supernatural season 13’s “Scoobynatural” allowed a crossover that no one ever expected with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! – and the Winchester brothers were pulled into the iconic animated show. Both shows were tonally disparate, but Warner Bros. found a way to make the collaboration surprisingly cohesive. Of course, the Winchesters were experiencing a specific episode of a “real-world” cartoon, whereas Doctor Who is making use of an animated character that exists only within the show’s canon.

I also found it impossible to ignore the aesthetic similarities between “Lux” and 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The groundbreaking movie hybridized live-action and animation in a way that had never been achieved before – at least not quite so extensively. Without Roger Rabbit laying the groundwork, stories like Doctor Who‘s “Lux” would either have never happened at all or would still not quite be up to the same standard as they are now.

Doctor Who

5/10

Release Date

December 25, 2023

Directors

Douglas Camfield, David Maloney, Christopher Barry, Michael E. Briant, Barry Letts, Michael Ferguson, Richard Martin, Peter Moffatt, Pennant Roberts, Lennie Mayne, Chris Clough, Ron Jones, Paddy Russell, Paul Bernard, Michael Hayes, Timothy Combe, Morris Barry, Gerald Blake, Graeme Harper, Waris Hussein, Rodney Bennett, Mervyn Pinfield, Hugh David, John Gorrie

Writers

Russell T. Davies, Dave Gibbons, Kate Herron, Steven Moffat

Franchise(s)

Doctor Who