Doctor Who Episode Review: Space Babies (2024)
Synopsis: The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby's (Millie Gibson) first adventure together takes them to a "baby factory" in space. The factory, which was designed to repopulate planets after a catastrophic event, has been abandoned by and is instead run by talking children in strollers while a "Nan-E" (Golda Rosheuvel) cares for them in secret. In addition to the ship slowly running out of oxygen, the babies are terrorized by a mysterious monster, living in the lower decks. To the Doctor's surprise, the monster, which the babies refer to as the Bogeyman, even scares him.
Review: After watching The Church on Ruby Road and deciding the Christmas episode likely wasn't giving a fair representation of what to expect from the Fifteenth Doctor, my wife and I decided to watch the next episode, Space Babies, to give him one more chance. This proved to be a somewhat weird episode but one I thought was both unique and entertaining.
The thing I liked about this episode was the mystery surrounding the creature living in the lower decks of the ship. It had no background story, it just appeared out of nowhere. Plus, the fact the Doctor's first instinct when he encountered the creature was to run spoke volumes about how unique of a monster it was. He himself even said that.
The episode also did a good job fleshing out Ruby a bit. The Church on Ruby Road provided an introduction but there was just so much going on, it was hard to really form an impression of her. This episode did a better job of it, showing her compassionate side (both with the babies and with the monster) as well as a brave side. There was also a nice bit of comedy on her part when the Doctor figured out both where the Bogeyman came from and what it was made out of.
That said, I am still waiting for Ruby to demonstrate any sort of uniqueness when compared to the Doctor's other companions. Right now, and maybe this will change as we get caught up on episodes, she reminds me of a poor man's version of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), complete with the blonde hair and name that starts with an R.
As far as the episode is concerned, the only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was, ironically, the talking babies. This was mostly because I'm still a bit confused about whether they were super intelligent, were of an adult age but their bodies didn't grow (and if so, why) or if the TARDIS was translating baby talk. I might have liked that part a little better if they were performing their adult-level tasks (with help from child-like devices) without the talking.
But, on the plus side, at least there was some strange song and dance number.
Final Opinion: I liked this one more than The Church on Ruby Road and thought it did a good job giving the Doctor as well as his companion some defining characteristics. I don't think I can put this on my list of Doctor Who favorites, but I've seen worse episodes too.
My Grade: B
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Here are some other Doctor Who episode reviews:
Doctor Who Episode Review: Wild Blue Yonder (2023)
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