Written by Russell T. Davies
Directed by Julie Anne Robinson
The Doctor: "I have the whole universe at my fingertips and I'm all on my own, so I'd love it if you came with me."
Ruby: "To what, just travel?"
The Doctor: "No job. No boss. Just fun."
Ruby: "We did almost just die."
Ah yes, you did. Kicking off with a double bill premiere, things for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) certainly got interesting. Ooh, there was a snot of mayhem in this opening episode.
Stepping inside the TARDIS, Ruby quickly learned that not only was it bigger on the inside but as well as travelling in time (hello, Dinosaurs and the Butterfly Effect) but also space. Did Ruby get a planet on her first go? Nope, like Rose and Amy before her, she got a space station of sorts. Just wait until you meet the crew.
More than living up to the title, the Pacifico Del Rio was piloted by a bunch of very intelligent babies, who could talk but were very much babies and initially mistook the Doctor and Ruby for their parents. They were sweet but perhaps too sweet for the show itself. Baby wise, the focus was mostly on Poppy and Eric.
Of course, a spaceship full of babies wouldn't be the only thing on board. For instance, there was Nan-E aka Jocelyn Sancerre (Golda Rosheuvel), one of the few adults who didn't abandon the babies and also tried to protect them from a distance. What of the monster itself though?
That would be where the Bogeyman came into play, scaring the children and when the Doctor and Ruby investigated it properly, let's just say, it literally was a monster made out of snot. Yup, this episode certainly played on childish themes and predictably, the monster wasn't actually evil. The Doctor had to go to extremes to prevent Jocelyn from making a massive mistake.
The overall premise to one side, the episode wasn't as frivolous as it could've been. We saw the Doctor and Ruby bond through with the former unloading a lot of personal information onto Ruby while also telling her they couldn't return to Ruby Road to find her birth mother. I think Ruby took it well.
However, Ruby's something of an enigma and she's more Clara than Rose and clearly her mystery will drive this season forward. I did like that the episode ended by picking up from the Christmas special as Ruby returned to see Carla (Michelle Greenidge) and Cherry (Angela Wynter) as the Doctor scanned her.
- The title sequence got a tiny update as we dove straight into things. No cold open here.
- Rubathon Blue was the consequences of the Butterfly Effect for less than a minute. The Rani also got a flipping name drop but not The Master or Meddling Monk.
- They had a lot of fun using the nanny filter to bleep out the swears. Reminded me of New Earth in a way.
- Snow seems to be a massive motif for Ruby as well. She literally evoked the memory of it during one scene with the Doctor. She was also given a TARDIS key.
- Susan Twist popped up uncredited as abandoned crew member, Gina Scalzi. We will be seeing her a lot this season.
- Chronology: 150 million years in the past, the far future where the Space Babies would head to Mondo Caroon and December 24th 2023.
Space Babies on paper could've been a right disaster area but it managed to work well enough. Okay, there were times when they pushed the humour a bit but the babies were cute, we got see how well the Doctor and Ruby work together and the latter's mystery has my attention. We're off to an interesting start.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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