A light-hearted episode to start off the series, the Doctor and Ruby explore the universe with the Tardis, first going back to the era of dinosaurs and then to the distant future where they land on board a space baby factory/space station that has been abandoned for the past six years. The Tardis lands in the lower decks of the space station where they come face to face with a monster before running to the upper decks. Here they meet an army of babies in automated baby carts that are able to talk and communicate who apparently have been running the place. They are overseen by an Nan-E (short for nanomatrix electroform) but is later revealed to be an employee (Jocelyn) of the space station who stayed behind to watch over the babies. The space station had lost funding and was due to be abandoned but there was a law to prevent the baby producing machine from shutting down. The Doctor and Ruby battle the Bogeyman and later save its life. The babies are to be born but without care where they will die after running out of food and oxygen. The Doctor, along with Ruby and Jocelyn find a place called Mondo Caroon, the fifth planet in the system, where they can be taken in as refugees. The show ends with the Doctor seen suspiciously analyzing the DNA of Ruby before exiting the Tardis.
All in all a good episode that keeps you interested and puts you in a good mood. It does a great job of introducing concepts that may be important for a new Whovian to join, such as what the Tardis is, who the Doctor is, that he has two hearts.
Interesting Trivia
- Green River, Wyoming -- where they landed after going back 150million years, seeing dinosaurs and where Ruby accidentally steps on a butterfly altering the course of her future before the Doctor saves the butterfly and sets things right again.
- Nan-E - Nanomatrix Electroform
- Spoor - the material left behind by the Bogeyman
- parthenogenesis machine - creates life
- 17hz sound to make you scared
- Bogeyman literally made out of bogeys
- Mondo Caroon - the fifth planet out, a DuBarryDuPlessey world.
- Mavity is still in full force as shown on the displace that shows information about Pacifico Del Rio
- The space station uses a build up of methane in a comical way to propel itself to Mondo Caroon
So, the planet down below will refuse to stop the babies being born, but once they're born they dont look after them? It's a very strange planet!
Characters of Interest
Doctor Who - Ncuti Gatwa does a great job.
Ruby - birth date of Christmas Eve.
Rubathon Blue - of the 57th Hemisphere Hatchlings
Jocelyn - Nan-E, the accountant that stayed behind to take care of the babies in secret
Bogeyman - revealed to have been created by the machine onboard the Space station, made of snot or "bogeys."
Lingering Mysteries and unaswered questions
- They are still using the term Mavity, will this be a gag that runs all season but then becomes important in the final episodes?
- Will the wonder of Ruby Sunday's parents be a theme in the show and perhaps spawn episodes dedicated to it?
- Who is the lady who jokes about never seeing a Tardis before in the preseason show?
- Who is the boss that the Meep mentioned in the first episode of the 60th anniversary show?
- Who is the one player that the toymaker dares not challenege?
- What legions are coming that the toymaker refers to?
- Will we see the Master again this season?
- The Doctor and Ruby were able to think their thoughts into existence. Was this the result of the parthenogenesis machine or something inherent to them?