The Devil's Chord (TV story)

The Devil's Chord

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The Devil's Chord
Doctor:	Fifteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Ruby
Featuring:	The Beatles
Main enemy:	Maestro
Main setting:	Abbey Road, London, 11 February 1963
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	Ben Chessell
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Story number:	306
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	11 May 2024
Premiere networks:	BBC iPlayer, Disney+
Format:	1x49 minute episode
Official trailer
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Doctor Who television stories
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The Devil's Chord was the second episode of Season One of Doctor Who,, broadcast on 11 May 2024, back-to-back with Space Babies ^[+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"].

Synopsis

The Doctor and Ruby meet The Beatles but discover that the all-powerful Maestro is changing history. London becomes a battleground with the future of humanity at stake.

Plot

In 1925, Timothy Drake teaches piano to a young student, Henry. When Henry finds the music of Beethoven a tad dull, Timothy suggests that the tritone, the so-called "Devil's Chord", might be more exciting, explaining that it was once banned, because it might allow the devil to enter the room. As he plays the note a few times, the lid of the grand piano on which Drake plays collapses. A banging sound comes from inside the instrument. The lid lifts to reveal a strange figure, then collapses again as the newcomer is now seated upon the piano bench. Drake insists that Henry get away from the strange figure, but Henry doesn't mind, the entity is his father - Henry's name, after all, is "Henry Arbinger". The figure laughs, "Harbinger", their prelude, whose time is done, and the student vanishes. The figure introduces themself to Drake as "Maestro" claiming themselves to be music itself. Calling Timothy a genius, brilliant enough to find the lost chord, but he just never has the luck, he'll go unnoticed. Maestro insists that there are songs wrapped deep within him that just wish to be released, and asks if he wishes them to be set free. Drake agrees to Maestro's offer and the mysterious figure pulls the music out of his body, killing him, and eating the notes that have emerged. The figure turns to the camera and plays a few notes on the piano.

Cast

• The Doctor - Ncuti Gatwa
• Ruby Sunday - Millie Gibson
• Maestro - Jinkx Monsoon
• Timothy Drake - Jeremy Limb
• Henry - Kit Rakusen
• Tea Trolley Lady - Sherinne Kayra Anderson
• George Martin - Ed White
• Paul McCartney - George Caple
• John Lennon - Chris Mason
• George Harrison - Philip Davies
• Ringo Starr - James Hoyles
• Studio Producer - Chan Shoker
• Cilla Black - Josie Sedgwick-Davies
• Tea Lady - Susan Twist
• Vinnie - Simon Jason-Smith
• Elderly Woman - Laura June Hudson
• Himself - Murray Gold
• Herself - Shirley Ballas
• Himself - Johannes Radebe

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson

Series Producer   Vicki Delow

Written by Russell T Davies	Produced by Chris May	Directed by Ben Chessell	Director of Photography Jamie Cairney BSC	Production Designer Phil Sims	Visual Effects Windmill Lane
Make-up Designer Claire Williams	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG/CSA	Hairdresser Stuart Cheadle	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Pam Downe	Edited by Chris Roebuck BFE	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  Title sequence by Painting Practice & Realtime Visualisation  Music conducted by Alastair King  •  Music performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales

General production staff Executive Producer for the BBC - Rebecca Ferguson Production Executive - Steffan Morris Co-producer - Ellen Marsh Line Producer - Mark Devlin Production Manager - Adrian Devane Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Manager - Baljinder Sidhu Assistant Location Manager - Alex Moore Location Assistant - Robyn Selby Unit Manager - Kyle Yates Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfeld Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Liam Hobbs Production Secretaries - Florence Trott, Chris Harkus Production Office Runners - Danilo Van-Der Nguyen, Lisa Elena Williams 1st Assistant Accountant - Greg Robinson Script department Script Editor - Scott Handcock Assistant Script Editor - Rasheed Bello Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Christopher J. Thomas 2nd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate 3rd Assistant Director - Jennifer Day Floor Runners - Jac Lewis, Devante Fleming, Emmy Williams Script Supervisor - Nicki Coles Camera Operator - Martin Stephens Camera Trainees - Kudzai Dzokamushure, Chai Lee Tan Focus Pullers - Jonathan Vidgen, Steve Rees Key Grip - Bobby Williams Grip - Ken Hodgson Clapper Loaders - Sarah Macleod, Evangeline Davies Gaffer - Pete Chester Rigging Gaffer - Chris Kiley Best Boy - Sion Davies Electricians - Andy Green, Joe Jennings, Jon Down	Art department Supervising Art Director - Robyn Paiba Art Directors - Jon Horsham, Kartik Kundan Nagar Assistant Art Director - Eleri Lloyd Art Department Assistant - Ilee Khezrzadeh Art Department Co-ordinator - Jason Davies-Redgrave Production Buyer - Helen O'Leary Assistant Buyer - Taymar Lee Petty Cash Buyer - Charlie Shelley Set Decorator - Adrian Anscombe Set Dresser - Vicki Male Action Props Buyer - Tara Lily Johnston Storyboard Artist - Michael Collins Concept Artist - Nandor Moldovan Graphic Designer - Stephen Fielding Standby Props - Phill Bull, Jonathan Barclay Standby Carpenter - Lee Hosken Prop Hands - Declan Petryna, Atiff Tahir, John Thomas, Ingo Hans, Joseph Craig, Jason White, Matt Shrimpton Standby Art Director - Ifan Lewis Lewis Rigging - Shadow Rigging Standby Rigger - Nigel Owen Standby Painter - Jessie Thomas Painter - Justin Abraham Storeman - Charlie Malik Prop Master - Nick Thomas Props Chargehand - Stuart Rankmore Construction Manager - Rhys Griffiths Construction Coordinator - Ffion Roberts Plasterers - Cellan Roberts, Drew Abraham Practical Electrician - Phillip Jones Scenic Artists - Gary Nyhan, Heidi Broad, Jessica Steel Draughtsperson - David Merryweather Carpenters - Christopher Hawksworth, David Martynski, Dean Page, Gareth Jones, Harriet Jones, Huw Morgan, Jason Thomas, Jonathan Tylke, Mark Borde, Patrick Watts, Richard Griffiths, Sam Burridge Costume department Costume Supervisor - Laura Baker Assistant Costume Designer - Raïssa Hans	Make-up and prosthetics Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Derek Lea Stunt Performers - Paul Joseph, Jessica Barfoot, Rachel Holifield, Lucy Fowl, Stuart Boother, Christina Petrou Choreographer - Jack Murphy Casting Casting Associate - Becky Rossmaur Casting Assistant - Kristian Wall General post-production staff Post-production Producer - Ceres Doyle Post-production Supervisor - Liv Duffin Post-production Co-ordinator - Lauren Pate On-line Editor - Christine Kelly Assistant On-line Editor - Luke Stanbury Special and visual effects Additional VFX - BBC Wales Graphics VFX Producer - Will Cohen VFX Editor - Matt Nathan VFX Co-ordinators - Siân Reynish, Livvy Edwards VFX Assistant - Sarah-Hoor Aboubakar Colourist - Gareth Spensley Sound Sound Recordist - Alex Thompson Re-recording Mixer - Paul McFadden Audio Post-production - Bang Post Production

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
This episode was produced with the support of incentives for the Irish film industry provided by the Government of Ireland.

Worldbuilding

• Timothy Drake's other students are Charlie Shelley, Stephen Fielding, Robert Owens, and David Hangley.

Notes

• The title of the episode was revealed in Russell T Davies's column A Letter from the Showrunner in Doctor Who Magazine #598, which was styled as an affectionate parody of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The episode's title was also the answer to one of the questions in that issue's crossword puzzle.
  • The title of the episode was then later given on the official Doctor Who Twitter account on 31 March 2024.
• Parts of the script of this episode were used in auditions for Ruby Sunday. The script for self-tapes from potential actors were truncated from the scripts of this episode and the previous episode, Space Babies; however, the longer script for in-person auditions in London was adapted solely from the previous episode.
• Davies delivered the first draft of the episode on 3 October 2022.
• In an interview with Empire Magazine, released on 11 April 2024, Davies revealed that the plot was inspired by copyright law, as he was led to think about how to do a Beatles episode without using any of the band's music due to the sheer expense of the music rights, which posed an obstacle to making such a story. He was inspired to make the episode by a conversation he had with Sam Arbor, a director he was mentoring, which proved that the band still had meaning for younger generations.
• The fourth wall-breaking winks evoke the Beatles film Help!, which had similar winking at the audience from a villainous woman.

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

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Ratings

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• This is not the first television story to feature the Beatles; the group appeared in the 1965 serial The Chase ^[+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)"] in footage played on the Time-Space Visualiser. The Doctor and their various companions often met the band in other media.
• The Fifteenth Doctor says that when the Time Lords on Gallifrey were murdered, genocide "rolled across time and space like a great big cellular explosion" which may have killed off-world Time Lords. The description of a cellular explosion could refer to the detonation of the death particle in TV: The Timeless Children ^[+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"].
• The Doctor mentions that his past self is currently living at Totter's Lane in Shoreditch with Susan.
• The Doctor orchestrates an elaborate dance number following Maestro’s defeat. He had previously taken advantage of a reality-bending “state of play” that lingered after the Toymaker’s defeat to earn himself a “prize” in TV: The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"].
• Maestro is the child of the Toymaker, and must therefore abide by some of the same rules that he does, which the Doctor exploits to force them to reveal the existence of the music that can banish them.

Home media releases

to be added

Gallery

Main article: The Devil's Chord (TV story)/Gallery

External links

• Official The Devil's Chord page on the Doctor Who website