Space Babies (TV story)
Space Babies was the first episode of Season One of Doctor Who, broadcast on 11 May 2024, and as a first for the franchise, back-to-back with the second episode, The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"].[1]
Synopsis
Ruby learns the Doctor's amazing secrets when he takes her to the far future. There, they find a baby farm run by babies. But can they be saved from the terrifying bogeyman?[2]
Plot
Ruby Sunday boards the TARDIS, and looks around, amazed. She tries to get a handle on the new situation she's found herself entering into, asking about The Doctor's past to a certain extent, what his actual name is - she can't just call him "The Doctor". He says that the species that adopted him, wiped out all but him, tended to use titles, and if you use one for long enough that just becomes your name.
He changes the subject, and picks a random spot for the two venture to, landing 150 million years in the past. Excited to venture out, half in disbelief, Ruby is concerned about the butterfly effect, but the Doctor tells her there's nothing to worry about - nobody every steps on butterflies. However, shortly after stepping into prehistoric Wyoming, dinosaurs and all, Ruby steps on a butterfly. The Doctor finds that Ruby has been replaced with Rubathon Blue, but with some quick thinking, grabs the butterfly from beneath her and nurtures it back to health, restoring Ruby's existence in the process. He quickly ushers her back onboard the TARDIS - notes that the controls are new, and he forgot about the butterfly compensation switch - and decides to take her to the future instead, asking Ruby to give him a year. She belts out 21506 digit by digit, and the two land on a broken down, derelict space station. Exploring the bowls of the space station, they encounter a menacing creature that frightens the two of them, causing them both to run into a nearby elevator.
They manage to escape to an upper level, but the Doctor is confused as to why the creature elected that response from him, he's usually not scared of new things. Looking around they find themselves in a less run down area of the space station, a parthenogenesis machine, a baby farm, orbiting above Pacifico Del Rio. As they discuss the distance the human race has come, the Doctor insists that Ruby call her mum, using his sonic screwdriver to give her phone the access to the 21st century. Ruby does so, half reluctantly, checking in with her just to note that everything is alright before dashing off again. As the Doctor and Ruby discuss the situation on the ship, a baby in an automated pram rolls in, talking to himself about the maintenance of the station. As they step out to greet him, he becomes excited, exclaiming that after all this time mummy and daddy are here, and he rolls off to tell the others.
The Doctor and Ruby follow the pram to a control center filled with other babies in automated prams, all excited to see mummy and daddy, all determined to show how good they've been at running the station while they've been gone, using jury-rigged contraptions and bits of string to hit buttons and pull levers to keep it in order. The Doctor and Ruby regrettably explain that they're not mummy and daddy, and express their sympathy to the crew, such as it is. The Doctor tries to go through the station's logs, and finds that the actual crew just abandoned ship, leaving the parthenogenesis machine running when they did so. Ruby asks how the babies how they've survived so long on their own, but the babies say they're not alone, they have Nanny, and a computerized voice comes on over the intercom, greeting the two visitors, as well as telling the babies that it's time for their noses to be blown. 'Alright, babies, a Nanny', the Doctor asks, 'is downstairs a dog?' The babies freak out, saying that downstairs is the Bogeyman. In their state of panic, the Doctor finds a private line to Nanny and tries to talk to her, trying to diagnose the deeper underlying issues with the station. Nanny repeatedly insists he go to a storage unit on the floor, and finally he relents, Ruby following.
As the two find head to the unit, they find themselves talking about Ruby's past, and how she was left in the snow on a Church, on Ruby Road. The Doctor's mind flashes back to the memory he has of going there to save her, not so long ago, but this time things are different, rather than walking away the hooded figure who left Ruby there, as it departs, turns to him, points at him, and vanishes, fading away. Coming out of the memory, The Doctor and Ruby find themselves immersed in snowfall, on the space station. Shaking the situation off, a woman darts out from a nearby storage cupboard and insists they enter, Nanny. Once inside the pair watch a series of videos of the former crew protesting their forced departure from Baby Station Beta, the recession causing it to be shut down, but the law forcing the parthenogenesis machine to be kept running. Nanny, Jocelyn, has been trying to take care of the babies for the past six years, as the station has been collapsing around her, the education software running amok, food and air slowly running out bit by bit. Looking at a map of the solar system, a planet farther out is a DuBarryDuPlessy world, that takes in refugees. But the group would need to get there first. Now, they have the TARDIS, and can get there, but between them and the TARDIS is the bogeyman - which Jocelyn has no greater understanding of, it just showed up six years ago.
As the trio is talking, they notice on the screen that Eric, one of the babies has gone down into the bowls of the space station to confront the bogeyman, just as if this entire situation was like a fairytale and he was the hero. Over the intercom Jocelyn insists that he has to leave, but he refuses. Ruby and the Doctor dash downstairs and manage to find Eric as the three hide and flee from the bogeyman. Eric is sent back to the upper level, the Doctor and Ruby staying in the area below to figure out what's going on with the bogeyman. They find it leaving large amounts of sputum throughout the underground, and take a sample to a terminal of the parthenogenesis machine nearby, where they analyze the composition of the material - finally getting results, the bogeyman was generated from the snot of the babies, and was built by the education system that had run amok, trying to tell a real story, generating a real fairytale monster that the babies could learn from. The bogeyman finds the pair, and chases after them, but Jocelyn manages to lead the pair through the maze below, closing off doors to maneuver the bogeyman into an airlock, which she opens, determined to force the monster out, to protect her children
The Doctor insists that she shouldn't do this, that the bogeyman is just the same, that it is one of her children, but Jocelyn refuses to listen. He sends Ruby up to stop her as he dives into the airlock himself, hitting the emergency close switch. Back atop with Jocelyn and the babies finally united with each other, he shows them all that the bogeyman is safe and sound in the airlock, but unable to hurt them. He also shows them the nearby world that's willing to take them, and says that part of the ship's problems have come from the buildup of methane from old nappies, so he releases the methane as propulsion, sending them towards their new home.
The pair, the Doctor and Ruby, depart, Ruby being given a TARDIS key, traveling back to Christmas, to Ruby's flat and to her mother, Carla, appearing in the middle of her kitchen. As the Doctor departs the TARDIS, to join Ruby and Carla and explain things, a scanner blinks in the background, analyzing Ruby's DNA, bit by bit.
Cast
- The Doctor - Ncuti Gatwa
- Ruby Sunday - Millie Gibson
- Bogeyman - Robert Strange
- Carla Sunday - Michelle Greenidge
- Eric - Mason McCumskey
- Voice of Eric - Sami Amber
- Poppy - Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps
- Voice of Poppy - Shola Olaitan-Ajiboye
- Voice of Sandra - Cadence Williams
- Voice of Marcel - Param Patel
- Voice of Adjani - Lonnee Archibong
- Jocelyn Sancerre - Golda Rosheuvel
- Rico Trieste - Jesus Reyes Ortiz
- Lucia Colasanto - Yasmine Bouabid
- Cherry Sunday - Angela Wynter
Uncredited cast
- Sandra - TBA
- Marcel - TBA
- Adjani - TBA
- Tasha - TBA
- Ruben - TBA
- Saltine - TBA
- Boo - TBA
- Ruby Sunday's mother - TBA
- Gina Scalzi - Susan Twist[3]
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson |
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| 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. |
Worldbuilding
- The TARDIS console has a butterfly compensation switch.
Notes
- The title of the episode was revealed on the official Doctor Who Twitter account on 31 March 2024.[4]
- 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 next; however, the longer script for in-person auditions[5] in London[6] was adapted solely from this.[5]
- Russell T Davies revealed in the Letter from the Showrunner column for DWM 589 that the script includes the words "roar", "Glastonbury", and "conquistador".[7]
- Davies also said that the episode's title was coincidentally spoken in an episode of the third season of the television series Star Trek: Picard.[8] This turned out to be the episode No Win Scenario:
- Jack: We match speed with the wave, use the energy drawn from it and, Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, we hightail it out the nebula, away from the gravity well, away from that ship out there and away from our new friends the space babies.
Myths
to be added
Filming locations
to be added
Ratings
to be added
Production errors
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor tells Ruby he is last of the Time Lords following a genocide, as first established in TV: Spyfall [+]Loading...["Spyfall (TV story)"]. He also recalls that he was adopted by the Time Lords, as revealed to the Thirteenth Doctor in TV: The Timeless Children [+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"].
- The Doctor mentions the possibility of visiting Star Trek. The Fourth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor met Star Trek characters when N-Space merged with the Federation universe in COMIC: Assimilation² [+]Loading...["Assimilation² (comic story)"].
- The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to enable Ruby’s phone to call across time, which he did to Martha Jones’ phone in TV: 42 [+]Loading...["42 (TV story)"] and Rose Tyler's phone in TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"].
- The Doctor lists the names of other Time Lords using "the" titles, including the Rani — a recurring foe introduced in TV: The Mark of the Rani [+]Loading...["The Mark of the Rani (TV story)"] — as well as the Conquistador, a title previously seen to be used by a young member of the species during the War in PROSE: The Short Briefing Sergeant's Tale [+]Loading...["The Short Briefing Sergeant's Tale (short story)"].
- Asked why a planet would implement parthenogenesis machines, the Doctor muses that "a whole world" might go "sterile", or else "go mad and ban kissing". According to some sources, Gallifrey itself was an example of this phenomenon, implementing genetic looms either because of a curse of sterility placed on the entire planet by the Pythia, as originally suggested in PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible [+]Loading...["Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)"], or because Rassilon had decided to ban the womb-born of his own volition, as per PROSE: Cold Fusion [+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"].
- The Baby Station has a mavity reading, continuing the thread established in TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"].
- The Doctor and Ruby discuss her being abandoned at the church on Ruby Road, as depicted in TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
- The Doctor reveals that the TARDIS translates foreign languages to Ruby when she asked about everything being in English, Sarah Jane Smith asked the same when she knew she should be hearing Italian. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora [+]Loading...["The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)"])
Home media releases
to be added
Gallery
- Main article: Space Babies (TV story)/Gallery
External links
- Official Space Babies page on the Doctor Who website
Footnotes
- ↑ Doctor Who Season One Premieres 11th May 2024. Doctor Who (2024-03-15). Archived from the original on 2024-04-11.
- ↑ Doctor Who, Season 1, Space Babies. BBC One. BBC. Archived from the original on 2024-05-01.
- ↑ https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-susan-twist-theories/
- ↑ Official Doctor Who Twitter (31 March 2024). "SPACE BABIES". Archived from the original on 31 March 2024. Retrieved on 31 March 2024.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 DWM 586 - A Brand New Face, Page 21
- ↑ DWM 586 - Hello, Ruby Sunday, Pages 16-20
- ↑ DWM 589, Letter from the Showrunner
- ↑ DWM 591
