{"id":50828,"date":"2024-05-06T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2036030"},"modified":"2024-05-06T15:35:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T13:35:56","slug":"doctor-who-space-babies-review-a-sci-fi-romp-powered-by-its-dynamic-duo","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-who-space-babies-review-a-sci-fi-romp-powered-by-its-dynamic-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who \u2013 Space Babies review: A sci-fi romp powered by its dynamic duo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new era begins with an uncomplicated adventure that serves as a stellar showcase for Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. <\/p>

By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 06 May 2024 at 13:00 PM<\/p>

\n\n
<\/div> 3.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div>

Having taken something of a detour to celebrate Christmas and, before that, the show\u2019s own 60th anniversary, it feels as though it\u2019s here and now that Doctor Who<\/a> is truly beginning to embark on an ambitious new era. With new Disney<\/a> funding, a pair of energetic young leads and a reinvigorated Russell T Davies back at the helm, the series has rarely been better set up for a stab at global domination.<\/p>\n

Those wary of too much change, however, should find their anxieties soothed by the first of two episodes dropping as part of a season launch double-bill \u2013 picking up after the events of The Church on Ruby Road<\/a> and charting a first jaunt into outer space for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and new friend Ruby (Millie Gibson), Space Babies is a frothy sci-fi romp that serves as a solid jumping-on point for newcomers but should also satisfy traditionalists with its scares, larks and intergalactic derring-do.<\/p>\n

The story is simple \u2013 arriving at an isolated space station, the TARDIS duo discover a Baby Farm run by the babies themselves and must protect their new wards from a threat prowling the lower decks \u2013 but one suspects that\u2019s by design. The narrative is straightforward, the cast limited \u2013 Bridgerton<\/a>\u2018s Golda Rosheuvel delivers a spirited turn in the most prominent guest role, nabbing a couple of the episode\u2019s best gags \u2013 but this allows time and space (no pun intended) to showcase the personalities and shared dynamic of Ruby and the Doctor, with Gibson and Gatwa lighting up the screen both separately and together.<\/p>\n

More so than in his two previous appearances, Gatwa gets to run the gamut of the Doctor\u2019s emotional complexity here \u2013 their joie de vivre, their compassion, their absolute compulsion to keep on moving forward and never look back, but also their shattering loneliness.<\/p>\n