I do actually enjoy The Devil's Chord as a fun Doctor Who adventure against an enjoyable one-off villain. If that was all there was to this episode, I would have rated it higher. Unfortunately, it is not.

Firstly, I am a Beatles fan, and the child of a Beatles fan. I remember getting a notification on my phone announcing that one of the new series' episodes was going to be about The Beatles, and excitedly sending it to my dad. I remember watching Russell T Davies talk about how there was a Beatles episode with a battle involving a piano. I remember all the marketing around the episode as 'The Beatles episode'. This is not a Beatles episode. The Beatles do appear in it, as background or minor characters. John and Paul do save the day, but even they are only in four scenes; the recording, the cafeteria, the piano battle (outside the room where the main action is going on), and the musical scene at the end. George and Ringo only appear in three of those, and get even fewer lines. As in, one each, compared to Paul's 10 and John's 5.

Secondly, this episode feels out of place. This is something I started feeling after Ruby says that she's from six months after we last saw the Doctor. This is a feeling which has also been compounded by Boom having Ruby visit her first planet (after over 6 months, and one adventure), and Rogue later having Ruby tell the Doctor 'It snowed when I was born, and we met space babies', with no mention of later adventures. Plus, having The One Who Waits almost be here on the second episode is less appropriate than on the episode before the final. I know that RTD has said that the episode order was not messed with, which, in my opinion, makes this worse.

Thirdly, we once again have other characters put importance on the identity of Ruby's birth mum. I don't like this. If Ruby's mum is supposed to believably be nobody, then Maestro (and Sutekh, as he gets a mention here) should not be finding her so important. Maestro's comments are part of the problem of Russell T Davies making us think Ruby's mum is a significant plot point, not the viewer emphasising with Ruby to make her significant.

Fourthly, as a musician, specifically as a violinist and someone who can read sheet music... AAAAH! There is no way that John and Paul would be able to read those floating notes. Firstly, because none of the Beatles could ever read sheet music, but secondly because there wasn't a floating stave, or a floating clef. Secondly, the chord that banishes Maestro is a C chord, supposedly in reference to the ending from A Day in a Life (an E chord, played by John, Paul, Ringo and George Martin). C chords are played earlier in the episode, too. Why is Maestro still here? They should have been banished already.

Maybe, after time has passed, and we're further from the 'Doctor Who is going to have a Beatles episode' marketing, I will change my rating of this episode and rank it slightly higher. The issue with this story and Rogue feeling like they're in each other's places and Ruby's birth mum being written as so important to the gods of the Whoniverse (side note: I do not like the whole Whoniverse title card things, but am not basing any reviews or ratings on their existence, as they are separate from the episode). And then there's the musical stuff, which is bound to be repeated (anyone else remember Five's perfect fifth?). But right now I'm still a kinda salty Beatles fan.