As a massive Beatles fan, I was beyond excited for this episode. Then I saw the cast for the Fab Four and the synopsis, I ended up postponing watching it for months to garner strength to survive what was sure to be a very very camp, bordering on cringe, experience. And so it was.

Why are the Beatles even in this episode? I expected they’d be like Dickens, Agatha Christie, and Van Gogh were in their respective stories: an integral part of the plot, pretty much one-off companions, even. But no. The boys are barely in the story at all. The Doctor and Ruby watch them perform one (very bad, for plot reasons) song, and have 01 conversation with John and Paul, and that’s all the interaction we see between them. George and Ringo don’t have a single line of dialogue. They defeat Maestro unknowingly, by playing one single chord in a piano that is in a whole other room, separate from where the climax is taking place. They never even see Maestro! Now, as a Beatlemaniac: John and Paul, I must point out, could not read music. Not that anyone would be able to read those floating notes, as there was no clef and no staff, so how would anyone even know what they were??? Anyway. The boys have like 3 lines, and I could have never guessed who they were supposed to be by them. “Oh, but this is a world where music has been shit since the 30’s”. Fine, then maybe don’t use the very famous, very real, Beatles as your characters? And I have to be a bit petty and complain about John’s glasses. John Lennon in 1963 would not be caught DEAD wearing those. He used them later in his life and is famously associated with them, yes, but this is supposed to be ‘63, and wearing glasses was a big insecurity of John’s back then. 

On the DW side of things, I did like Maestro. The whole thing with lasso-ing people with magical music and trapping them in instruments was waaay  too much, but it was silly fun. The soundless scene was pretty cool. Maestro was quite menacing, I hope they show up again. But really, they’re defeated by playing 01 chord on 01 piano? That’s just too simple! They could have at least made it so the chord had to be played by several people, on several instruments or something.

The Doctor and Ruby don’t have much going on in this one, but they are clearly having fun, and Ncuti and Millie have amazing BFF energy. Characterisation-wise, though, this episode is not very meaty.

I swear I’m not usually this grumpy, but I had such high hopes for this! I can’t believe they wasted this great idea, the Doctor teaming up with the Beatles!!!, on a story where the Beatles are tangential to the plot, and where they don’t (can’t, I guess) play a single one of their songs. Ah, and on the singing at the end: it was super silly, but it was funny, so I was okay with it.