Shave and a haircut

Like most of this season so far, I broadly enjoyed The Story & the Engine, despite not loving it. The concept of a barbershop in Lagos where a giant space spider is fed through stories sounds awesome, and it was admittedly fully engaging. Ncuti here also gave a good performance; I particularly liked his story of Belinda's days as a nurse. However, despite the great premise, this episode is let down by an absolute over-abundance of clunky exposition. The amount of explanations here is off the charts, and it hurt the pacing and flow of the story. Plus, I just found the Barber's plan to be fairly muddled and unclear when all was said and done. Still, I did enjoy most of this.

Side Note: I was seriously not expecting that Fugitive Doctor appearance! That was pretty fun; it was the first Doctor cameo that I didn't know going in.