It's always nice to see new writers working for Doctor Who,especially as so much of RTD2 has been written by Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat. Inua Ellams is credited as the sole writer for this one, and she has a decent resume. She's an established playwright, known for The Barber Shop Chronicles, about stories being shared across one day in various barber shops across Africa. I've never seen the play, but based on that premise alone, it's clear that this story owes a lot to her earlier work.

The Story And The Engine is similar to episodes like Midnight, in that it's mostly set all in one location. It sees the Doctor visiting his old friend Omo at his barber shop, which has fallen under new management. I'm glad we got the short story on the official website, because it gives some much needed context for the Doctor and Omo's friendship. The duo work well here, as you can tell they mean a lot to each other, and I like the idea of the barber shop feeling like a place of safety for the Doctor because of how he's made to feelwelcomed. It's like the anti-Dot And Bubble, where instead of a society cruelly shunning the Fifteenth Doctor for being black, this community embrace him.

The barber shop is a good setting also for the concept of stories being fed to the Gods. Hairdresser's are places that are already known as locations where people share their tales whilst having their hair cut, and hairdressers themselves are usually depicted as gossips anyway, so the Barber opting for a barber shop as his location for the Nexus makes a lot of sense.

I do think, however, that the focus on storytelling leads to a very slow pace. Not much really happens for most of the runtime, as it largely focuses on those inside the barber shop sitting around and recalling past events. It would have been nice had we been given a greater sense of jeopardy, similar to when the Doctor opens the barber shop door and exposes the place's occupants to space. It also doesn't make a ton of sense.

Whilst it's nice to see Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor return, her cameo is blink-and-you-miss-it, lasting for approximately ten seconds of runtime. We don't even get any explanation for how the Doctor can suddenly remember her, when his mind was wiped by the Divison of his memories regarding the Pre-Hartnell incarnations, and the Thirteenth Doctor chose not to open the fobwatch back, to retrieve the memories. I have seen some speculate that the barber shop being a place where stories are harnessed for the Gods could have allowed these memories to seep back through temporarily to the Doctor, but if that is the case, then it shouldhave been explained in the episode. As it stands, Jo Martin's cameo feels like a waste, as she doesn't get to do anything.

Even more pointless is Poppy's return. I doubt anyone was clamouring for any of the characters from Space Babies to come back, and Poppy's reappearance doesn't contribute anything to the plot. She appears to Belinda as a "story leaking out," and immediately runs away. It's a really bizarre moment, and I'm not sure why you would choose Space Babies of all episodes to return to. Again, I have seen some speculation that this may be to set up a future plot point for the finale, but as set up, it doesn't work either, as it doesn't leave you feeling curious or desperate to find out why Poppy was in Lagos.

The visuals in this episode, on the other hand, are very impressive. Seeing the giant spider on the Nexus web is such a striking piece of CGI, and feels like the Disney budget is being well spent. The giant spider's destruction at the end of the episode is also an epic means to finish the story, and representative of the kind of oomph that The Story And The Engine needed more of. I'm not saying it should have been full of action and explosions, but a greater sense of danger and peril was needed here to keep the episode engaging.

Overall, I'd give The Story And The Engine a 5/10. It's a decent concept, with a good setting and some nice visuals, but the Fugitive Doctor and Poppy cameos contribute nothing of significance to the plot, and it goes at a very slow pace, meaning that you never get a sense that the characters are in any real danger.