This is a new era for Doctor Who, the series as well as the Time Lord.
He’s now part of Disney Plus, as his TARDIS has been seen at Disneyland lately. He’s also has a new incarnation and companion with a secret.
After a popular start last Christmas, he’s off again with new adventures. He begins with helping babies in space, and the Beatles.

SPOILERS BELOW

The first episode, “Space Babies”, seems to be an introduction to the Doctor for new fans. It starts where the Christmas episode left off, with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) about to enter the TARDIS for the first time. Then the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) explains who he is, and what he does in his TARDIS. They go all the way to prehistoric Wyoming, where Rudy steps on a butterfly. With a tip to Ray Bradbury, she turns into an alien named Rubithan Blue. Thanks to some CPR to the butterfly, she’s back to normal. It’s a heck of a way to introduce a show. Back in 2005, a girl named Rose just met a guy who told her to run.

Then the real story begins. The Doctor and Ruby reach a space station, run by babies. Really. Another machine makes new babies. Thing is, budget cuts and quirky laws have led to the place being abandoned by the adults. Only an accountant named Jocelyn (Golda Rosheuvel) is running the place. They could be sent to another planet where they could get help, but the station is stuck.
It’s really bizarre how the kids are presented. They’re stuck in strollers but talk like four years old. A program named Nan-E tends to their needs, but it’s almost cruel the kids have to fend for themselves.
The Doctor wants to get them out, but a monster known as the Bogeyman is threatening them. The babies fight back, but one kid is almost killed while the Baby Captain uses a flame thrower to keep it at bay.

The Doctor also gets a memory of the day Ruby Sunday was left at the doorstep of a church one Christmas. A Hooded Woman was pointing at him. It’s a brief hint on the truth about Ruby.

The Doctor learns the monster was made from the babies’ boogers, thanks to the computer system. It nearly gets ejected by Jocelyn, but the Doctor saves it. He, and even the kids, think the Bogeyman was made out of them, and has the right to live.
Finally, the kids find a way to get to a planet using the methane that was built up from six years of used diapers. It’s odd but it works.

The Doctor tells Ruby she can go anywhere but not the moment that she was left at the Church. That could be a problem.
They do go back to her adopted mom Carla’s flat to enjoy Christmas. As the episode ends, he does reveal his real name (but not to us). He also does a DNA search on Ruby. Her mysterious past will be part of the season.
The opener was a little strange and may not be a favorite for many fans, It’s a way to help new fans to understand the show.
What follows is a much better story.

The second episode, “The Devil’s Chord”, is much better. It’s also scarier, with JInkx Monsoon (they/them) as the Maestro. When they were announced as a main villain, the possible identity was speculated to be a new Rani to maybe a new Master. Actually, the Maestro is the child of the Toymaker. That means a Big Bad with a lot of power.

The Maestro arrives on Earth after a pianist plays the “Devil’s Chord” to a child in 1925. The Maestro swallows the songs the pianist never got to sing, and kills him. The fact that it’s almost the same as how the Toymaker set off the Giggle. Like Toymaker, like Maestro.
What is the Maestro’s goal? Destroy the universe by killing all music (which is terrifying and clever).

Meanwhile the Doctor and Ruby visit Abbey Road and EMI studios in March 1963, about eight months before two teachers get nosy about a certain student. When they get to the studio, the Beatles’ music seems…dull. So does a song by Cilla Black. When they hear a symphony play “Three Blind Mice” badly, they figure something is wrong.
They talk to John Lennon (Chris Mason) and Paul McCarthy (George Caple), and they don’t seem to be interested in music. Lennon just wants to go home to Liverpool, while McCartney is nostalgic about writing music but not willing to do it. The Maestro has been busy. By the way, the two actors playing those Beatles are not bad.

When Ruby tries to play a song she wrote for a friend, it has an effect on the people. It also brings out the Maestro, who has a powerful tuning fork to battle the Doctor. Ruby refuses to believe the Maestro can kill music, until she goes to present day and a dead world. Long time fans may see a similarity to the time Sarah Jane saw an alternate version of her world in “Pyramid of Mars”.

The Maestro is able to trap Ruby in a tangle of notes, but a Christmas song comes out of her heart. The Maestro wonders what that is and how did “he” get there. It ends with a literally battle of the bands between the Doctor and the Maestro, with the Doctor hoping to find the chord to get rid of the Maestro. He fails, and winds up being trapped in a drum while Ruby’s stuck in a cello.
Of all people, though, Lennon and McCartney find the right note. Somehow, that makes sense.
It may not be over yet. the Maestro warns “the one who waits is almost here”.

The Doctor warns Ruby that there’s always a “twist at the end”, in this case a full-fledged music production with a song called “Twist at the End”. It’s so spirited, fans may forget the kid that was with the Maestro back in 1925 is still around. Has be been “waiting”?

Disney Plus may have been wise to start the new season with two episodes. It started with an adequate story about “space babies”, then gave fans got a taste of what happens when the Doctor meets a very scary enemy.
The main story, of course, is Ruby’s true origins. Who are her parents, where are they, and maybe “when” are they? Somehow the Doctor is the key to it all, and maybe someone who waits.

Next time, the Doctor has to resolve a major war. Thing is, he has to do it while standing on a mine.

New episodes air at 7 PM Eastern, 4PM Pacific every Friday on Disney Plus.