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Doctor Who season 2 episode 5, The Story & the Engine, dropped on Disney+ on May 10, 2025. It is penned by Inua Ellams and directed by Makalla McPherson. The episode is set in Lagos, Nigeria in 2019 and follows a mysterious Barber and his evil Spider on their quest for revenge. It blends elements of western African folklore within the narrative of the episode.
The Doctor meets his old friend Omo at his barbershop and gets unwittingly drawn into the Barber's mystical world where stories reign supreme. Despite his nefarious intentions, the Barber survives at the end and reforms his life.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Doctor Who season 2 episode 5.
The Doctor visits a unique barbershop in Doctor Who season 2 episode 5
Doctor Who season 2 episode 5 opens with a scene at the barbershop in Lagos, Nigeria where Omo recounts his first meeting with the Doctor in his childhood. As the Barber cuts his hair, Omo tells the story of how his village forest had caught fire. The Doctor arrived on the TARDIS and came to their rescue by putting out the fire.
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The Doctor and his companion came to Lagos, Nigeria to boost the Vindicator so that it can take Belinda home. He tells Belinda that the city boasts Africa's largest communications technology market and is home to his favorite barsbershop - Omo's Palace.
The Doctor explains that since his incarnation as a Black man, he has faced prejudice in many parts of the world. The barbershop is about much more than a haircut as it's the only place he feels a true sense of belonging. Hence, the Time Lord steps out of the TARDIS and weaves through the bustling market towards the shop.
On his way, he finds a sign warning him to turn back and also notices posters of missing people plastered on the walls outside. The Doctor greets Omo, who informs him that a new Barber is in charge of the shop now. He darts his eyes at the men and immediately recognizes them as the missing men Rashid, Tunde, and Obioma from the posters.
Every time the door of the barbershop opens or closes, it triggers the alarm system inside TARDIS. Hence, Belinda also heads to the shop.
When the red light flashes ominously in the shop, the Barber urges someone to tell a story to power the engine. Rashid shares about the musician Yo-Yo Ma's travels through Botswana as the Barber cuts his hair. The scenes comes to life visually on the nearby glass window. Next, it's the Doctor's turn and chooses to focus his story on the dedication of nurses.
He describes how Belinda saved an old woman's life on her nan's birthday. To everyone's surprise, his story charges the battery completely. The Barber realizes that the Doctor's stories alone can super-power the engine. Omo urges the Barber to let the other men go as the Doctor's infinite narratives from his time-traveling adventures are enough to power the engine until it reaches its destination.
The Doctor tries to step out of the shop only to find himself in outer space. It is then that the Barber reveals the shop exists in two places at once—Lagos and in outer space on top of a giant robotic Spider moving across the Nexus. At the end of Doctor Who season 2 episode 5, the Nexus is destroyed but the Barber survives along with everyone else.
Who is the Barber in Doctor Who season 2 episode 5?
According to Omo, the Barber appeared at his shop one day and offered to give him a haircut. When his clipper touched his head, a current ran through Omo's body and the shop.
The Barber claims to be an incarnation of story lords like the West African god Anansi (aka the man-spider), the Norse goddess Saga, the Egyptian goddess Bastet, the Greek god of theater Dionysus, and the god of mischief Loki.
But the Doctor does not believe him, saying he has met these gods before. Moreover, his assistant, Abby, seems familiar to the Doctor until he remembers that she is Anansi's daughter Abena.
In the past, she met a different iteration of the Doctor—Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor. Her father had purposely lost a bet to the Doctor to get Abena married to him. However, he abandoned her and unknowingly left her humiliated, for which his Fugitive incarnation apologizes.
The Barber explains that he worked for the storytelling gods and helped strengthen their bonds with humanity by spreading their legends all around the world. Every time humans shared their stories, these gods became more powerful.
In Doctor Who season 2 episode 5, the Barber narrates that he built the Nexus, which resembles the human brain, as an interconnected network of ideas and concepts using the gods' blood and essence.
The Barber spent centuries collecting stories from places like a coal-powered theater, a Catholic Church confession box, space opera, and an electric cinema, among many others. He eventually decided to use stories to power the Nexus so that it could function without his assistance. However, the gods were unwilling to recognize his contributions and disposed of him.
The Barber wants to punish the gods by eliminating them from memory and taking their place as the supreme storyteller.
Abena and the Barber reveal their plan to install the shop at the heart of the Nexus. The Doctor argues that humans are closely linked to the gods. Hence, destroying them would harm the essence of humanity as without stories there will be no tradition to pass down. Furthermore, the Doctor warns that removing gods from the story web will destroy all of them, including Abena's father Anansi.
Despite her anger at her father, Abena chooses not to go ahead with the plan after speaking to Belinda. The red sign starts blaring again, indicating the need for another narrative. Abena steps up to tell the story while braiding the Doctor's hair. Her story centers on how freed slaves helped other slaves escape to freedom by braiding road maps into their hair.
What happens at the end of Doctor Who season 2 episode 5?
By using the map Abena braided into his hair, the Doctor and Belinda locate the story engine, which is shaped like a brain and opens up to unveil a heart at its center. He tells Belinda to rip out all the wires so as to disrupt the flow of power before the Barber arrives.
The Doctor mentions that Ernest Hemingway wrote him a short story of six words, "I'm born. I die. I'm born" to prove to the Barber that the engine is connected to him. His short anecdote powers the engine and speeds it up. The Time Lord says that he is like the barbershop because all the other Doctors and their stories reside within him.
At first, the Barber is delighted as it means the never ending story will give the engine infinite power. But Belinda points out that the engine cannot process so much power, and will explode soon.
As things start to disintegrate, the Doctor convinces him to open the door and let everyone out. The two men escape safely just before the Spider explodes. The men rush back to their families. But the Barber is left devastated at the destruction of his life's work. Omo encourages him to start fresh by opening his own barber shop and naming it Adetokundbo, after Omo's father's name.
Viewers can watch all episodes of Doctor Who season 2 on Disney+ in the United States.
