Ruby and the Doctor travel to the far future where they find a baby farm run by babies, but can they be saved from the terrifying Bogeyman?

Russell T Davies’ opening episode to the first full season of the 15th Doctor is certainly high in concept but is also studio-bound and feels lacking in the scale that the much-discussed ‘Disney Dollars’ should bring to the show.

Very much a jumping on point for new viewers – this is titled Season One – Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor does his best to rattle through the show’s lore to his new travelling companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) in some exposition at the top of the show. And then, to demonstrate the TARDIS’ abilities, the Doctor uses Ruby’s random coordinates to take them somewhere. That somewhere is a baby farm in outer space in the far future.

The half-a-dozen babies they meet are strapped in to motorised strollers, speaking like five-year-olds, but synched to look like their speech is coming from the mouths of the babies. It’s all very ‘uncanny valley’, and while the effect is serviceable, it’s hardly groundbreaking. The Bogeyman monster is also just about OK, and there’s some solid support from Golda Rushuevel (Bridgerton) as nanny Jocelyn.

As demonstrated when creeping round the Goblin ship at Christmas, the Doctor and Ruby enjoy a great connection. There’s a sense of fun – a joie de vivre – and every opportunity is taken to stress that their shared status of being orphans is what holds them together. And that’s this episode’s greatest strength, which otherwise hinges on two bits of toilet humour.

Verdict: Not the strongest of season openers, and certainly takes the show into new realms of silliness, but Gatwa and Gibson are solid. 6/10

Nick Joy