Context Recap / DoctorWhoS40E2TheDevilsChord

1	[[header:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2	'''Fifteenth Doctor Era'''\
3	'''Series 14:''' [[Recap/DoctorWho2023CSTheChurchOnRubyRoad CS]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E1SpaceBabies 1]] | '''2''' | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E3Boom 3]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E473Yards 4]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E5DotAndBubble 5]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E6Rogue 6]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E7TheLegendOfRubySunday 7]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E8EmpireOfDeath 8]]\
4	'''[[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast <<< 60th Anniversary Specials]]''']]-]]]
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6	!The Devil's Chord
7	->Written by Creator/RussellTDavies\
8	Directed by Ben Chessell\
9	'''Air date:''' 11 May 2024
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11	[[JustForFun/TheOneWith The one with a]] [[DancePartyEnding twist at the end]].
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13	----
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15	The Doctor and Ruby have landed in The60s in search of Music/TheBeatles, but landed in a world without music created by a child of the Celestial Toymaker.
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17	%%This descriptor's gonna be revised.
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19	----
20	!!Tropes featured in ''The Devil's Chord'' include:
21	* AvengingTheVillain: The Toymaker warned the Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheGiggle The Giggle]]" that his legions would arrive in the universe, [[SubvertedTrope but the Maestro thanks the Doctor for banishing their father]].
22	* BadFuture: The Maestro's meddling leaves humanity with no outlet for their emotions, causing a HopelessWar that reduces Earth to a wasteland by 2024.
23	* BeyondTheImpossible: Ruby points out that the Maestro shouldn’t even have been able to fit inside an upright piano, let alone have it still work with them inside it, but as a child of the Toymaker, the laws of physics mean nothing to them.
24	* BreakingTheFourthWall: When Ruby is kidnapped by the Maestro's musical notation, the Doctor briefly notes that he thought the music he'd been hearing was non-diegetic, suggesting he could hear the soundtrack of the episode itself.
25	* CallBack: As in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]", the Doctor reveals to a companion who wants to escape an otherworldly monster in the past that if they don't defeat the evil, then [[BadFuture the present time will be doomed]].
26	* ContinuityNod: The Doctor points out that near Shoreditch, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild the First Doctor lives with his granddaughter, Susan]].
27	* DancePartyEnding: At the end of the episode, Ruby and the Doctor get involved in an extravagant musical number of "There's Always a Twist at the End" at EMI Recording Studios.
28	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Downplayed, as it’s just confusion rather than intolerance or hatred. Timothy Drake, a man from the 1920’s, instantly pegs the Maestro as a man in drag, but when the Maestro insists on using they/them pronouns, Timothy acts confused, something the Maestro mocks him for.
29	* DiegeticSwitch: At the end of the cold open, the Maestro taps out the first few notes of the ''Doctor Who'' theme, blending into the theme proper, and it ends by leading into a rendition of the theme on the Doctor's jukebox.
30	* EvilIsHammy: The Maestro is quite possibly one of the hammiest ''Who'' villains ever, and that is saying something. Appropriately enough, they're the child of another such LargeHam, the Toymaker.
31	-->"BUT IT'S SOOOOOOOO '''''SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD,''''' Timothy... you never had the ''LUCK.'' YOU NEVER ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis GOT. THAT. BREAK.]]''"
32	* HopeSpot: The Doctor seems to find the lost chord that will banish the Maestro, but then they get the last note wrong, which allows the Maestro to recover and send the piano out of the room. It takes the combined effort of John Lennon and Paul [=McCartney=] to finish the chord and send the Maestro packing.
33	* OhCrap: Upon hearing Maestro echo an [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheGiggle all-too-familiar giggle]], the Doctor's face drains as he takes Ruby and bolts away, knowing he doesn’t stand a chance against them.
34	* SequelHook: We get more hints that something weird is going on with Ruby's birth, as the rendition of "Carol of the Bells" which was playing on the night she was abandoned at the church is somehow embedded into her soul and powerful enough that the Maestro themself is left dumbstruck by it. The Maestro attributes this to "the Oldest One", whom they claim must have been there on the day Ruby heard the song, though they can't explain why. As they're banished back to where they came from, the Maestro also makes another reference to "the One Who Waits", claiming that they are almost here.
35	** During the DancePartyEnding, Henry Arbinger appears to watch in confusion. This is despite the fact that he appeared to only be a construct of the Maestro who was destroyed at the start of the episode. This implies he is much more than he seems and will return.
36	* StylisticSuck: PlayedForHorror. The Doctor and Ruby travel back to 1963 to hear the Beatles record their first album, only for the Fab Four to play an abysmal, rambling, tuneless song about a dog. Cilla Black can’t even form coherent phrases and an orchestra can only play a dreadful version of “Three Blind Mice.” This is when the Doctor realises that something has gone very wrong with the timeline.