Let's Analyse!

Hey, kids! Did you enjoy last night's Doctor Who? Did you like the theoretical dispersion of conceptual text deployed through post modern analytical framework? What a rip roaring adventure!

Okay, so Doctor Who is currently not for kids, or anyone who's not an American or British college student or liberal arts graduate from the past twenty-five years. And, no, it certainly wasn't for Nigerians. Nigeria has its own film industry and it looks like this:

I certainly am pleased by the idea of Doctor Who going to Africa but it would be nice if he had an adventure there instead of weak, reheated Salmon Rushdie fluff about the nature of stories, their connexion to culture, and the nature of cultural identity. I'm not a fan of Rushdie's work but last night's Doctor Who couldn't hope to approach his intellect or creativity.

It was written by Inua Ellams, a Nigerian born British writer and poet whose biggest success was a play called Barber Shop Chronicles, and last night's Doctor Who had the Doctor visiting a barbershop in Nigeria. Apparently it's somewhat related. In this case, the barbershop turns out to be a spaceship powered by the stories told by people trapped in the shop, a pretty simplistic allegory for how indigenous cultures are exploited for the self-interests of powerful colonialist entities. Again, it's all been done better by Rushdie, Chinua Achebe, Angela Carter, and various other people fifty or sixty years ago. Now, you could argue that Doctor Who in the 60s and 70s was influenced by Flash Gordon and HP Lovecraft and I would say, yes, influenced to tell exciting stories, not influenced to regurgitate academic twaddle. Ellams might have been better off drawing influence from Nollywood. At least those movies are fun. His Doctor Who episode almost ranks with Disney's Wish as being a conceptual boondoggle but I wouldn't say it's as convoluted as Wish. Few things are.

Doctor Who is available on the BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ elsewhere.