'The Devil's Chord' (Story Code 14.02) by Russell T Davies

“This thing is stealing music. I mean, how… how the hell? I’m sorry, but the power of these creatures is so vast, the whole world could slide into the pit.” - The Doctor

In 1925, schoolteacher Timothy Drake gives a piano lesson to a bored schoolboy named Henry. When Timothy plays the forbidden ‘Devil’s Chord’ tritone, the boy perks up - because it summons up a strange, otherworldly person dressed in an outrageous, music-themed outfit, who emerges from within the piano! Revealed as Henry’s ‘daddy’, they explain that their son’s surname is ‘Arbinger’ - a literal harbinger - and then make the child vanish. Introducing themselves as Maestro, the entity attacks Timothy with animated musical notation, consuming his music and life force. Turning to camera, Maestro then plays a familiar theme tune…

Aboard the TARDIS, Ruby’s idea to see the Beatles record the first album is met with effusive approval by the Doctor. After dressing for the period, the snazzy duo arrive on February 11th, 1963, as the ship materialises by the famous Abbey Road crossing outside the EMI Recording Studios. Blagging their way in by taking over a tea lady’s trolley, the Doctor and Ruby gain access to the studio where John, Paul, George, and Ringo are recording their latest song -which is about a dog named Fred. Confused, the Doctor and Ruby check out the other studios, where they find Cilla Black singing another awful song, and an orchestra playing ‘Three Blind Mice’ badly out of tune. In the canteen, the puzzled duo notice that music is absent throughout the building; seeing a newspaper headline about the Russian Missile Crisis and the threat to Finland, the Doctor realises that something has changed history... Chatting to Paul McCartney, the Doctor learns that the Beatles are happy at how bad their music is, as their last gasp will lead to getting out of the music business; Ruby learns the same thing from John Lennon, who just wants to go home. When Paul starts singing, the atmosphere in the canteen turns against him; then images of the laughing Maestro appear in reflective surfaces throughout the room. After Paul and John storm off in disgust, the Doctor and Ruby head for the roof, where they see a song and dance-free London lying under a gloomy sky. To Ruby’s surprise the Doctor points out Shoreditch, where his earlier self is currently living with the TARDIS and his granddaughter, Susan. Having paid some workmen to transport a piano and stool on the roof, the Doctor encourages Ruby to play for him, to see what happens. As Ruby plays a tune she wrote for a friend, nearby windows open, and the people inside enjoy the music. But then the piano goes out of control and Maestro emerges from within, making the sound of the Toymaker’s giggle. The Doctor flees in terror, hiding with Ruby in a storeroom as Maestro comes looking for them. When Maestro talks of taking their music, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to send out a noise-cancelling signal. Maestro is infuriated by the silence, but uses a tuning fork to disrupt the signal. While Maestro gets distracted with consuming the life force of a little old lady in a nearby house, the pensioner compelled to play her own piano after hearing Ruby’s tune, the Doctor explains his fears to Ruby: Maestro is part of the Pantheon, a collection of vast powers from beyond the universe. He faced one of their number, the Toymaker, before and was torn in two, and is terrified that he won’t survive another such battle. When Ruby assures the Doctor that in the future there is still music, he shows her the threat to the timeline by taking the TARDIS to the present: June 2024, a world in the ruins of a nuclear winter - without music, humanity has gone sour and destroyed itself. Also here is Maestro, who transports the Doctor and Ruby to a darkened space and then plays their piano. Maestro reveals that they are the child of the Toymaker - while he was the embodiment of games, Maestro is the essence of music. Believing the aeolian tones of a destroyed world to be the purest music of all, Maestro plans to feed on the Music of the Spheres, and extinguish all life in the universe. The Doctor realises that if the Devil’s Chord summoned Maestro, a similar chord will banish them. When Maestro manipulates the TARDIS by playing their piano, the Doctor races inside his ship and wrests control, only just managing to return to 1963 with Ruby. The Doctor plans to play John Lennon’s guitar and record a deadly tune to be loaded onto his sonic screwdriver as a weapon against Maestro; but before he can start, the musical entity captures Ruby with animated notation, dragging her into another studio. The Doctor follows, but Maestro, now dressed as a conductor, destroys the sonic and then demands that Ruby sing for her. Ruby sings a song hidden in her soul: the Christmas carol sung while she was left at the church on Ruby Road. As snow starts falling in the studio, Maestro rejects the music, declaring it very wrong. The Doctor begins playing Abbey Road’s famous piano to find the lost chord that will banish Maestro. A music battle begins: Maestro plays a violin, the notes visually manifesting in the air around them; the Doctor’s notes fly too, and after Ruby joins him to play a duet, Maestro’s violin shatters. The Doctor manages to play several notes of the lost chord correctly, causing Maestro to writhe in pain and laughter; but the last is a bum note, allowing Maestro to get free and gain the upper hand. Binding the duo in deadly notation, Maestro seals Rose inside a viola and traps the Doctor in a drum! John and Paul arrive and see the Doctor’s notes hanging in the air; together they play the music and then finish the chord – the effects are instant: the piano turns on Maestro, pulling them inside with its own musical notation. Freed from their prisons, the Doctor and Ruby watch as the departing Maestro warns of ‘the one who waits’, and then vanishes. Later, on the roof, the Doctor and Ruby are elated to hear the whole of London come alive with music once more. They are so happy that they engage in a musical number with the artists and crew of Abbey Road, a number called ‘Always a Twist at the End’ - unaware that they are being watched by schoolboy Henry… When the song and dance ends the Doctor and Ruby return to the TARDIS; after enjoying how the road crossing now lights up and plays music, the friends leave for more adventures…


Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Jeremy Limb (Timothy Drake), Kit Rakusen (Henry Arbinger), Jinkx Monsoon (Maestro), Sherinne Kayra Anderson (Tea Trolley Lady), Ed White (George Martin), George Caple (Paul McCartney), Chris Mason (John Lennon), Philip Davies (George Harrison), James Hoyles (Ringo Starr), Chan Shoker (Studio Producer), Josie Sedgwick-Davies (Cilla Black), Susan Twist (Tea Lady), Simon Jason-Smith (Vinnie), Laura June Hudson (Elderly Woman), Murray Gold (Himself), Shirley Ballas (Herself), Johannes Radebe (Himself)

Directed by Ben Chessell

Produced by Chris May
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson
A Bad Wolf / BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
11th May 2024 @ 7.05 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby

*This episode is forty-nine minutes long

*The story breaks the fourth wall when Maestro plays the ‘Doctor Who’ theme tune on the piano, which mixes into the real theme and title sequence; the theme tune outros into a recoding on the TARDIS juke box, listened to by Ruby

*There’s Always a Twist at the End: Actress Susan Twist appears again, this time as a tea lady...

*In a break with tradition, this episode premiered in the UK on the BBC's iPlayer in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) at midnight on 11th May 2024, along with 'Space Babies'. Both episodes were simultaneously streamed on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland.