N181 The Devil’s Chord

A musical-ish episode with an actually sonic screwdriver, but no real twist at the end* * *We co-launch into the soft reboot of Doctor Who with this second half of a re-premiere and the prospect of the long-awaited, Beatles-centric, musical extrava-gonzo. When Ruby asks to see The Beatles record their first ever album, Doc steers the TARDIS to London in 1963 — Ring any bells? — for a visit to EMI Studios.Something’s clearly amiss with the timeline, though, as Back in the USSR, there’s been an anachronistic attack on Finland, The Beatles are rubbish, and music overall appears to have left human hearts. And what is humanity or indeed history without a hum and a whistle, or indeed an entire song-and-dance number? Turns out, back in 1925 no-name never-existed piano teacher and one-of-a-kind musical genius Timothy Drake has discovered the so-called lost chord that summons Maestro, son of The Toymaker (the one with the German accent), and sets off the chain reaction culminating in the destruction of London, mankind and mayhap some of the 60s science fiction fandoms in-between.Anyone so much as hum or tap their finger against the Bakelite and Maestro will show up and straight-up pop a capo in their bass cleft, yet oddly the music industry is still a thing. Presumably only The Beatles will be able to save the day, though, right? This is a Beatles episode after all, right? Or should we be dreading a twist at the end?