The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) arrive in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2019. Belinda remains in the TARDIS as the Doctor visits his old friend Omo (Sule Ruimi), who runs a barbershop. It seems that Omo and some other people have gone missing, and when the Doctor enters the shop, he is trapped inside. Omo tells him that a mysterious “barber” (Ariyon Bakare) took control of the shop and makes the missing men power an engine by telling stories. There is a woman named Abby (Michelle Asante) whom the doctor vaguely recognizes, but he can’t place her.
Unhappy that Omo told the Barber about him, the Doctor tries to escape but discovers that the barbershop is travelling on a giant spider on a huge web. The Barber tells him that the ship exists both in Lagos and on the Spider. Only he and Abby can leave. Belinda arrives and is also trapped. The Doctor tricks the Barber into revealing who he is: a storyteller who assisted many gods by preserving their stories on the Web, or the Nexus. The gods cut him off because the Nexus worked entirely too well. Abby is Abena, the daughter of Anansi, whom the Doctor abandoned long ago, and she is out for revenge.
The Barber intends to reach the center of the Nexus to cut off all the gods, which will kill them and destabilize human culture. Abena changes sides: she braids the Doctor’s hair into a map, guiding him to the center of the engine’s power source. She and the Doctor rebuild the heart of the engine so that the Doctor can power it with his own long life-story. Overwhelmed, the engine begins to destroy itself. The Doctor persuades the Barber to release the trapped people and escape with them. The engine is destroyed and the barbershop is saved. The missing men return to their loved ones, and Omo apologizes to the Doctor. Omo retires and puts the Barber in charge of the barbershop. Abena goes off to live her life. The Doctor and Belinda depart in the TARDIS.
The episode was written by Inva Ellarms and directed by Mkala McPherson. Some of it was filmed in Lagos as well as at Wolf Studios in Cardiff, Wales. It was not viewed by many but received generally positive reviews. The writer was recommended by Ncuti Gatwa, unaware that he already knew Davies, who suggested he write a story in a barbershop after seeing his stage play Barbershop Chronicles. Ellarms noticed that the French term for “ghostwriter” was “le negre.”
Many thought the Barber was too frightening but were assured that the series is “Sci-Fi and horror for eight-year-olds, but also for all ages.” The cast was almost entirely black. The author makes a cameo appearance. There are shots of many previous incarnations of the Doctor. Originally, they were going to film in Nigeria, but that was too expensive and they only used drone shots there. The episode was praised by some as unique but called overcomplicated by some critics, and it was a bit hard to follow. It was shortlisted for the 2026 Hugo Awards. The giant spider was impressive. I find it amusing that the Doctor defeats the enemy with basically the same trick the cast of Star Trek so often used to defeat planet-sized computers.