Parts: 1 (45-minute)
Writer: Inua Ellams
Airdate: 10 May 2025
Production Code: n/a

Doctors: fifteenth
Companions: Belinda

Megalomaniac of the Week: the Barber

Story: Under the pretense of boosting the Vindicator, the Doctor steers the TARDIS toward Lagos in 2019, where he aches to take refuge in his favorite community barbershop, Omo's Palace. While Belinda kicks back in the console room, the Doctor navigates a busy Lagos market, anticipating stories and laughter with his dear Nigerian friends.

But when the Doctor arrives at Omo's Palace, he finds it under the thrall of a sinister power: the Barber, an entity who's commandeered the barbershop for his own purposes, trapping its customers inside and forcing them to tell a neverending series of fables, legends, and anecdotes. The force which the Barber serves has an unquenchable hunger for stories, so the Doctor — bringing with him a new supply of tales to keep it fed — represents, if not salvation, at least a reprieve for the imprisoned locals... but what happens when they run out?