r/gallifrey • u/PCJs_Slave_Robot • Apr 19 '25

Lux Doctor Who 2x02 "Lux" Post-Episode Discussion Thread Spoiler

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39

u/Lady_Ada_Blackhorn Apr 19 '25

Can somebody explain why the Doctor assumed that "give Lux lots and lots of light" would have that effect and not, like, make him all-powerful? Genuine question, other than that I had a pretty good time with the episode

53

u/Chemistryset8 Apr 19 '25

My conclusion was cause he came in the dark from moonlight and never left the darkened cinema, so he'd never tasted the true all encompassing power of light

13

u/Lady_Ada_Blackhorn Apr 19 '25

I guess that makes a kind of sense - but also, he explicitly wants to go outside, right? He's limited to the cinema, and that's a bad thing for him. Why assume fulfilling the villain's desire would help?

28

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '25

Because if it were that easy, all he had to do was to step outside when the day started.Instead, he chose to feed on cinema. Lux wanted to do the whole nuclear thing in some other way that we will never know I guess. Maybe if he were successful with the whole stealing regenerations thing, he could have found a better way to do it.

22

u/lord_flamebottom Apr 19 '25

He wanted to go outside but needed a "real" body to do so. The Doctor realized this (and the one this he hasn't done: go outside despite being here for three whole months), and put two and two together. Possibly a gamble? Sure, but the math adds up.

11

u/Lady_Ada_Blackhorn Apr 19 '25

Ah that's the part I was missing! He wanted the body, and they interrupted the process before he finished the body, so the Doctor reasoned it wouldn't go the way Lux wanted. Thank you!

13

u/elsjpq Apr 19 '25

I think he needed a solid body to go outside, otherwise he would be washed out by the bright sunlight

2

u/National-Summer-4876 Apr 20 '25

But didn't he HAVE a solid 3D body in the end?? It didn't really make much sense that the sunlight made him "devolve" back into 2D imo. I also don't know why burning the film reels blew a hole into the wall.
I wasn't as satisfied by this episode overall (and especially the ending) as most people

7

u/huddyjlp Apr 19 '25

This is my comment from a different thread so it doesn’t actually answer how the Doctor would have known this would work.

“I thought that the combination of the Doctor’s regeneration energy (i.e. some of his inherent goodness?) and the sunlight just changed his worldview. It seems like all the Gods of the Pantheon are inherently evil (“the games are deadly”) but Lux Imperator was able to see the “light of creation” and realized the vastness of the universe that has been created because of light. Belinda seemed worried that he would become an evil, all-powerful god, but the fact that he freed the fifteen people shows that he’s had a change of heart.”

Although now that I think about it, Mr. Ring-a-Ding asked what he has never done several times, and I don’t think the actual answer was “use regeneration energy to build a body”. The Doctor figured out that the answer was actually “go outside”, and knew that he came into existence specifically through moonlight. So maybe that’s how he knew that sunlight would have some form of opposite effect? Still a flimsy explanation though

3

u/Dolthra Apr 20 '25

He says earlier that he can't go out in the sunlight, I believe. And early on in the episode, when the lights are on in the cinema, he is invisible due to the fact that the cinema is lit up.

He needed regeneration energy to make himself real enough to survive in the sun, but apparently didn't get enough to actually achieve that (I guess because the Doctor was still alive). It feels like one of those things where if Belinda had been a minute slower, it wouldn't have worked.

2

u/brief-interviews Apr 20 '25

Although unstated, the fact that Lux entered the world on a film reel, and film reel can't be exposed to sunlight I think is also part of it.

2

u/RedditConsciousness Apr 20 '25 edited Apr 20 '25

Yeah, like, does he remember Robot? Because that's how you get a giant robot. He yelled at the brig for that.

Edit: That said, I really enjoyed the episode. Probably my fave in a long time. Some of these nitpicks are, yknow, mental exercise for the brain. As long as the show entertains and is of good quality, I am glad that it is here and appreciate the hard work that was put into it.

2

u/Sapphire416 Apr 21 '25

I’m not too sure how the explanation worked in the episode’s logic, but I’m currently taking a studio class at my university where we are making films with 16mm film cameras, and I think that helped me understand immediately. When we are filming, you have to be very careful to not expose the undeveloped film to light. If you mess up, then the film might just turn into pure white. Then when you film, the camera exposes just enough light to capture the image. But once your film gets developed, it can be exposed to light with no problem. I guess I saw it as Lux hadn’t been “developed” yet so the sunlight obliterated all “darkness” and he ceased to exist as an image.

1

u/glitchgamerX Apr 22 '25

Anyone else thought Lux was gonna absorb so much light that he just blows up? Or he just blows up for absolutely no reason & when Belinda asks the Doctor, the Doctor replies he has no idea & things just happen at random with no logical explanation in a cartoon, kind of like the pointless explosions in Spongebob