Doctor Who takes a trip into the paranormal with the ghost story, Hide. The show has tackled ghosts in previous stories, such as The Unquiet Dead written by Mark Gatiss. This episode might give that one a run for it's money in the ghost market. Of course with this being Doctor Who we knew going into it that the ghosts would not be real ghosts. So the question became how will the episode twist and turn?
The episode begins by setting up a classic haunted house situation. The Doctor and Clara crashed the ghost hunting party of Alec Palmer and emphatic psychic Emma. Palmer and Emma were investigating a centuries old ghost haunting on the site. During their investigation they would take pictures of the ghost and after developing the pictures the ghost would appear to be in the same position in every shot. This lead the Doctor to do his own picture investigation in a way only the Doctor can. He grabbed Clara, hopped in the TARDIS, and traveled to various points in history taking pictures on the very same spot as the house, revealing that the ghost appeared in pictures every time.
The Doctor was able to figure out that the ghost was not in fact a ghost, but was a lost time traveler. The time traveler, Hila Tacorian, was trapped in a "pocket universe" and was on the run from a monster hiding in the mist. The Doctor used Emma's psychic gift in order to open a gateway to the pocket universe and rescue Hila. Events unfolded where the Doctor ended up trapped in the pocket himself. Clara needed to team up with the TARDIS and rescue the Doctor and bring him back. Once rescued the Doctor was set to go back on his way when he was hit with the realization that he missed something. There were in fact two monsters, lovers broken up an accident in time. The Doctor makes one last trip to the pocket in order to reunite the two monsters.
The episode was small in scope. Much like last week's Cold War it was limited in the scenery, as it only really utilized three scenes. It also had a limited cast, showcasing just the Doctor, Clara, and two supporting actors. I, for one, like the smaller episodes. Don't get me wrong it is nice to see the Doctor save the Earth or another planet every now and then, but in between those times it is nice to see him taken back down and shown that there are other problems out there worth solving. Even the Doctor acknowledges that there is more to what he does than just saving planets; When talking to Clara in one scene the Doctor mentions the Clara is "the only mystery worth solving." Small episodes gives us a chance to really delve into the character of the Doctor, which we get a bit of in this one.
The characters of Palmer and Emma acted as parallels for the Doctor and Clara. Palmer's and Emma's relationship was supposed to serve as a parallel for the Doctor and Clara. It is a road that I am scared of the show going down. I'd rather not have this become a romantic thing, but at the moment Moffat is dropping lots of those types of hints at the moment. I just hope that he is dropping those hints to get people off the real trail of who Clara is supposed to be. Palmer himself was used to almost as a mirror for the Doctor. Palmer, a war-hero, had seen death and had sent others to die as well. The Doctor asked Palmer what he would say to them if he could contact them and Palmer replied, "I'd very much like to thank them."
This was Jenna Louise-Coleman's first episode of the season that she filmed. Unfortunately it showed. She didn't exactly feel the same as she had in the previous three. Neil Cross, the writer of this episode, had a hard task of trying to write for a character that he had not seen on film yet. Some of her dialogue was little weak and awkward.
Some quick notes: The relationship between Clara and the TARDIS continued. This included the TARDIS pretty much calling Clara conceded. I'm very much interested to show how this relationship continues into next week's TARDIScentric episode. The callbacks continued with the orange spacesuit that David Tennant wore and as well with the blue crystal from Metabelis III a callback to Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor. Also I liked that the power source for the psychic device used to open the gateway was actually part of the Eye of Harmony from the TARDIS. Emma had interesting interactions with both Clara and the Doctor. She told Clara not to trust the Doctor as he had "a sliver of ice in his heart" so it will be interesting to see where that leads Clara. Then in the ending scene the Doctor asked Emma about Clara, specifically asking "What is she?" All Emma replied with was that she was a normal girl who is more scared then she lets on. Does Emma know more than she is letting on? I think she does and just doesn't trust the Doctor to tell him anymore.
I did not like that it spent so much time alone with Emma and Palmer. It was nice that they were there, but the show really should have stayed more with the Doctor and Clara. I know they did it to show the parallels, but it was still a little boring at times. The tonal shift at the end was little jarring. It side shifted so quickly from this ghost/horror story to being a love story all of a sudden. Not bad, but it just felt weird.
At the end, the Doctor says, "Every lonely monster needs a companion." This quote is my favorite of the episode. He is talking about the pocket universe creature, but at the same time talking about himself. Very subtle, but very powerful all at the same time.
This episode was very well directed. It had just enough suspense and enough horror/ghost elements to make it work. The best part of this episode is when the Doctor is left alone in the pocket universe and he is being watched by the creature in the mist. When he says "I am the Doctor, and I am afraid" it really made me frightened because if he is scared then I should be as well. It will be able to stand on its own against The Unquiet Dead. It was a decent episode, not a stand out of the series but still good. 7.5 out of 10.
Very much looking forward to next week's Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Feel free to post your own thoughts and comments below.
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