Doctor Who 10.4: Knock, Knock

[selenay]

For various reasons (mostly related to Space channel being useless), I've only had time to see this week's episode once, this morning, over breakfast. Usually I watch during broadcast and then rewatch in the morning sans adverts thanks to iTunes, but Space didn't air it until 4am last night, so GRRR.

(This is what you get for trying to use legit means to watch TV shows instead of 'acquiring' them.)

ANYWAY. That means this will be a brief bullet-point review rather than a full thing because if I don't do it now, I'll never do it and I'm TIRED today.

But non-spoilery reaction outside the cut was "yaaaaay" and also "OOOH CREEPY" :-)


Spoilery stuff was:

• I expected this to be scarier than it was, but it was creepy and that's a different thing. The knocking,
  the creaking...probably that wouldn't have been as creepy if I hadn't been watching it in the middle of a major rainstorm with my house creaking due to the wind, I'll admit.


• David Suchet really made for the creepy factor in this episode.


• I adored Paul's reaction to Bill telling him she prefers girls. That whole "Yes, I never had a chance!"
  delight was perfect and I love the way they've been handling Bill's sexuality, acknowledging it regularly without making her entire story be about it.


• Everyone lived! Well, everyone except the morally dubious (because they weren't totally bad) guys. I was trying to figure out how Bill could ever get past losing all her housemates in one night, and then she didn't and that made me delighted.


• I do feel the need to write an episode tage fic, though, because there are things left unresolved. Things like, what about their stuff? Did they leave it there, and if so, how do they replace it all because there's no way their insurance would. Did Bill take her photos of her mum with her, and does that mean she's lost them? Her housemates now know Bill and the Doctor have some connection to weird stuff - are they could to just forget it, or is that going to come up again?


• WHO IS IN THE VAULT?


• Until this episode, I'd been sure it couldn't be Missy. But then the piano-player got so delighted at a story about children being eaten and the Doctor clearly knows and cares about the person in the Vault, and I can't think who else it could be.


• Which now makes me really, really need to know why this person is in the Vault, and why the Doctor is guarding it, and why he feels like a prisoner, too. And why does Nardole disapprove of the Doctor's friendship with the Vault resident? Is it something deeper than just "being friends with your prisoner is a bad idea"?


• I don't think I loved this episode quite as much as I loved Thin Ice, but frankly, I still liked it much better than Smile and it creeped me out, so it worked.


• I <3 Bill. She's so great, and I loved the new glimpses into her we got here. Can we keep her forever?

Next week's episode appears to be about zombies. This...is not a good thing for me. Zombies freak me out so much. Argh.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Things like, what about their stuff?

Yes, I wondered about that too!

But then the piano-player got so delighted at a story about children being eaten and the Doctor clearly knows and cares about the person in the Vault, and I can't think who else it could be.

This made me smile, because Missy. :-)

I'm not so keen on next week too, but not so much because zombies aren't my thing (they aren't) but I am never fond of the ones where they need the space suits! People should just not go places they can't breathe, not for a whole episode. Classic Who never did that, because they couldn't cope. Sometimes you just have to curse modern technical TV-making advances.

I'm not sure I liked it as much as last week, but David Suchet was lovely. I mean creepy, but very excellent.

4am is no sort of a time to show something like that. if you stayed up, you could have watched it in the dark for extra creepiness. 0_o

[selenay]

This made me smile, because Missy. :-)

Missy makes me smile no matter what :)

People should just not go places they can't breathe, not for a whole episode.

It makes me so tense! I know that's kind of the point but still...TENSE.

David Suchet was lovely. I mean creepy, but very excellent.

Yes, yes he was. And he was so different from Poirot, which shows how good his acting is. He was simultaneously creepy and someone you sort of wanted to gather up in a hug because he's so sad and he thinks he's being kind? But he's got everything twisted in his head, because he started this when he was a child and it shaped his adulthood and turned him into something terrible.

I don't think I explained that well.

,em>4am is no sort of a time to show something like that

Apparently it aired at the right time (10pm, still way too late for my personal taste) but they'd got the program guide wrong :-( So I could have watched it, except it would have been live instead of with my usual fifteen minutes of delay so I can FF through adverts. Giving up and watching in the morning still seemed like the better solution.

If next week is zombies, I may just give up and watching in the morning anyway, because zombies.

[thisbluespirit]

I don't think I explained that well.

No, you did, it made perfect sense to me, and you're right.

[katlinel]

I, too, was wondering about their stuff, but I'd only got as far as Bill's photo of her mum, because that's all she has of her mum, and even if she's got more of them now, and has scanned them all and uploaded them to the cloud, it's still a loss. I hope we get a little bit more of the housemates.

Suchet was brilliant, in the way that I completely forgot it was David Suchet because my primary association with him is Poirot, and of course, while he's superb as Poirot, that is so very far from the limit of his range. Eliza was too; the actress keeps popping up in things (she was Ophelia to David Tennant's Hamlet, and briefly in S3 of Broadchurch) and her face reminds me of that of a friend from VIth form college, and so I'm always delighted to see her.

I really hope it's not Missy/Master in the vault, but I would love it if it's someone/somebeing that Missy/Master want to release from the vault, and that's why Missy/Master reappear.

Big DNW on zombies for me as well.

I also expect there are many, many Groot jokes out there regarding this episode of Doctor Who.

[selenay]

I hope we get a little bit more of the housemates.

So do I! They were quite lovely and I want to know why the one who got eaten by a tree is so afraid of being trapped.

Suchet was brilliant, in the way that I completely forgot it was David Suchet

Yes, this! He made me completely forget Poirot, which is a sign of how good he is. This character was simultaneously terrible and sympathetic, because he'd done horrible things but he'd done them out of a twisted kind of love, which got twisted because he started this journey as a child and never actually grew out of it.

Eliza was too; the actress keeps popping up in things

I keep seeing her in so many things, too, and she's terrific.

I really hope it's not Missy/Master in the vault, but I would love it if it's someone/somebeing that Missy/Master want to release from the vault, and that's why Missy/Master reappear.

Ooh, that would be much better! I mean, at this point, I'm pretty much expecting Missy or the Master, but I'd like it to be something else because that would be far more interesting.

Big DNW on zombies for me as well.

I'm relieved not to be the only DNW for zombies.

I also expect there are many, many Groot jokes out there regarding this episode of Doctor Who.

...Well, now there have to be. I hadn't even thought of that before!