Doctor Who Review: Hide

The Doctor and Clara turn up in 1974, looking for a ghost. Fortunately (or maybe not) they find a haunted house to look in.

Cast and Crew

Matt Smith as the Doctor
Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara
Dougray Scott as Alec Palmer
Jessica Raine as Emma Grayling
Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Hila
Aidan Cook as The Crooked Man

Written by Neil Cross

Produced by Marcus Wilson

Directed by Jamie Payne

Premise

The Doctor barges into the middle of a ghost-hunting operation in the mid 1970s, but is that what he’s really there for?

High Points

  • “What’s the opposite of bliss?”
    “Carlisle?”
    “That’s it, ignorance is Carlisle.”
    I’m sure many residents of Carlisle were offended by that, while others nodded sagely in agreement.
  • Jenna-Louise Coleman looks spectacular holding a candelabra
  • “You are the only mystery worth solving.”

Low Points

  • I’m a little tired of the Doctor’s occasional extremely childish gushings over antiquated technology

Scores

Originality: Haunted house, ghosts, yadda yadda yadda, but that’s not the only reason why the Doctor’s here and that’s why this isn’t a tired old ghost story. There are enough layers here to keep things interesting, although each is not particularly innovative in its own right. Four out of six.

Effects: Beautifully integrated into the live shots. The whole episode was very gorgeously done. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the doorway effect before though, in that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called Remember Me in which Wesley trapped his mother in a static warp bubble. Actually, come to think of it, the plot has certain similarities to that as well. The only thing that lets it down a little is the monster itself. Five out of six.

Acting: End to end goodness. Five out of six.

Story: The story doesn’t really go where it looks like it’s going to go at the start, but that just keeps me interested. Five out of six.

Production: I love the TARDIS interior ambient sounds, and the flashes of… things… in the background. I also need to check where they filmed the exterior scenes. I think I’ve been there. Five out of six.

Emotional Response: This episode is scary in a way I’ve not been scared by Doctor Who since The Empty Child. Then it changes, and it’s just marvellous. Six out of six.

Overall: I really enjoyed it, so I’ll give it six out of six and let the other categories serve to point out where the problems lie.

In total, Hide receives 36 out of 42.

10 replies on “Doctor Who Review: Hide”

  1. I like that it begins like every haunted house story– very like Hill House, in fact– but turns into something else.

    The fact that the advanced alien and his twenty-first century companion insist on walking through the dark house with a candelabra amused me, but did they have to act like scared teens in a fairground attraction? They’ve both encountered scarier things.

  2. I’m also quite interested to see why the TARDIS has this reaction to Clara, just as we saw in “Rings of Akhaten” as well. I think this is another round of Moffat planting seeds that we don’t even know are there yet.

    • Okay, the TARDIS talked to Clara.

      I mean, she TALKED to Clara!

      This is huge.

      Has the Doctor been tinkering more than just with the “Hostile Action Displacement System” .. I mean, honestly, even tho she said it was impossible for her to interact with the Doctor once Idris was gone, he’s not the type to give up at “impossible”…

      *grin*

      Fish Fingers and Custard!! :)

  3. Low Point:

    In my world of Doctor Who, he will never lose that childishness. :)
    All my favorite Doctor’s has had it and it never gets old.. I mean, seriously, he’s ancient and old and will always love finding new (old) things.

    As I get older, I find that I get gushier.. *blush*

  4. I read somewhere that each episode so far has been a nod to previous Doctor’s regenerations (except the first which was a companion introduction episode)…

    I’ll see if I can find any more info on that… but there certainly has been a lot of easter eggs about the Doctor’s past!! :)

    I adore being old school…

Comments are closed.