Doctor Who: Hide (7x09)

This episode was precious. It had a lot of adorable stuff going on. I only had one real complaint, but I'll get to that in a moment.The plot was good, I was properly spooked by a few of the "ghost" sightings, the side characters were interesting, and Clara and the Doctor got some great character moments as well.

So - the plot. The Doctor and Clara show up to a supposedly haunted house, where they meet up with Professor Alec Palmer and Psychic Emma Grayling. The Doctor seems to know all about them, and they believe at first that he's an official, due to the help of the psychic paper. I liked seeing that, since it hasn't been used much in the Matt Smith years to my knowledge.

Apparently, the area has been haunted as long as anyone can remember. As the Doctor and Clara go to investigate, the creepiness really increases. Clara asks who's making the loud thumping noise, and the Doctor says "I don't know, are you making it?" When the thumping commences, he runs over beside Clara, and the following exchange takes place: "Doctor. I may be a teeny tiny bit terrified. But I'm still a grown up." "Yes, and?" "There's no need to actually hold my hand." "Clara." "Yes?" "I'm not holding your hand!" It may have been cliche, but this moment genuinely frightened me! Of course this was only one out of several moments of excellent dialogue between the two of them. Their chemistry is amazing.

Then we have the heartfelt portions of the episode - Emma and the professor are in love, but neither one feels ready to admit it. It's sweet to see them dance around each other for a lot of the episode, and then finally admit their feelings to each other. The other most sincere moment came in a conversation between Clara and the Doctor. He takes her in the TARDIS to the beginning of the world, then forward every few billions of years until they reach the end of the world. In this way, the Doctor can see the "ghost" running through time. While I didn't really understand that part of the plot, I was willing to forgive its contrived nature because it gave such a brilliant setup for a conversation between Clara and the Doctor. Having been recently warned by Emma that the Doctor has "a sliver of ice in his heart," Clara is upset about how casually the Doctor can examine the beginnings and ends of the earth. She has a heartbreaking line, here: "To you I haven't been born yet, and to you I've been dead, 100 billion years. Is my body out there somewhere? In the ground?" The Doctor doesn't really know how to respond to this, and Clara comes away from the experience with a new understanding of how dark and twisted the Doctor can be.

The climax of the story was pretty good, too. The Doctor effectively gets himself stuck in a pocket universe (whatever the hell that means) and it's up to Emma's psychic powers and Clara's dubious TARDIS-steering skills to save him. I liked this because it forced Emma's character into a tough choice, and she proved herself to be brave. I also liked the continued hints about the TARDIS' dislike of Clara. I figure it must have something to do with her being a time-anomaly. She exists more than once throughout time, which for the TARDIS is probably like dealing with several versions of Clara simultaneously. Regardless, clearly that dear old blue box cares enough about the Doctor to let Clara take over, and they manage to save the day.

So, my biggest problem with the episode comes after this climax. Apparently, the monster that was chasing the "ghost" girl was just missing its mate, and wanted to be reunited with its lost love. I don't take issue with this on principle, but it was really poorly set up. I didn't see it coming at all, and it felt like an unnecessary tag on to an already perfectly completed episode. I did enjoy how much it reminded me (and the rest of the fandom, judging by tumblr) of Rose and the 10th Doctor, and how they are trapped in different universes, but beyond this cute callback to a fan-favorite relationship, I didn't see the point in including this element.

I did love, however, the realization that the Doctor had only come here to ask Emma about Clara. Apparently, the psychic sees only a completely ordinary girl. The mystery grows!

I'll finish off with some of my favorite moments of dialogue: The Doctor asks Clara if she's coming to look for the ghost. She says: "Why would I want to do that?" He replies: "Because you want to! Come on!" To which Clara says: "I dispute that assertion!"

Palmer to the Doctor, about the simple fact of living: "It tends to haunt you, after so much of the other thing."

The Doctor to Clara: "The TARDIS is like a cat. A bit slow to trust."

The Doctor's line when he figures out the truth about the monsters: "This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" (What really made this one was that the Doctor had unthinkingly put his arm around Clara while speaking, only to remove it quickly with an awkward "sorry!" as he finished speaking.)

In all, I was quite pleased with this episode. A minor misstep in the ending was not nearly enough to stop this from being a great example of what Doctor Who does best.

9/10