Doctor Who: Listen (8x04)

Okay, so I know I keep saying this every week. But this is the best episode we've had of the season so far. I'm glad they're getting better and better, and this was the first episode of Doctor Who in a long time that made me forget to think critically while I was watching it. I was swept up in the moment. With the distance of a few days, of course I now can think critically about it. But first of all let's get the plot down.

We start off by seeing the Doctor contemplating the idea that nobody is ever alone - that there could exist in the universe some creature that has evolved to hide perfectly and never be seen. He is caught up with this idea to the extent that when he sees the word "listen" written out in chalk in the TARDIS, he is convinced that it is a message from just such a creature.

Meanwhile, Clara goes on a date with Danny Pink. The two of them are extremely awkward, and they end up getting into a fight. Clara storms out of the restaurant. Whens she gets home, she finds the TARDIS waiting for her inside. The Doctor insists that she come with him. He wants to hook her up with the TARDIS' telepathic system so that they can travel back to Clara's childhood to visit the moment when she had a dream: the dream where someone under the bed grabs your foot. The Doctor speculates that all people have had such dreams because maybe they aren't dreams at all.

Clara gets distracted while hooked up to the TARDIS, and does not travel back to her past. Instead, she finds a young Rupert Pink (Danny as a small child). Clara and the Doctor both speak to him. There seems to be a mysterious figure in the room, hiding under Rupert's blanket. The three of them don't look at it, and let it leave the room. We're left unclear as to whether it was just a kid playing a prank on Rupert, or if it was the mysterious creature the Doctor is looking for.

Clara asks the Doctor to let her go back to her date, so she enters the restaurant just after Clara-from-the-past storms out of it. She tries to resume her date with Danny, but when she accidentally lets the name "Rupert" slip, Danny gets suspicious, since nobody calls him that anymore. This time, he storms out. A strange man in a space outfit approaches Clara, and once back into the TARDIS, the man inside it is revealed to be a descendant of Danny's, named Orson Pink.

Orson had been part of a faulty expedition that launched him into the far future, to the very end of the human race. He was alone in a space station, but strange noises came at night from outside, seeming to knock to get in. The Doctor is convinced that these noises might belong to these "listening" creatures he's so fascinated by. The Doctor unlocks the door, which starts to open... but he is knocked unconscious as the air compartment is breached.

Clara rescues the Doctor and hooks into the TARDIS' telepathy once more, taking them to a new location. Turns out, that location is the Doctor's own childhood. The Doctor is crying alone in a barn. Clara is forced to hide under the bed to avoid being seen. When the adult Doctor wakes up and calls to Clara, the child Doctor gets up to investigate. Clara instinctively reaches out and grabs the Doctor's ankle from under the bed, thus fulfilling the dream that everyone has. Clara tells the Doctor that he's dreaming, and comforts him by telling him that it's okay to be afraid - fear is a "constant companion" that can help people do good. She also tells him that one day he'll come back to the barn and make a very hard decision, but even if he's scared, he'll be okay. It's revealed that the barn is the same one that the War Doctor visited to make his all-important decision.

The adventure over, Clara goes over to Danny's house. They make up and share a kiss.

Whew, that was a long summary of events. This episode actually had a lot of plot going on in it. I'll start with my complaints.

See, I'm starting to feel redundant, commenting on Moffat's inherent sexism. The thing about this episode is, that if it were an episode in the Davies era, I wouldn't even notice anything wrong with it. It was lovely. Clara was great. But here's the real issue: first of all, she's the only girl in the whole episode. Again, that would be fine if it were an occasional thing, but overwhelmingly, the guest stars in Moffat-era are men, and even if they are women, they don't get screen-time with the female companion. That bothers me. And then there's the fact that Clara's role in this episode still pivots entirely around the Doctor. Or, at least around men. If this were just a single episode, it would be fine! It's okay to have an episode that talks about the companion's connection to the Doctor as one of its major themes. But I'd love, just once, to see Clara stand on her own and have a story-line that didn't have to do with the Doctor, or with another male love interest. Does this make sense? I feel like I'm not being coherent.

My only other complaint is more of a question... the thing under the blanket. Are we supposed to believe that it really was one of these mysterious "listeners" that the Doctor is so afraid of? If so, it kind of ruined the effect of the rest of the episode. Most of the time, we are given plausible explanations as to why these things are happening, so we're left in confusion about the existence of these creatures. But with the thing under the blanket, we had an explicit and obvious example of something spooky happening. It was a good scene, but maybe it took away a bit from the episode's overall effect? What do you guys think?

But now there's the good stuff.

I will say, overall I thought the scary atmosphere of the episode worked really well. I was genuinely scared when the door was opening, and the Doctor was waiting for whatever was outside. And although I'm still confused a bit about the blanket thing, that scene was full of dramatic tension. I liked the way everything was backwards - Clara and little Rupert hide under the bed, instead of being afraid of what's under the bed. And it's Clara who reaches out and grabs someone's ankle, thus making her the monster hiding under the bed, in a sense. Nicely done.

I loved the awkward dinner with Clara and Danny. I think it's endearing how bad both of them are at communication, and I also like that neither one of them is willing to give up any ground with the other. It seems like there might not be much to build their relationship on right now - they're always fighting - but I think they can both see something there, and even if they're terrible at communication, they really want to give it a try.

Last week we got to see the Doctor acting as a petulant child in Sherwood Forest, and now we see him as a frightened child. I like exploring the different aspects of his character, and giving Capaldi a chance to stretch his legs as an actor in these different scenarios. His curiosity gets him into a very dangerous situation, and I like the fact that Clara, the more practical of the two, has to save him from it. (That being said... was Clara on Gallifrey, hiding under the Doctor's bed? Because how can the TARDIS just travel to Gallifrey? I thought that was impossible).

Also, this episode was pretty funny - I got a kick out of Clara and the Doctor's bantering. Although there's something vaguely concerning about the Doctor's remarks on Clara's appearance, I get the joke - he's unobservant and just generally abrasive. It came across very well in this episode.

I think I'll leave it there for now. This episode was scary and intense and had surprising moments of sweetness, particularly with Clara and little Rupert Pink. It was the first episode of Doctor Who in a long time that I felt really happy with overall.

9/10