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| What lies on the other side of a closed door at the end of time? |
1 episode. Approx. 50 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Douglas MacKinnon. Produced by: Peter Bennett.
THE PLOT
"What's that in the mirror, or the corner of your eye? What's that footstep following, but never passing by?
"Perhaps they're all just waiting. Perhaps when we're all dead, out they'll come a-slithering from underneath the bed!"
The Doctor has developed a hypothesis: That the reason people speak aloud when they're alone is because, subconsciously, they know they're not truly alone. He wonders if a species might evolve with perfect hiding abilities, so that they are never directly perceived, and takes as evidence the universally shared fears of the dark, of sounds in the night, and of things lurking in closets and under beds.
To test this, he picks up Clara, fresh from a disastrous first date with Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson). He slaves the TARDIS' telepathic circuits to her subconscious, his goal to travel back to her childhood, to whenever she had a dream about something under her bed. In mid-transit, her cell phone goes off - A call from Danny, which distracts her and lands them in his childhood instead of hers.
The child Danny is actually named Rupert (Remi Gooding). Clara tries to reassure him that what he experienced was just a bad dream, even sliding under his bed to show that there's nothing there. Then a presence sits on the bed. They come out to see a shape sitting up, underneath a bedspread. When the Doctor enters, he immediately makes Clara and Rupert turn away and convinces what might be a prankster or might be a monster to please just go while they aren't looking. After it does so, they leave Rupert and travel to their next stop...
The distant future, the very end of the universe, where the last man remaining is actually from only 100 years in Clara's future. It's Orson Pink (also Samuel Anderson), a direct descendant of Danny's. Orson is a time travel pioneer who was shot far forward to the very end of time. Orson is relieved at his rescue and desperate to escape his ship, whose locked door is the only thing standing between him and the desolation outside - an emptiness that seems somehow far from empty...
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: There's no telling what exactly prompts this quest. Maybe, as Clara hints, the Doctor's simply been spending too much time alone in his TARDIS; maybe it's a hint of a memory that got shaken loose by his recent regeneration. Whatever the case, he pursues his self-imposed mission relentlessly. In the time capsule at the end of the universe, the Doctor's protective side comes out, with the same brusque ferocity that seems to personify this Doctor, when he orders Clara into the TARDIS after unlocking the door. He tells her that he has to know what's out there - But he isn't willing to put her in danger for his obsession. When she refuses to leave, he shouts that if she doesn't do as he says then she will never travel with him again.
Clara: In the previous episode, the Doctor was told that he was Clara's hero. That remains true. When Clara presents young Rupert with a toy soldier that's missing its weapon, Clara identifies that soldier as special because "he's so brave he doesn't need a gun; he can keep the whole world safe." It's pretty obvious who Clara is identifying with that broken plastic man. She starts out quite skeptical of the Doctor's hunt for invisible beings - But she's rattled by the shape in Rupert's bed; and by the time they are in Orson's ship, she clearly believes that there is more than wind and dust on the other side of the locked door.
Danny: Though Into the Dalek introduced Clara's new love interest, this episode is the first to spend any proper time with him. One notable item is that Dan is not his real name, but a name he's chosen for himself - the same name he chose as a child to identify the "brave" toy soldier is the name he chose after his own military service. His time in the military is a sensitive subject, particularly talk of killing. He rushes to point out all the good he did in the service, with such vehemence that it's clear that there is some incident he's hiding, or at least compensating for.
THOUGHTS
"Let me tell you about scared. Your heart is beating so hard, I can feel it through your hands. There's so much blood and oxygen pumping through your brain, it's like rocket fuel. Right now, you could run faster and you could fight harder. You could jump higher than ever in your life. And you are so alert, it's like you can slow down time. What's wrong with scared? Scared is a superpower!"
-The Doctor, reassuring a child in the middle of a frightening situation.
Listen is about fear.
It's not just an atmospheric episode that strives to be frightening. Don't get me wrong when I say that - Thanks to the sterling work of director Douglas MacKinnon and the dead-on performances of Capaldi, Coleman, and Samuel Anderson, it has atmosphere to spare and several effectively creepy moments. But the story is really an examination of fear... Something I'm not sure Doctor Who has ever attempted before.
The teaser is masterful. The Doctor whispers to us to "listen," then sets forth his hypothesis, like a professor lecturing to a class, complete with chalk and board:
"Evolution perfects survival skills. There are perfect hunters. There is perfect defense... Why is there no such thing as perfect hiding? Answer: How would you know? Logically, if evolution were to perfect a creature whose primary skill were to hide from view, how could you know it existed?"
The Doctor's lecture is set against a series of perfectly-judged visuals which set the tone instantly... And on that note, I have to say that Series Eight is shaping up to be the most visually gorgeous season of Doctor Who to date. The story that follows carries on from that, exploring those primal fears: Fear of the dark, of the monster under the bed, of the movement in the corner of the eye or the sounds in the pipes.
At every turn, it's ambiguous. Is there something there, some monster hiding under the sheet on the bed or waiting on the other side of the door? Or is there simply a child playing a prank under that sheet, simply empty night on the other side of the door? We're never truly told - Even at the end, when Clara offers up one possible explanation, doubt lingers. Just like fear of the dark after a bad dream - You know there's nothing there, but you still turn on a light before going back to sleep.
The fear of the dark and monsters is contrasted, in the "B" plot, with the nervousness and fear that comes with a first date, a potential new relationship. Clara and Danny finally have the drink they talked about in Into the Dalek. It goes disastrously wrong, because each is afraid they might say the wrong thing to the other - And that fear makes them say all the wrong things to each other. The scene wouldn't have been out of place in Steven Moffat's Coupling (maybe with a few more jokes thrown in) - but as a counterpoint to the main story, it works strikingly well. Even in the relationship subplot, fear is the dominant emotion, the enemy that keeps two very nice people who clearly like and are attracted to each other from being able to properly connect.
I know there are plenty who will disagree with me on this - Just giving a quick web browse turns up plenty of negative reactions. But for my money, this is the best Doctor Who episode since at least The Rings of Akhaten, and maybe the best since The Doctor's Wife. I found it a genuine treat to watch.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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