"Fear is your superpower."
The episode opens up with a question: What if you're never really alone? What if something exists for the sole purpose of hiding. And what would that thing thrive off of from having that ability to hide perfectly? That is what The Doctor tries to discover, as the only clue he has is a single world written on a chalkboard: LISTEN.
This episode is about confronting fear and how we draw our strength from it. Simple as that. And it also deals mainly with something that seems to be a growing theme of this series: Capaldi's Doctor is paranoid. The episode opens with him deciphering how evolution has allowed creatures to become either perfect hunters and perfect defenders yet never perfect hiders. Though I can argue about the insect kingdom, it does beg the question about what if something exists that just wants to hide? The Doctor becomes obsessed with the question to the point where he starts locking on to the idea of recurring nightmares and the sounds we hear at night. What if those sounds are not the sounds we tell ourselves they are but coming from this perfect hider.
Of course the Doctor couldn't confront this menace alone as he brings along his companion, Clara. By the end of this episode, the word companion will have a much stronger meaning to the Doctor than probably ever before. Lately the episodes seem to put a real prime focus on Jenna Louise Coleman's Clara. Some may see this as a setback for not putting the Doctor front and center, especially with a talent such as Peter Capaldi at the reins. But for those who feel that Clara was not that strong of a character in her first tenure as a companion in series 7 will definitely be thankful for all this screen time and focus. We get a lot more nuances from her in this episode and it really is making her something special. When promoting the 50th anniversary special, her and Elisabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane were the only companions used in a trailer chronicling the 50 years of Doctor Who, which it seems to slightly acknowledge their slight similarities yet major differences. I do believe that there is something special about Clara that could make her a Sarah Jane level companion, and this series is definitely building her as one. And most of that stems from her interactions with Samuel Anderson's Danny Pink in this episode.
Yes, Mr. Pink returns and he finally gets that date with Clara. However this episode takes place after the date while doing a clever use of showing a devastated Clara returning home to flashbacks of the date showing that she is pretty much to blame for things going bad. Here we really get to learn more about Pink, from not just Sam Anderson's interpretation, but a young Danny Pink as well. Yes, when the Doctor brings up the notion of locating the source of the recurring nightmare, he uses Clara's memories to trace back her experience with the nightmare. However as she had Danny on the mind, instead they wind up meeting a young Danny's experience with the recurring nightmare and how this encounter pretty much shaped the man Clara will fall for in his adulthood. The Doctor makes constant references to finding out how is he connected to her memory timeline, while it is obvious to us why as well as to Clara that there may be more to their future than just a small crush and encounter involving nightmares. It does a great job in showing two people who have both been through a lot yet have high defense mechanisms in wanting to hide what they really are, and it is handled really well in this outing.
It all of course comes full circle when the episode decides to show us the future of Clara and Pink's connection by meeting Orson Pink, also played by Samuel Anderson, who is a future descendent Danny Pink. He is a time traveler, which apparently runs in the family, and his time travel mission goes wrong by being sent to the end of the universe. And here we get to see a play on the shortest horror story ever told:
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...
Again, drawing back to the Doctor's obsession with finding this mysterious being that tells him to, "listen." And he does. And there is a knock on the door of Orson's time machine. A knock that should not be possible as it is the end of the universe and everyone is dead, save for the time travelers in a shabby time machine and the TARDIS. When we get the answer to the question of who this entity is and what it wants, it could be considered a letdown. However the origin of where it stems from, this constant nightmare all across time, is probably one of the best moments of the reboot in this series. Again, the reveal brings up more questions than answers, for instance you'll be wondering what that business in young Danny's room was about then, but still the moment used as the Origin of this problem adds a whole new layer to the Doctor's mythology. It just may not have worked out well as writer Moffat would've liked.
SCORE: 8.5/10 - It was nice seeing the development of Clara and Pink
STATUS: Continue to watch, hoping another Doctor Centric episode will be next
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