Doctor Who - 8x04 Listen - Review

"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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Doctor Who - 8x03 Robots of Sherwood - Review

Legends Collide!

In this outing of Doctor Who, Clara gets to live out one of her dreams: meeting Robin Hood. However, the Doctor doesn't believe Robin Hood exists. But when the Doctor tries to prove his stance, it turns out there is a jolly green archer named Robin Hood going about doing good deeds for the poor. And that is where the whole mystery begins. Is this Robin Hood the real deal, or is he part of something sinister? And why is it that the Sheriff of Nottingham and his army of black knights are only taxing for gold instead of other valuables? Something is afoot here, and only The Doctor can solve it... while at the same time trying to ruin one of Clara's fantasies.

This episode does a couple of things that New Who fans are used to. Extremely great humor with a whimsical tone. A lot of people, like myself, have been calling Peter Capaldi's Doctor the Dark Doctor. However in this episode, while he's still pretty much a darker Doctor, this one shows his more comedic side. A side that was slightly mishandled in the Pilot due to him having to emulate Matt Smith's Doctor for the first half. Then it continues to not be shown in the follow up episode, Into the Dalek, by showing just how sinister he can be. That's not to say there wasn't humor, its just that Capaldi's humor is effective when it is dry and sarcastic. This episode however, shows his dry and sarcastic humor on steroids mixed with acid. And it is brilliant. The Doctor that the reboot fans have enjoyed seems to have returned.

If you can't tell, he brought a spoon to a sword fight.

Most of that humor arises from his interaction with the man claiming to be Robin Hood, played wonderfully in full satire by Tom  Riley. The devilishly charming rogue definitely rubs the Doctor the wrong way. We see The Doctor in complete disbelief of Robin's existence, even though he's standing right there in front of him. But as The Doctor knows from experience, seeing isn't always believing. Which leads to several humorous exchanges between the two British Icons. The first notably being an Errol Flynn inspired sword fight between the two. What makes it genius is Capaldi's dry sarcasm mixed with the fact that he's fighting Robin Hood with a Spoon. Their hijinks and continuous bickering will definitely be the highlight of the show. Especially since one can compare Robin Hood to the past eccentric Doctor's of the reboot series versus Capaldi's more serious and easily annoyed Doctor. It is just great comedy all around.

Given that situation, Clara has to once again step up as the better person in the episode. I'm not entirely sure if this was common with her and Matt Smith's Doctor, but her interaction with Capaldi's Doctor has so far been the one of the two who still has a sense of wonder. This can be attributed to Smith's Doctor spending a thousand years on Trenzalore fighting a war meant to kill him, causing Capaldi's Doctor to be a bitter man, but it is also nice seeing a switch of having Clara being the more optimistic one while The Doctor is now straight forward and pessimistic. It allows Clara to really show just how clever she is, because although The Doctor is still very clever, Clara has definitely stepped her game up to counteract with Capaldi's rendition. This shines from her unrelenting belief in Robin being the real deal, as well as her handling of the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. 

This rendition of the Sheriff is pretty much what one would expect from Robin Hood's classic archenemy. There is a reason why everyone in this particular time period acts the way as they do in the legends, and it does have something to do with the title of this episode. The Sheriff has aligned himself with robots who first appear in this episode as knights, until their helmets open to reveal their metal faces beneath. These robots are an alien race that operates a spaceship that requires gold as their source of power, which ties in nicely with the Sheriff's goals of wanting to be powerful. It is a nice way of weaving a science fiction element into a classic tale that could only work in Doctor Who. It also brings up that common trope of "the truth behind the legend," stories which is handled surprisingly very well in this episode mainly thanks to writer Mark Gatiss. However the solution involving a Golden Arrow was kind of... stupid. Still good though.

While one can pretty much predict how this episode will end in terms of the validity of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, there is enough twists and turns to make one question if their gut feeling is correct. And that really is one of the points of this story: legends are more powerful than history. The Doctor, who has a long history, is better remembered as the legendary space warrior he is rather than the crazy lunatic history dictates. It is a nice parallel to his disbelief in the legendary figure, and it also helps to have robotic knights spicing up the story to make things a little more interesting. This episode is really an exploration of what the Doctor represents to Clara rather than an exploration of his new personality. It is a nice contrast to his dark nature in the previous episode as this is surely The Doctor that New Who fans miss since Capaldi took over. And the fact that they brought out this humor in the third episode should be a message to the fans. The Doctor may be serious now, but that doesn't mean he's incapable of being funny or the hero we remember. He always will be The Doctor.

SCORE: 8.8/10 - A return to the whimsical mixed with brilliant dry humor

STATUS: Continue to Watch - Capaldi's Doctor is really taking shape now as he shows more sides to his "attack eyebrows" personality

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