'On the edge of a Norwegian fjord, in the present day, The Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz discover a boarded-up cottage and a girl named Hanne in need of their help. What has happened here? What monster lurks in the woods around the cottage - and beyond?'
'On the edge of a Norwegian fjord, in the present day, The Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz discover a boarded-up cottage and a girl named Hanne in need of their help. What has happened here? What monster lurks in the woods around the cottage - and beyond?'
Oh wow! I really thought that Chibs was going to throw a Moffat at us in this one, and I was more wrong than Sarah Huckabee Sanders reporting facts. This episode was creepy, but the trailer certainly made it feel like it was more of a monster of the week type situation. Instead,
we get Hanne, a scared blind girl whose father has gone, and she's afraid of a creature out in the woods. It turns out that the monster is no more than a sound system designed to keep her in place, while dad is in an alternate universe shacking up with his dead wife. And to make matters worse, Grace is there, causing Graham to want to stay there, endangering our universe.
It's difficult to go into a lot of detail, because there is so much crammed into this episode, but even with that, it never feels cramped, because everything melds together to make a cohesive story. As for my thought that Moffat was rearing his head,
I was concerned - as well as a little teary-eyed (I'm not crying, you're crying!!!) when Grace showed up. I immediately thought that we were back to killing people off just to bring them back, but that didn't happen. And Graham's reaction to the situation is heartbreaking, again cementing him as the best companion. And Ryan calling him granddad at the end of the episode...seriously, who's cutting onions in here?!?
Honestly, I really thought this was one of the best episode of the series.
This episode definitely needed the full 70 minute run time. What was the deal with the freaky guy and the man eating moths? Why were they there? And Erik - well Ryan was right, he up and left his daughter. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been married so I don’t know how strongly you feel the loss when you lose your spouse and to what lengths you would go to see her again - but, I felt he was pretty scummy for scaring his daughter and leaving her. He’s lucky she didn’t hold a grudge.
Seeing Grace again was very moving. Graham is really the most developed character there. I don’t know if it’s because they wrote his character well or because of the actor’s presence but he really is the strongest presence on the show. And yes, it was touching that Ryan finally accepts him. It made my heart sing.
Now that ending - uh ... so this universe turns itself into a frog sitting in a chair. This is the most beautiful thing the Doctor has ever seen. Okayyyy ... couldn’t they have come up with a better depiction of a sentient universe than that?
