S11E09 It Takes You Away (02.12.18)

Wow. 11/10. Just simply amazing. Great ideas. Beautifully directed. Fantastic score. Brilliant performances. & a talking frog! More please from Ed Hime.

These past couple episodes have really shown the true potential of this new era of Who. They have given Jodie the great scripts she needs to really excel as the Dr.

That was wonderfully mad. The misleading trailers were a good move, as that sort of story had been done many times before.

The way it slowly switched from creepy horror to weird concept sci-fi was not was I expected. The transition was very well handled.

Having the Tardis there helped as could infer the'd just arrived. But opening still didn't really work for me. Story quickly got going and it was amazing. Once again the Tardis team worked well together. I loved all the fairy tale elements. Would have liked a few more seconds so could read what the Doctor had written. The ending was fine though I expected a Doctor clone or something to remain. Still best episode of the series.

8/10

Having very few additional cast members meant that the TARDIS team could really shine. Although as usual Ryan and Graham were given the most interesting stuff to do. Which is weird as the Doctor seems to like Yaz best.

Whist I liked the episode, I am getting a bit sick of all the misunderstood villains in this series.

Only Doctor Who could start us off with their version of a Nordic thriller and a monster in the woods then suddenly take a sharp left into a dimension populated by flesh eating killer moths and a knife wielding alien named Ribbons before taking yet another turn to reveal the whole thing was a lonely sentient universe giving a lonely grieving widower with some highly questionable parenting skills his wife back just to keep him around..and then there was the talking frog.

The whole thing was totally mad and shouldn't have worked at all.

Long story short? I absolutely adored this one 😊. Up there with 'Rosa' and 'Demons of the Punjab' for favourite episode of the series.

Kudos to everyone involved in the production, especially Ellie Wallwork as Hanne, who absolutely nailed the Norwegian accent in a lovely natural performance, so much so that I had to look her up on the Internet just to double check her nationality.

Now, on a more serious note.. who do we need to nag at Big Finish to commission a four part Boxset of 'The Seven Grannies of the Doctor (Granny 2 possibly being a Zygon)?' 😁

Edit : Or better yet.. a four part Boxset on the Woolly Rebellion of 2211? 😝

Hard to argue with that although I would add having Ryan refer to Graham as Grandad was a beautiful moment that was totally earned and in return earned some watery eyes from me.

The second ep in a row where I really don't think it's an ep that will gain anything by analysing and dissecting it - it was just bonkers, wonderful, magical Doctor Who, doing what no other show can. Was it perfect? I dunno - but it was perfectly itself...so five stars. Easily.

Now then, fuller thoughts: on top of the Wilderness-affect, like Flatline, this feels like a Moffat script that he never wrote. Specifically, early Smith and RTD era, when Moffat hit that sweet spot between the odd and eerie, and the genuinely touching and universal. Hime seamlessly goes from Scandi-noir, to dakr fairytale, to big ideas sci-fi to human drama to using the cosmic to magnify the everyday need for companionship. And even with the heavy themes and emotions, he still finds time to write in some really solid levity (the sandwich scene, the slayer shirt, the frog).

Childs knocks it out once again with direction, he's easily S11's best director; Akinola's music is understated and haunting, and its pacing is the right kind of slow-burn.

"You don't want those to be your last words."

Orson Scott Card once described audience investment as a "two-porcupine problem": you might be able to convince someone to swallow one porcupine but you can very rarely make them swallow two. A universe manifesting itself as a frog was a porcupine too far for me. Aside from that I loved it. It was eminently quotable, everyone had something to do, there were some nice worldbuilding touches (Erik's Slayer t-shirt was genius), and the return of Grace was superb: again, Graham is a real person surrounded by people playing characters. Playing them brilliantly but there's a fantastic natural edge to Mr Walsh's performance that makes him stand out.