Doctor Who Series 9 Episodes 8-9 review - The Zygon Inversion/Sleep No More

OK, I'll get this out of the way first. This is a review blog. I'm not here to provide commentary on the atrocities that have occurred in the last few weeks (my condolences to anyone who lost someone in any of those attacks). In perspective, obviously my rage of a couple of episodes of a British TV show is relatively small potatoes. But I do so, with some comedic intent, hope it might make someone smile.

With that said, let's take a look at one of the best and one of the worst episodes this season of Doctor Who with The Zygon Inversion and Sleep no more

I’m going to deduct half a point from this episode because Kill the Moon sucked (this was written by Moffat also) having said that… The resolution to this conflict is a demonstration of the Doctor at his best

OK, I’m going to get my list of negatives out early. The Doctor imitating an American quiz show host felt forced. How did the Doctor and Osgood not get hit from the debris of the plane as they were parachuting away (why not have the TARDIS on board and you avoid this), I don’t appreciate having the Doctor shot down by a missile as a cliffhanger only for the opening stinger to end on the same cliffhanger and Bonnie got away scott free (although that is central to the Doctor’s endgame here)

So, why do I think this is the Doctor at his best? He had two people, willing to risk the eradication of their own species in order to achieve their goals and he got them both to stand down by the power of words. And it’s not just fluff either, he draws upon his own experiences and gives valid reasoning for what he gives (to be honest, a world free of humans wouldn’t be that different for the Zygons)

Clara is a minor character in this one but not an unimportant one, she has a certain amount of alertness because the plot said so and (also because the plot said so) she’s able to assert a small amount of control over her Zygon host because the telepathic link works both ways. Considering how little we know about the Zygons (they only appeared in 1 episode of Doctor Who) I’m fine with details like this coming across but it does come across as a bit convenient (I know I said that I’d get my negatives out of the way first, but I’m making this up on the fly.

Then there’s Kate, the biggest tool of the episode. Yes, I guessed that Kate was real like 2 seconds after I saw her, especially since that cliffhanger was not resolved early on. But the problem is, she doesn’t have any character in this episode, she is there to get the Doctor from place to place and be the person on the other side once again. And of course she gets her memory wiped because of course she does

But who gives a sh*t about that? This show is about the Doctor (and see the title if you do not understand this Steven Mofatt), and no episode has ever sold me more on Capaldi as the Doctor than this one. Whilst I’m sad to hear the next series may take place over 2 years thanks to Capaldi wanting to do other things, he is the Doctor.

Rating 8.5/10                                                                                                                    

Sleep no more

So this episode is Doctor Who meets a found footage movie. To whomsoever thought this was a good idea. F*CK YOU F*CK YOU F*CK YOU F*CK YOU F*CK YOU!

OK, so in this episode we start and get annoying interludes from scientist douchebag #657 who created a machine that intended to stop people sleeping and ended up creating man-eating sentient sleeping dust.

Let’s just say for a moment, I buy that bullsh*t. Actually, let’s not, there is only so far my suspension disbelief will take me and man-eating sentient sleeping dust is on the same level of bullsh*t as the moon is an egg

This episode was written by Mark Gatiss, writer of my least favourite episodes of Doctor Who that aren’t kill the moon (those being Victory of the Daleks and Robots of Sherwood) I would deduct points for that but if I did this’d be getting negative points

This is sh*t, the characters are blander than I’ve ever seen, it’s not half as scary as they try and make it seem to want it to be because they went with ‘man eating sentient sleep dust’ as an explanation way too early.

Anyway, found footage movies, I’ve never watched one, I don’t particularly want to watch one but it’s handled so stupidly here. None of the actors have cameras, it’s because the sentient sleep dust monsters have had their eyes hijacked to become camera. Just when you think you’ve gotten to the limit of stupid, something more comes along just to make the whole episode even dumber

Clara did nothing of note this episode, apart from having a sudden distrust of weapons in an ever-more forced ‘becoming like the Doctor’ arc.

The biggest problem me is, this came out of some really interesting ideas. Clone grown soldiers, sleep deprivation but it’s all building up to man-eating sentient sleeping dust, and the payoff is delivered so early I spent most of the episode laughing rather than letting any atmosphere build. The scariness, particularly of found footage, comes from what you don't know or see, most of the episode is given to you.

Oh and the cliff-hanger, actually that was a good hook ending even if we didn’t need the rest of the episode for it. It showed that most of the episode had been a waste of our time, and it was just a show he was putting on to enact his stupidly pathetic agenda, I did say this was a good part, right?

Painfully stupid, but what do you expect from the guy who wrote 3 of the dumbest episodes of Doctor Who (except Fear Her)

Rating 2.5/10

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