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A masterfully creepy chamber piece, in which Doc embroils Clara in his obsession to prove an unprovable theorem

Travelling around time and space on his own, The Doctor develops an obsession with finding a hypothetical species so incredibly furtive, their genetic predisposition to remain unproven apparently proves their existence.

Meanwhile, Clara and Pink are finally having their first date and it’s such a disaster that she can’t quite get Pink out of her mind when Doc connects it to the TARDIS and whisks her away on another expedition.

Cut to Gloucester, the recent past, and the first of two frightened children we’re going to encounter in this creepy tale, namely, a young Rupert Pink who’s haunted by both a creature under his bed and a dreadful first name he can’t wait to replace.

 

Oh, and here’s that pic that Michael Ridgway sent us. Listen to this spiffing podcast episode and read his mini review in the comments below for context…

Here's what we think of N108 Listen

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

4.7

Drew | @drewbackwhen

4.7

Marie | @hammashandjelly

4.7

Here's what we think of N108 Listen

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

4.7

Drew | @drewbackwhen

4.7

Marie | @hammashandjelly

4.7

Here's what you think 2 Responses to “N108 Listen”
  1. Star Wars Syl | @StarWarsSyl

    I think I liked it. Though I’m glad I didn’t watch it in the evening.

    4.0 out of 5 creepy episodes, because this TV show occasionally pulls out disturbing imagery like the bedcover monster and kills it in the alarming department. Also… sad Little!Doctor… heartbreak. Though damn, Clara, why would you grab his ankle as your first reflex?!

  2. Michael Ridgway | @Bad_Movie_Club

    Likes:

    • The Doctor, driven bonkers with obsession.
    • Clara’s timey-whimey dating disasters.
    • *That* duvet scene.

    Beefs:

    • Hey! Gallifrey is time-locked! Stop breaking your own rules.
    • An unsatisfactory resolution? Did Clara grabbing mini Doctor’s ankle create big Doctor’s obsession in the first place? Perhaps Clara is responsible for grabbing everybody’s ankles, as some kind of weird hobby.
    • Do we think there were ever any creatures under the bed / outside the spaceship? Is it meant to be scarier if there aren’t, and the future is pure nothingness? The Seventh Doctor would have gotten to the bottom of this mystery. He would have confronted the duvet creature, manipulated its race into revealing themselves to all humanity, and humanity would have clobbered them with baseball bats. Or, if it turned out to be a little kid pissing around, he would have given them a very stern telling off.

    Trivia: the creature makes a guest appearance in CBeebies Bing episode ‘Birthday’.

    Summary: (It’s good to) Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

    3.7/5 spare underwear you’ll need if watching this episode under the following circumstances – alone, under a bed in a deserted mansion during a thunderstorm, and then someone sits on the bed.

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N187 Empire of Death