Dr Who — Series 11: Episode 9 — It Takes You Away

2nd December, 2018.

Yes … 

It’s … interesting … 

Well … if that’s the sort of thing you’re interested in.

What am I talking about … ?

There are time I really wish I knew!

For the moment … ?

I’m going to have admit I’m on a limb!

~≈§≈~

At any rate?

At any rate, it’s a Sunday night where I’ve walked home after a family dinner

And almost missed tonight’s episode  of Doctor Who’s eleventh series.

Which was … 

Interesting …

~≈§≈~

Episode 9 — It Takes you Away —  open with the team — the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yas (Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill) — arriving in present day Norway: and admiring the view.

A view that includes a seemingly unoccupied, boarded up cottage … with a single, teenage occupant: a blind girl called Hanne (Ellie Wallwork).

A blind teen with a missing dad, lots of sweet wrappers …

And a mirror in the bedroom that — when it isn’t showing reflections — has a habit of taking people elsewhere.

It could be the team … 

May have found a clue to Hanne’s father’s where-abouts* … but have found definite signs of trouble …

~≈§≈~

Now … 

Good … ?   Bad … ?   Indifferent … ?   Interesting … ?

Well, I returned home to put some laundry on.

I got home half way through the episode: so, when I got home, I put a quick wash on, rather than pick up half way through It Takes You Away.

As a result?

I’m on my third viewing … 

Does that say anything about the quality?

I’m tempted to say this is another weak episode: but, in honesty can’t

Granted, it has its issues.



One scene sees the Doctor frantically explaining the Solitract at the heart of the episodes to Yas: but doesn’t actually give Yas much to do or say.   Granted, Mandip’s character get’s a key line later … but this scene stuck in my mind.



And granted: we can see the episode’s central conceit — a magical world on the other side of a mirror, a world that is far darker than it seems — is very derivative of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

Those, though?

Are minor points.

The episode is, again, a strong individual story: one that sees both Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole shine, Whittaker sanding her interpretation of the Doctor into shape, Gill doing good work with the minimum she’s been given this week.

And one that takes an story idea — one that we can possibly trace back to both Coraline or Alice Through The Looking Glass — and gives it a suitable SF twist.

The villain isn’t an evil insectoid fairy: but an intelligent universe†, desperate for company. 

Personally?

I’m not sure if It Takes You Away is good, bad or indifferent.

It IS interesting … 

And very nicely done.

*        One thing I have to applaud, although I don’t know how many people noticed it.   Hanne’s father, Erik — Christian Rubeck — is wearing a Slayer t-shirt in the episode.   Cleverly?   The designers have made sure that when we first meet the character — in the mirror universe — Erik’s t-shirt is in mirror writing.   When he’s in the real world?   It isn’t.   Trust the nearest left handed blogger, Dr Who fan boy, and screaming Mac head to notice that …

†        Again, this episode adds to the Dr Who mythos: it adds the idea of an anti-zone, a kind of buffer between the regular universe, and a dangerous sub universe.   I also have to confess, the mirror portal had me thinking of Warrior’s Gate, the Tom Baker story.   The mirrors in that act as portals in different parts of the Tharil empire.   And the area it’s set in, is in the intersection between our normal universe, and E space: the pocket universe setting for at least three Baker stories.