Hide
Story 235, Episode 794, Series 7 Episode 9
Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Clara Oswald
Hide gives a ghost story that is also a love story, and the best Clara to date.
The Review
This story is absolutely seeped in the 70s to great effect, there’s something about old analog technology with hunting ghosts. It’s a story in two parts, the first is traipsing around a spooky old house as we meet the two ghost hunters: Emma and Professor Alec Palmer. Jessica Raine gives a wonderful performance as the psychic Emma, who isn’t sure the professor is in love with her or not. Clara has an excellent conversation with her while the Doctor talks to Palmer, and we learn about his interests in ghosts from feeling guilt about his role in the war. The weak part comes in the sudden cut where the Doctor visits Earth’s life-cycle in the TARDIS, and suddenly completely cracks the mystery saying ‘hey it’s a future time traveler in a pocket universe’. That transition is the weak point of the story, but thankfully the second part is also a lot of fun.
This story continues Clara and the TARDIS’ animosity. I watched Clara and the TARDIS before this, and both that story and this one have a more fully-formed Clara. We learn more about her through her actions than just being told like in the Rings of Akhaten. The Doctor gets stuck in the dying pocket dimension, and she convinces the TARDIS to go save him. The villain is supposedly a creepy bone monster, but it turns out there was a second one stuck in the house and it just wanted to be reunited. There are sort of two endings, one when the time traveler is revealed to be Emma and Palmer’s descendants and then the Doctor helping out the monster. Really, what elevates this story from Cold War is the style is just as good, but Clara feels a lot more fleshed out. Funny that Neil Cross wrote this and The Rings of Akhaten.
Hide improves the vibes with a ghost story that turns out to be a love story.
8.9/10 I’m sticking with the stinginess on the 9, but the best 11/Clara so far.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 