That sure was different. Well then. Let's talk about fear, and Doctor Who. Let's talk about Listen.
Fear has been a part of Doctor Who ever since December 1963, when a woman screamed at an incoming plunger. Ever since, it's become ingrained within the show's history. All sorts of men in rubber suits masquerading as monsters have terrorized the Doctor and his companions over 51 years, as well as us. Hell, England even has a pop culture term based on the fear of Doctor Who monsters: "behind the sofa". Young children freaked out at a Dalek or a Cyberman... or, hell, an Axon, darting behind a garish-looking couch from the '70s. Because the monster can't get you if you're not looking. One could argue that the master of horror when it comes to Doctor Who was Phillip Hinchcliffe, the producer of the show in the mid-70's. Under his tenure we had several classic episodes of the show that scared the pants off of kids. The Ark In Space, Pyramids Of Mars, The Brain Of Morbius... real classics. Steven Moffat, to his credit, has taken up the torch of keeping England's children awake at night. This is the man who created the Weeping Angels. This is the man who wrote the episode we're looking at today; Listen. At its core, Listen is a study of the Doctor and fear. There are lots of things going on here, so let's dive in.The opening is just a thing of beauty. We have the TARDIS suspended in space, and the Doctor sitting atop it in a meditative pose before going into a monologue about evolution. The shot of the TARDIS underwater, with the door open and the Doctor looking out? Incredible. The Doctor theorizes that some creatures evolve to be good at hunting, and others evolve to be good at defending themselves from predators. What, then, of a creature that evolves to be good at hiding? Would we even know such a thing exists? Right out of the gate, the episode becomes its own predator, preying upon the paranoia of both the characters and the audience. The idea that we're never truly alone, that something is always stalking you, hiding, watching, waiting... that's unsettling stuff. It's the seed of an idea, and Moffat knows that the audience will water it and grow their own trees of fear and paranoia. This is the kind of horror Moffat deals with; the existential. Whereas Hinchcliffe and his Gothic era of Doctor Who were content with showing alien bugs taking over people, or alien gods who burn people with a touch, Moffat's Doctor Who is more of a Lovecraftian thing, with cosmic horrors teeming just at the corner of your eye. I love it.
The only sour notes for me personally in the episode come early on; the date scenes between Clara and Danny Pink. It's light romantic comedy, with two people being really awkward on their first date and saying inappropriate things to each other before one storms off in a huff. This happens twice in the episode, and while it does have its place, I didn't care for it that much. To the show's credit, it does do some interesting things with Danny Pink. In between the date scenes, Clara and the Doctor accidentally travel back in time and meet Danny as a child. This gives us perhaps the best scene in the episode, where someone (or something) under a bedsheet terrorizes Clara, the Doctor, and the young Danny. Everything about this scene just sings. Clara's maternal instincts, perhaps stemming from her being good with kids due to being a teacher. The Doctor flipping on the light in the middle of a scary scene to complain about not being able to find Waldo in a book about trains. That wonderful speech Capaldi gives about fear being a superpower. Then you've got the three turning their backs on the thing under the bedsheet, and telling it to go away. That they won't compromise the perfect evolutionary camouflage or whatever. Whatever's under there takes off the sheet, and we see a blur of something. It's ambiguous, and we never actually see what it is, though we know it's something. Some may say that showing even that much ruins the ambiguity, but I don't think so.
The other major thing to talk about, barring the final sequence (which I can't really get into for fear of spoilers) is Orson Pink. Danny Pink's great-grandson from the 22nd century, and Earth's first time traveller who accidentally jumped ahead to the end of the universe. He was stranded there for six months, and paranoid of things trying to get into his time machine. The Doctor tracks him down thanks to timeline shenanigans, and sticks around in further pursuit of his perfect camouflage monster. He goes so far as to open the door, giving us a scene where Clara refuses to abandon him to his own stupid curiosities until the Doctor yells at her to do as she's told. The ambiguity is present here as well, thanks to a well-timed glitch in the TARDIS viewing screens... but it should be noted that something breaks the air shell of Orson's time machine when the Doctor opens the door. It could have just been the Doctor making a mistake, or it could have been... something else.Right, let's address the ambiguities and then call it a day here. The main takeaway from this episode, after all of its tense scenes and reveals, is a simple question; Was there or wasn't there some sort of monster? The final scene definitely hedges more in one direction, but regardless of that evidence the question can still be raised. If there was a monster, then what the hell is it? Why didn't it just kill Clara/The Doctor/Danny? If there wasn't a monster, then just what the holy hell was under the bedsheets? Who wrote "Listen" on the Doctor's chalkboard when only he was in the TARDIS? Who or what was trying to get into Orson's time machine? There are some who will be upset that these questions aren't answered. I, personally, am not one of them. An unexplained thing out there somewhere in the universe, lurking and hiding and keeping to itself... I'm enamored with that idea. It fits well with the existential horror Moffat is going for, and I don't want this to ever be explained as some alien thing like the Silence, or a Zog from Zarquon IV or whatever. Some things are best left unexplained, and it would resonate with the somewhat running theme of the Doctor not knowing everything in the universe. At the end of the day, he's just like the rest of us; afraid of something under the bed.
God, what a spooky episode. It takes a rewatch to really appreciate what it's doing and think it over with the knowledge of what happens, but it's a great one. It might be the best Capaldi-era Doctor Who episode so far. Well done, Moffat. You scared the pants off of me.
Next week: TIME HEIST. Oh my god, this sounds so high-concept and cheesy and just plain fun that I'm excited for it.
AND NOW WHAT I THINK... NOW
(Spoiler alert, yo. I mean, anyone who's reading this has probably seen Series 8 by now, but I'm covering my ass here.)
It "might" be the best Capaldi-era episode so far? Past me didn't drive the flag all the way down into the soil, so allow me to do so. This is easily the best Capaldi-era story of S8 out of the four we've done so far. It's in my top three, without question. Holy shit what an amazing episode this is, and I even discovered a new nuance to it. In the old writeup my only hangup was Clara and Danny's awkward date. Watching it again, it absolutely slots into the theme of the episode. This episode is about fear, and Clara and Danny's date goes wrong. Twice. Rupert, Orson, and the Doctor's fears in this one are entirely fears that stem out of childhood; the monster under the bed, or the monster outside the room, in the darkness beyond time. Clara and Danny are experiencing adult fear; the fear of a date gone wrong. An anxiety cloud hanging over you, making you worry that you'll say the wrong thing. They both end up doing it, and they both end up beating themselves up over it. Orson Pink, on the other hand... it's tough to figure out how the hell this works with what we know now. On transmission we can assume Danny and Clara got together, had a happy life, passed down Dan the Soldier Man to their kids until it ended up with Orson. Now we know Danny Pink is dead as all hell, so... huh? I guess the easiest fix is that time can be rewritten, and that Danny and Clara did have a happy life together pre-Dark Water. Then that happens, and time gets changed or something. See? See what I just did there? I used my head and came up with a plausible in-universe explanation for a dreaded plot hole rather than just yelling at Steven Moffat for being a bad writer haha what do you mean I'm bitter, I'm not bitt
Where were we? Oh, right. Two more big points to make, and more flags to plant and divisive Doctor Who opinions to have. The ambiguity is something in this episode, alright. Watching it again, it appears to not make any sense at all. I raised most of these questions in the original writeup, and I had them all over again. Once again, you can play Creative Writing Department Of Highways and fill in all those plot holes with a little bit of brainpower shovelled into your pavement melter. This metaphor is getting away from me. The episode definitely is batting at the assumption that there's jack shit out there and it was just the Doctor trying to figure out what the hell spooked him in that barn two millennia ago. Thing under the bedsheets? Easily could be an orphanage kid playing a prank. The Doctor's chalk thing? Scatterbrain. The thing outside at the end of the universe? Was there a thing? We didn't see one. Something seemed like it was knocking, but it could be anything! That's what fear and paranoia does to you, it gives you the goddamn willies. Back to the thing under the sheets, though, cause now I gotta tread carefully. In the original writeup I did make mention to people who were less than happy with not knowing what's under the sheet. Said people might even have the opinion that Moffat should actually go back and explain what it was in a later episode, and I have to fight my urge to yell at that. Doctor Who opinions flaring strong here, but holy shit does that miss the entire point of the episode. Listen thrives based almost entirely on its sense of atmosphere and ambiguity. The mystery of the thing under the sheet falls into two categories; either it was a kid pranking, or it was some unknown eldritch horror. If we believe option 1, it falls in line with everyone just being paranoid and spooked, which is an amusing little bit of shaggy dog story from Moffat. If we take option 2, however, we fall into a line of thinking that many horror stories and movies thrive on; your imagination, your creativity sparked by the onrushing superpowers granted by your fear, is more powerful than any concept or creature design that some monster maker at the BBC can cook up and stick onto the screen. It's far far far more effective, and preferred in my Doctor Who opinion, if we never come back to this again. I said as much in the writeup, but explaining it away would absolutely cheapen it. It goes from "oh my god, what the hell is that?" to "Oh. That's what it is. Okay then.".
Followed probably by a "Fuck Moffat" for not coming up with something scary enough.
Last but not least, and right alongside the "Fuck Moffat" Shining Time Station, is the ending, in which Clara, Stevie Moff's Special Little Snowflake, goes back to the Doctor's early childhood while he's having a bad dream and tells him it will all be okay and maybe even inspires him to go off and become a Time Lord. BUT BUT BUT THE TIME LOCK-- all the safeties on the TARDIS were off. BUT GALLIFREY'S COORDINATES-- telepathic malarkey. The potholes have been filled. They're just a little bumpy. Hell, with it possibly maybe being the same goddamn barn where the War Doctor dragged the Moment at, there's no guarantee that the damn planet is even Gallifrey. We know that little about the Doctor's past (as well we should, again, ambiguity!) that you have plenty of wiggle room for things like this. I guess Clara was just thinking about the Doctor 'cause he was knocked out when she stuck her hands in the telepathic thing. As for her being the one who comforts the Doctor's bad dream after she accidentally causes it? I don't mind. She's his carer. She cares. He's her friend so why wouldn't she try and make him feel better? It also parallels with her soothing Rupert. One wonders if Capaldi still has Dan The Soldier Man lying around somewhere. Maybe he gave him to Susan and she's got him in 2140 AD or wherever she ended up.
Either way, that's Listen. I love it, and I planted all these flags around about what Doctor Who is for me; an ambiguous and nebulous thing that often times doesn't make sense unless you wrap your head around the doublethink to make it make sense, but is a fun and scary ride all the same. This third or fourth rewatch has me more on the side of there not being a monster, but I'm fine with that. The other interpretation is just as valid, and if that's the case, I would love if we never had a callback to it again. Leave it alone, Steve. Leave it alone.
Next time is a TIME HEIST. That should be fun.
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