DOCTOR WHO - SERIES 10 EPISODE 4: KNOCK KNOCK
Why do floor boards creak? When a sinister landlord shows Bill and her friends the perfect houseshare, they have no idea what lies ahead... knock, knock? who's there?
Having read the outline for all the stories happening this series, this was one which I was most looking forward to seeing, and the fact that David Suchet was going to be in it made it all the more inviting and interesting. He strikes me as one of the actors who could potentially play 'The Master' and this was his shot at being in a Doctor Who, and I know that he was very keen to do it. So keen in fact that he said Yes before he had even read the script.
Mike Bartlett comes to write this one, and he I had seen a play that he had written early this year, it was called 'Bull' and it was about bullying in the workplace. It was a very well written, hard hitting and contemporary drama which is very relatable to the modern day. It spoke volumes to me when I saw it and it was very effective, so when I saw his name as the writer on this I thought that with good expectations that this was going to turn out to be a good story because I know having seen 'Bull' that Barlett is good at writing drama.
Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with this one, to be honest. You had all this terrific atmosphere, a lot of tension, great build up and the resolution and the ending was very poor. I thought it was a great shame because it's mostly good but the overall product for me was a bit disappointing. I may watch this again in the future and have different views on it but for now here are my thoughts on "Knock, Knock".
This contains spoilers, So the story goes that Bill and her friends are looking for somewhere to live and what they look around in is either out of their price range, not convenient because of things such as noise, or just not big enough, they begin to give up hope until an old landlord comes across them looking for a place to live and he recommends that they stay in this massive mansion house which in their eyes fits the bill to what they're looking for in terms of space, size and price. They all agree to sign a contract and it's only after they start to get settled, weird things start to happen.
The Doctor's involvement in all of this is he starts off being the person to help Bill move into her new house, and then once he's helped out with that Bill wants him to go away because her personal life is something she does not want the Doctor to be a part of, but with the Doctor being the inquisitive chap that he always is, he detects that there maybe something strange or 'wrong' with the house so he decides of his own accord to stay and check it out.
Later that evening there is a thunderstorm, which in a way relates back to the themes and traits of the Hinchcliffe and Holmes era and the gothic horror elements of Doctor Who. I mean think about it, an old house with creaky floorboards, a tower that no one is allowed into for reasons which we do not understand, and a creepy landlord who just comes and goes how he pleases and pops up every now and again. It all plants questions in the mind as to what this is all leading up to, and keeps you intrigued as to what's going to happen. And I love that kind of set up anyway, and it's a nice idea of asking the question of "why do your floorboards creak?".
There is a thunder storm and Bill's friends claim to hear strange noises coming from inside the house like tapping and as I mentioned the floorboards creaking. As it turns out there are alien woodlice creatures living in the wood of the house which respond to vibrations and they are eating young people which give energy to revive the landlord's acclaimed daughter who is a wooden lady which is kept locked away in the tower. Now everything starts to make sense.
With that information at hand to the audience, the Doctor then comes in and confronts the wooden lady who is called 'Eliza' and the story behind how she came to be how she is starts to unravel and how the landlord has kept her locked up in the tower for her own safety and as her only means of a way to survive.
I don't what it is that I can put a stamp on in order to show what I didn't like about this one as much as last weeks. It comes back to the typical Doctor Who fan trait of 'anticipointment' you can watch a trailer or a next time for an episode and think 'oh that looks really good, can't wait to see that' and then it comes to next week and you watch it and go 'oh well, that wasn't as good as I thought it would be' or 'that wasn't as good as last week's episode'. You watch eagerly, wanting it to be good and then being let down by something such as the ending in this episode's case. It is indeed a dreadful shame because I was really liking it up until the bits in the tower.
David Suchet was excellent. I did really enjoy his creepy landlord character, there was a lot of mystery towards him, he looked very sinister and dark and he played off Peter Capaldi's twelfth doctor very well and in effect made Capaldi raise his game a bit in terms of acting abilities. So it is interesting what your fellow cast members can bring out in you as an actor. It was the case with Tom Baker's doctor in a lot of cases where a good actor would inadvertently make Baker raise the bar on his performance. It brings out the best in them to their advantage with no ill intention on the actor doing it or Capaldi outshining Suchet. Suchet keeps a very controlled performance, which I think comes with experience. Although it almost seems a shame now, because Suchet has made his stamp on a Doctor Who and can't really appear in it again in my view. I thought the ending to his character and the whole big reveal behind who his character was a bit of a letdown.
The monsters, I thought they were an interesting choice, not the sort thing I would have chosen to have gone with. The wooden lady looked interesting, she was a bit creepy too, reminded me very much of the wooden people you saw in the 2011 Christmas special "The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe", but the less said about that story, the better.
One of Bill's flatmates Harry was meant to be as described in Doctor Who Magazine Harry Sullivan's grandson. Although that's never mentioned in the story, I just think well why mention it then? It's almost as if the series is trying to make too many nods and acknowledgments to the classic series, and relate to the series which it once was.
Bill was good in this story. I think the more I see of her, the more I like her, she's not too annoying, and she's very bright and has an attitude for adventure and a mind to explore. She gets to do a lot more in this episode than she does in last week's one. I liked how even though she was scared she didn't freak out like the rest of her friends, and I also liked how she laid down the law to the doctor in terms of how he wants her in her life and she's also the same compassionate, nice girl we know her to be in terms of her sympathy towards 'Eliza'.
Overall, good but just a small dose of anticipointment.
But it was good to see Mike Bartlett write a Doctor Who. I hear he's a fan of the series so that always helps. And he's got a good track record for writing good drama, so hopefully, he'll be asked to write for the series again. Who knows. We'll have to see.
7/10.
Next Week: Oxygen. Now, this is meant to be 'the scary one' whether I'll be scared or not we shall see. But it looks really good.
