Hello and Welcome to another Doctor Who on this blog, where today we are looking at the latest Doctor Who episode from series twelve and that is The Haunting of Villa Diodati.
I missed the original transmission of this episode, which is the reason why this review is being uploaded on a Tuesday. Now, on Sunday evening before this episode was due to air, I saw a post on Instagram which said “tonight’s episode of Doctor Who stay off social media to avoid spoilers” that made me think that something big was going to happen in this episode and boy did it.
Week eight and it’s the spooky one. Most years since Doctor Who’s return in 2005 we have seen an episode that delves gleefully into something supernatural. “Unquiet Dead” and “Hide” are good examples.
Now, it the Thirteenth doctor’s turn to strap on a proton pack and throw a sonic around and go bust some ghosts. 👻
The TARDIS gang are on a sight seeing trip to Villa Diodati because they want to spend the night with the Shelley's, Lord Byron, Claire Claremont, and Polodori and experience an hour of the night when 'Frankenstein' got written. The episode begins as if you are walking into an episode of Poldark. It does have that essence of costume drama to it. A strength of the BBC is that it does achieve and execute costume drama's very well.
Lord Byron and his guests are having a party which the TARDIS crew gate crash but it is little of the knowledge to all the characters in the story that there is a different kind of energy emanating from within the house. It very quickly becomes apparent all the characters soon become trapped within this space.
The more time they spend there, the more strange goings-on there are of ghosts and the house almost fighting against them start to cause them problems. The haunted house is the titular villa where famously Lord Byron and a number of his friends whiled away ‘The Year Without a Summer’ writing and thus, Mary Shelley was inspired to create ‘Frankenstein’ 🧟♂️.
Happily, this script I feel does manage to support a famously witty cast of guest characters. Byron is sleazy but not unlikable. Mary Shelley and the Valet were delightful, also, Graham’s top hat 🎩 👍🏻.
This episode does serve the Doctor well and gives Jodie Whittaker the chance to be curious, commanding, exasperated, and eccentric throughout. For Maxine Alderton’s first Doctor Who script age seems to have a better handle on the Thirteenth Doctor than most.
Costumes and set design for this were fantastic, a bit like with “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” it seems like a missed opportunity that the Doctor doesn’t get a fabulous period costume to match her companions. But that’s only a minor personal preference.
Each companion has something to do as each of them split up to investigate creepy going’s on although Byron’s guests may as well have been mobile scenery as we learn little about them and how much they actually have to do with the plot and moving the story forward.
The highlight for me in this episode is The Lone Cyberman. Ashad. He was the star of the episode for me. And the opposing threat he presented in the episode was brilliant. Leaving a tricky scenario for the Doctor where she had no choice but to surrender.
It’s just like “Dalek”. One soldier is just as dangerous and more effective than an entire army. We learn very little about how he came to be in his half formed state, but Ashad presents as an strong villain nonetheless, combining the intimidating physical bulk of a cyborg with the single mindedness of a desperate survivor. What's different about him as a Cyberman is he is half finished, he's not a fully converted Cyberman and most importantly he doesn't have the emotional inhibitor so he feels emotions, he reacts angrily, he isn't that closed off robotic personality in fact he has a personality which is rare, something which I feel could have been the downfall to this episode, particularly when Shelley confronts him of his past, but thankfully this wasn't the case.
For the other characters in the story, they're barricading the door, they're trying to think of a plan, they're trying to work out why it's here; and Graham, Ryan, and Yaz are also thinking this is what we've been warned about. This is what Jack said we can't do.
The warning becomes very present, and there's a lot of clarity in that because up until this point Jack's warning was out of context seemingly and then now there is a reason for this warning.
But obviously for the doctor this is very personal from the many encounters that he / she has had with the Cybermen; but most recently the loss of Bill Potts. Like the Daleks, The Doctor encounter with Cybermen has resulted in loss to people that the Doctor loves.
As well as that supposedly gives Mary Shelley the inspiration to write Frankenstein.
It’s not a brilliant ghost story, there are many ideas in the mix and too many shifts in tone and it may not be the best Cyberman story ever, but what this episode does have is snappy dialogue, a solid guest cast, a great villain, the hype of the series finale just around the corner, and a highly atmospheric soundtrack from composer Segun Akinola so, it’s a 9/10!
That was a good one. ⭐️
