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"Sleep No More" Grade and Discussion Thread

How do you rate "Sleep No More"?

  • Excellent

    Votes: 4 4.0%
  • Very Good

    Votes: 10 10.1%
  • Good

    Votes: 22 22.2%
  • Decent

    Votes: 29 29.3%
  • Rubbish

    Votes: 34 34.3%

  • Total voters
    99
I completely didn't follow where the monsters came from. If we don't sleep, gunk in your eye becomes a sentient monster? Why?

After that explanation it's surprising Nagata didn't just ignore the Doctor and went with her crew on their own way. An experienced rescue team being ordered around by a crazy old man talking pure gibberish, that's how it looked.
 
Hmmmm. The Sandman is an Alias that the Doctor runs with sometimes in Audio, when he's visiting the local of the Clutch. In a centuries long sociology experiment, the Doctor poses as a menacing bogyman to trick them all into not being huge wanton assholes.

That could be why his eyebrows did that thing.

Although it's more likely a subtle jab at Neil Gaimen (Sandman comics are bout a dream god called Morpheus.) to get on his game and hand in a another bloody script someday soon.
 
Well they turned "a never done concept/gimmick on Doctor Who before" into something not so interesting. I was angry about some things in series 8 but this series gets no love or hate from me.

Maybe i'm just getting old but a large portion of this episode doesn't make sense to me and they didn't even give us a frickin ending after all that. A good pay off might have saved this mess.
 
I hate found footage horror to begin with so this episode had its work cut out with me to begin with, but this one was dire, an incoherent mess, and boring on top of that. I doubt anyone will be infected by the eye-gunk virus if they fall asleep watching the episode!

No sequel, no repeat, no iplayer. Take it back in time to 1965, and have some enterprising BBC money-scrimper erase the tape.
 
I liked it. It had some nice laughs and I liked the way, the Doctor and Clara arrived at the station. On the other hand there were aspects that didn't so well but others have said that before so I can spare the speech. Phew... ;)
 
I'm not surprised this show is loosing viewers. They need to turn this around or I think Who will be going away for a while again.

My worry is this: With both Moffat and Capaldi returning next series (whenever that is) what can they do to persuade people who've already tuned out to come back?

That's the question, isn't it? Almost anything I can think of -- new companion, an intense advertising campaign, a JNT-style "a familiar monster every week!" (a la Season 20) -- wouldn't be the sorts of things that would bring people back. I'm not even sure that sacking Moffat would bring the mainstream audiences who have fled the program back; fans care about producers, general audiences couldn't tell you who the producer was. I hate to say this, because I feel he's largely an innocent bystander to forces beyond his control, but the way to reverse the slide, at least temporarily, is to replace Capaldi; he's the most visible thing in Doctor Who.

Short of that, I think you go back to Matt Smith's idea for a "two Doctors" season. It's a crazy idea, but it would get people to look at the program again.
 
Every time I think of that shared season between Tennant and Smith that never happened I get really, really sad.
 
Every time I think of that shared season between Tennant and Smith that never happened I get really, really sad.

Me too. :(

Maybe it wouldn't have been as awesome as I imagine it in my mind, but it would have been so different and so unique and so much fun, no matter what they did with it.
 
Every time I think of that shared season between Tennant and Smith that never happened I get really, really sad.

That would have been great. Both are pretty similar and I enjoyed them together during Day of the Doctor. Might have reinvigorated my liking for this show, but alas, it didn't happen.
 
Every time I think of that shared season between Tennant and Smith that never happened I get really, really sad.

Me too. :(

Maybe it wouldn't have been as awesome as I imagine it in my mind, but it would have been so different and so unique and so much fun, no matter what they did with it.
Basically, like a good Big Finish arc.

And that makes me very sad as well. I mean, just look what we got instead.
 
I am all for a shared season, but please don't tell the Doctor his companion has been the Doctor until he regenerates and looks in the mirror.
 
I completely didn't follow where the monsters came from. If we don't sleep, gunk in your eye becomes a sentient monster? Why?

This is the big problem with the episode for me. I'm all for suspension of disbelief, but the whole premise of this is just stupid.

If it was just a space station with monsters running around, it would be your typical standalone Doctor Who episode. Nothing special, but not particularly offensive. But the whole idea of the monsters in this episode is just too ridiculous, and it ruins the whole episode for me.

And that was the problem with the Zygon episode, too. The premise made no sense.

I think the Poll needs an option between "Decent" and "Rubbish." Like "Meh."
 
I'm not surprised this show is loosing viewers. They need to turn this around or I think Who will be going away for a while again.

My worry is this: With both Moffat and Capaldi returning next series (whenever that is) what can they do to persuade people who've already tuned out to come back?

That's the question, isn't it? Almost anything I can think of -- new companion, an intense advertising campaign, a JNT-style "a familiar monster every week!" (a la Season 20) -- wouldn't be the sorts of things that would bring people back. I'm not even sure that sacking Moffat would bring the mainstream audiences who have fled the program back; fans care about producers, general audiences couldn't tell you who the producer was. I hate to say this, because I feel he's largely an innocent bystander to forces beyond his control, but the way to reverse the slide, at least temporarily, is to replace Capaldi; he's the most visible thing in Doctor Who.

Short of that, I think you go back to Matt Smith's idea for a "two Doctors" season. It's a crazy idea, but it would get people to look at the program again.

I think one thing to consider is whether there'd be a drop off by now whoever the show runner/Doctor was, the show has been running ten years and maybe people are a bit jaded about it? I'm still enjoying it, in fact I'm enjoying this season I'm enjoying Who more than I have since Amy and Rory left, but I was ambivalent about last series and maybe so were a lot of other people and they decided not to come back.

I think it'd be a shame to dump Capaldi but you're right, it might be the obvious thing to do, though I think returning it to a more consistent earlier slot might help (I imagine that's not something Moffat has any control over though)
 
For me personally, this is the only episode of modern Who that has ever felt like a chore to watch.

I'm fine with the found footage genre, but this episode didn't play to any of that format's strengths. It wasn't a psychological thriller (a la The Blair Witch Project) nor did it use the first person camera element to give viewers a sense of being part of the action (a la Cloverfield).

I blame the director as much as the writer for this episode's failings. I think with some smarter cinematographic choices this episode might have worked. But instead of feeling engaged by the FF format -- I felt detached, confused, and ultimately bored.

I love Doctor Who but this season just hasn't done it for me. I'm happy for the fans that are loving season nine but I'm struggling to see the value that they seem to. "One man's trash..." I suppose.
 
For my own perspective, a show that lasts this long eventually needs to have a running story, something to keep me coming back.

"Supernatural," mediocre as it has become, keeps me watching because every season advances the story.

"The X-Files," even though its final season was generally terrible and the main character wasn't even around anymore, kept me watching because I was interested in the continuation of the story.

The "Stargate" series were on for years, and I kept watching because every season advanced the story.

You can get away with seasons of standalone episodes for a while; I think the RTD years of Doctor Who proved that, but eventually you need a story to keep us going. However you feel about the River storyline, it kept me watching. However you feel about the Impossible Girl storyline, it kept me watching. I was interested to see how it would play out.

The last two seasons have had no story. You could delete Season 8 from history and it would have absolutely no impact on anything. This season is much the same. A bunch of standalone episodes that don't ultimately mean anything.
 
I liked the episode better than I thought I would--jarring that it wasn't a two parter. This may explain Clara's departure
 
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