Spoilers It Takes You Away grade and discussion thread
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
- Start date
Usually yes, but not in this case. I thought it was bad CG. Even just having the frog sit silently while Grace' disembodied voice chatted on would have been better. But then they doubled down and had it make the magic hand wave.
Yeah. I was intrigued by the episode until that point, but the whole conscious antiuniverse we had never heard before was just a moffaty ass pull nonsense so it was a really unsatisfying resolution.
I liked the frog though.
Nah, you could understand what he was saying.
I visited London in June with high heat, clear skies and bright sun and came away with a sun tan and only had the faintest drizzle on the last day. Meanwhile, I lost my tan almost immediately after returning to the US this summer. So much rain.
I wouldn't put it in such strong terms - the quality's been almost uniformly good - but I certainly agree with the sentiment. Music is vital to my enjoyment of and connection with a show or film, and Akinola's low-key work is, for me, actually a detriment. This episode is a prime example. Interesting concept, strong guest characters (I second the applause for using a genuinely blind actress for Hanne, and Kevin Eldon is always great value) potent emotional beats, amusing frog, and finally the Doctor's attempts at reasoning with people work, but it just didn't draw me in as much as it should have. Omnipresent, low-key music that hardly varies only serves to flatten things out - more depth and variety, and a break from it once in a while, and I'd be rating most episodes higher.
Oh, and a touch more energy and variety in the camerawork wouldn't hurt, either. In fact, energy and variety in general. Is it possible they're trying a little bit too hard to be different from Capaldi/Moffat? It's three-quarters of the way to something good, with just a few things holding it back.
All entirely subjective, of course. :-)
Doctor Who 11.09 'It Takes You Away' review
The penultimate episode of Series 11. Team TARDIS find a blind Norwegian teenager who's father seems to have abandoned her. But, as always, there is more to the situation than there first appears. Hanne is afraid of something that 'takes you away'. But what is that? The Doctor knows something is off. Was there a monster outside? (Besides bears?) But the Doctor investigates (as she usually does, getting to the bottom of whatever is wrong). But it is Ryan who discovers the pertinent item, a non reflective mirror...
That the Doctor deduces that it where Hanne's father went, is consistent with how we know her mind works. But trying to hide the fact that her father may be dead from Hanne, probably wasn't a good idea. (Not sure that leaving Ryan there alone with her was a good idea either. Probably better to have left Yas.) Hanne is very quick on the uptake, demanding to know what the Doctor had written (she knows it's not a map of the house). Ryan is at a loss to explain in a way so as to allay her fears.
The mirror portal leads to some kind of in between space. A cave space, inhabited by a being calling himself Ribbons of the Seven Stomachs. He is quite mercenary wanting something in exchange for his help. And the Doctor offers the sonic. The Doctor also recognises it as an Anti-zone, a buffer formed when space-time is under huge stress. They escape some carnivorous moths to find another portal, into a mirror reflection of the Norwegian lodge house, where they find Hanne's father, Erick, with his wife who's supposed to be dead?
Then there's Grace! Both Trine, and Grace remember dying, but is it really them. Meanwhile, of course Hanne would go into the mirror (followed by Ryan, who had discovered the monster isn't real). The nature of the world on the other side, as some kind of anti-universe, the Solitract was a surprise. It had lured Erick in, with its copy of Trine, from his mind. (And now Grace from Graham's mind.) When Hanne arrives, she realises it's not her mother. The Solitract's loneliness and it's addictive effect on Erick and Graham was depicted very well.
The Solitract taking the form of a frog wasn't too weird. And the Doctor making friends with it makes sense. (Still, Erick isn't a good father, despite the circumstances.) 8.5/10. (Did anyone else think the Solitract was Omega?)
The penultimate episode of Series 11. Team TARDIS find a blind Norwegian teenager who's father seems to have abandoned her. But, as always, there is more to the situation than there first appears. Hanne is afraid of something that 'takes you away'. But what is that? The Doctor knows something is off. Was there a monster outside? (Besides bears?) But the Doctor investigates (as she usually does, getting to the bottom of whatever is wrong). But it is Ryan who discovers the pertinent item, a non reflective mirror...
That the Doctor deduces that it where Hanne's father went, is consistent with how we know her mind works. But trying to hide the fact that her father may be dead from Hanne, probably wasn't a good idea. (Not sure that leaving Ryan there alone with her was a good idea either. Probably better to have left Yas.) Hanne is very quick on the uptake, demanding to know what the Doctor had written (she knows it's not a map of the house). Ryan is at a loss to explain in a way so as to allay her fears.
The mirror portal leads to some kind of in between space. A cave space, inhabited by a being calling himself Ribbons of the Seven Stomachs. He is quite mercenary wanting something in exchange for his help. And the Doctor offers the sonic. The Doctor also recognises it as an Anti-zone, a buffer formed when space-time is under huge stress. They escape some carnivorous moths to find another portal, into a mirror reflection of the Norwegian lodge house, where they find Hanne's father, Erick, with his wife who's supposed to be dead?
Then there's Grace! Both Trine, and Grace remember dying, but is it really them. Meanwhile, of course Hanne would go into the mirror (followed by Ryan, who had discovered the monster isn't real). The nature of the world on the other side, as some kind of anti-universe, the Solitract was a surprise. It had lured Erick in, with its copy of Trine, from his mind. (And now Grace from Graham's mind.) When Hanne arrives, she realises it's not her mother. The Solitract's loneliness and it's addictive effect on Erick and Graham was depicted very well.
The Solitract taking the form of a frog wasn't too weird. And the Doctor making friends with it makes sense. (Still, Erick isn't a good father, despite the circumstances.) 8.5/10. (Did anyone else think the Solitract was Omega?)
I liked it, it was an oddly beautiful story about grief and loneliness. I don’t think it even needed someone to represent someone the Doctor grieves because I don’t think she really grieves for long. She constantly has to move on, but she does keep the memory of her family, companions and River alive in her own way. After so many lives and such a long life, it’s probably the only way she’s able to get through the day.
Yes, we had two in succession in 1976 and one in 2007, we almost had one in 2016 but that turned out to be someone burning too much rubbish in their back garden.
Yup and then we get a New Year's Day special.
As soon as I saw that the Doctor selected Ryan to stay behind (and watch Hanne) I assumed that the Doctor suspected that Ryan was actually correct (i.e. that Hanne's father did abandon her, and perhaps was later killed), and she thought someone else who had had the same experience (i.e. paternal abandonment) was the best person to help Hanne come to terms with the truth.
I'm guessing the episode writer had Hanne reject the fake Trine because Hanne was not fooled by the sight that she did not have (due to blindness). But I got the impression (which, I admit, was probably not the writer's intent) that the Solitract exploited romantic love, which is why Erik and Graham were susceptible, as they had both lost romantic partners. Hanne felt familial (non-romantic) love for her mother, and so could not be fooled by the Solitract. This also explains why no form was created for Yaz (who I assume never lost a husband/wife/lover). So Ryan would have been similarly resistant to the Solitract's tricks.
Ribbit!
This one left me a bit... meh.
Character stuff, good as ever, although I didn't think Graham really nailed it as much as usual and this should have been his showcase. The Doctor herself was on form and came the closest to a Rings of Akhaten speech that she has so far. But the story I thought was a bit lacking.
Quantum mirror - that's a Stargate thing, and I doubt they came up with it either. Alternate universe where your loved ones are alive is a sci-fi trope as old as the Vancouver forest setting. The sentient antiuniverse was definitely unique, but also really weird and I'm not sure it really worked for me. Plus, yet another hidden alien/alien influence on Earth. It's a wonder we get anything done.
Entertaining, but the season has had better. 6.
Character stuff, good as ever, although I didn't think Graham really nailed it as much as usual and this should have been his showcase. The Doctor herself was on form and came the closest to a Rings of Akhaten speech that she has so far. But the story I thought was a bit lacking.
Quantum mirror - that's a Stargate thing, and I doubt they came up with it either. Alternate universe where your loved ones are alive is a sci-fi trope as old as the Vancouver forest setting. The sentient antiuniverse was definitely unique, but also really weird and I'm not sure it really worked for me. Plus, yet another hidden alien/alien influence on Earth. It's a wonder we get anything done.
Entertaining, but the season has had better. 6.
For a moment--I thought that might even have been Romana--with the Solitract actually being a decaying Charged Vacuum Emboitment. After all, the "CVE was a violent pathway between universes...a transit point between N-Space and E-Space.”
See, THAT would’ve been cool, not the Romana part, I don’t really care about Romana and I don’t need to have her come back, but right there is an existing bit of Who Cosmology they could’ve used. It not only have worked, it would’ve been a nice subtle Easter egg.
Meh. A missed opportunity.
If I put together a 13th Doctor costume I now have an excuse to finish that Kermit replica I keep meaning to make.
