Doctor Who: It Takes You Away

Hanne: 'My Dad would never just leave me! Okay!'

Errr... sure, Hanne. Anyway, following on from last week's slight upturn in quality, tonight's episode provided a complex tale set against the backdrop of rural Norway. The setup was provocative, the unfolding narrative alluring, and again, the Doctor felt both familiar and authoritative. Shame they had to ruin it by having the Solitract manifest as a fucking frog.

This was an episode chock-full of ideas, some of them really quite attractive, but the way they tried to integrate them, and the way some of them went absolutely nowhere was disappointing. The monster-in-the-woods setup, for example, was wonderfully done: atmospherically it hit the mark, the monster's roar sounded impressive, and the setting was visually appealing... only for it all to be an elaborate hoax? And when I say elaborate, I mean elaborate: Erick boarded up his house to fool a daughter who couldn't even see!

The Ribbons section was also something of a letdown and felt suspiciously like padding. No real explanation was given to why Ribbons was seemingly the only biped in the six-legged rat-infested anti-zone, and the attack mechanics of the flesh moths verged on the impenetrable. They were more lethal in the dark, so presumably the lanterns were meant to scare them off... except they seemed attracted to light like regular earth moths. (Which Ribbons seemed oddly knowledgeable about.) They was also some suggestion that they were attracted to movement and sound... but none of this really mattered, as Ribbons got overexcited by the Doctor's dropped tubular and ended up in ribbons himself.

The Dead Wives Club also didn't work for me. If they'd made Grace and Trine more believable from the get-go, instead of having them sceptical of their own existence, then I dare say I'd have found Graham and Erick's dilemma more convincing. To then compound it by having the boys question the legitimacy of their already doubting wives, sadly killed any attempted poignancy, resulting in a scene which tried to engage our emotions but had nothing to root the pathos in. Which was a crying shame, because with a few tweaks the emotional impact could have been colossal.

That said, I did appreciate the catharsis that meeting faux-Grace afforded Graham. Despite not believing her to be his wife—as Erick probably didn't believe faux-Trine to be his—I did for a moment think that Graham would choose to stay. Which would've made for a great ending, with the Doctor having to drag him kicking and screaming back to the real world. But the Solitract evidently wasn't powerful enough to create simulacra capable of being convincing, and the Doctor certainly isn't up to dragging anyone anywhere this season, so they instead went with blasting people through portals.

Not that Erick cared: even after seeing Trine shoot Yaz with some sort of energy blast, he still insisted that it was safe for Hanne to stay—despite reality collapsing around them. That the Doctor would ultimately leave Hanne with Erick made no sense to me. Yaz was right: worst parenting ever! I get that he was grieving, but creating a fake threat so terrifying that it had Hanne hiding in cupboards and gibbering about being taken away, and then abandoning her with no food whilst off gallivanting with his ghost-wife, must surely rank as textbook neglect. Why the Doctor didn't just pick up the phone hanging on the TARDIS door and call the NSPCC, I have no idea.

The Doctor's final speech to the Solitract actually sounded pretty good... until you realised how vapid it was. Swapping Erick for the Doctor was supposed to provide the Solitract with a veritable all-you-can-eat-buffet of experiences; instead all Kermit got was ten seconds of a Douglas Adams-esqe 'the [universe] is big, really big, you just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is' style speech. Which again felt like a wasted opportunity as, apart from the weird parting kiss at the end which looked like something from an am-dram production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' I sensed that Jodie was gagging to belt out a chunk of gutsy dialogue. I mean, she tried to get into it, but what can you do when you're talking to a badly CGIed frog?

Speaking of which—and I really wish I were speaking of witches, because those ladies from last week were cool—let's talk about that frog. Look, in lieu of being told, nobody truly knows a writer's real motivation for doing anything, but this scene was particularly inscrutable. There was obvious potential for the Solitract to manifest as anyone here—Clara, Rose, Amy, Donna... or the true-fan's only choice, Mickey—but Chibnall's seeming aversion to delving into the show's past meant that, instead of trotting out someone meaningful to the Doctor, we instead got a bleedin' frog. A secondary character would have done. Or a historical figure. Maybe someone from the Doctor's family. Anybody would've been better than a frog. Even the Doctor seemed in disbelief.

Which leaves Graham and Ryan's unearned bonding moment. After nine episodes of majestic build-up, Ryan finally called Graham granddad, Why? No clue. What could Ryan possibly have learned from Yaz telling him about Graham's run-in with faux-Grace that he didn't know already? We already know that Graham misses Grace. Shouldn't they at least have had Ryan in the upside down too, to witness everything firsthand, and share Graham's sense of loss... instead of sidelining him in Mothsville? Again, this just felt like as scene which could've been brilliant, but was handled with so little thought, that it barely made sense.

I'm sure next week's episode will redeem the whole season...

Other Thoughts:

—So the Doctor can tell where she is by eating soil now?

—Reverse the polarity? Where the hell did Yaz pull that from?

—Doctor: 'Let's not make any assumptions'... but let's assume that her dad is dead?

—I had to laugh at Hanne and Ryan hiding from the flesh moths... next to a big red glowing lantern  that we know they can see.

Quotes:

Graham: 'Who you calling a codger, it's you who stinks of your own wee.'
Ribbons: 'That's not my wee.'

Doctor: 'No need to panic.'
Yaz: 'I wasn't panicking.'
Doctor: 'I know, I was talking to myself.'

Doctor: 'Erick. This woman is clearly an alien force, collapsing two realities, and impersonating your dead wife. Time to move on, mate.'

Doctor: 'She's not your wife: she's furniture with a pulse.'

Doctor: 'The Solitract is a frog?'