Doctor Who Series 8, Episode 4 Review: Listen - Spooky and Timey-wimey
- doctorbrick
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
What did you think of this episode?
Sonic!
Good!
Bumpy-wumpy!
Exterminate!
As is the case with Doctor Who, Listen gives us a change of direction, and not just a change from the fun romp of the previous episode Robot of Sherwood, but a change from eerie and unsettling horror to time travelling shenanigans halfway through the episode. Listen is packed with creepy atmosphere, brilliant performances, and a real sense of unease that I honestly wish Doctor Who would go for a bit more often. That is the first half, the second wasn't quite as good for me.
"Twenty-three wells. When I was a soldier. Twenty-three!"
Peter Capaldi is such an amazing Doctor, I am boring myself saying it already and we are only four episodes in. It is the little things that do it for me, and the Doctor casually nabbing a coffee in the middle of working out a massive mystery was funny as fuck. His little sound he makes as he enjoys said coffee. Perfection!
Can't you just turn your head? Where's Wally? The Twelfth Doctor is the funniest Doctor of the lot in my eyes! Grumpy? Dark? Nah, he is funny!
The first half of Listen is my favourtite half of this episode. Maybe if we scrapped the weird AF date between Clara and Danny. Now I will readily admit that I am not a dating guru - shock horror from the bloke writing a Doctor Who blog - however, that is some weird arse date! A lot of well chat, and a lot of arguing, and a lot of making up. It is a bit odd!
I get what they were trying to do - show how messy and complicated real relationships can be - but it didn’t quite land for me. It felt a bit forced and not very natural. I know Doctor Who is meant to be fantastical, but I still like the humans to feel like real people. Here, it just felt a bit awkward in a not very believable way, rather than a charming or relatable way.
The spooky scenes are so good though, right up to a blanket looking freaky as hell. Something hiding under your bed? So Doctor Who and so very Steven Moffat.
The second half of Listen shifts into the timey-wimey - and in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really add up when you look at the series as a whole - watching Doctor Who with hindsight is rarely a good idea. Now I can usually look past all that stuff, I just want fun episodes, but even I looked back by the finale wondering how the fuck all that happened considering, well, we will get to that in due course.
"You said you had a date. I thought I’d better hide in the bedroom in case you brought him home. Bit early, aren’t you? Did it all go wrong? Or is this good by your standards?"
It’s still interesting, but it’s not as gripping as the scares, and it feels a little bit like the story loses focus. There’s also that thing the show keeps doing where Clara becomes massively important to the Doctor’s life again. It’s a bit grating, to be honest. I don’t mind Clara being central, I really like Clara, and appreciate her more on my rewatch, but it sometimes feels like the universe shrinks to just her and the Doctor, and I prefer it when the show feels bigger than that, and the humans seem smaller than that, normal!
Still, even with a slightly wobbly second half, I really enjoyed Listen. It’s ambitious, it’s bold, and when it’s scary, it’s absolutely brilliant. Capaldi continues to be a total legend, and in my opinion, when Doctor Who gets spooky like this, it really feels like no other show on TV.
RATING: Good!
BEST LINE: "He’s not in every book."
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