Review of The Haunting of Villa Diodati
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

It’s my usual practice not only to watch an episode twice before reviewing it, but also to avoid reading anyone else’s reviews or discussing the episode in detail with anyone else before I write, so my reactions are as free from outside influence as possible. This time, that went out the window before the opening credits even rolled.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

As you may have seen in my Day Three roundup, I had the great fortune to be able to watch the episode at Gallifrey One, in a ballroom packed full of fans. Everyone was so keyed up that I don’t think any of us could help but love the episode. There were simultaneous gasps, raucous bursts of laughter, and immediate cessation of said laughter the moment dialog started back up (a room full of Doctor Who fans know it’s important not to talk over the lines). And it was exceedingly gratifying to have the whole room share my emotions as the story unfolded, confirming again that at this con, I’m completely surrounded by people who get it.

With all that coloring my initial experience, I knew I’d need a second viewing to gain any sense of objectivity whatsoever. Besides, I hadn’t been able to hear a large portion of the dialog and thus to keep track of everything that was going on. So with great anticipation, I dived back in.

I doubt I’ll ever be able to watch this one entirely objectively, simply because I’ll hear my Gally family’s reactions in my head every time I watch it. But even in broad daylight, with a critical eye out, and a clear understanding of every line of dialog, I came out of the episode with the warm glow of a great episode sitting snugly inside my chest.

Review of Can You Hear Me?
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’m not a fan of the horror genre, whether it be on screen or written, nor have I ever found Doctor Who particularly to fit that description.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

I have to say, though, that whatever they’re doing this series—whether that’s the scripts, the effects, the scoring, or what—has been really effective in giving me that slightly alarming sense of foreboding that lets one know there’s something amiss. And I’ve even enjoyed it. But that chill factor is only the superficial layer dressing up the core of this story.

In one way, the episode is an example of the “visit home” type that has become more and more common over the years of modern Who. The Companions want to dip their toes back into their mundane lives, and the Doctor either gets embroiled in something odd happening where they are—often involving their families—or gets sidetracked on something completely different that turns out to be related. In this case, it’s the latter, and we end up with the convergence of four distinct threads stemming from the Doctor (random creatures in a mental hospital in 14th-century Aleppo) and each of her Companions (Ryan: “My mate’s been taken!” / Yaz: “There was a figure in our flat.” / Graham: “I keep seeing these images of planets like they’re being projected into my mind.”).

In another way, in my opinion, the episode hints at a larger series arc. Although there is eventually a clear reason for the Chagaska, the nightmare creatures of the opening, to be so enigmatic that even the TARDIS can’t identify them, it seems unlikely to me that such a thing happening more than once in a single series is coincidental.