Night Terrors (3209)

[BruTak]

Were my eyes playing tricks on me, or did I see the raincoat Daniel Mays wore in Ashes To Ashes hanging up behind a door in the flat?

[Flyboy]

Were my eyes playing tricks on me, or did I see the raincoat Daniel Mays wore in Ashes To Ashes hanging up behind a door in the flat?

I didn't see that, but I couldn't get Ashes to Ashes out of my head ....



This ep has me torn.

On the one hand, creepiest villains ever. Seriously. For the first time Doctor Who has actually left me with a slight chill down my spine.

On the other hand, there was a lot of crap. The old woman, the way she got pulled into the rubbish bins. Why would a little boy in this day and age have a WOODEN dolls house. What will happen to George as he grows up? As has been previously mentioned, it was a very disjointed episode.

There was a very sweet ending with George and his dad, but, still....

[Lant3an]

loved the episode... gets very scary if you watch it at 1am and you hear a noise coming from the kitchen while watching it...and the song at the end...tick tock goes the clock, even for the doctor... brilliant

[Draygon]

loved the episode... gets very scary if you watch it at 1am and you hear a noise coming from the kitchen while watching it...and the song at the end...tick tock goes the clock, even for the doctor... brilliant

This proves again something Iv'e known for a while and delighted in proving to people in my class when I was at school: singing a nursery rhyme or something with a similar rhythm in a child-like voice and manner is creepy as hell.

I used to terrify my classmates at school with it, even my drama teacher It was hilarious.

[Alan]

loved the episode... gets very scary if you watch it at 1am and you hear a noise coming from the kitchen while watching it...and the song at the end...tick tock goes the clock, even for the doctor... brilliant

I forgot to mention the rhyme at the end in my last post. Yeah, that was incredibly clever, a wee bit creepy, and a nice bit of foreboding for what is in store for the Doctor.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Why would a little boy in this day and age have a WOODEN dolls house.

Passed down through the family? It was wood.. not plastic so it could have belonged to his grandparents or great-grandparents..

[Girlbot]

I loved this ep. Was nice to see Amy turned into a wooden doll. (not a big Amy fan)

[jameshawking]

1) they still make wooden doll houses, even today. True, they're not the easiest ones to find, but they're still fairly populous.

2) The Doctor explained what would happen to the kid as he grew up. Puberty would be interesting, but it would become whatever his parents wanted from him.

[BruTak]

My eldest niece (now 18) had a wooden dollhouse when she was wee. Hand made by a friend of my dad IIRC.

I kind of assumed that George's dollhouse had belonged to his mum.

[Spimman]

I thought this was a fun and creepy episode, took me back a few seasons to when DW was less of a "story arc" mode

[Blencathra]

I feel really sorry for Mark Gatiss. I think in an ordinary show his writing would be considered to be quite good, but when his episode is put on next to one of Steven Moffat's, it looks pretty mediocre.

I liked the peg dolls very much - they were deliciously creepy, and I loved how Rory automatically assumed he had died (again) I also loved the list of the Doctor's favourite books.

Incidentally I thought the dolls house probably belonged to George's Mum as well.

I gave this episode 6/10. Good creepy episode but didn't quite hit the spot for me.

[SGalisa]

Awful episode.

That's what I was saying *before* I watched the eppy (due to seeing the preview commercials for it)..! EEEEEEEEEEEK! I hate creepy. Seen that sort of doll stuff in an old "Trilogy of Terror" (type of) film from some troll doll that came to life and terrorized the life out of its owner.

What made this story different, aside from the alien kid aspect, was that when the existing wooden doll touched a human, the human turned into a wooden doll as well.
Poor Amy. But somehow, I figured she'd have to get turned back into being human again. I wasn't sure about the others, but Amy has a few more eps before she moves on to another job. So, I had high hopes for at least Amy.

Also, the overall story result was better than I expected.
I didn't want to watch it at all, but my hubby did want to see it (actually, he had no idea what the story was about, but I had already seen the previews, and dreaded the worst).. so we watched it together.

...This ep has me torn.

On the one hand, creepiest villains ever. Seriously. For the first time Doctor Who has actually left me with a slight chill down my spine...

Yes.. creepy villians (the wooden dolls). But my first super scariest Doctor Who eppy was a Tom Baker era one, where some guy turned into a giant tree and with its *tentacle* branches killed people. It also telepathically caused other plants to turn against the humans, as well. That was basically the 2nd ep of DW I ever saw, (first one was "Ark in Space" with the WIRN, where humans turned into giant wasps), with the freaky tree story one next (out of viewing order??).

I swore back then in the early 1980's that no wonder kids were having nightmares with Tv/movie shows like that!
I also only saw bits and pieces of those eps, so I did not know who the Doctor was, nor that the entire show was an amazing time traveling story into any direction and story type ever imagined. Beautiful Sarah Jane Smith helped set me straight on that.. along with my mom who was addicted to watching the series every week (including any reruns), too.

[Teddybrown]

Tick tock goes the clock
And what now shall we play?
Tick tock goes the clock
Now summer’s gone away? (Missing from video)

Tick tock goes the clock
And what then shall we see?
Tick tock until the day
That thou shalt marry me

Tick tock goes the clock
And all the years they fly
Tick tock and all too soon
You and I must die

Tick tock goes the clock
We laughed at fate and mourned her
Tick tock goes the clock
Even for the Doctor

Tick tock goes the clock
He cradled her and he rocked her
Tick tock goes the clock
Even for the Doctor…

Heres a full version of the song at the end...

[rosey_angel]

This was a good episode, although I wondered throughout the entire thing why it took the parents so long to get the poor kid some help. I was kind of hoping that it would turn out there was some sort of alien/psychic thing tapping into his already different brain. The sudden fears, the continuous flicking of the lights, the twitched... I was yelling at the screen that the poor kid has OCD.

But apart from that, it was quite a good ep. I too figured out quite early on that it was a dollhouse and wondered why Amy didn't. As for George having one I thought it was his mum's. I didn't get that the kid was an alien, but then I was thinking it would be something else, like I said above.

Good ep, love the song

[Jinglepie]

See, I always figured that the Doctor chose/built/designed the sonic screwdriver, in all its incarnations, because it couldn't possibly hurt or affect a living thing except to scan - it cannot truly be used as a weapon. Maybe that's the root of its being useless on wood, since wood is an organic, cellular substance that was once alive.

Bit tenuous, I know, but its the best theory I can come up with.

We've seen the sonic used in a variety of ways on organics other than simply to scan; e.g. the minor heal function in Vampires of Venice, the frequency that made the beast in the Vincent episode 'happy', etc. The "anti-offensive" nature of it is a good thought, but manipulating wood doesn't have to necessarily be damaging or warping it, so in the right (or most) situation(s) it shouldn't really be considered an offensive action.

[Carter1994]

Heres a full version of the song at the end...

That rhyme almost makes me want to bump my rating up a half point. Thanks for posting the whole thing.

I do love a good, haunting, nursery rhyme. Although "haunting nursery rhyme" that might be a bit redundant... (like Rock-a-bye-baby! seriously!).

[Lahela]

Doctor Who continues its ability to scare the willies out of me

I had to laugh at the clowns reference when Alex was listing off the things George is afraid of (what was the Doctor's reply? "Don't blame him"? Something like that) as it was a classic Who story that made me terrified of them!

[DigiFluid]

Not bad. Some holes, but not bad. I liked the dolls especially. Frakkin' creepy!

[jameshawking]

@Lahela:

He said "Understandable" in a long, drawn-out way.

[Lahela]

@Lahela:

He said "Understandable" in a long, drawn-out way.

Thanks I haven't had time for a rewatch yet. He's right, of course!