Doctor Who 7x09: Hide

"Behind the sofa" is a term which has been mentioned in conjunction with Doctor Who many times. There are many fans who think that Doctor Who should be scary. As a fan during the wilderness years, I found most of the "classic" series stories too dated to be considered creepy.  The Web of Fear is the only story where I can understand why it was considered scary on its first broadcast, with all the shadows and paranoia about a traitor. Hide is a story that should appeal to fans of spooky Doctor Who, although the sunny weather on the day of broadcast spoiled the atmosphere somewhat. Nevertheless, there's still a great deal to like about this episode.

The Doctor and Clara arrive at Caliburn house, where Professor Alec Palmer and his assistant, an empathic psychic called Emma Grayling, are searching for the ghast known as "The Witch of the Well".  These two supporting characters are established as Doctor and companion types. Professor Palmer, like the Doctor, is a war survivor who hides secrets from his female assistant. Emma Grayling is a far more vulnerable character.

The interaction between the main cast is what made this episode good. The Doctor and the Professor talking about war provides a sombre moment for the two old soldiers, while Clara is confident enough to make Emma admit to her liking of the Professor.

The Doctor and Clara also have a few good shared moments of their own. Clara finally starts to see how distant a Time Lord can be when the Doctor travels from the beginning to the end of the earth for traces of the ghast. The Doctor himself is playing a goofy person for her benefit, but drops this in the company of the Professor and when he is asking Emma about Clara's identity.

This was the first episode that Jenna played Clara, and while there were a few moments where she seemed more subdued, I could see this was the same character as in the other 7B episodes. Her facial expression when the Doctor is spouting technobabble in the Tardis is hilarious.

The Crooked Man was a decent monster. Like the creatures of Silent Hill, the horror of this monster comes from the way it deforms the basic human shape to create something uneasy.

Jamie Payne does a good job directing this episode. The constant flashes of the monster or Hila, help to create a sense of unease. The production also does a good job of separating the real Caliburn House with the pocket universe version through use of colour tones. The real one brown and the echo universe blue. The only niggle was the scene where Matt's bow tie reappeared after he removed it. I guess that production team had so many shots of Matt in that forest that they slipped up.

A less forgivable mistake, in the eyes of the fans, was Matt Smith's pronunciation of "Metebelis 3", the planet of the Third Doctor's final adventure. I do sympathize with Matt as I used to pronounce it the same way he did before I finally saw Planet of the Spiders. There's also the tiny question of why Eleven had access to the Blue Crystals after they had all been destroyed along with the Great One. Then again he's a time traveller and may have picked it up in the past.

Hide certainly had more depth than Cold War and more focus than Rings of Akhaten. Only a few issues are preventing me from ranking this episode on par with Bells of St John.

8/10