Written by Charlene James & Chris Chibnall
Directed by Emma Sullivan
The Doctor (to Zellin/Rakaya): "Thanks for lending a helping hand."
Ryan: "Really?"
The Doctor: "I couldn't resist."
Okay, so this episode was a thing then. For the third week in a row, we've got Chris Chibnall co-writing an episode and for the second week, one that doesn't really advance the Timeless Child atc that much either. What we do get however happened to be a mish mash of various ideas all not really coming together as well as it would want, along with an attempt of a powerful message that got muddled as the episode went along.
First of all, because it needs to be emphasised - tackling issues such as mental health are not woke. They're issues that can and should be explored and to emphasise another obvious point, this was not the first episode to attempt to raise the issue of mental health either. Have people already forgotten Vincent And The Doctor because I certainly haven't?
Unfortunately despite the best intentions this episode clearly set out to do, it's depiction of mental health here doesn't land quite as well as it could've done. For instance, let's talk about Yasmin Khan. It's been eighteen episodes since the character's introduction and now, Chibnall decided it was time to bother to give her a backstory? Um, thanks, Chris but this would've been so much better had you done this an entire series beforehand. I'm just saying is all.
In some flashbacks we find out that Yasmin was on the brink of despair, had run away from home and a nice police officer managed to reach out to her. In the present day, Yasmin visited the same officer to fulfill a simple promise. It's a lovely moment, played excellently by Mandip Gill but it should not have taken this long for the show to have given us an insight into Yasmin's past. It it however a backstory that's not too jarring as previous episodes (Rosa, The Witchfinders) did allude to her being a victim of bullying.
Then there's Ryan's friend, Tibo (Buom Tihngang). We briefly met him in Spyfall and as the episode progressed, it was revealed he was suffering from depression and Ryan got his friend to attend a men's group to open up about his feelings. It's a nice moment but again, I think it would've impacted more had Tibo been more prominent in the series. On the other hand, it does show that Ryan's definitely a good friend to have.
While both of these plots are worthy of praise, something that's very deserving of criticism would be the Doctor's surprisingly cold stance when Graham tried to confide in her about his fears of his cancer. I've seen some fans defend this stance, stating that it's in character for the Doctor but for me, it left an incredibly bad taste and while I wasn't loving a lot of the episode, this as a moment was severely misjudged by both Charlene James and Chris Chibnall.
As for the main plot - er, it involved two mischievous gods - Zellin (Ian Gelder) and Rakaya (Clare-Hope Ashitey) feeding off nightmare, using removable fingers to terrorise unfortunate victims, outsmarting the Doctor before literally getting pulled into a magic ball. The plot had all the hallmarks to be genuinely unsettling and failed on every level to be honest.
- Along with Tibo and Sonya, we also had Tahira (Aruhan Galieva) from 1380 Aleppo working with the Doctor and her family.
- The scenes with Yasmin and Sonya made me wonder if they were marking an anniversary of a family death before the reveal of Yasmin being talked out of suicide.
- Grace O'Brien returned during Graham's nightmare sequence. There were also a few references to the likes of the Toymaker, Guardians of Time, Eternals and Dregs of all things.
- The first episode to ever have a question mark in the title. Also the cold open came back and Zellin/Rakaya's backstory was conveyed through an animated sequence.
- The episode ended with a lead in to next week's antics in The Haunting Of Villa Diodati. Please get Mary Shelley and Frankestein right, show.
- Chronology: Flitting between 1380 Syria and 2020 Sheffield.
Can You Hear Me? - I really wanted to love this episode, I really did but despite it's attempts to give Yaz a good backstory, the story with Tibo being generally good, it just fell to pieces. The main villains were boring, the story dragged far too often for it's own good and the last scene with the Doctor and Graham was a series low for me.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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