July 7: "Listen"

Stuart Manning's poster for "Listen" (from
Doctor Who: Exclusive Listen poster revealed)

And now it's time for something a little different.  Apparently, Steven Moffat had grown a bit tired of writing all the big "event" episodes recently ("The Day of the Doctor", "The Time of the Doctor", etc.) and decided he wanted to write something smaller.  "Listen" succeeds in that goal: it's basically a chamber piece -- there are only really five characters in this, and two of them are played by the same actor -- without a clear monster to latch onto.  "Listen" is instead about fear, about what might be lurking in the dark, and definitively proves that Moffat can write the small stories as well as the big ones; this establishes the mood early on and sustains it throughout the entire story.

This episode continues the trend of making the twelfth Doctor into a unique character; it's difficult to imagine any of the other Doctors beginning an adventure because they want to test a speculative theory, but here Capaldi makes it seem like the most natural thing in the world, as he wonders why there are no creatures capable of perfect hiding, and then realizes that if there were, how would we know about them?  It's the Doctor's own curiosity that directly leads to the events of the story, in a way that makes sense for this Doctor.

Interspersed with this is Clara's first date with Danny Pink, which seems to be something of a total disaster on both sides -- although, to their credit, both of them seem willing to forge ahead rather than giving up altogether.  It's nice, from a story point of view, that this actual first date is less of a meet cute than their interactions in "Into the Dalek" were, as it allows us to actually start to care more about them as characters, instead of being coerced into liking them.  This is where Clara really starts to bloom as a character, now that all that Impossible Girl stuff is over, and Jenna Coleman is clearly relishing the opportunity to do something a bit different in the show.

Clara, Rupert, and the Doctor look at Rupert's now-empty bed.
("Listen") ©BBC

But that awkward relationship beginning is what ends up spurring the rest of the episode, in that it's Clara's distraction regarding Danny that ends up taking the TARDIS off course in the first place, which leads to some very suspenseful moments.  Steven Moffat and director Douglas Mackinnon do a fabulous job of building an atmosphere of dread using only words and quiet images -- we're not even certain if there is actually anything to be worried about, as they're careful to leave things nebulous.  It's sometimes easier to believe there really is a creature -- how did a kid get on Rupert's bed without anyone noticing? -- and sometimes easier to think that, no, it's all in everyone's heads -- which is what the ending points at.  And along the way we're treated to some fine acting from Remi Gooding, as young Rupert, scared but brave as he wonders about what's on his bed while he's underneath, and from Samuel Anderson, who gets a chance to shine both as Danny and as future pioneer time traveller Orson Pink, trapped at the very end of everything.  (Although note that Orson's wearing a spacesuit with a Sanctuary Base 6 logo on it, which thus makes an appearance something like 20 centuries too early.²⁵⁷)  And some really fantastic acting from Clara at the ending, as she grabs the young boy's foot and immediately realizes what she's done.

Ah yes, that ending.  It's really nice to see that they're just as willing as ever to take risks and not to have any sacred cows (although even then, Moffat is careful not to explicitly say that this is the young Doctor -- that's just Clara's assumption).  Taking us back to the very early days and suggesting that Clara might be partially responsible for the Doctor's future attitudes (with both the comment that she heard the Doctor say earlier in the episode ("Fear is a superpower"), as well as from "The Day of the Doctor" ("Fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly") and all the way back to An Unearthly Child ("Fear makes companions of us all")) is a bold move that pays off.  It ties together the past and the future in subtle ways, and it makes the Doctor even more relatable than he's ever been before.

It's difficult to describe just how astonishingly good "Listen" is.  It's a gorgeously written story, designed to do nothing more than make us afraid, and at this it's a smashing success.  The scope of the story is both wide (four different time zones, a suggestion that Orson Pink and Clara might be related, and that ending) and narrow (again, there are only really five characters in this), and it's frankly a masterclass in how to write suspense.  There are some people who were dissatisfied with this story, which you can sort of understand (as under one interpretation "Listen" is nothing more than a shaggy dog story), but frankly the finished product is so good that even if you believe there wasn't really anything there you don't feel cheated, because the journey has been so compelling.  "Listen" is not just one of the best episodes of series 8, but of the entirety of Doctor Who.







²⁵⁷ Steven Moffat tried to get around this after the fact by suggesting that the Doctor gave him the suit, but that doesn't work as the file footage of Orson leaving also shows the patch on his suit.