Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Remi Gooding, Robert Goodman, Kiran Shah.
Listen, the biggest secret of them all, the one that is always hidden in plain sight but never quite shows itself; does the Doctor know fear?
It is a question that seems to be skirted round, passed over or answered in such a way that it makes the very action in which The Doctor resolves the problem is one of false bravado. It makes the loyal viewer, the unremitting fan, feel better about themselves because no matter what The Doctor has the answers.
The fourth episode of Doctor Who, Listen, was one in which the bought back the stories of old, the moments of the unknown in which terror stalked the story, the trepidation for which has been missing for a while and yet like all stories there were the moments in which a smile was raised, the castigating look from The Doctor, the withering eye admonishing all, in which Peter Capaldi has become a true master.
For Clara Oswald and the actress who plays her, the superb Jenna Coleman, this series is really hammering home just how important to the Doctor’s life she is. Clara, and Ms. Coleman, have had their detractors, unfairly in many fan’s minds and opinions but that depends upon the individual’s point of view but to see a glimpse into the Doctor’s life as a young boy, to see some part of this man’s moral code being installed into him by the unseen hand of Clara Oswald was something that could not have been better scripted if every editor over the last 51 years had had a share of the word processor on a given day. This touching scene, in which moments from the past year were brought into very close focus showed just how Clara is the fan personified, how each person watching would have wanted to comfort the small boy and tremble with distress knowing that they were the monster under the Doctor’s bed.
Does the Doctor know fear? In the same way that Death is the most constant companion of them all to any of the incarnations of The Doctor, fear is something that sits alongside Death, just out of sight from The Doctor’s eye line but still sits there none the less. For fear is what drives us to become better than we could ever hope to be, fear is the mother of hope and self-assurance and without these twins, all is truly lost. Fear it seems can be good for us, it certainly drove the Doctor.
A story of absolute wealth from Steven Moffat, cleverly written and acted with superb fortitude and conviction by Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi. Listen, don’t get nightmares, you have nothing to fear.
Ian D. Hall