Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole, Lili Miller, Jacob Collins-Levy, Lewis Rainer, Maxim Baldry.
The Doctor, no matter who plays the titular role of the long running B.B.C. science fiction programme, is always best observed when the element of humour is gradually replaced by the fear of the unknown, when the adversary actually is represented as the darker side of humanity to which the audience, in its role of observer, is taken to its pinnacle of emotional bond.
A truth of Time is not truly understanding the way in which events can play havoc with the mind, the inspiration it draws, which seeps down into the very core of creating art, and how a storm observed can create ripples throughout time and bring the darkness and the light crashing together in a brand new form of life and existence.
A single night, a story begging to be told, such is the resonance of Mary Shelley and the tale of humanity brought to its brink of self-reflection as we embrace the notion of life after death, of playing God with our own souls, that it is impossible to think of the Gothic Horror without trembling at the memory of Frankenstein.
It is to the historic events that took place at the Villa Diodati, of the competition set down by Lord Byron and in which Mary Shelley, the daughter of two brilliant minds herself, created the form in which has become the embodiment of all that could be seen as a sinister appropriation of humanity’s desire to create life after it has failed to continue to beat.
Throw in for good effect four travellers through time and the terror of one of the finest foes, the Cybermen, and what the viewer is left to relish in is a story that would not have been out of place during the golden period of the show with Tom Baker at the helm, and with the manic energy that typified David Tennant’s ere. The Haunting Of Villa Diodati is such a powerful tale that it feels like a gift of old, but one that is as truly fresh as anything during Jodie Whittaker’s time in charge of the Tardis, one that exposes the truth of death under the mask of the Cyberman and brings home the power of words by the long since gone poets of old.
“Look upon my works, ye mighty…” but do not think about despairing, for in the darkness that inhabits this particular episode, the viewer is given free reign to take on the fear of the cannibalised human soul, what dissection can mean, and how in such moments of fear, the result revealed is one of art that thrills down through the centuries.
The Haunting Of Villa Diodati is a classic ghost story to which owes great sentiment to the historical setting to which it inhabits; incredible from start to finish.
Ian D. Hall