© BBC Pictures
There have been many questions over the years as to what happens after the Doctor walks away, especially when he leaves a messy situation behind such as the tears in time and space at Coal Hill. This is one of the main draws for me, even though I am not part of the demographic for the show I am still finding it compelling viewing as it feels very much a natural expansion of the Whoniverse.
Having a couple of episodes drop in our laps in the first week was a wise plan, I feel. Not only did we get to see how the characters coped without a cameo from Twelve himself and stand its own two feet, the show was able to dig deeper into the roles, seeing what made them tick. As someone new to Ness’ work, I have to admit to admiring the way he is weaving the various arcs together across the episodes so far. Ram’s distress over Rachel’s death tied in well with the skinning alive he saw in the second episode, and as we see in
the promo, this third one sees Tanya coming face to face with her dead father, whom she brought up in response in the aforementioned plot with Ram last week.
However, this eerie visitor of Tanya’s isn’t the only one to make themselves known to our band of Scoobies, as these body morphing aliens also descend on both Ram and Miss Quill’s houses when they least expect it. The intruders are after very specific things, leading to some surprisingly emotional confrontations as they attempt to entice people astray. This gives Ness a chance to lay down some pretty solid groundwork for these characters, skilfully mixing in the quieter, poignant moments with the more typical shocks and horror aspect of this spooky tale as the rest of the group battle through the streets to rescue those caught up in the alien’s grasp.
Once again, Quill stands out as one of my favourites, with Katherine Kelly pitching the unintended humour through her misanthropic tendencies with effortless ease. She delivers some cracking one liners in
Nightvisiting, and even though she once again splits from the main group for much of the episode, she is still central to the overall plot itself. Although I do find myself wondering if there is more to her disassociation from the main group so far, some of which I have expanded on in one of my theories below.
The other shout out this week goes to Vivian Oparah, whose Tanya gets some of the weightiest material so far in the Halloween weekend’s episode. This is arguably her episode – in so much as last week was Ram’s – with her character going through some heart-wrenching decisions you wouldn’t wish on any fourteen year old. In particular, the scenes between Oparah and her father, Jasper (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) are superb.
I can’t leave without asking one question, who are the Governors? They don’t really feature in this episode, nor does the school a great deal, but it’s a nagging detail which I keep turning over in my brain. I have a few main theories which I am considering at present, the first being that they are a group that are either wishing to protect Quill during her slavery to the Prince, or who are acting as if they are only to double cross her once they have what they are after. So, they could be some members of her own terrorist group that escaped the Shadow Kin’s massacre, or perhaps another species, which value her leadership skills and want to free her. Alternatively, either of those two groups of aliens could be using her closeness to Charlie – who of course has the Cabinet of Souls – in order to trick and then discard her once her usefulness is over.
My second hypothesis is that they are another “Big Bad”, one that we may not even discover too much about this season as we have the rather impressive Shadow Kin to deal with already. But could they be the Wolfram and Hart of Class, a villain which is ever present for the run of the series who rears its head every now and then to meddle in our heroes’ lives? On the flip side, they could be "The Powers That Be", of course, with them turning up in the finale to aid the gang in their final battle against Corakinus. The only reason I slightly lean towards the former here at present is that I fully expect to see Twelve again and imagine that he will fulfil at least part of that role himself even though I don’t think we will too much of him throughout the series as a whole.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on who they could be, so please do sound off in the comments below with your ideas on this, or any other aspect of the show. Also, for any that aren’t aware, the tie-in novels are released tomorrow in the UK and can be found on Amazon. All three are set after the second episode, I believe. I have pre-ordered them and am looking forward to reading them soon!
Nightvisiting is released on BBC Three at 10am on Saturday 29th October. Below are some teasers to see you through until then, if you want to have a go at guessed who said what with the dialogue ones, I will fill in any correct answers before it's released. Please don't forget to come back to vote in our poll after you have seen the episode and let us know what you thought.
“I’ve spoken to a few, none of them seem to remember anything, which seems really convenient”
The pre-credit sequence is heart-warming, heart breaking, and then suddenly very, very creepy.
“Where did she get that?” “She’s, resourceful”
“It is. I’ve reached out to you across all time and space”
“That’s not even the third weirdest thing I’ve seen this month”
“Holy mother of Kanye!”
“Because sometimes I miss the human sense of humour. I mean, have you seen that show Take Me Out?”
“Was argument. One we had many times, about boys”
“Get a very big knife. No, wait. Get two”
“There’s no way to convince you. You just have to believe me”
There’s internet lag during a Skype conversation this week. Not much, admittedly, as that would make it hard to follow, but it makes it feel more realistic than the glitch free web chats that usually happens on shows.
“Dad, I know we talked about the weird stuff, but s… Dad, call me as soon as you get this”
Trailer Teaser
“Dorothy Aimes, new Head Teacher”
About the Author - Sandi
Sandi is part of the Senior Staff at SpoilerTV having been a contributor from back in the Lost days of DarkUFO, and who now writes previews for Vikings, Knightfall, Poldark, Doctor Who and other UK shows. She also enjoys watching and commenting on other shows such as Orphan Black, Game of Thrones and The Flash.
