[initial reactions] Doctor Who 11x09 - It Takes You Away

[grimorie]

Oh that was so Douglas Adams! Like, seriously very Douglas Adams!

(Douglas Adams used to be a writer for the show and wrote the classic City of Death)

The show tried to recreate that so many time but I think Ed Hime* has successfully done it! 

Also, I feel like by far this episode is the most Doctor Who-y in a long time! It’s awesome and I love how it spread the action to all the Companions and the Doctor at her most Doctor-ish!

This episode also felt very fairytale too, the house in the middle of the forest, the string as a way back home, the ‘goblin’ on the ‘bridge’ (Anti-zone), and the Doctor learning about what they’re up against via her grandmother’s fairytales. 

I feel like of the Modern Doctors Jodie Whittaker has the best green screen acting among the lot. She’s basically interacting and acting against nothing IRL and yet she made me feel a lot. 

For a frog.

I can’t get over how Douglas Adams-y it is! 

Things:

- I love that Ryan was awkward with Hanne, and even careless with his words. He’s not perfect and definitely projecting his issues on to her... except that he happens to be right about it too, not just in the way he thought.

- Yaz sharing what she knows about handling kids with Ryan and being the brave one who volunteers and then says the magic words ‘reverse the polarity’.

- Once again showcases that, in another season Yaz would’ve been the main companion since she fits the Companion bill perfectly.  

- The Doctor finally held a Companions hand, and it’s Yaz’s! And Yaz holds Graham’s. 

- The Doctor’s negotiations with Ribbons, the sternness and her unwilling to back down.

- Oh, but also, hee. ‘Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols!’. Excellent bluffing by the Doctor though!

- ‘Payment on delivery’ because this is not her first rodeo. Also, she would’ve found a way around that deal. She’s very attached to that sonic. 

- ‘No. I want you to follow this nutter into the dark.’ First time the Doctor’s asserted herself in a way that didn’t brook question but also, first time we see the Companions and not just Graham protest the Doctor’s plans, I think? 

- The Doctor rolled-up her sleeves again! 

- Writing that message so Hanne won’t be alarmed shows that when she needs to the Doctor can still lie with the best of them. Ryan, on the other hand, is still a bad liar and improviser. 

- I love how everything is on reverse in the other world.

- Grace being there was not fair, but the other universe uses her voice now too and I love it. 

- The Doctor had seven grandmothers (or one grandmother with seven regenerations). Possibly the old lady with the flies in the Doctor’s nightmares?

- The Doctor surprising Erik and herself! Very jumpy, our Doctor!

- ‘She’s not your wife, she’s furniture with a pulse.’ Damn, that’s harsh. Shows that the blunt and kind of dickish part of the Doctor is still very much there and shows even more when she’s alone in the other world with Erik and the Solitruc(?)  

- ‘I know deep down you still blame yourself.’ Is this the closest thing the Doctor’s done talking to Graham about his grief?

- ‘So close. You were so close.’ The way Graham says it, and before that, the look on the Doctor’s face, she knew the Solitruc (?) messed up. 

- ‘Time to move on, mate!’ The bluntness comes out in times of emergencies and, well, annoyance. 

- And then the Doctor realizes Erik’s not going to want to leave off his own free will, so the Doctor decides then and there to manipulate the Solitruc (?) and make it throw Erik out. 

- ‘Let him go. And I will give you everything.’ This is the seductive ‘come with me’ that the Doctor gives their companions, this time directed to a living universe. Not even a universe can turn the Doctor down. 

- ‘My own form is endless, but this frog is a form that delights me as it once delighted Grace.’ So. Douglas. Adams. I love it!! 

- ‘I will dream of you, out there, without me.’ Awwww. Seriously emotional about a scene between the Doctor and a frog. Best green screen acting, IMO!

- The Doctor putting her hands in her pockets as she says, ‘Shame made a new friend. A whole conscious universe! And I had to say goodbye.’ 

That line and her face, I had feels. 

Hands in her pockets seems to be a thing for the Doctor when feeling emotionally vulnerable or solemn. 

- But, oh, Ryan’s face. I think Yaz told him about Grace already. I just want to hug him. 

- Ryan and Hanne hugging, my heart. And the way he let her touch his hand first to let her know he was close! 

- ‘I see the sheep have moved on, probably plotting!’ Hee. The Doctor’s distrust and suspicion for sheep is amazing. 

- Then at the end, Ryan and Graham bonding! And, Granddad. 

- The music, again, is excellent!

*In live action, in prose form I think James Goss captured his style perfectly.