A Guest Blog by Hevy782

Listen. At the end off every Doctor Who story I usually come out with a good idea of what I thought the episode. At least a positive or negative reaction. Sometimes this can change drastically on later viewing and others it stays relatively the same. This one, however, left me with no idea as to whether I liked it or not. Now that may sound odd but when it comes to this story there are few words to describe it with other than odd. It’s definitely a unique episode of Doctor Who and one of the most far afield things that they’ve ever attempted but at the same time it felt like the same old stuff in terms of Moffat’s writing. So why can’t I just dismiss it as either a good or a bad episode? Well, now that I’ve had a night to sleep on it, I think I’m in the ready to put pen to paper (or more accurately finger to keyboard) and write down my thoughts on Listen.

First off, I think its fair to say that I went into this episode expecting something totally different, more along the lines of Moffat’s earlier work in Doctor Who. I couldn’t of been more wrong there. Thing is, in recent years due to the split season stuff he’s only really been writing premieres, finales and specials so this is the first time in a long time he’s got to write something small. And in some senses (namely returning to Gallifrey when the Doctor was really young) it was massive but in others it was small as it was basically saying there’s a rational explanation for everything that scares you in the night. On the topic of scares, was this episode scary? I’m afraid not. Maybe most of the scares we spoiled but the trailer but the only one that really got to me was the one where someone suddenly got in the bed. This story also advances the relationship between Clara and Danny but this time it fits in a bit more with the story rather than being stuck on the side like it was in Into the Dalek. However, the arrival of Orson Pink did feel quite stilted and could’ve been done a bit better. Also, here’s something interesting to note, he was wearing the Doctor’s Sanctuary Base Six space suit but the Doctor can’t of given it to him because he was wearing it before he took off. Is this a plot whole or is this a subtle hint as to what’ll happen between the Doctor, Clara and Danny in the future?

Now I’m going to go back to something that was said a fair while before series eight began. Beforehand we were promised a raw new direction by Steven Moffat and so far, despite some cosmetic stuff, very little has changed in what I believe to be the shows core and that is the writing. This story has loads of stuff which was typical of Matt Smith’s era and while it’s not exactly timey-wimey it’s still definitely the same style of writing in a lot of ways. We keep jumping around the time line and also have a moment which will rip the fan base in half and that is the scene with Clara once again affecting the Doctor’s past. Now I didn’t mind this scene a whole lot to be honest. It was nowhere near as bad as what we had in The Name of the Doctor and the reveal was handled a lot better too. It also gets Gallifreyan society right in that you’re not born a Time Lord, you have to go to the academy and earn that title. The link to The Day of the Doctor was nice too.

Overall, there’s a lot of typical Moffat in there but it’s done in a way that is much more bearable this time around. So I think for the time being I’m going to settle on a rating of eight-out-of-ten. A step down from last week but not a drastic and costly slip up either. However, I can’t see much rewatch value whatsoever in this one which is unfortunate but maybe it’s just me that thinks that. But what about Time Heist? At first I was not too excited about it but after watching the trailer I think that it could end up being another fun romp like Robot of Sherwood. So, until next week, be sure to sound off your thoughts on the episode in the comments below. Listen.