Sleep No More

--> I am not sure I have a great deal to say about Sleep No More.

It is funny how my opinions about a Doctor Who story can change on re-watch. I thought – on the first watch – that this was the weakest story of Season Nine. I think it still might be. But that isn’t because it is not an interesting episode. It just feels unfinished. We’re left without a solution. The Sandmen won. It seems. Even though The Doctor has escaped the infection is out there and both Clara and Nagata (Elaine Tan) are infected.

Written by Mark Gatiss Sleep No More is a base under siege story that teeters on being properly horrific. A sort of shadow copy of The Ark in Space, except there’s no Noah clinging onto his humanity despite his metamorphosis. No, Sleep No More is bleaker than that. This is no indomitable human race. There is a skulking, greedy scientist who has given up on his species altogether, Rasmussen (Reece Shearsmith). He could not – or would not - even save himself, let alone the rest of the human race.

The story is set in the 38^th century. We some throwaway world-building, which suggests that an Indo-Japanese superstate is the world’s major superpower and except for Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Reece Shearsmith and Bethany Black the rest of the caste are of Asian descent (and I use Asian here to cover the whole continent, not just Indian/Pakistan.) Even if they all have British accents of various kinds, like Nakata’s Geordie. There’s probably a reason for that. I just do not know what it is.

I should mention Bethany Black, who plays the ‘grunt’ 474. ‘Grunts’ are grown to be soldiers. Their intelligence is low and their strength high. Bethany Black is the first openly transgender actor to appear in Doctor Who. It is a fine performance in a limited part. I wish though – having seen her in other things – that she had been given a part with a bit more to it. She does get a heroic death though so what more can one ask for?

The guest cast – apart from Reece Shearsmith – all have limited parts and they seem destined to die in the usual manner among the minor roles in a base under siege story.  I do want to stop though and applaud Paul Courtney-Hyu’s (who is playing Deep Ando) acting when he’s trying to get into a safe room whilst the computer – which was apparently reprogrammed at the Christmas Party to require everyone to sing ‘Mr Sandman’ for access. It manages to be both funny and tense at the same time, whilst you can feel Paul Courtney-Hyu makes you really feel Deep Ando’s barely suppressed panic and desperation.

Reece Shearsmith does a good job of making Rasmussen's cowardice and corruption add up to more than just a bog-standard Doctor Who villain. He feels like the sort of person who right-wing governments would put in charge of an unpleasant project and who would carry out his orders without question. The living embodiment of the banality of evil. 

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman are up to their usual standards. I genuinely think Capaldi is the best actor to have played Doctor Who.* I know there are many rivals to that title, particularly Troughton. Yet I am going to stick to my guns on this one. Capaldi’s Doctor is my favorite Doctor. Tom Baker will always be MY Doctor because he was my first Doctor and I grew up watching him. If I’m feeling down, it is always a Tom Baker Doctor Who story that I’ll reach for. If I’m feeling really down, it will be The Horns of Nimon.**

I digress.

So, although this is not an amazing story I am a little baffled about why I disliked it so much on the first watch. The director, Justin Molotnikov, does good work bring Gatiss’s ideas to life. This does have the feel of a Classic Doctor Who story made to be cheap filler while other more ambitious stories surround it.

Perhaps it is simply the Gatiss desire for a clever pay-off meant it seems not to have an ending. I am not sure a second episode would have been justified. It does need something. Perhaps I am being unfair. Perhaps I should be content to leave loose threads dangling. Not everything has to be wrapped up in a neat bundle after all. 

*Yes, I went there. Sue me.

** So, sue me. Part Two.