Sleep No More

"Sleep's the one thing left to us."

Writer: Mark Gatiss
Format: TV
Broadcast: 14th November 2016
Series: 9.09

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis

From footage in the Le Verrier space station, the Doctor and Clara are shown to be up against terrifying Sandmen in a situation which involves sleep and a lot of death...

Verdict 

Sleep No More was an excellent story and I am absolutely delighted to be saying that! I really did not enjoy this episode when I first watched it on broadcast some thirteen months ago but I am not too sure why as I was actually very close to awarding it the perfect rating. I thought it was brilliant from start to finish and I am really not sure why I didn't think so the first time around. I always like it when a story's rating dramatically increases from one viewing to another and I don't think I have had a jump of two scores since watching The Romans for the second time which was quite some time ago now. That jumped up three scores and although this was close, it didn't quite make it but am now anticipating the rumoured sequel that we'll get in the upcoming tenth series next year. I do hope we get it as there are numerous unanswered questions and the footage of Clara could provide the Doctor with some interesting moments but enough about what the future may hold, let's talk about this little gem of an episode. It was different, brave and bold and it's refreshing to see something new being done in a televised episode. A first is a difficult thing to come by in Doctor Who nowadays given just how much content there is across the formats but going with a found-footage format of episode was an excellent idea and Mark Gatiss pulls it off terrifically. I also thought the direction was fantastic and I very rarely mention that aspect of an episode so for me to include it in my blog it really must have been good! I liked how there were no opening titles and that just added credit to the reality of the story. The 38th century setting was good and I liked how it was a rare occasion of a story taking place in the Solar System that wasn't on Earth. We were in orbit around Neptune which was interesting, as was the Doctor's comments about the Great Catastrophe and the tectonic shift that merged India and Japan. I won't be around to see if that comes true but I'm sure historians of that age looking back will be mightily intrigued by the prediction. Seeing the video of Rassmussen at the start of the story was good and I liked how key he was to everything that was going on. His invention of Morpheus was mightily intriguing and the idea of fitting in a month's worth of sleep into five minutes does sound appealing I must admit, but to the Doctor and Clara it just seemed awful. Now, I wouldn't mind getting an extra third of my life back instead of being asleep and I do try and live on as limited amount of sleep as possible as I like to get things done, but altering human life to that extent was surely never going to end well. The inclusion of the song surrounding the process was good humour and I liked how annoyed it made the Doctor. Clara naming the Sandmen was a wonderful moment as the Doctor genuinely seemed gutted he hadn't got there first and couldn't come up with a better name. The concept behind them was pretty horrifying which is a great thing when it comes to a monster and I thought their appearance suited the style of story very well. Nagata and 474 were fantastic characters and I also thought that Chopra was good too. The apparent death of Rassmussen was unexpected but not quite so much as his seemed resurrection! The ambiguity surrounding him as the episode concluded was brilliant and that really has left me wanting a sequel, and I'm sure the Doctor will be hoping for one as well as if there's one thing he and I agree on hating, it's unanswered questions. Overall, a brilliant episode that in my opinion has hugely improved since the last viewing!

Rating: 9/10