It Takes You Away

"Our universe cannot work with the Solitract in it."

Writer: Ed Hime

Format: TV

Broadcast: 2nd December 2018

Series: 11.09

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

On the edge of a Norwegian fjord in the present day, the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz discover a boarded-ip cottage and a girl named Hanne in need of their help. What has happened here? What monster lurks in the woods around the cottage – and beyond?

Verdict

It Takes You Away was yet another great episode in what is turning out to be an incredibly consistent Series 11! Just like its predecessor, this story retains the rating I gave it on broadcast and was just a good adventure throughout. I'm not one who has been taken by the craze in Nordic films and television series in recent years, but I know enough to see that this episode did very well in capturing that feel. It works for Doctor Who and what isn't good about a creepy abandoned and boarded-up cottage in the middle of nowhere with a monster lurking? Add in a blind girl is at home and her dad is missing and you have quite the ingredients for a story. As if that wasn't enough, we then had a portal to another universe in a mirror and I really loved Ryan just watching Graham interact with the reflection-less element of it. He scared him just by speaking then, but there was a whole lot more to things. They were no vampires. This was the entrance to an anti-zone. I liked the concept of the universe conjuring these up between dimensions or planes and it was good for the Doctor, Yaz and Graham to explore it. They met Ribbons who was a really good character who I felt probably died a little quickly. He had always been in this place and looked – and apparently smelt – like that was the case. The flesh-eating moths were a good threat and the fate that befell Ribbons was quite horrific and rathe brutal. In quick time, there was nothing left of him and he was left as a husk. It was a shame as whilst he was obviously a nasty fellow, his philosophy of living in trades was fantastic. The Doctor going to get her sonic from the corpse was quite a powerful message. He was beyond help. I thought it was great then that Hanne had entered the anti-zone without knowing of the threat inside. Her relationship with Ryan was brilliant throughout and it was good that it grew and developed as initially he was quite awful to her about her dad. He knew that he must have left, but he was not too kind about it all. She was very clever in spit of her blindness and I liked that she knew the Doctor hadn't actually drawn a map. The look on Eric's face when he'd realised what he had actually left his daughter in with the threat of an imaginary monster was good and showed how wrong he had been. He wanted to be reunited with his lost wife in the mirror dimension and that turning out to be the universe of the Solitract was excellent. I really enjoyed the concept of a conscious universe and hearing of the Doctor's bedtime story concerning them from her fifth gran was tremendous. Grace being used as temptation for Graham to stay despite being incompatible was very good, but it was quite heartbreaking for him to have to go through losing her all over again. He knew she was a fake when she didn't urgently want to save Ryan. So close. The Doctor being the one to stay behind with the Solitract was obvious and the realisation that she had lost the people in the universe was superb. Now, the Solitract taking the form of a frog that spoke with Grace's voice is incredibly questionable, but I won't let it take too much away from my rating. It's barmy, I'll say that. Overall though, another very good episode!

Rating: 8/10