(Doctor) Who you gonna call?

Once again this week I wasn't actually in front of my TV while Doctor Who was on, so I had Twitter to spoil me on what the general reaction would be like. Which means I knew going in that it was completely irrelevant what I or anyone else thought of "Hide" as it will go down in history as the episode where Matt Smith mispronounces "Metebilis III." Twice. And the fans of the classic series weren't pleased. And... really, wasn't there anyone on set who could tell him how it was pronounced? I was imagine there's one or two Doctor Who geeks working on, you know, Doctor Who. Ooh, you see now I'm going to be imagining scenarios where all the crew hate Matt Smith and let him walk straight into the ire of the fanboys. Twice.

"Hide" by Neil Cross, directed by Jamie Payne. Spoilers under the cut.

So the episode itself is a pretty good one all things told. I've read The Moff's Radio Times feature so I know this was the one Neil Cross wrote first, and was given "The Rings of Akhaten" as well on the strength of how good this script was. So, you know, it's not all good, as it means "Hide" is partly to blame for that happening. But as the haunted house story in this year's portmanteau of movie genres it's pretty successful, the sequence in the music room is pretty spooky, even if it doesn't really go anywhere.

The scene of the phantom hand holding Clara's is a classic chill as well, that should give the kids a couple of nightmares even if the Crooked Man doesn't. It's a shame he turned out not to be a bad guy after all, the ending was already much cheesier than it had to be (really, the ending should have involved the effort killing Jessica Raine's psychic, never mind Hila being her descendant) without turning the monsters into Romeo and Juliet as well. Besides, the Crooked Man could have worked again if he'd been kept scary - it's not just the really ugly design that'll probably have caused a couple of wet beds last night, the way the creature moves is really creepy as well and I think that's such a strong element to a good scare.

I like this idea of the TARDIS and Clara not really liking each other too much. Given what next week's episode is about, I suspect this sub-plot is just setup for something there, and we'll have them more comfortable with each other for the end of the series. But while it lasts it's nice to have a different companion dynamic than the usual. Everyone since Rose has been pretty unambiguously enthusiastic about travelling with the Doctor, there's been none of the unwilling companions like Tegan in the "classic" series - the closest really has been Donna in her first appearance, and by the time she returned she was a willing traveler. So it's nice to have a bit of friction in the room, even if it does turn out to be short-lived.

What I didn't like about the Clara/TARDIS scene was the hologram Clara with which the TARDIS communicated with her. Yes, it's a pretty bitchy thing to do and sets up their relationship but... the TARDIS can communicate? In actual language? And it's failed to do so the myriad times it's mysteriously disobeyed the Doctor's instructions over the last thousand years because..? I thought the big deal about "The Doctor's Wife" was that for the first time the Doctor and the TARDIS could interact in a way they never could before. If the TARDIS can interact like this then instead of the Doctor running around pulling levers, the TARDIS could just appear to him in a hologram every week and he could say "take me to Metebilis III." And then he'd end up in the wrong place 'cause he mispronounced it. Twice.