Writer: Mark Gatiss
Director: Justin Molotnikov
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Reece Shearsmith, Elaine Tan, Bethany Black, Paul Courtenay Hyu, Neet Mohan
Synopsis: The Doctor and Clara land on a space station orbiting Neptune in the 38th Century, where they find a rescue crew, mysterious sleep pods and something altogether more horrifying.
Verdict:
It’ll be interesting to see even the staunchest of Doctor Who defenders explain this one. Capitalising on the popularity of found footage only seven years too late, Sleep No More takes an all too familiar concept, adds an extra layer of ridiculousness and packages it all up in a headache-inducing format.
The premise has been seen before, as far back as the Bond film no-one talks about (Die Another Day, 2002) – and if you’re borrowing story elements from there, it’s probably time to give it up as a bad job. Writer Mark Gatiss drafts in his League of Gentlemen alumnus Reece Shearsmith as evil genius Rassmussen, who’s managed to negate the need for sleep with some magic pods. Bad idea. Obvs.
Before we get this far, we’re introduced to the cardboard cut-out crew aboard the station by way of some visual pop ups that wouldn’t look out of place in a 1990s videogame. While the crew of Under the Lake/Before the Flood were difficult enough to care about over the span of two episodes, Sleep No More’s background characters have about as much characterisation over the space of 45 minutes as the giant sandy creatures ambling around the over-used, poorly-lit corridors.
Ah yes, the sandmen: an idea so ridiculous it seems torn straight from the pages of classic Who, yet it’s given none of the same gloriously over the top service required to make it work. The result of un-expelled sleep dust from the eyes of those who use Rassmussen’s pods, or something, they’re a vague attempt at being scary that flounders horribly under the weight of the dull script, unengaging characters and half-baked attempt at a format that’s long since outstayed its welcome.
Indeed, the show can’t even cope with the parameters of the found footage concept, breaking through the conventional boundaries of a single character with a handheld camera – to film from all angles by way of the most contrived plot device since the eagles showed up at just the right time to save the day at (one of the endings of) Return of the King. By giving everyone ‘sleep dust’ eye cameras, Gatiss and director Justin Molotnikov seemingly prove the show can’t even do found footage properly.
Planting the ‘cameras’ directly in the eyes of the characters also gives way to a horrible, immersion-breaking fourth wall disruption. We don’t want Peter Capaldi to look directly into our eyes while he’s speaking – we don’t want to remember we’re watching a television show. Once again, Doctor Who’s attempts to frighten fail miserably due to poor execution.
By the time the episode’s big twist comes along, with Rassmussen revealing he’s been complicit with the big sandy bastards all along, we’re pretty much past caring (which is a good thing, as the Doctor’s solution of ‘turn on the anti-grav and run away’ is about as anti-climactic as it gets). There are only so many trapped-in-an-alien-base/ship/lair episodes we can take before we just give up watching altogether, as evidenced by the severe drop-off in viewing figures this series.
Sleep No More in particular gives the Doctor and Clara absolutely zero room for any kind of character development, and feels far more like a low-budget, filler episode than any that have come before.
This is a show with (theoretically) limitless possibilities. How has it run out of ideas already?
