It Takes You Away

It Takes You Away

This week's episode of 'Doctor Who' was described in 'Radio Times' as a 'Scandi-noir' episode and from the trailer you would have assumed that the story was about an isolated house with a lonely blind child trapped by a monster wandering around in the woods outside.

What the story actually turned out to be about was love, loss and loneliness.

Within this story we got a nasty new monster in the flesh moths and a wonderful performance from the actor Kevin Eldon as cave dweller Ribbons.

Even though I had read the preview of this episode in 'DWM', which has a picture of Kevin Eldon and mentions that he is in it, I had somehow totally forgotten the fact in the interim.

So I spent a fair amount of the episode being distracted by this half-recognised guest star and eventually had to look in 'Radio Times' to confirm it was him.

The character of Ribbons (Of The Seven Stomachs) reminds me of Gollum from 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord Of The Rings' and it is quite sad that he is killed off in the way he is as a rematch at some point would have been fun.

On my first viewing of the episode I didn't notice that everything was reversed through the mirror.
In this new universe it would seem that the dead have come back to life, as we first meet Erik's dead wife Trine and then Graham's beloved wife Grace.

Something that the Doctor cannot understand until she remembers the story told by Granny Five about the Solitract which couldn't exist within our own universe.

I loved the mention of the Doctor's seven grannies, particularly the talk of Granny Two being a Zygon agent, at least according to the aforementioned story-telling Granny Five...

The fact that the Solitract uses the faces of dead loved ones to trap both Erik and Graham is very moving, as few of us could resist being reunited with a much missed relative.

But, of course, these are not the real people and the universe is breaking down as it cannot sustain this level of illusion.

And I loved the use of the frog as the representation of the Solitract to the Doctor after everyone else has been rejected. I can understand that this image has divided people into those who enjoyed the image and those who were less than keen. But I thought it was very sweet and rather nice not to be a huge raging monster.

And then we get to the one thing that we have been waiting to happen since the first episode of the series, when Ryan finally calls Graham 'grandad'. Whether this is simply because he is feeling sorry for him after he has lost Grace again or he now really regards him as such doesn't really matter. It is a lovely moment and brings a tear to your eye as does much of the preceding episode.

All in all, 'It Takes You Away' is an interesting story and perhaps a slower more thoughtful one before we go into the epic finale of the series.

(Written by Lisa Parker)