Monday, November 16, 2015

Doctor Who - Sleep No More


Over the years Doctor Who's forays from sci-fi into horror have led to mixed results. While creating my favorite episode of the current run in "Blink" which introduced audiences to the Weeping Angels, other attempts have been far less successful. Sadly, "Sleep No More" falls into the later category as the audience is thrown into a found-footage style horror tale about monsters from your sleep made up of dream dust who devour people because... um, not sure about that part. There's an intriguing idea at the center of the episode about the need for sleep and the repercussions of bypassing the natural order for greed, but the story itself delivers rather lackluster creatures and fails to make the scientist (Reece Shearsmith) responsible for creating them interesting in the slightest.

Other than basic greed Rassmusssen's motives don't make much sense at all (especially in the long term). Nor does the idea of the sand using the station's surveillance equipment to watch The Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Clara (Jenna Coleman), and the soldiers make much (if any) sense. And if the man's pods are already in use across the universe does any action The Doctor takes here even matter? Isn't an army of Sandmen awakening all over the 31st Century at this point? There's quite a bit of sciency-schmiency logic over the course of the episode that is either left completely unexplained or the explanation given is questionable at best. Obviously inspired by "Blink," complete with taped messages to the audience about what they see, "Sleep No More" is a hit-and-miss episode with lots of wobbly shaky cam and muddled themes.

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