Who Review: Sleep No More
A rescue team on Le Verrier Space Station stumble upon the Doctor and Clara wandering the passageways. There doesn’t appear to be anyone else on board, so together they explore, trying to find out what happened to the crew. They soon find themselves being chased by a monster that crumbles into sand when they trap its arm in a door. On closer inspection the Doctor determines that it’s organic. Then they find the Morpheus machines, designed to mess with people’s brains so they get the benefits of a month’s worth of sleep in five minutes, enabling them to stay awake with no ill effect. The Doctor hypothesizes that the monsters are a by-product of the machines, a thought that is especially discomforting after Clara is dragged into one of them. But it also appears there are more monsters, and they are carnivorous, and restless…
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
This was an odd episode. First, it appears to be a single-parter–the first of the season. Second, there was no title sequence. It was also the first Doctor Who story made in what’s known as “found footage” style. That is, the whole story is told by means of a recording that was made at the time but discovered after the fact. Kind of like the movies “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity.” One could argue that the New Series 2 story “Love and Monsters” was actually the first Who episode to take on the “home documentary” look, but that story wasn’t strictly speaking “found footage” since it was Elton’s recording, and he was still around to show it.
I’m not really sure what to think of this episode. It was an interesting idea, and I don’t object to them trying something different. But did it work as a story? Coming from Mark Gatiss, who has written a few episodes of Who and who, most notably, is Moff’s “Sherlock” partner in crime, one might expect something exceptional. But I’ve found Mark’s Who contributions to be inconsistent. “The Unquiet Dead” was excellent, and both “Cold War” and “The Crimson Horror” were good. But “Victory of the Daleks” wasn’t that season’s best, neither was “Robot of Sherwood.”
The mood of this story was suitably creepy, with plenty of tension, but the pacing seemed slow to me. And the only characters that appeared to serve any purpose (aside from the Doctor and Clara) were Rassmussen and Nagata, the leader of the rescue team. None of the others stood out–they were just there to be scared and get into trouble. Is that unfair? I suppose the test of this would be to ask: if the episode had only consisted of the Doctor, Clara, Rassmussen, and Nagata, would the events and the outcome have been significantly different?
And then there was the ending where Rassmussen dismisses the notion that the effects of the Morpheus machine only applied to those who had been in the machine, saying anyone who watched the video would be affected. Of course, this is meant to spook us as Rassmussen dissolves into dust. Very “Tales of the Unexpected.” 🙂 Now, the fact Rassmussen doesn’t deny that those who have been in the Morpheus machine will eventually turn to monsters might not bode well for Clara. Is this the way Clara will exit the show, suddenly turning into a pile of dust in the middle of episode 10? I guess we’ll see…
What did you think?
PS: The pictures I’ve been using for the past couple of seasons are poster designs created for each episode by Stuart Manning. Sorry for not giving credit before!
It was an interesting episode and I liked that they tried something new (for the series) to tell a story. I feel like it was purposely vague and detached too. The Rassmussen character only telling us as much as he wants to. I found that vagueness creepy, especially at the end where it was abrupt. It left me asking “DID THEY DEFEAT THE MONSTER??????” That creeped me out. Maybe leaving it open like that leaves them able to randomly bring the monsters back. I love it when things from older episodes pop up into new ones. Like Bad Wolf.
It does seem like they’ve left the door open on bringing the monsters back, which leads me to suspect this has something to do with Clara’s departure. It certainly doesn’t seem as if the monster was actually defeated. And if they leave it that way, with no actual resolution… hmmm… that might be pushing the experimental line a bit! 🙂
Yeah, I really didn’t enjoy this episode. The ‘found footage’ idea would have been fine if they committed to it, but they didn’t — anyone with a bit of awareness worked out quite early on that the footage was coming from more than just headcams, and the ‘robots inside sleep dust recording from every angle’ cop out defeated the point of trying to do found footage at all. Found footage is supposed to have limits and frustrations, not fit the plot ever-so-conveniently.
I was also disappointed that they never developed the base or its soldiers — poking around online afterwards I found out they were supposed to be an Indian-Japanese mesh of cultures worshiping multiple gods, but none of that ever came through. There were no traditional outfits, no ‘priest’ type roles or prayers, no cultural markers at all. Not even a flag hanging up in a corridor. I would have loved to know what people from a heavily religious military thought of artificial life, for instance — were the Grunts an affront to the Gods, or a blessing? We could have had some really nice, fleshed-out futuristic culture here and they messed it up.
Morpheus was such a disappointing concept as well, because I would *love* to have a machine like that It was immediately painted as this consumerist thing, and buried under a ton of preachy Doctor ranting about why it was evil, instead of exploring the possibilities for good that exist within it.
Give me (actual) doctors using Morpheus to save lives, casually whacking Sandmen with bonesaws and scalpels because the job is more important. Artists and writers knowingly sleeping in Morpheus because they don’t have enough time after the day job to get their personal projects done, and dispatching the Sandmen in creative ways.
If Morpheus was real, in the UK, you can bet the EU human rights laws/UK working laws would mean it couldn’t be used for anything but the most dangerous, important jobs. But creatives and daredevils and workaholics would take the risk and use it in their free time, to draw out the hours before the next working day. Students would use it to do all-nighters before big exams, and frantically try to hider the evidence of Sandmen-slaying next day from their parents. Show me military, emergency services, police, transport workers and oil rig staff using the device to deal with the crazy hours they have to work to keep the world turning.
Just. IMAGINE a world where people could freely choose that risk and take that gamble. It[‘s like a zombie movie I could actually understand, because you bet I’d face up against scary monsters for some extra working hours before a big writing deadline. Let’s see a bunch of sleepdust aliens fight against a bunch of sci-fi writers on a deadline, eh?
Yes! Thank you, Emma. You put your finger on what bothered me about this episode. It did come off as experimental for the sake of it, and not really embracing the experiment. Like saying you’re going to write 100 word flash fiction, and then writing 150, 200, 500 words because 100’s too hard, but at least it’s still flash fiction. 🙂 And as I hinted at, and you clearly thought more deeply about, the characters had so much more potential that was never explored. I like the ideas you have for where this could have gone. It could have been an excellent Classic Who story–and Robert Holmes would have done a cracking good job of it (see the world building in stories like “Robots of Death” or “The Sun Makers”).
To continue the flash fiction analogy, I think Janet would have given this a mention, but “Not quite a story…” 🙂
Haha, I have to admit — this story definitely got my fanfic wheels spinning! Would love to take the Morpheus concept for a spin myself, I’ve spent many a night wishing I didn’t have to sleep so I could write for longer.
It sounds like it. You could probably run with it and no-one would even recognize from whence the inspiration came. And when it becomes a bestseller and blockbuster movie, Mark Gatiss can just look on and regret an opportunity not taken. 😉