Nowhere To Hide

I think after a rather slow start Doctor Who has really picked up. After last week’s Cold War, this week’s Hide has upped the ante further and taken both elements of the shows past and yet moved away from the predictable “monster-of-the-week” format. At least I did manage to see it which was looking dubious earlier in the week.

It was somewhat stormy on Tuesday, so much so that the roof blew off the mid-section of our house leaving debris down the street and squashing the TV aerials in the process leaving them looking like paper-clips left in the hands of a destructive three-year-old. Fortunately, our neighbours now have cable TV so I didn’t have to worry too much about their entertainment troubles (although they moved their cars very quickly to prevent bits of broken roofing falling on them). However, I checked our TV and the picture was a complete blank – in this digital age there isn’t even the satisfaction of some static to stare at.

We also have a second aerial on the chimney on the Victorian section of the house. This had also blown down but in a turn of luck it has fallen over pointing directly at Black Hill transmitter. I tried the PVR and it worked perfectly so I’m just left with the roofers and (somewhat lackadaisical) insurance company to deal with. After all, literally loosing the roof over one’s head is bad enough – missing Doctor Who would be disastrous.

Hide was the second script from Neil Cross after the rather disappointing The Rings of Akhaten and it certainly made up for that with an episode oddly reminiscent of the John Pertwee stories. In fact it even gave a mention to the planet Metebelis Three although I seem to recall that it was pronounced Meta-beelis rather than Metab-balis. Have I misremembered it via John Culshaw’s Dead Ringers? I haven’t seen Planet of the Spiders since 1974 (summer holiday repeat) – it’s on the LoveFilm list so I’ll have to check. Anyway, it appeared that the story was a straight ghost story but managing to explain the whole thing with a plausible sounding bit of pseudo-science is a touch of genius.

I was impressed again with the quality of guest actors - Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine were top draw as the supernatural investigators with an eye on each other as well as the spooks. Matt and Jenna were also on top form but does the Doctor really see her as a friend or a scientific specimen? I’m assuming that we will find out later in the series. The final episode of the series has been announced as “The Name Of The Doctor” but I don’t imaging that we will find out – Alex Kingston is also named in that episode so I expect we will see her story go full circle, preceding the events of Silence in the Library.

Next week sees the Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS so are we to see a hat trick of great episodes? Hopefully I will be watching it with decent reception and a sound roof.