35.09 Sleep No More

[Anushka Mokosh]

I am most definitely not a fan of found footage format. It always annoys me with shaky camera and weird angles and sudden and manipulative changes of focus and jump-scares. I tend to avoid it like plague. Especially in a settings like these.

Thus, I wasn't very keen on this episode from the start. And I did't manage to be rid of that feeling for the rest of the episode. It simply isn't my cup of tea.

I like premise, the idea underneath the episode and I found it and the inclusion of the catchy popular song and Macbeth quotes quite riveting as well as some moments of the episode, but I couldn't get into the episode as a whole. it works so well for me in theory, but not so well in practice. The ending was fun if a bit expected, I'll give it that. The episode reminded me a bit of Blink, but Blink actually managed to scare me. Sleep No More just didn't.

 

[REBerg]

This season has really been great.

Wait. What's that? I think there's something in my eye.

Yikes! It's this episode! Oh, well. I'll get it out in the morning.

I don't want my vision impaired for “Face the Raven.”

 

[reiver33]

I agree with the above in that the format tended to detract from the storyline. Although 'Blink' is mentioned (which I consider to be the best episode in recent years), it did remind me of the other Weeping Angels story where watching one on camera was enough to trigger a progressive physical reaction.

Sand and stone, that's all I'm saying.

 

[REBerg]

I am most definitely not a fan of found footage format. It always annoys me with shaky camera and weird angles and sudden and manipulative changes of focus and jump-scares. I tend to avoid it like plague. Especially in a settings like these.

Thus, I wasn't very keen on this episode from the start. And I did't manage to be rid of that feeling for the rest of the episode. It simply isn't my cup of tea.

Found footage films have never appealed to me, either. I couldn't make it through The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield, although I did watch Europa Report in its entirety. The found footage in that movie was not the shaky, hand-held camera type and gave it more of a documentary feel.

The concept that accumulated eye "dust" could animate into killing, misshapen Michelin Tire Men snapped my willing suspension of disbelief. At least they didn't lurk in closets or under beds.

I've got to put this episode in the "clunker" column. Using my 7-year-old grandson as a episode gauge, he asked that "Blink" be turned off because he was getting scared, but he fell asleep during this one.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

@REBerg I made it through The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, but I couldn't make it through Paranormal Activity or any of its sequels.

I am glad I wasn't the only one to think about Michelin Tire Men. XD

I think I still feel a bit of paranoia whenever around statues, but this one really didn't do it for me.

 

[Droflet]

I found the style to be irritating and the story to be quite silly. I'm a fan but they're pushing their luck with this one. Maybe that's just me.

 

[AdamCollings]

I was keen to see what Doctor Who could do with the found footage format. I loved Cloverfield (my introduction to the concept).
Unfortunately it didn't work for me. The sentient walking mounds of "sleep" would surely have to be the most ridiculous monster in the last 50 years of Doctor Who.

Also, maybe I was just too tired, but I didn't follow the plot. I really didn't get the ending. The episode stopped and I shook my head thinking "what the heck did I just watch?"
The first disappointment in what has been quite an enjoyable series for me so far.

 

[Idoru]

I actually really liked it and thought it the best episode I'd seen in a long time, but I'd drunk quite a lot of fizzy wine by that point so it's entirely possible my faculties were somewhat affected.

 

[REBerg]

I actually really liked it and thought it the best episode I'd seen in a long time, but I'd drunk quite a lot of fizzy wine by that point so it's entirely possible my faculties were somewhat affected.

Maybe that's the trick! I'll have to try rewatching it with a big bottle of Belgian ale to enhance the experience.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

Maybe that's the trick! I'll have to try rewatching it with a big bottle of Belgian ale to enhance the experience.

I think that with a bottle big enough, even Season 8 would seem superb.

 

[REBerg]

I think that with a bottle big enough, even Season 8 would seem superb.

Could be a perfect pairing -- slightly unfocused eyes and an unfocused season.

 

[Vince W]

What a mess. Struggled to make it to the end of the episode and in the end I just didn't care. Completely forgettable.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

Could be a perfect pairing -- slightly unfocused eyes and an unfocused season.

I should try it. Perhaps play a drinking game while at it. Drink each time Clara annoys you. Drink twice if it had to do with Danny Pink. Drink thrice if it is Danny being anti-army officers for no damn reason. I'd probably end up with alcohol poisoning midway season. XD

 

[Perpetual Man]

Although not the worst episode of the show in recent years it was probably the weakest of the season so far.

I think I'll offer a little bit of praise to the creative team for trying to do something a little different even if the found footage did not really work. I liked the idea of there being no credits, first time in the shows history apparently.

I like the idea of seeing the show from another perspective, rather than just the Doctor and Clara, but the found footage just did not work. I liked the design of the monsters - the wide, maw like mouth was excellent and scary, but what they were was a let down and as already mentioned the end was a bit of a what? moment.

I was waiting for a to be continued... and got a well that's it instead.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

Although not the worst episode of the show in recent years it was probably the weakest of the season so far.

I think I'll offer a little bit of praise to the creative team for trying to do something a little different even if the found footage did not really work. I liked the idea of there being no credits, first time in the shows history apparently.

I like the idea of seeing the show from another perspective, rather than just the Doctor and Clara, but the found footage just did not work. I liked the design of the monsters - the wide, maw like mouth was excellent and scary, but what they were was a let down and as already mentioned the end was a bit of a what? moment.

I was waiting for a to be continued... and got a well that's it instead.

In regards to ending, I think it was meant to be a set up for a latter continuation in the way Blink was a set up for Angels in New York. Blink's ending was that it showed all the statues around making a sort of bizarre implication that any of them could move at any given moment. The difference being that it really worked in Blink while not so much here.

 

[Dave]

Glad that the Geordie accent survives until at least the 38th Century.

 

[Perpetual Man]

In regards to ending, I think it was meant to be a set up for a latter continuation in the way Blink was a set up for Angels in New York. Blink's ending was that it showed all the statues around making a sort of bizarre implication that any of them could move at any given moment. The difference being that it really worked in Blink while not so much here.

Agreed

 

[Serendipity]

In regards to ending, I think it was meant to be a set up for a latter continuation in the way Blink was a set up for Angels in New York. Blink's ending was that it showed all the statues around making a sort of bizarre implication that any of them could move at any given moment. The difference being that it really worked in Blink while not so much here.

C.A.T. here... Me upset... Meow!

Neptune's my hunting ground, and this Doctor person and his assistant seem to have had an adventure there... on my playground!

But Anushka's suggestion has me really worried... the implications could lead to ideas that's been in one of my stories... who's been reading my stories amongst the Doctor Who writers? I wants to knowz whoz? And I wantz to knowz nowz?

But hey - if they can get a Skylon space plane into a Doctor Who story - thatz wouldz be GREATS!

Me off to cause mayhem and chaos like any decent self-respecting robo-cat.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

@Serendipity If they are ripping off anyone, they are ripping off themselves. Blink is written all over this episode. OTL

 

[Serendipity]

@Serendipity If they are ripping off anyone, they are ripping off themselves. Blink is written all over this episode. OTL

Anushka - you're not going to believe this - but I never saw Blink, so therefore cannot comment on how closely Sleep No More aligns to it.

Sleep No More had a very interesting ending, which if they go in the direction that they have left it open to go in (sometimes english can be clumsy), then it can pick up on the ideas in one of the published C.A.T. stories. This could align to a certain extent with the 'nastiness' of the weeping angels, but bring the theme into more modern times. It's a possibility, that's all. As far as I know (and remember I've missed seeing an awful lot of Dr Who episodes since Tom Baker's day) this theme has has not been played out in Dr Who.

But I do have one criticism of Sleep No More - the anti-grav devices - why go to all that trouble when there are easier engineering mechanisms to get what they needed? Sorry, that's the engineer in me coming out...