**Spoilers** Series 8, Episode 4 - "Listen"

pixelburp

With a so-so start to the season, last weeks episode being the first story that I overtly enjoyed, this weeks comes with a trailer that genuinely intrigues me. The new series has always done pretty well when it tried to instill that creeping dread over things lurking in the corner of the room - and what could be worse than unknown beasties lying under your bed? :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N15qtDfix78

McLoughlin

This a damn good episode the only one I really liked from the leaked screener episodes that I watched so saturday I will be watching this.

The Master

GallifreyTimes Review

Ultimately, Listen will be an episode that is remembered until the very end of Doctor Who. The episode dives into subjects that will cause divides in opinions, but nevertheless, the episode will be in many people's Top 10 episodes of Doctor Who

I agree 100%

Das Kitty

Ye feckers.

You're raising my expectations.

Sonics2k

I'm being brutally honest here, this episode is a massive make or break for a lot of people.

I grew up watching Doctor Who, renting cassettes from local video places to watch old seasons and using my neighbours TV to record re-runs. I grew into the re-do with Eccleston, loved David Tennant and weeped when he left, wasn't fond of Smith but he quickly became my favourite Doctor by far. I also love Capaldi as an actor, but he hasn't caught me yet as the Doctor. He mumbles his words and the plots have been weak, I know new Doctors can be slow, but I truly and desperately want to love this new Doctor.

I've read the reviews and managed to avoid spoilers, and this episode is supposed to be fantastic. Gods I hope it really is.

WomanSkirtFan8

Sonics2k wrote: »

I'm being brutally honest here, this episode is a massive make or break for a lot of people.

I grew up watching Doctor Who, renting cassettes from local video places to watch old seasons and using my neighbours TV to record re-runs. I grew into the re-do with Eccleston, loved David Tennant and weeped when he left, wasn't fond of Smith but he quickly became my favourite Doctor by far. I also love Capaldi as an actor, but he hasn't caught me yet as the Doctor. He mumbles his words and the plots have been weak, I know new Doctors can be slow, but I truly and desperately want to love this new Doctor.

I've read the reviews and managed to avoid spoilers, and this episode is supposed to be fantastic. Gods I hope it really is.

never mind the reviews. Let's all wait until the episode airs tonight and then we can all judge for ourselves.

Excited

Gonna make some room behind the sofa...

Busi_Girl08

Did the Doctor just say "Dat's skills"?

Dad skills

Lord TSC

That was stunning.

The way it absolutely blindsided me with a Doctor Origin's story was just....


Stunning. The last 10 minutes was brilliant.

Un Croissant

Best episode so far.

Agent Coulson

Jenna is just so pretty.

Now to the episode that was mind blowingly good.

that was amazing and i was on edge nearly biting my nails


but we saw something behind them in the first little boy scene so whats the story with that

Lord TSC

bluewolf wrote: »

that was amazing and i was on edge nearly biting my nails


but we saw something behind them in the first little boy scene so whats the story with that

One of the other kids playing a prank probably. They explained what pretty much everything was in the episode (probably).

Tzar Chasm

That was a solid episode.

creeping dread is an artform

Asmodean

That war doctor flashback blindsided me. Absolutely brilliant.

Manach

I thought it interesting, provided back story and a strong performance from Clara and The Dr (that evil grin) ... but
I was expecting more horror elements. Having cats, I'd know already that homes are populated by evil demonic creatures, and turning one's back is not really a tactic in comparison with episodes featuring the "Empty Child" or the Stone Angels.

The_Valeyard

Very clever episode. Good suspense....

Reminded me a bit of 'midnight' , 'Family of blood'

The_Valeyard

Very clever episode. Good suspense....

Reminded me a bit of 'midnight' , 'Family of blood'

aunt aggie

Great episode! I thought it was going to just be one for the kiddies at the start but bit of a emotional roller coaster with lots of awkward first date moments

Question, is the barn on gallifrey? i always thought no but now im questioning that... I has also assumed that everything timelord related was time locked with the rest of the war but tonight's episode opens up opportunities for a timelord centric episode set before the war

Stark

Good episode. Clever twist. Although Clara managed to drag the absolute arse out of the twist at the end.

scream

Nice episode, but I'm not a fan of this 'picking her up and dropping her off sh!t'. What's wrong with a bit of commitment for god's sake? I grew up with Tom Baker and his successors, and they had the decency to stick with him, not just go along for the ride then go back to the day job. Sorry, but it bugs me.

Tsk... kids these days!

Wibbs

Now that was a good un.

Lord TSC

scream wrote: »

Nice episode, but I'm not a fan of this 'picking her up and dropping her off sh!t'. What's wrong with a bit of commitment for god's sake? I grew up with Tom Baker and his successors, and they had the decency to stick with him, not just go along for the ride then go back to the day job. Sorry, but it bugs me.

Tsk... kids these days!

I actually think it's more "realistic" (as much as it can be in a show about a time traveler). The idea that someone would just drop their lives and run off for months and not see family, friends or whatever just didn't work for me. Much prefer the notion that the Doctor is this figure who drops in and out of their lives, a figure who is not a normal person but someone who lets people tag along for the ride.

WomanSkirtFan8

aunt aggie wrote: »

Great episode! I thought it was going to just be one for the kiddies at the start but bit of a emotional roller coaster with lots of awkward first date moments

Question, is the barn on gallifrey?

i think so. Makes perfect sense when you consider the events of "Day of the doctor" when the doctor is there with "The Moment"

Un Croissant

I assume The Doctor doesn't have a set 'look' as such?

he was still wearing the jumper with the holes in it

i forgot to say i liked today's reference to him with dan the soldierman: he's so super he doesn't need a gun to save the world

SueBoom

Wow. One of the best Doctor Who episodes ever, in my opinion. Beautiful. Brought a tear to the eye at the end.

flazio

Excellent episode. Nice play on 'What is a Time Lord? ' Is it a race of people or an academic title?

scream

Lord TSC wrote: »

I actually think it's more "realistic" (as much as it can be in a show about a time traveler). The idea that someone would just drop their lives and run off for months and not see family, friends or whatever just didn't work for me. Much prefer the notion that the Doctor is this figure who drops in and out of their lives, a figure who is not a normal person but someone who lets people tag along for the ride.

I know what you mean, but it just seems so very ungrateful to me. Look at it this way, I moved to Ireland from England 7 years ago and mainly stay in touch with my family through infrequent phone calls, more frequent texts and the odd(once a year mostly) visit. Would it kill little miss companion to do the same? She has her time-spanning-mobile so can call(and presumably text) her family and friends whenever she wants, just as I can with my family. She could clearly drop in on them on the odd occasion too, just as I do. The only difference is, with a time machine, she has it soo much easier than I do. Anyone that's attempted to fly with Ryanair will know what I mean here.

I'm not seeing the issue with committing to a once in a lifetime opportunity with the doctor. She's young and should be grabbing her time-travelling experiences with both hands, not moaning about being dragged away from her date. She's young. There's plenty of time for that. The doctor's not going to be in her life forever. He never is.

At her age, I'd have grabbed him with both hands, hung on tight and not let go.

Angron

flazio wrote: »

Excellent episode. Nice play on 'What is a Time Lord? ' Is it a race of people or an academic title?

Strictly speaking, I think the people are called Gallifreyans, and Time Lord/Lady are like a class (or something to that effect) of that. Not everyone from Gallifrey was likely to be a Time Lord I'd think.

Wibbs

That was the vibe I had as a kid anyway. The time lords were a special cadre, with special training and such. Only they were allowed near tardises(tardi?:)). I seem to remember when Tom Baker's Doc went home there were other people living on the planet outside the lofty domes of the Time lords. Primitive types with bows and arrows and the like. Didn't Leela end up befriending them, cos they were more like her? Actually IIRC(and this is on childhood memory here) didn't she end up staying on Gallifrey with one of them?

Actually I always wondered was it only Time lords who could regenerate? That because they did the whole time travel thing that this affected them so they could live many lifetimes?

I always reckoned and wanted to see as a kid, that it would be cool to examine that backstory. To see the society and how it's made up, the different classes and possible frictions between them(especially if one class were immortal). Now they're gone/trapped in some null zone, that can't be done I suppose. TBH I was a bit miffed when the rejig had as a big part of the narrative that they were dead/gone/extinct. It was a missed story opportunity IMH. Plus again as a kid I did like how they'd interfere with our hero and piss him off to great effect. Pertwee and Baker especially always got "ah FFS lads, will ye leave me alone. You only call me when you're in the shít, otherwise I'm a bloody weirdo pariah with a clapped out car. OK so I did nick it, but it was in a scrappys at the time".

tritium

That was a really good episode. Not perfect, but the best this series so far by some distance. I think its going to take me a while to fully work out what I think of the different elements of it but the time lord stuff was very cool.

Like another poster I am wondering about the whole Gallifrey thing though. Even after gallifrey was hidden instead of timelocked surely this means the doctor can now find it just by checking where the tardis has been last.

Angron

According to this, yup. She stayed after falling in love and giving herself a near impossible name to pronounce.

Wibbs

Lord TSC wrote: »

I actually think it's more "realistic" (as much as it can be in a show about a time traveler). The idea that someone would just drop their lives and run off for months and not see family, friends or whatever just didn't work for me. Much prefer the notion that the Doctor is this figure who drops in and out of their lives, a figure who is not a normal person but someone who lets people tag along for the ride.

Well I reckon they got most previous companion types backstory and reasoning pretty OK. Sarah Jane had no family as such and was hanging around with UNIT so her going on jaunts was no big deal and seemed like she would drop everything and go. Until he dropped her. Leela left some primitive planet and wanted to see the universe and ended up staying with some bloke anyway. In the rejig Rose's gig was relatively realistic in that she was always traipsing back to her ma and keeping contact, yet needed to escape her council flat life. The Donna wan had left behind a marriage/wedding gone wrong and kept in regular contact with her grandad. Martha was looking for something more, but she too kept dropping home(all of this was handy for the budget too ) For me it was like they were "going away to college" for a few years. The latest Clara vibe is just another angle on all that. It's not new either, after all Rory and Amy had their own lives and he dropped in on them from time to time.

Plus maybe they're setting up the narrative that he feels guilty about Clara. She's helped him about the most of any of them in his entire life from (now) his early childhood up until his latest face and has seen all of those faces and now he feels she deserves a life of her own. Hence he "chose" the old face and no hugging so she'd stop thinking he was her boyfriend and live her own life. With a bit of help from him. He's weaning her off him kinda thing. That because he's always gonna be apart he can't ever get too attached and has learned from Rose and even Donna that if he does actually get attached, even fall for them he ruins their lives and this time he wants to leave them better, not abandoned. Not abandoned like Sarah Jane too. If so that could be an interesting avenue to explore from the storytelling point of view.

So can Clara fly the tardis now. Is that a new thing

Das Kitty

I really enjoyed that! There's no way the four year old is getting to watch it though.

Dad skills. Brilliant.

Wibbs wrote: »

I always reckoned and wanted to see as a kid, that it would be cool to examine that backstory. To see the society and how it's made up, the different classes and possible frictions between them(especially if one class were immortal). Now they're gone/trapped in some null zone, that can't be done I suppose.

Read Lungbarrow for this sort of jazz.

And it has a lot about Leela's life on Gallifrey. She hung on to K-9 in that book.

tommy2bad

bluewolf wrote: »

So can Clara fly the tardis now. Is that a new thing

And by mind control! I wonder if it wasn't Clara being 'the impossible girl' that let them return to Gallifrey. It wasn't the doctor flying the tardis it was more like the tardis going into Clara's time line.

I enjoyed this episode, it raises as many questions as it answers but like a lot of Mofat's writing it ends up too clever for it's own good. Still it's a classic episode and only 4 into Capaldi's run, bodes well for the rest.

FloatingVoter

I thought initially that that might have been a young Master crying in the bed.

Das Kitty

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I thought initially that that might have been a young Master crying in the bed.

I was thinking similar, as I don't know if there's ever been anything about the Doctor's early desire to join the army. Perhaps I'm mistaken on that.

I suppose it's a good way to get away from somewhere.

EDIT - Actually, I totally misheard. It was that he'd have to join the army because there was no way "that boy" was going to the Academy.

Wibbs

Das Kitty wrote: »

I was thinking similar, as I don't know if there's ever been anything about the Doctor's early desire to join the army. Perhaps I'm mistaken on that.

Maybe that's what they're writing up, why he has the whole "army with guns. Not sure about them at all". A rejection of that first childhood thing?

Frank Lee Midere

Far from the companions being picked up occasionally not annoying me it makes total sense. He's got a time machine. You can piss off one night with him for 2 years and go to work the next day. In fact you could take a coffee break and do that, and come back looking older but wiser a mere 5 minutes later.

( Other people might skip the machine of course. If you did that too often).

Mycroft H

Did the cloister bell sound as the doctor was badly injured or that he'd inadvertently crossed his own timeline? Potentially meeting the younger version of himself. Potentially catastrophic, as he'd early explained to clara.

Mycroft H

and ranks up there with Midnight and the Satan Pit. Top, top quality episode. Capaldi perhaps subsuming the role of Tennant as my favourite.

Mr Bloat

Brilliant episode, one that will need to be rewatched carefully a couple of times, I have a feeling the 'listen' theme might have extended to the viewers listening carefully to background sounds in the episode, such as the cloister bell mentioned above (which didn't start ringing until Clara mentally made the decision to pilot the TARDIS herself, so it wasn't ringing because The Doctor was injured).

When Clara went back to the restaurant, Danny had his head on the table. When he lifted his head, was there a clicking and whirring sound like the clockwork people of the restaurant in episode one of this season made?

Why did we hear a glass break the moment Clara called Danny 'Rupert' in the restaurant?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Well that was the episode we were waiting for... Capaldi really came into his own for me in this episode...

Just a great episode overall.

Doctor DooM

bluewolf wrote: »

So can Clara fly the tardis now. Is that a new thing

Very technically she can steer the tardis towards a point on her time line but I don't think she knows where it's heading from her reaction to maybe gallifrey.


I don't know why but in all my years of watching I've never been as touched by an episode of who. I think in my head the message became "he became the doctor because he was a child scared of monsters, and as long as there are children scared by monsters, there will be a doctor to help them".

these lads did a list and all

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-09-13/doctor-who-is-the-monster-in-listen-real

Basq

Good God, that was superb!

I don't know anyone can criticize Moffat when he writes episodes as good as that.

The moment with Clara grabbing the Doctor's leg was just sheer brilliance!

Capaldi has been excellent this year, but Jenna Louise Coleman continues to just go from strength to strength!

spektorfive

Thought it was great one, just confused by one thing. They said everything ends in 100 years? Have I picked this up wrong, it really doesn't seem that far away (In time travel sense.)

Angron

spektorfive wrote: »

Thought it was great one, just confused by one thing. They said everything ends in 100 years? Have I picked this up wrong, it really doesn't seem that far away (In time travel sense.)

100 trillion. In one of the previous stories, Utopia, they travelled to the year 100 trillion where everything was ending. I don't think they said 100 years anyway.