Reaktion Round-up: What You Thought of Sleep No More

David Power is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

“It’s Christmas Day! I haven’t missed it!”, is what I’d say to myself If I hadn’t hibernated through Christmas right into 2016. Personally I think it’s better that I didn’t get the last few round-ups done before Christmas like I originally said, as this way it allows you to reminisce about Series 9 in a new nostalgic way, since it’s now the Who of yesteryear. In fact, yeah! That was definitely my plan this entire time! You’re welcome! Anyway, Sleep No More:

Best of the best 4.38%  (13 votes) 

Scarily good 26.6%  (79 votes) 

Terrifyingly average 31.99%  (95 votes) 

Rubbish 20.2%  (60 votes) 

I wish that found footage had never been found 16.83%  (50 votes)

Well this episode was one of the most divisive I’ve seen in a very long time. Going onto Twitter right after this aired unleashed a sea of either passionate adoration or disgust, depending where you looked.

Personally I liked the episode, I thought it could’ve been a little more polished, but it was simply refreshing to see a 52 year old show still able to experiment even after all this time. I was always fond of stories where the Doctor and Co. just stumble into the middle of a story that’s already in progress without them. It felt more realistic somehow, that given the TARDIS’ history the Doctor wouldn’t even show up at the start of the story, like most protagonists are supposed to.

Sleep No More was rough around the edges. The space between the revelation that the helmets don’t have head-cams, and the Doctor remembering that fact, seemed far too long. It creates an unusual period when the audience is waiting for the Doctor to catch up with them. The ending also happens chaotically, with important dialogue hard to hear over the sound of explosions. That being said, there was still a lot to be enjoyed here, Reece Shearsmith’s  Rassmussen was a fascinating villain, which also contributed to a very rare type of Doctor Who ending where the villain wins. Also, that comment on putting “space” before everything? Gold.

Ratings took a hit this week. The overnights fell from 4.13m to 4.00m, and the overalls also fell from 6.03m for The Zygon Inversion to 5.61m for Sleep No More, making it the lowest overalls of any episode of Who since it came back in 2005. This unfortunate fact was accompanied by the Appreciation Index score decreasing from Inversion‘s 84 to 78, the lowest since 2006’s Love & Monsters, which got a 76.

So, what did all of you think?

Next up, we’ve got single parter Face the Raven by new writer Sarah Dollard. It’ll probably be some entertaining filler until we get to the finale. Anyway, till the next time!

 

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