Sleep No More

Actorly reference... now I want to see Peter Capaldi do Macbeth.

A found footage episode of a scary show is such a gimme idea I’m amazed it took this long - we had a bit in The Last Day for the anniversary, and missed it with Love And Monsters and the unmade Century House. And like many in the genre, it has to explain why the participants don’t just drop the cameras.

The Sandmen - “I do the naming!” - are a nicely horrible design, all bumpy and mouth as big as a Nazgul’s hood. And with Morpheus a rather large shoutout to Neil Gaiman. The Sleep Machine also appears in, among other places, Judge Dredd. Bethany Black’s character 474 as a Grunt, a genetically engineered soldier complete with distinguishing markings as in Rogue Trooper. And Rasmussen’s jacket is rather Babylon 5.

The computer reprogrammed at a party really needed to be a recurring gag, I think.

And then a villainous victory for the somewhat The Seeds Of Doom style Rasmussen. Making the episode itself the monster. Except it isn’t a victory because the Doctor, Clara and Nagata get away and will presumably stop it. So maybe Rasmussen made it exciting with “a proper climax with the big one at the end” so he could stop it from within? Hmm, anyway, an unreliable narrator in found footage is not uncommon either.