Well...that was something.
Whatever you thought of the episode, I doubt anyone can deny that Listen was kinda big. There's a lot to talk about and a lot to get into. So...well, let's just talk about it!
Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Samuel Anderson are the definition of perfection, everything about each of their performances is stunning. The episode is one of the best directed I've ever seen, with a total emphasis on less is more which makes it genuinely scary. The scene with the bed sheets was terrifying, even my mum (a fan of horror) admitted she was scared. But it's not just the image of a thing in your bed that's scary, it's much more than that. It's the sort of thing that keeps you up at night - what if the house settling is something else? What if there's no such thing as talking to yourself? What if you're never alone?
But there's more to it. This isn't just a scary story about a monster under the bed. This is the deepest character study of the Doctor I think we've ever seen. The episode is fueled by him - his fear, what he's scared of. He's scared of not knowing, and this fear fuels his curiosity. He just has to know. And he gets obsessed with this idea - there MUST be something out there! Surely the noises of the hull settling and bad dreams and talking to yourself must mean something?
But what if they don't?
This episode is the perfect kind of open-ended. There can be as much of a monster as you want there to be. The Doctor can be as paranoid as you want him to be. What did he see when he opened the airlock? Did he see a creature, a dark and scary image, or did he see nothing? Because for him, both would be equally terrifying. What about under the sheet? Was it just a kid playing a prank, or was it actually a deadly creature?
The script is so well written and tightly crafted that even though it leaves room for these open-ended questions, everything still makes perfect sense. If you didn't understand something you probably just missed it, because there was an explination. Every plot-hole or error I've seen has been explained with a simple rewind, if not later on in the episode. From a script level - for the first time in a while - this is flawless.
But I cant avoid talking about the ending. How could I? It's divided the fandom completely, some love it, others don't. Me? Well, I've always thought that the less we see of the Doctors childhood the better. However, I have nothing wrong with getting a little glimpse for the purpose of the story AND in order to explain a motive and explore a deep emotion of the character. And that's exactly what this scene does.
I bet the nightmare of a hand grabbing you from under the bed wasn't even that common. I bet the Doctor just made the evidence fit because he wanted to believe it. He wanted to believe that his own childhood nightmare was real. It's probably been so long for him that he doesn't even remember if it was a dream.
Some people are complaining that Clara is too important in the Doctor's life. I disagree. It's Moffat's show, he can make his characters as important as he wants them to be. It's not up to us. And the basic fact is that when Clara said that fear is a constant companion to us all - I nearly cried. I did. My eyes were welling up. People complain that actual characters and emotions are being replaced by timey-wimey plots - I couldn't disagree more.
Some people are complaining that Moffat is reusing ideas and it's getting boring. But I don't care. Because Listen is amazing storytelling. It's emotional, in-depth, and it does exactly what sci-fi should. It uses time-travel, the end of the universe, and monsters under the bed to explore the deepest of emotions and delve deeper into the minds of these characters than ever before. It's a masterpiece of TV that will go down as one of my favourite episodes to date.
Moffat is back, babby. And I like it!
