Wild Blue Yonder: Returning Horror to Doctor Who

**Warning: there will be spoilers in this review. Namely because it’s kind of impossible to talk about why this episode is so good without them. If you want to watch it blind – which I’d HIGHLY recommend you do – then click off this article and come back later. If not, then take my hand as we march off into the Wild Blue Yonder!***

One of my favorite aspects of Doctor Who has always been its insane variety. One episode, you’re watching a cheesy battle in space with potato-headed aliens. The next, you’re wandering the streets of ancient Rome the day before Volcano Day. From sci-fi adventure to drama, this show did it all.

But let’s be honest. It did horror better than any of the others. For a goofy kids show about a time traveling genius, this show could get pretty damn scary! It’s most beloved episode, ‘Blink’, is far and away one of its most frightening! Then you’ve got episodes like ‘Midnight’, ‘The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit’, and ‘The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.’ I have been traumatized several times by this series growing up!

Unfortunately, as time went on and the series progressed, fewer and fewer episodes provided that terror. The ones that did failed to traumatize anyone. In fact, the effort was honestly a bit embarrassing. ‘Arachnids in the UK’ and ‘Orphan 55’, for example. I was starved for a good scare!

Imagine my surprise and delight, then, when ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ resurrected that terror. How? One word: surrealism.

The episode begins not with a scare, but a joke. While flying uncontrollably through time and space, the Doctor and Donna end up in the branches of a certain English apple tree, right above Isaac Newton himself. The pair crack a few jokes, then off they fly. Inspired by the time travelers, the historical genius gives word to his new theory: mavity.

*By the by, this isn’t a one-off gag. From that point forward in the story, whenever someone uses the word gravity, they replace it with mavity. A tiny detail, but a hilarious one.

Cut to the intro sequence, then the episode proper begins. The TARDIS crashes inside a space ship, blaring ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ from the speakers that it apparently has. After assessing the damages, the Doctor sets the ship to repair itself using the Sonic Screwdriver. But a question rises between the Time Lord and his companion: why did the TARDIS play them a war song?

With the TARDIS on the mend, the pair head off to explore their surroundings. And this is where the episode really starts to flex those Disney bucks. Holy shit, this space ship looks incredible! The mix of practical and CG effects as shown in this behind the scenes video come together beautifully to give us one of the most gorgeous ship designs in Doctor Who history! And it’s just a really long hallway!

But something is off. There’s a strange unresponsive figure in the distance, and a mysterious something observes our duo from within the walls. Unaware of the danger, the Doctor and Donna start to crack wise and laugh as they always do.

Until the TARDIS takes off on its own and leaves them behind, taking the Sonic with it.

This, naturally, causes tensions between the pair to skyrocket. The Doctor is shocked and upset, so he lashes out at Donna for damaging the console. Donna, in turn, snaps at the Doctor for wandering off, then begins to panic, suddenly terrified by the ship they’re now trapped in. The two make up, then start to look for a way out. It’s a very natural scene that highlights how good the relationship between these characters is. A relationship which stands at the heart of this story’s horror.

One hope remains: the HADS, ‘Hostile Action Displacement System’. Basically, if the TARDIS deems the current environment too dangerous, it runs away. Normally, the Doctor has it turned off, because of course he does, but it might have reactivated during repairs. Meaning that something on this ship is dangerous enough to have scared off our beloved blue box. If they want to get home, the Doctor and Donna need to find out what it is and eliminate it. Only then will the TARDIS return.

But that raises a chilling question: what could be dangerous enough to scare the TARDIS?

Now armed with hope and a purpose, the pair go back to their investigating. As they stroll down the hallway, Donna recounts her old choir teacher, Mrs. Bean, who argued that ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ was jolly, not a war song. To which the pair can only laugh at the fact that she was named Mrs. Bean. Even when stranded and alone, the two can’t help but make jokes.

And inadvertently set up something really important for this episode’s climax.

Then the mystery deepens. A speaker booms through the hallway, speaking in an alien language even the Doctor doesn’t understand: “Fenslaw.” Suddenly, the whole hallway shifts, almost like the ship is reconfiguring itself. Traveling further down with a hover car that is conveniently in the floor (which checks out, that hallway is long as hell), they discover the aforementioned mysterious figure: a robot, dubbed by Donna as ‘Jimbo’, walking in the opposite direction. One step at a time. Extremely. Slowly. This ship gets stranger and stranger by the minute.

*By the by, Jimbo is awesome. His design is great and his model is even better. According to the behind the scenes video I linked to earlier, they essentially made him the world’s largest stop-motion model in order to make him move. It’s really cool!

Leaving Jimbo to his marathon, the Doctor and Donna continue on to the end of the hallway. There, they find the flight deck, translate some numbers, and discover at last where they are: the edge of the universe. So far out into space that even starlight hasn’t reached them yet. Curiously, the ship’s records show that an airlock was opened three years ago, then closed. All the while, something watches the pair, drawing closer.

This section has got some jaw-dropping visuals. The Doctor releases a drone, and we get a good look at the ship from the outside. The sole source of light in an endless black void. This is what I love about sci-fi horror; the quiet, the cold, and the loneliness all create an oppressive atmosphere that lends itself incredibly well to building tension and creating fear!

Especially when that silence is broken with a bang. Another word booms through the hall: “Coliss.” Again, the hallway shifts, and Jimbo takes a single step forward. Spurred on by the mystery, the pair find two rooms key to the ship’s control. After a few jokes, they set to work reconfiguring the ship, aiming to boot it from idle mode to full power. They divide forces. Donna stays in one room to fulfill a task while the Doctor heads to the opposite to do another.

Now, you may have noticed that this all seems pretty slow. Which it is. See, this episode has the pacing of a rollercoaster. The first third is the gradual rise. The second is the first few drops and turns. Then when you get to the third, everything goes absolutely ballistic. Some may find it potentially boring in the beginning, but I found it gripping from start to end!

Especially when this next bit happens.

*By the by, the music in these following scenes is incredible. Murray Gold is cooking up more magic yet again!

Donna feels a strange chill, and the Doctor returns. As she keeps working, the Doctor just sits there, and the two have a heart to heart regarding Donna’s family. Rose, Shaun, Wilf, Donna’s mind is only on home. It’s a sweet scene.

Cut to the other room. The Doctor is busy at his task, and in walks Donna right as it suddenly gets cold. As he works, the Doctor contemplates what might have happened to the TARDIS. He wonders if it might become a symbol of divinity for some ancient tribe, standing solitarily through the rise and fall of an entire civilization. Donna asks if he misses home, and the Doctor in typical fashion brushes it aside and carries on.

The more astute among you may have noticed something.

Back to Donna. She carries on the conversation, but the Doctor absentmindedly remarks something strange: “My arms are too long.” Donna brushes it off, going on about having missed dinner, and the Doctor replies: “Oh, we get hungry, don’t we?”

Back to the Doctor’s room, and our favorite Time Lord has noticed that something is wrong. He asks Donna if she completed her task, to which she only drones, “My arms are too long.” Then again. The Doctor turns to her, now concerned, growing alert. Donna raises her arm…

…which is as long as her entire body.

Panicked, the Doctor tries to calm her down, then realizes he isn’t speaking to Donna. He shouts for her, and the real Donna looks down at her Doctor, baffled and terrified as his arms suddenly grow to cartoonish sizes. Our heroes rush to each other’s sides, and the disproportionate monsters pursue.

Meet our villains for the episode: the Not-Things. Creatures from the edge of the universe, with no concept of mass, size, shape, or even physical reality. They mimic not only the appearance of our heroes, but also their memories, thoughts, hopes, and fears. Fears which they now wield like weapons against the real Doctor and Donna.

These monsters are so damn weird and creepy and interesting! Seeing the Doctor and Donna’s bodies distort and grow and shrink in uncanny ways is just as unsettling as it is surreal! Using a mixture of oversized prosthetics and CGI, the VFX team managed to take the uncanny valley effect and weaponize it against the audience. Watching this episode feels like one long nightmarish fever dream!

So begins the conflict. The Doctor and Donna, pursued by fake duplicates of themselves. All the while, Jimbo walks slowly towards something. There are several scenes where the pair end up separated and meet back up, then have to grill each other to try and find out if they’re talking to an evil duplicate or the real thing. Half the time, even you the viewer don’t know which one is which!

Oh my god, this whole episode is just Doctor Who Among Us!!!

This premise is used to brilliant effect. The Not-Things play mind games with the Doctor and Donna, preying on their fears, messing with their minds, growing more and more convincing with every scene. The entire episode is just David Tennant and Catherine Tate flexing their acting muscles and it’s amazing!

Aside from, that is, the very last scene. A beloved character of old makes his return. It’s a sweet scene that had my brother and I cheering for joy… followed immediately by an intense action-packed cliffhanger. Part 3 of the 60th is set to be one helluva show!

Now, we need to talk about something I never wanted to talk about again: the Chris Chibnall era. See, this episode confirms that the show going forward isn’t gonna pretend none of that ever happened. The Flux and the Timeless Child storylines are sticking around.

Hooray.

As much as I despise those storylines and the damage they did to Doctor Who, I will admit this episode did a great job of making them sound a lot cooler and more important than they actually were. The Doctor is far more affected by them here then she ever was in the Thirteenth Doctor’s era! Hopefully Russell T. Davies will find a way to turn those turds into gold going forward.

Look. We can all agree ‘The Star Beast’ had issues. It was definitely ham-fisted with some of its messages. It’s still a huge improvement over what we got prior, but it wasn’t quite perfect.

Luckily, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is an improvement in every respect! Intriguing, frightening, and emotionally compelling, it is the best episode of Doctor Who we’ve gotten in a decade! It perfectly encapsulates everything I love about this series!

We’re two for two! Here’s hoping the 60th can stick the landing with part three!