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| The Doctor finds herself in another universe. |
THE PLOT:
The TARDIS materializes in present-day Norway. The Doctor is drawn to a nearby house that, despite the cold of winter, has no smoke coming from its chimney. She and her companions discover the house boarded up, as if to defend against a siege. Making their way inside, they find a single occupant: Hanne (Ellie Wallwork), a blind teenager. She tells them that her father was defending the house against a creature, but that it "got in and took him... It takes you away!"
Exploring the house, Graham discovers a mirror that shows no reflection and finds himself drawn to it. The Doctor stops him, identifying it as a portal and using her sonic screwdriver to jam it open. Leaving Ryan to look after Hanne, the Doctor, Graham, and Yaz step through to search for any sign of the girl's missing father - alive or dead!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor is more open and optimistic than recent incarnations, but she is still a pragmatist at her core. Before stepping through the portal, she leaves Ryan with some private instructions for looking after Hanne: "Assume her dad is dead. Keep her safe. Find out who else can take care of her." On the other side of the mirror, in a hostile "anti-zone," she brandishes her screwdriver as a weapon to threaten an alien scavenger named Ribbons (Kevin Eldon) into helping them pass through; the interactions between the Doctor and Ribbons are wonderful, two predators taking the other's measure, each searching for any advantage over the other. At one point, the Doctor confesses to Yaz that she is genuinely scared - and does so with a grin on her face, as if enjoying the novelty and exhileration of her own fear.
Graham: It's appropriate that the mirror draws Graham to it. Like Hanne's father, Graham has suffered a recent loss. He's still in mourning for Grace, and trying to run from his grief with the Doctor hasn't made it go away. "I'm lost," he confesses at one point - and he comes very close to being truly lost. His concern when Ryan is in danger brings him back to himself, but the closing scenes see him appropriately subdued and haunted.
Ryan: His abandonment by his own father has left him with severe trust issues. We've seen some (not enough) of this in his resistance to fully connecting with Graham. We see another side of that here. When Hanne explains that her father was defending the house from monsters, none of the others doubt that story - Not in the face of barricades and bear traps. Ryan's first thought, even after all he has seen? "Her dad's done a runner and she's making this monster stuff up." He does have a good heart, however, and when Hanne runs off through the portal in an ill-advised attempt to find her father by herself, he doesn't hesitate to put himself at risk to follow her.
Yaz: Her police training is helpful in calming Hanne. As she explains to Ryan, she's been trained when dealing with traumatized children to "reinforce whatever it is that makes them feel safe." When the Doctor announces that she's going through the mysterious portal, Yaz is the first to volunteer to go with her. Those notes aside, she is the "background regular" of the week, mainly there so the Doctor has someone to deliver exposition to in the second half.
THOUGHTS
"Uh... Why is there a frog in here?"
It should be clear enough by now that, a couple of episodes notwithstanding, I have genuinely enjoyed Series 11. That said, with the exception of the historically-based Rosa and Demons of the Punjab, I have had one complaint. The season's sci-fi offerings have been very standard Doctor Who: very ordinary, very middle-of-the-road, very safe.
It Takes You Away is anything but safe.
The story bounces from genre to genre like a kid's rubber ball bouncing off a wall. It starts out as a base-under-siege monster story. Then it turns into a dark fantasy in a deadly "anti-zone" that separates two universes. Then it becomes a meditation on grief and the difficulty of letting go. None of these bits should be at all compatible. Writer Ed Hime's script dances between the disparate tones and styles with dazzling flourish, aided by Jamie Childs' confident direction. It's all utterly mad... And yet it all feels unified, and comes together to form a satisfying whole.
Though I enjoyed all three sections, my favorite part of the episode was the trip through the anti-zone with Ribbons. Kevin Eldon creates a memorable adversary. Ribbons isn't particularly smart, but he is cagey in the way a predator has to be. From the moment he sees the Doctor and her friends, he is trying to trick them, to get the advantage over them. He is fiercely protective of what's his, pulling a knife on Graham when the older man simply approaches his lantern to get a closer look.
The entire anti-zone segment is reminiscent of the fantasy movies of the mid-1980s, films such as Labyrinth and Legend. Ribbons' red lantern is the only light source, meaning that everything is bathed in a threatening hue. "Flesh moths" wait in the shadows, ready in Ribbon's words to "strip the meat off your bones." The entire corridor is an ominous cave, stretching out for an undetermined distance, twisting and turning like a maze.
And after all the ominous build-up and horror? We get a thoughtful meditation on grief, loss, and loneliness, all of it ending with a conversation between the Doctor and a talking frog (that isn't a frog). As I said, mad. And yet strangely wonderful. In a season where many episodes, even as I've enjoyed them, have felt as if they could have been made for any Doctor, for Generic Doctor, this episode feels oddly specific to Jodie Whittaker's Doctor.
If pressed, I still like Rosa and Demons better - But this is easily my third-favorite episode of the season, and unquestionably the most unique of Season 11's offerings.
Rating: 9/10.
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