The Haunting of Villa Diodati

I know a lot of these episodes get bombed with low scores before the episode is even out but no way this is a 7.1. By far Jodies best epsiode and the only few times she has felt like the Doctor.

A good story as well and in what should of been an over stuffed episode actually moved smoothly

This series may have had about 5 "love and monsters" but this episode was actually alright - but let's be clear - it still wasn't absolutely brilliant.

But let's look on the bright side while we can. The first half was sort of creepy and reminded me a bit of 'The God Complex' going all the way back to series 6. But not fears, 'ghosts'.

And then we have the finale build up for the next half of the episode which I won't bother spoiling for you.

It definitely isn't my favourite story arc, but at least there is one, and at least I'm kind of half looking forward to the finale despite the amount of terrible episodes throughout this series.

My highest rating since Twice upon a Time: 7/10.

The Doctor and her irritating tag-alongs materialise in Villa Diodati in 1816, on the evening famous for inspiring Mary Shelly to write Frankenstein. Needless to say, something is amiss - strange events begin to occur and people slowly realise that they are trapped in an ostensibly haunted house. The episode is nicely filmed and does very well in establishing a sense of claustrophobic dread. Also needless to say, the supernatural trappings are eventually established to be alien-tech in origin (although the 'why and how' details are a bit vague), as a representative of a long-established Whovian enemy appears, linking the episode to the portentous utterances of Ep. 12.5 ('Fugitive of the Judoon'). The episode eschews the simple-minded preachiness that has muddled earlier stores and the cast playing the Regency era celebrities (the Shellys, Lord Byron, Polidori, Claimont) are very good (maybe too good - as other's have opined, the guest cast outshines the stars). 'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' ends abruptly and really can't be judged as a standalone story, but as the opening to a 2 or 3 part story arc, it is quite good. We can only hope...

This episode had me gripped from the very first minute. Entertaining from beginning to end, a perfect way to lead into the epic finale.

This was an interesting episode, which reminded me of the early series and episodes written by Stephen Moffat (when Russel T Davis was at the helm.) The episode concentrated on storytelling, not lecturing to the audience. We are nearing the end of series 12, and it is now obvious where the weakest link is - the writing. This episode was not written by Chris Chibnal, which speaks volumes. Two decent episodes out of eight, is not a good basis for a successful series.