The Haunting of Villa Diodati

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...

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

It's all a little creepy at the start, quite atmospheric, electric and dark; in an isolated villa, they're about to draft a thriller, cadaver born again from a large spark. There's disinteresting chat from Lord Byron, our Time Lord thinks he's dull and a moron, there are rooms and walls that move, apparitions disapprove, and a wandering hand from a skeleton. Then a rusty bucket suddenly appears, only one side of his face can produce tears, he's angry and he's glum, someone's nicked Cyberium, and he reckons Percy Shelley has the gear.

It's very hard to distinguish what's gone wrong with doctor who lately, from the writing, acting, or character development. However, all this frigidness becomes clearer and clearer in the fact that it's down to the identity of the show.

Tonight's episode shown something which we are all much familiar with in the last 15 years of Doctor Who. A simple yet unique plot where people can be engrossed because they can relate to the show once again. This episode ended up being far more than what people had expected, and came to be in the much larger arc of the season itself which certainly was a pleasure.

The episode finally got the balance right between diverging storylines - something which became increasingly problematic throughout the writing this year, notably in 'Can You Hear Me?' Nothing felt confusing or rushed, and everything had a meaning to the core of the episode, rather than a political message that's trying to be forced in

Could this episode be better? Yes... but I honestly cannot complain. It certainly was the best episode of the Chibnall era so far and gives us optimistic hope that the finale will be a T Davies'esque epic which fans like myself have been longing for a decade now.

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.