Doctor Who: Can You Hear Me? (2020) - Review

What are you afraid of? And afraid to talk about? What everyday things seep into your nightmares? Charlene James' 'Can You Hear Me?' sets out to discuss these questions in an eerie, emotional eighth episode to Doctor Who's twelfth series, co-written by showrunner Chris Chibnall.

It's an episode with a tough balancing act, and I do think that 'Can You Hear Me?' suffers from the three-companion issue the series currently has, but it does manage to recover from this much better than previous episodes. Ryan (Tosin Cole), Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Graham (Bradley Walsh) all feel like fully-rounded characters here, each with their own stories to tell, each with their own friends, (real) lives and concerns. Ryan's afraid of not being there for his friends when they need him, especially his best friend Tibo (Buom Tihngang, reprising the character from 'Spyfall' Part One). Yaz is worried about leaving her sister Sonya (Bhavnisha Parmar) behind when she needs her most. And Graham is concerned that he doesn't have long left to live, especially now with Grace (Sharon D. Clarke) gone. It was great to see the characters face life outside of their travels in the TARDIS, and to take a moment to breathe in between adventures.

The episode also featured a very menacing turn from Ian Gelder as Zellin, who previously voiced the Remnants in 'The Ghost Monument' last series. Gelder was brilliant here, and his big exposition dump with Jodie Whittaker was a great scene, with small references to other immortal Doctor Who baddies that felt completely natural in context. Clare-Hope Ashitey didn't have quite the same presence as Rakaya though, and I don't think her wig and costume did the actress any favours in her performance. While Zellin was creepy in every scene, Rakaya looked like she'd come straight out of a fancy dress shop, and never quite managed to exude the same screen presence. The animated sequence was a nice touch, too.

Despite some odd camera angles, new director Emma Sullivan did a great job weaving in various locations and dream sequences together into a coherent episode. There's fun transitions between reality and nightmare, and the editing was generally very strong. The episode looked great, but as with the other episodes in this current era, the flatter colour palette does look a little odd in places, particularly darker scenes. The script from Charlene James and Chris Chibnall was very strong though, with some lovely character beats and some fun, if not particularly original, villains.

'Can You Hear Me?' might be the strongest episode of Doctor Who Series 12 so far, tackling mental health in a very real way, but also never forgetting to tell a great, creepy Who story in the meantime. If previous episodes can be criticised for being heavy-handed with their themes, 'Can You Hear Me?' handled them perfectly. A new high-point for this era of the show.

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