Doctor Who: The Haunting of Villa Diodati (2020) - Review

'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' is one of the few Doctor Who historical stories I've actually been able to look forward to recently. Having studied 'Frankenstein' at A Level, I did a lot of research into the development of Mary Shelley's iconic novel, and her time at Villa Diodati on one rainy summer with Lord Byron (Jacob Collins-Levy), John Polidori (Maxim Baldry), her stepsister Claire Claremont (Nadia Parkes) and and husband Percy Bysshe Shelley (Lewis Rainer) is quite an interesting one. 'Frankenstein' was inspired by new experiments with electricity, and as the group were challenged by Lord Byron to come up a spine-chilling ghost story, Mary (Lili Miller) ended up writing 'Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus' in answer. Polidori, meanwhile, wrote 'The Vampyre', a novella that pre-dated 'Dracula' with a Byron-inspired vampire antagonist. 'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' opts to streamline this slice of history, and turns all of its attention towards Mary Shelley and her development of 'Frankenstein', with all of the sex, scandal and various other "adult" elements brushed aside. I know its a nitpick, but it would've been nice to see the episode reference Polidori's work, considering he's otherwise presented as a bit of an arse.

Most of my issues with the episode do stem from its approach to history; Doctor Who has opted to focus on authenticity in its more recent historical episodes, but this plays fast and loose with fact in much the same way as episodes like 'Tooth and Claw' as opposed to 'Rosa'. There's some strong ideas in there - the lone Cyberman is clearly intended to inspire Mary Shelley to write 'Frankenstein', complete with a "dull yellow eye", as referenced in the novel. But the episode juggles a ghost story idea with a monster attack idea, and I don't feel the resolution makes this work in an entirely satisfactory way. Yes, the episode acknowledges Graham's (Bradley Walsh) supernatural encounter with the mysterious maid and the little girl, and that it wasn't part of the Cyberium, but why did the episode keep drawing attention to them as if they were important? For an episode that tried to hard to explain everything, leaving something so obvious unanswered felt a bit odd.

It's also difficult not to see 'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' as rather predictable. Captain Jack warned the "fam" about not letting the lone Cyberman get what it wants, so naturally the tension of whether it will or won't isn't really present. Of course the Cyberman will retrieved the Cyberium, because otherwise there's no story for the next two episodes. Of course the figure on the lake is the lone Cyberman, because what else is would it be? The series has already teased these elements, so they're not at all surprising when they come to pass.

Saying that, the lone Cyberman was a great design, and it was horrifying to see a humanoid face underneath the helmet. It's a really creepy creation, and stellar work from the design team. In fact, the episode was a brilliantly-directed masterclass of horror from Emma Sullivan, with some really eerie moments. I wouldn't be surprised if kids were hiding behind the sofa tonight, although based on the recent viewing figures, probably not many. It's an episode that sets up some brilliant standalone horror elements, but ends up going off in a completely different direction to set-up the next two episodes by the end. I didn't dislike this aspect, but the story would have fared better as a standalone, hour-long Halloween special in my opinion, as opposed to acting as a prologue to the series finale. Whatever happens, the Cybermen are about to ascend...