12 Notable Moments From Knock Knock
Mark McCullough makes his choices from the fourth episode of Series 10.
I feel a little sorry for Mike Bartlett, writer of this outing. With a bar set very high after Sarah Dollard’s stellar script last time out, there was a considerable pressure to match it: which would have been no mean feat for a first-time writer to the show. As it stands the episode is a solid effort slotting in a typical Doctor Who episode, but there’s a very safe feel about it, and this is something which doesn’t help the narrative with regards to its chosen genre.
12. The Opening Sequence
11. The Doctor is the Companion’s Grandfather
I just had to pick the relationship between the Doctor and Bill early in this episode as a talking point, because it was very effective as a comic scene. Again, it is something that draws on previous characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor and expands upon it: we’ve seen a similar reaction from him last year when undercover with the wonderful Clara. I think it works better here because it also allows for the emphasis on Bill calling the Doctor Grandfather which is certainly interesting as it would not be the first reference to Susan so far in Series Ten.
10. The Jump Scares
When writing a script that aims to be scary, it is important that the episode is able to actually deliver on this. Utilising the creepy old house trope, one would expect that the narrative will make use of this to provide jump scares for the viewer. Unfortunately, this is something that the narrative fails to deliver on, yes there’s creaking floor boards, noises, doors closing and lingering camera shots. This serves to build a tense atmosphere on initial viewing, but ultimately it fails to deliver on this with nothing that makes you jump, per se. The downside to this is that on repeat viewing (as I always do before writing these articles) the same impact is not there.
9. Little Mix
As much as the narrative would try to shame me for it, including one of my favourite girl bands in one of my favourite television programmes and you’re always going to get a huge smile from me. It actually serves more of a purpose than just a nod to popular culture, as it offers some sort of common ground for the Doctor and the students. It’s also not the first time that a Top 40 artist has been referenced in the show with Foxes actually making a cameo in the wonderful Mummy on the Orient Express. Hopefully this is something we can see more of, and it is always great to see the show interacting with the world around it.
8. Bill’s Ongoing Development
It’s interesting to see how the show has handled Bill after her initial introduction which was now three episodes again. So far, I get the impression that they are taking things slower than we have seen in a past and that Bill is still fairly clueless as to the world of the Doctor with so much still to learn. Consequently, much of the fleshing out has been on her characterisation, a decision which has so far proved to have been the correct one. There are two fantastic scenes for her here: the first being the scene where she hopes that her mother is proud of her, and the second being when she rejects Paul’s advances and tells him she is gay. She has rapidly become one of my favourite companions and I can’t wait to see where they take her next.
7. The Supporting Cast
Introducing five new supporting cast in one forty-five-minute episode is a difficult task, this only becomes harder when you add an antagonist and plot into the mix. So it’s no surprise that the students are not that well fleshed out, which you can argue reduces how invested in them you are, and as such the impact of their fates is lessened. Whilst we get a bit of unique story for each, it’s hard to separate them much more than this, and they certainly don’t qualify as overly memorable characters. However, Bartlett gets round this very intelligently, having the narrative explain why this is the case. To do so we need to look back at the first scene, where Bill is actually introduced to most of them for the first time, so since Series Ten is told through her point of view, it makes sense for them not to be fleshed out.
6. TARDIS Talk
I’ve already mentioned Bill and how the focus has been on her rather than the Doctor’s world. Well the latter is not rejected completely and represents one of the better scenes of the episode where the Doctor and Bill share a scene on the TARDIS. Here we see Bill learn the name of the Doctor’s species for the first time, and true to form she reacts in a typical Bill manner, i.e. not the way you would expect. This leads to a comical exchange where Bill mocks the Time Lords, but to a knowledge viewer and of course the Doctor, her mockery is scarily close to the truth. Scenes like this one have been the highlight of the series so far, and here it acts as a contrast to the more tense tone of the rest of the episode.
5. The Horror
Whilst I’ve said earlier that the episode did not make best use of the jump scare trope associated with the horror genre, it did excel in one area, which made it a slightly different beast than what I initially had it down as: Body Horror. A lot of the concepts explored with regards to the creatures and their ability was rather disturbing, particularly with Pavel who is stuck in some sort of limbo, half absorbed by the house, but still in his body enough to be aware of what is going on. Unfortunately, a complaint I have used against the episode already comes into play again here as the narrative plays it safe and restores all the characters. Whilst not the worst decision, it would have been nice to see some of the effects that the events of the episode had on them to consolate the fact that it was a traumatic experience.
4. The Vault
The Vault has been an interesting tease so far, but there is only so much the writers can do to expand on the mystery without getting repetitive or dragging it out for too long. With that in mind, the only real option is to drip feed with information to allow the audience to figure it out in advance, otherwise it will not feel earned when we do find out. So what do we learn here? From the piano playing we can deduce that the entity inside is not only intelligent, but also has the dexterity to be able to conduct fine motor skills (ruling out a lot of alien races). We can also say that the Doctor cares about their comfort enough to install the piano, and is happy enough in their company that he is happy to eat with them. This narrows it down to someone we already know, which is as one would expect, but anything more than that is just a pure guess at this point. There is also an indication that the entity was pleased by the notion of death, which would make the Master (either incarnation) a very likely candidate
3. The Reveal
One of the most shocking moments of the episode was the answers behind what was actually going on. This came in two stages where we initially find out about Eliza being trapped in the tower and requiring the life energy of the students who sign a tenancy agreement in order to sustain herself. It represents another recurring theme of the series where the aliens involved in each of the stories are not evil, and that there is just a misunderstanding. If the first part of the reveal (the existence of Eliza) was easy to guess, the same could not be said for the second where it was revealed that instead of being her father, the Landlord was actually her son. This turned the episode on its head and left me genuinely surprised. A rare feat that was very welcome indeed.
2. The Landlord
There’s a lot to say about the character of the Landlord, and a lot of questions that are left unanswered, leaving several blanks that the audience can fill in. There’s very little mentioned about his father, other than the fact he would have been extremely busy, so the assumption is that he was almost absent leaving only the Landlord and Eliza. This would have been the case right up until the point of the episode with just the two of them, apart from the Landlord’s interaction with six students every other decade. As such it’s no surprise that his manner was so strange, he acts almost childlike because he never got the chance to develop critical skills. You could say the same with regards to a moral compass, he would never have had the chance to learn that what he was doing was wrong, and as far as he was concerned the only right thing to do was whatever it takes to help his mother. The character at the end swings from nasty antagonist, to a sympathetic villain, before he finally seems as a tragic victim of circumstance. The emotional gravitas of this change a testament of the strength of writing.
1. The Resolution
The resolution of the story is a nice one, and opens a conversation on quality of life versus merely just staying alive. Translating the story to a real-world setting, and it can be likened to euthanasia where currently every effort is made to keep someone alive, even though this might be against their own will. The way the episode presents this debate is relatively one-sided, with Eliza being empowered to make her own decision despite her son’s wishes. The narrative contrasts the life of Eliza trapped in the tower and isolated from the normalities of daily life with the celebrations of new beginnings and the hopefully futures of the fresher’s party. This further highlights the emphasis of quality of life that the episode goes further made even clearer by the dehumanisation of Eliza. In essence she is stripped of everything that makes her who she is (even her memories suppressed) to cling onto life regardless of the cost. With regards to the moral dilemma posed, the narrative clearly comes down on the pro-choice side.
