Doctor Who Series 12 Episode 7 - Can You Hear Me? - Review

Starring: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill & Ian Gelder

Written By: Charlene James & Chris Chibnall

Directed By: Emma Sullivan

One of the things I've yet to see from the Chris Chibnall era is an episode that gets into some dark, frightening territory. Sure, episodes like 'Rosa' and 'Demons Of The Punjab' have dealt up heavy drama, and there have been some gnarly things such as the flesh moths in 'It Takes You Away' or the Dregs from 'Orphan 55', but I've yet to see an episode go for full-on creepiness. Enter 'Can You Hear Me?' co-written by Chibnall and Charlene James and it might finally be time for that. With a sinister, seemingly-omnipresent man seen detaching his fingers and infiltrating the TARDIS, could we be in for a much darker episode? 

The Doctor drops Graham, Ryan and Yaz back in Sheffield to catch up with their friends and their lives. Whilst her friends reacquaint themselves back home, the Doctor responds to an alert coming from 14th Century Syria, arriving to find an ancient hospital being terrorized by a fearsome creature. Meanwhile, the Doctor's friends experience three bizarre yet linked events: Yaz sees a man in dark robes in her nightmares, Graham has visions of a woman trapped and pleading for help, while Ryan witnesses the same man from Yaz's nightmares abduct his friend, Tibo. A powerful, evil entity is stalking the Doctor and her friends - what does it want and can it be stopped?

So before we venture any further, is this Series 12's "Dark 'n Creepy Episode™"? Well, while no full-on horror piece I would say that yes, this is the closest this era has come to that. The focus up until now has been on your more standard sci-fi adventures, historicals and what-not, but 'Can You Hear Me?' ventures into some almost surreal nightmare territory, though of course with a sci-fi twist. I've been quietly longing for the show to give us another episode like this, and the fact it's not only some big idea sci-fi, but a story revolving around the companions' nightmares and fears, means that 'Can You Hear Me?' is a vital addition to the series in my opinion. Like I said with 'Praxeus', my two big complaints with Series 12 have been it biting off way more than it can chew in a 50-minute runtime, or the lack of anything to do for Graham, Ryan and Yaz. With the latter of these, 'Can You Hear Me?' finally addresses the issue - all three leave their biggest impression yet this series, and Yaz in particular is given some long overdue backstory. I'll get back to our trio of companions later, but let's just say that in Yaz's case, some of the things we finally learn about her, massively overdue as it is, have shaped my view on the character immensely. 

(Plenty of major spoilers from here, so read on at your own risk!) 'Can You Hear Me?' explores mental health through a pretty great sci-fi lens. The focal point of this is Zellin, an immortal god-like being, up there among the likes of the Eternals and the Celestial Toymaker. Zellin is absolutely brilliant, thanks in no small part to a wonderful performance from Ian Gelder, who keeps the character refined whilst also relishing being the bad guy. I suppose Zellin could be compared to the Nightmare Man from 'The Sarah Jane Adventures', but unlike him, Zellin is not the instigator of the nightmares or conditions like depression. At one point he outright says (one of my favourite lines): "You know the best part of humanity? The thing that truly sets them apart? The cruelty of their own minds directed towards themselves. The doubt. The fear. The endless voices telling themselves they're incapable and unworthy." That line sold Zellin for me - I love the idea of this god-like figure feeding off our self-cruelty. It's a cracking idea for 'Doctor Who', and something very new for the 13th Doctor to face. A villain of this scale, with so much unknown about them is unlike the usual adversaries Jodie Whittaker's Doctor has faced so far. In probably one of the spookiest scenes in a long time, we see a random little girl trying to get to sleep believing there are no bogeymen, only to see Zellin at the foot of the bed: "That's not true". Zellin is this Lovecraftian figure and the great ideas don't stop with just him. In a first for the show, a beautiful animated sequence provides some backstory on Zellin and his lover, Rakaya. Yes it is primarily exposition, but the gorgeous animated visuals, plus the whole idea of two planets working together to overcome the influence of these gods, is great stuff.

Going back to that theme of mental health, 'Can You Hear Me?' is not just heavy from a sci-fi/horror point of view, but it's willing to get serious about the important of psychological well-being. 'Doctor Who' hasn't shied away from this before with episodes like 'Vincent & The Doctor', and this takes the same approach of being unapologetically upfront about the topic. I haven't personally seen anything else written by Charlene James, but looking at her past writing credits, she has a great deal of experience writing about mental health issues and other heavy real-world subjects like female genital mutilation. Much of her work appears to also accommodate younger demographics, so she's a great fit for 'Doctor Who' and especially an episode like this. It's a triple whammy for Graham, Ryan and Yaz as in this episode, the things that they go through or that we learn about them benefit them massively. For instance, Ryan has nightmares about not being there for his mates and what might happen to the Earth whilst he's away - by the end of the episode it's enough for him to begin to question travelling in the TARDIS. Graham's nightmares see Grace in the hospital telling him that his cancer has returned and she chastises him for failing to save her. It's an emotional moment, and while I'll get to how it's resolved later, these scenes with Graham are a real gut-punch. 

It's Yaz's nightmares where this episode reserves the biggest feels, however. I've warmed to Yaz over the course of this series - if I was cold on her in Series 11, Series 12 has raised that to lukewarm and finally, finally Yaz has some actual character to her. It doesn't make up for the previous seventeen episodes' lack of content for Yaz, not at all, but I'd be lying if I said that learning about her life before the Doctor didn't affect me. Seeing Yaz having run away from home, sat on the side of the road, waiting for the end... it reminded me of a situation I found myself in just over two years ago. I've been at the point where I've wanted to die, and while I suffer from my mental health to this day, thanks to the support I received at university and the eventual support from my doctors, I get to see a counsellor most weeks and I'm on antidepressant medication. My problems haven't gone, but support goes a long way. For Yaz, looking back it explains a lot about her relationship with the Doctor … her eagerness to escape her life and go on adventures, even the reason why she became a police officer receives more explanation. My soppy heart melted at that scene where Yaz seeks out the police officer who helped her on that day, and I find it endearing how Yaz and her sister celebrate the day that she survived.

If you can't tell yet, 'Can You Hear Me?' does a lot of great stuff, a lot of it that I'd been waiting to see and much of it vital to the series. By all rights, this should be the best episode of the series so far and yet … it's not. While it ranks high, 'Can You Hear Me?' still doesn't fully escape "Series 12 syndrome". It may well give the companions something to chew on, but it gets a little lost in the array of ideas it's culminated. If this episode were just about Zellin stalking the companions' nightmares, and him tricking the Doctor into freeing Rakaya, it'd be fine. That'd be great, more than enough for an episode to go on. But this being Series 12, there's more. Zellin has also been making physical creatures from nightmares, called Chagaskas, and while he's busy tormenting Graham, Ryan and Yaz, they're on the loose in 14th Century Syria. There's a reason I've not mentioned the Syria stuff, and that's because it's basically dead weight. While I'd love to see an episode set in Middle Eastern history, what's it doing here? The location's gorgeous, sure, but there's no point adding it here. Getting shot of the scenes in Syria, and the Chagaskas who leave little of an impression, you'd free up a good space of time with which you could fix the incredibly underwhelming ending. For two beings built up as gods, Zellin and Rakaya are disposed of far too quickly and easily. They're literally gone and sealed away in the space of about twenty seconds, if that. It's a rushed, disappointing ending for the villains with so much promise. These two deserved much more and it's a pity we probably won't get to revisit them after this. 

The ending is my big bugbear with 'Can You Hear Me?', although there appears to have been a more controversial aspect to it that even prompted a few complaints to the BBC. So I suppose it's worth mentioning the ending scene between the Doctor and Graham. Re-watching the scene, I can definitely understand why it's been received so poorly. Although I'm not keen on how this scene played out either, in its defence, it could have potentially welcomed discussion on another aspect of talking about mental health, such as how it can sometimes be difficult to respond to someone opening up to you. I've been in situations before where someone has opened up to me, and while I've wanted to be supportive, in that moment, depending on what they tell you, it can be hard to know what to say in response. Obviously you should always be comforting and never make that person feel bad, but it's possible you just don't know what to say back. If that's what this scene was going for then fair enough, but it undercuts that with the way it's presented. The way the Doctor looks at Graham as though she's waiting for him to keep talking, it looks as though it's played for laughs which is a very inappropriate thing to be doing. Plus if the Doctor was struggling for something to respond with, which as we've established is fine, she could at least afford to be more comforting than that. I don't think this scene's the most horrible thing ever, but it's just very awkward and its intent is unclear. 

Overall, I have a massive amount of respect for 'Can You Hear Me?'. The themes that it wants to explore and some of the brilliant ideas that it has are fantastic, and the episode is an absolutely crucial one as far as I'm concerned for the companions. In its finished state, I like 'Can You Hear Me?' … but I should love it. If you trimmed the fat from this, 'Can You Hear Me?' could easily have been the best thing to come out of Series 12 so far and it has all the pieces to be another modern-day classic. I should be doing nothing but singing this episode's praises, and yet like a lot of Series 12 it buckles under its own weight. It's a solid episode as is, but it should have been something special.

Can You Hear Me?

7/10