Doctor Who: It Takes You Away

By Tim Knight (Heropress)

I was so excited by the possibilities when Jodie Whittaker was revealed as the Thirteenth Doctor and have really, really tried to embrace this new season, but it's simply not working for me.

Although It Takes You Away had some quirky ideas in it (particularly the whole Star Trek-like concept of a sentient parallel universe), this tale from former Skins writer Ed Hime took a shotgun approach to eccentricity, throwing in oddities just because he could.

The TARDIS delivers The Doctor and friends to contemporary Norway (Why? Because they could. It had zero bearing on the ensuing story) where they investigate an isolated, barricaded cottage that's home to a young blind girl, Hanne (Ellie Wallwork), who believes her father, Erik (Christian Rubeck) has been taken by a monstrous "thing" in the woods.

Of course, matters aren't that straight forward, and The Doctor soon discovers a portal in the house to an a strange non-space between realities, which is inhabited by an utterly redundant and derivative alien character called Ribbons (Kevin Eldon).

I've seen comments online saying Ribbons was a rip-off of Gollum (from Lord Of The Rings), but for me the most striking similarity - just lacking the charm - was to Zathras, from Babylon 5.

While it was nice to have the TARDIS landing on Earth somewhere other than the United Kingdom or America, just mentioning fjords a couple of times really didn't justify the use of the Norwegian setting... given that most of the action took part either inside the hut or in alternate worlds.

Much of what unravelled in the story totally failed to connect with me. Perhaps, as I've feared before, I've simply grown out of this new Doctor Who and am no longer capable of adjusting my mindset to see this as its target demographic.

However, on a positive note, there was the usual outstanding character work between the main players in Team TARDIS, particularly from Bradley Walsh as Graham O'Brien, who stole a number of scenes with his emotional performances.

Tosin Cole had his best chance since his introduction to shine as Ryan Sinclair in this story, even if it, at times, felt it was actually taking place earlier in the season's chronology.

One particularly lazy trait of Doctor Who since its return in 2005 has been The Doctor's over-reliance on the sonic screwdriver, which seems increasingly capable of solving any problem the characters find themselves in.

But it has reached new heights this season, with the device never out of Jodie Whittaker's hand, leading her to utter the cringe-worthy line: "Can I just say – I love me sonic."

Now, regardless of what I may say about the stories she's been saddled with, I love Jodie's performance as the still-not-settled-into-her-new-regeneration Doctor, but that line just felt such a clunker, a desperate attempt to heavy handedly gift fans with an instant meme quote.

To be honest, I just found so much of It Takes You Away a bit dull and pointless. There was so much crammed in that the superflurous material suffocated the meat of the story.

Yes, there was some nice weird science - which I always appreciate - and a talking frog (which was magnificent), but the story just lacked the necessary heart to make me really engage with it.

Next Time: