2nd Opinion: “Can You Hear Me?”
JC and Gustaff give their takes on the seventh episode of Series 12.
JC’s Verdict – So near and yet so far
I had high hopes for “Can You Hear Me?”. The trailer made it look creepy, the premise sounded interesting and the villain gave me Dream Lord vibes (the “Amy’s Choice” villain played by Toby Jones being one of my favourites). But although the episode had its positives, it also came with a decent amount of negatives. That’s frustrating because this episode could have been something special. So near and yet so far…
The main problem is the same thing that has plagued many of the episodes in the Chibnall era of Doctor Who: There’s just too many ideas and characters to do most of them the justice they deserve in such a small amount of screen time. Even if you paired the episode down to just the Doctor and companions, that’s still four characters, more than enough for a character based episode like this. But this episode proceeds to add not one, but two villains, and several guest characters on top. Then you have all the locations, excursions to 1380s Syria, flashbacks/nightmares, space sections, an animated bit… Just scale it back for once, Chibnall!
Considering the whole premise was based on nightmares, they really didn’t go far enough with them visually. Ian Gelder partially made up for it with a suitably creepy presence as Zellin. Although I found the whole detached fingers gimmick to be sillier instead of scary – the poor CGI didn’t help. Zellin’s role is unfortunately diminished as soon as they revealed his partner in crime, Rakaya (Clare-Hope Ashitey) who, despite cosplaying as Storm from X-Men, lacks the same screen presence and feels superfluous. And for so-called gods, wow, they were dispatched far too easily and hastily!
The Doctor being trapped had the most potential for nightmarish scenes (imagine her having to overcome an assortment of her deadliest enemies and fears), but instead it decided to just tease the Timeless Child again, whilst adding nothing new to the arc. This then led to one of the goofiest moments in the episode as we see Thirteen inexplicably wake-up and defy the laws of gravity to get her Sonic-Solve-All back to easily escape.
The big topic Doctor Who covered this week was mental health. This is an important societal issue and better awareness is one I support wholeheartedly. However, I felt this episode dealt with it quite superficially. When the episode has to tackle a subject like this across a few characters in just 50 minutes, it’s inevitable you’re only going to cover it on a surface level. The sublime “Vincent and the Doctor” managed to balance this far better as it narrowed the focus down to Van Goth and his struggles.
We have little emotional attachment to Ryan’s friend, Tibo (Buom Tihngang), as he’s appeared once before in a minute-long scene. Further, this took away the attention from Ryan facing his own personal demons, which strangely, don’t include his dyspraxia. Something that has rarely been brought up this year and this would have been a good place to explore it again.
While it’s nice to see some character growth for Yaz, we’re also almost two series down at this point. Only now we’re getting a backstory. This really should have happened early on in Series 11. It feels like too little too late at this point, especially with the obvious foreshadowing that she will be leaving at the end of this run (along with Ryan).
I was glad they gave Bradley Walsh something to do this series other than act as comic relief, even if his scenes with Grace felt a bit repetitious. I think focusing on his cancer fears alone would have been scary enough. Unfortunately, this leads to my most disappointing moment. Yes, you know it already…
I’m sorry, but the Doctor is thousands of years old at this point and has accumulated wisdom far beyond any human, and can’t find any words to comfort her friend who is scared of his cancer returning? I just don’t buy it. It came across as callous. Where’s the Doctor that, despite being an alien and “socially awkward”, has still managed to console their companions in the past? This could and should have been a defining moment for Jodie’s Doctor. A chance to give an inspiring message, or just further her bond with her companions. But no. That moment really left a sour taste…
Aside
Did anyone spot this glaring mistake?
Gustaff’s Verdict – A lot to praise, but it wasn’t perfect
…It only took eighteen episodes, but Yaz finally got some character development, y’all!
“Can You Hear Me” marks a turning point for this season. We’re close to the end now so it’s nice to see Doctor Who attempt something different this week. There is a lot to praise about this episode, but at the same time it wasn’t perfect…far from it. Let’s take a look.
First off, Ian Gelder. This man is a legend. There aren’t many actors that can make nightmare wet willies look creepy, but he pulls it off somehow. His performance as Zellin is menacing, without being silly. Not raising his voice also helps paint this character in a serious light. This is complimented well with how the episode goes to extremes to shroud the character in an aura of mystery. It places the audience on high alert and makes us want to see what’s going on.
The episode in general also has a very unusual pace that feels fitting. Once again the entire TARDIS team is given a part of the mystery to uncover, with enough time devoted to observing their lives. Yaz stays with her sister, Ryan and Tibo take their time speaking about the latter’s issues, while Graham spends his free time playing cards.
One issue I have with this story is that while the character issues are explored and portrayed with the necessary depth, I can’t help but wonder why we can’t focus on social stresses that Ryan would experience with his dyspraxia? As grateful as I am that a character’s mental inner workings is explored, Tibo isn’t a main character on this show. In fact, he’s barely been in it. As for Yaz, is there a reason given why she ran away from home? I mean a verbal one, not something the fans came up with.
The visuals and cinematography for the episode is rich and amazing. The short animated exposition dump feels clunky, but at least it is trying to show that it’s a different kind of story. “Can You Hear Me” for once doesn’t feel like a copy and paste of a David Tennant episode. It shows off its uniqueness, though the story does borrow from “Vincent and the Doctor” in dealing with mental health issues. Also, this is not the first time the Doctor has encountered an alien being that was worshipped as a god but then eventually sealed inside a space prison after the natives got wise. That’s basically “The God Complex”. Bonus points since the latter also dealt with fears and nightmares.
The episode drops the ball however when it comes to defeating the Immortals. They are steadily built up as all-powerful but are “Power of Three”’d in two minutes with an explanation that barely has any. This robs the episode of all the tension it’s accumulated so far and makes the villains look incredibly dull and weak. Not only that but why couldn’t Zellin and his associate have been returning Eternals, the Toymaker, or the Guardians? Those choices would’ve gone over much better with the fandom.
Once again, this episode features too many characters in the TARDIS. The Doctor picks up Tahira and eventually Tibo as well. This has the unfortunate effect of making it so some characters just stand around and react to what is happening. It also means everybody has to share the line count.
The episode spends ten minutes closing the companion’s fear subplot with varying degrees of success. Ryan encourages his friend to seek help which shows how true-blue he is, while Yaz reconnects with the police officer. I personally would’ve enjoyed a hint of tragedy in the scene where she hands over the coin, perhaps having the officer genuinely not remember her to showcase that these incidents happen to officers all the time, or have the officer be deceased. But the Chibnall era gotta Chibnall era, yo.
As for the scene with Graham and the Doctor, regardless of whether you see it as offensive that the Doctor would use her own insecurities to avoid comforting Graham, or find it earnest that the Doctor would honestly declare that she is incapable of comforting Graham, since it’s also something that happens to people, it’s irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, you cannot have the two messages in THE SAME EPISODE. You cannot encourage your audience to speak openly about their problems AND advocate that you don’t have to comfort others who come to you with their issues.
This is the root of the evil in this episode. You are welcome to have both messages since both are important, and they both happen in the real world, but not in the same episode. They don’t mix. You can tell they don’t mix because when was the last time so many people complained that the BBC actually had to release a statement on the matter? Remember the Chibnall era is aimed more towards children. You cannot tell people to be open, but also remind them that even if they do, others may not help them.
As for my own interpretation of the scene, here are some examples of things the Doctor could have said/done which are better thought out:
The Doctor: “Graham, I have a time machine, capable of travelling to a point in the future where cancer has been cured completely. Would you like to visit a space hospital and see what they pick-up there?”
…then you throw in a plot twist that his cancer is gone, but he has been infected with an alien virus that will most definitely kill him to maintain tension.
Or:
The Doctor: “Do you want me to run a TARDIS scan on you? The old girl is the product of a highly technological race and I have done it before for an Australian friend of mine who ended up having a brain tumor in the end. I also did it repeatedly for another Scottish friend who may or may not have been pregnant at the time.”
Or you know…just hug Graham mid-sentence. Don’t say anything, just let him know through body language that you empathize. A hug is like a picture: Both are equivalent to a thousand words.
You can also stop the scene before Graham reveals his fears and simply show him asking the Doctor for a moment of her time before shifting to another scene with someone else and have the rest of the conversation to play out in the minds of the fanbase.
…any one of the above would have felt friendlier to the situation and eliminated the possibility of the Doctor coming across as insensitive to portions of the audience. As a good friend of mine often tells me: It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
