Doctor Who - 'Sleep No More'

These retro posters are created by designer Stuart
Manning. I figured he definitely deserved a name drop.

“Nononono. You don't name things. I'm the Doctor; I do the naming.”

On a research station near Triton, a rescue team of Indo-Japanese marines are dispatched to investigate the sudden silence of the Le Verrier research station, home of the revolutionary Morpheus system. Their story, recorded and collated by Professor Rasmussen, unfolds as they explore the station and encounter strange monsters, and two intruders named Clara and the Doctor.

The Good

• 'Sleep No More' is a massively conceptual episode, but unlike the deeply ho-hum likes of real-time episode '42', it works its concept, found footage in this case, superbly. In particular, it plays with the format by introducing the editor of the footage as a character, and then uses an initially intrusive voice over as a mechanism to subvert expectations.
• The story is genuinely creepy, and plays with mundane things in fashion of the best horror.
• The final reveal is both a good horror twist and good Who.
• There are some excellent performances, especially from Reece Shearsmith, who could have turned the whole thing into a campy mess by playing Rasmussen just a very little bit more OTT. 
• I'm not sure why an Indo-Japanese military commander would be quite so Newcastle, but maybe the Great Catastrophe was bigger than explained, and it actually made for an interesting dichotomy between the military affects and clearly informal air.
• 474 was a tragic lunk in the great Whovian tradition of Toberman from 'Tomb of the Cybermen'. She was also, as a note, the first Doctor Who character to be played by a transgender actor.
• The world-building by hints - Indo-Japan, the ritualised comms prayers, the total work ethic - was more evocative than a lot of direct exposition.
• The reveal of the 'cameras' was superbly done.

The Bad

• Perhaps out of consideration for the sensibilities of younger viewers, I felt that there wasn't quite enough terror in the episode. That is, the characters never seemed scared enough for the situation. Perhaps this is just because found footage has a tendency to push trauma to 11.

The Ugly

• No glaring ugly.

Theorising

Will the Sandmen reappear? Given the apocalyptic ending, it would seem likely, but with the gimmick blown could they ever be as good?

Top Quotes

• The Doctor: [People] never put the word “space” in front of something just because everything’s all sort of hi-tech and future-y. It’s never space restaurant or space champagne or space, you know, hats. It’s just restaurants, champagne or hats, even if this was a restaurant.
  Clara: What about space suit?
  The Doctor: Pedant.
• Nagata: Could be anything. Meteorite strike. Space pirates.
  Clara: Ah! See. Not just pirates. Space pirates.
• "After the Great Catastrophe there was a tectonic realignment. India and Japan, they, ah, sort of merged."
• The Doctor: Sleep is vital. Sleep is wonderful. Even I sleep.Clara: When?The Doctor: Well when you’re not looking.

The Verdict

A solid one-off episode with a good Whovian concept and a strong use of the found footage technique. While eventually justified, Rasmussen's voice over is initially quite irritating and distancing, but it all comes together fro the climactic scene.

Score - 7/10