“This is the part of my life you’re not a part
of.”
Written by Mike Bartlett
“Knock
Knock” is mainly about Bill and her friends looking to rent a house while at
university. They were not having any luck until an older man offered them a
house for rent that was cheap and had enough bedrooms to accommodate everyone. But
of course if it’s too good to be true it genuinely is as The Doctor who is
helping Bill move in is instantly alerted to something not right about the
house. The Doctor senses something alien
and as usual he is correct as the whole house seems to be alive and it’s alive
and infested with alien bugs. The creepy
thing is the house won’t let you leave and it seems to open up the walls and
sucks you in.
Haunted
houses have been a Doctor Who go to for many years mostly in the new series
with stories like “Blink” and “Hide” and “Ghost Light” from the classic
series. “Knock Knock” is the latest
entry in the haunted house Doctor Who style story and this story was pretty
creepy. I really liked the creepiness of
the story as it added to the paranoia feel the story was already
conveying. “Knock Knock” was just a
perfectly executed story that was scary but the ending was a bit sad and I
wasn’t expecting that and that added to the quirkiness of the story also.
David
Suchet plays the landlord who seems to be hiding a secret that lives in the
tower of the house. At first we are to
believe that he is protecting his daughter but what The Doctor discovers is the
woman that is made entirely of wood is his mother. What is sad about this story is that The
Landlord is keeping his mother alive for over 70 years using the alien bugs and
killing the college kids that he rented the house to. As The Doctor said a son would do anything
for his mother and The Landlord sure did take it to the extreme. What was also bitter sweet was the realization
on his mother’s face when she found out what he did and then decided to end it
all by killing her son and herself while freeing Bill’s friends. That moment was pretty sad especially seeing
The Landlord crying that he didn’t want to go.
I
really enjoyed the performance by David Suchet as The Landlord. I’ve been a fan of his ever since I saw him
on Agatha Christie’s Poirot and was really excited that he would be in an
episode of Doctor Who. He really shined
as The Landlord as he played him creepy and also very emotional when he was
confronted by The Doctor about what he did to keep his mother alive. A really great performance from a really great
actor and it was good to finally see what David Suchet could do in Doctor Who.
So
far we have been getting more inklings as to who or what may be in the
vault. This time we actually see The
Doctor go into the vault with some takeout and we also find out that he put a
piano in there also. I’m guessing at
some point we are going to find out that it is one of the incarnations of The
Master. But then again maybe it will be
someone entirely different but I’m still going with The Master but not sure
which one it could be.
“Knock
Knock” was a really good and scary story that was a much need change of pace from
what we have had in the past couple of seasons.
It still disappoints me that they didn’t go in this direction sooner
than staying so long with the Clara show.
You really get to see what Peter Capaldi can really do with some
contemporary stories for once instead of heavily arc driven ones. “Knock Knock” is another great Series 10
story and one that will stand the test of time.
Grade
A –
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