Doctor Who – Knock Knock Review

I don’t think this week’s episode was the best, especially given how good the past few weeks have been, but it was good to see a story that gave us more of a glimpse into who Bill is. Also, warning you now but there’s some spoilers in this review.

From 1989’s Ghostlight, to 2007’s Blink, to 2013’s Hide, the haunted house that is actually being inhabited by aliens is a reoccurring story throughout Doctor Who. I think the choice to do this story trope with Bill’s search for student housing was an interesting one. I was expecting that to play out in a comedic way like 2010’s The Lodger but I think this episode actually had far more in common with Hide. The first part is a spooky story about a house where something weird is happening and then in the final part we find out that it’s actually not what we first thought and it is something more emotional.

Knock Knock had some very unnerving monsters. Not in the way that the Silence or the Weeping Angels are unnerving. Just it really made my skin crawl when we saw the space lice things swarming and crawling around. However, I’m still wanting a really big bad monster. But going by the next time trailer I might finally get the big bad monster as next week’s thing looks very similar to the Vashta Nerada.

Once again Bill was the star of the episode, Pearl Mackie once again delivered a great performance. I have a feeling that Bill Potts is going to end up right up there with Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler in the all-time best companion rankings. Bill keeps asking questions and seeing things in new and interesting ways. In this episode we also got to see how being with the Doctor has started to change her, much like when Rose Tyler returned home for the first time in Aliens of London. One of the problems with Amy Pond, Rory Williams and Clara Oswald was that we never really got too much of a glimpse into their lives away from the Tardis, and when we did it never felt that developed. Knock Knock gave Bill friends and showed her dealing with something instantly recognisable, student housing! And also it made me laugh when Black Magic by Little Mix was the song that came up on her phone, particularly as I’d been listening to it earlier!

I was wondering during the past week if Bill’s sexuality was going to ever be addressed again. So often in Sci-Fi/Fantasy when LGBT characters actually appear the writers will have a brief moment  then never mention their sexuality again – like Sulu in the most recent Star Trek film for example. However we had another reference to the fact that Bill is a lesbian in tonight’s episode.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I love that this series is partially set in and around a university. Having a companion who is a student is an obvious but great idea. Having the Doctor at a university is also an obvious but great idea. It’s just so entertaining to watch! Though maybe I’m biased as I am currently a student.

I was disappointed by the vault scene at the end of the episode. I was really hoping that the vault was going to be something that was only kept in the background but this week I felt it was a little too much. I think that it’s going to turn out that Missy is locked up in the vault and she’s going to break free from it soon.

Overall Doctor Who finally seems to be back to the standard it should be. Not every episode is an all-time great but this series is still proving to be definitely worth watching, long may it continue.