Doctor Who: Series 12, Episode 8 – “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” (2020)

Another great Thirteenth Doctor historical! I loved this one, cool and creepy with nice nods to literary history, more of our heroes in period dress, and a prelude for things to come.

The Doctor, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan have popped in on Lord Byron’s estate in 1816, the night of the famous writing contest that led to the creation of Frankenstein. But as usual, something’s wrong. Not only is no contest underway, there are also eerie goings-on throughout the house – sightings of strange apparitions and halls/stairways that seem to invert and twist in on one another. Team TARDIS sets out to solve the mystery while keeping the famous writers in their charge alive.

I like when Who plays with horror conventions, and this is an enjoyable “ghost story.” Like the best of this type, it mixes classic horror figures and notions with sci-fi ideas, which I always enjoy. While the connections between the different elements of the plot seemed a little strained to me initially, it ultimately comes together in a way that makes sense.

This is also a fine addition to the celebrity historicals collection. Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and co. are excellently brought to life. There’s a nice balance between the expected (significant references to important works by all the involved writers, Byron totally being into the Doctor) and the more fanciful (the whole literary crew being absolutely gossipy bitches when they first meet the Doctor and her companion,) and it’s all done well. It makes me laugh that “no one snog Byron!” is one of the ground rules established when our heroes first show up, and I appreciate that, for all that this is “the Frankenstein episode,” all the historical figures have a role to play and aren’t ignored to only focus on Mary Shelley.

More period dress from the companions, as I said, all of whom look fetching in their Regency-era clothing. Even the Doctor gets in on the action, barely (hardly at all, really, but she’s at least wearing something different.) Like the Tesla episode, it’s one where all the companions have something to contribute, both to the mystery and to the story as a whole. I like Ryan amusing Mary Shelley with an incredibly-dubious rendition of “Chopsticks,” and Yaz has a conversation with another character that points to some interesting questions.

It’s another good one for the Doctor. I think the show is still finding its footing a little in terms of really balancing things out for all three companions, but it’s pretty much hit its stride where the Doctor is concerned. Whereas, last season, I had issues where lackluster writing sometimes made her seem less impressive than she is, I think she’s been quite on point through much of this season. Here, she dives headfirst into the creepy mystery, she toes the line between relying on the brilliant minds of the writers around her while also working to keep them safe from the alien threat, and she has a strong speech near the end that addresses the Doctor’s perennial concern: being the one to make the hard choices at the center of the catastrophes.

Some of the stuff that happened in this episode while carry forward into the next. With the two-part season finale kicking off next week, I’m very curious about how the different arc elements introduced throughout the season might come together.