In which the Doctor and Clara pay a visit to Caliburn House in Yorkshire, one of the country's most haunted places. The year is 1974. The house has been bought by Professor Alec Palmer in order that he can scientifically investigate the famous "Caliburn Ghast", also known as the "Witch of the Well", which is said to haunt the house. It has been seen, and photographed, many times over the years. Palmer has invited the noted empathic medium Emma Grayling to stay with him for a while, hoping she can make contact with the spirit. The Doctor is familiar with the work of both. He pretends to have been sent by the government on an official survey of the professor's work, which Palmer resents. He had worked in military intelligence during World War II and has now turned his back on government work, unhappy that he used to send young agents to their deaths. The Doctor suspects his new eagerness to explore the supernatural is a reaction to his wartime experiences.
The Doctor notes a strange similarity in many of the images he sees of the Ghast. As he and Clara wander round the old building they hear odd noises, and experience cold spots. They are sure that they are being watched.
Acting on a suspicion, the Doctor retires to the TARDIS, accompanied by Clara. He dons a spacesuit then travels back to the site of the house many thousands of years in the past. He takes some photographs. He then repeats this through time, visiting the same location and taking photographs, into the far future. Back in 1974, the Doctor develops the photos and the Ghast is seen in all of them, frozen in the same movement. A closer inspection reveals a young woman wearing a white spacesuit. The Doctor realises she is trapped in some pocket dimension linked to this place. A few seconds for her mean centuries here.
The Doctor has a blue crystal in the TARDIS, originating on Metebelis III. He will use this, and a subset of the Eye of Harmony, to help Emma make a psychic link with the woman. When this link is created they see a strange spinning disc materialise in mid-air. This is the well - a gravity well. The Doctor will pass through this to find and rescue her, whilst Emma uses the crystal to keep the well open.
The Doctor finds himself in a forest, whose borders are being eaten away. Soon this pocket dimension will cease to exist. He finds the woman, whose name is Hila Tacorien, who is a pioneer time traveller from Earth's future. They are not alone here, however, as a misshapen creature appears to be stalking them through the trees.
Emma loses contact and the well closed after Hila has managed to escape through it. With the Doctor still trapped, Clara goes to the TARDIS to rescue him, only to find the ship actively unwilling to help her. She finally succeeds in talking it round and it travels to the pocket dimension where it picks up the Doctor. Back at Caliburn House, the Doctor tells Palmer and Emma that they have a personal connection with Hila. She is a future descendant. They are in love with each other but have not had the nerve to reveal their feelings towards each other.
Emma takes the Doctor aside and tells him that she cannot sense anything unusual about Clara, having worked out why the Doctor came here in the first place.
The Doctor spots another misshapen creature in the house and realises that Palmer and Emma are not the only couple. The creature in the forest has been cut off from its mate, which is trapped here in the house. He takes to the TARDIS again to rescue it and reunite the pair.
Hide was written by Neil Cross, and was first broadcast on 20th April, 2013. Cross was best known for creating the detective drama Luther. This was his second script for this half season.
He originally intended the Professor to be Bernard Quatermass, the character created by Nigel Kneale. Copyright issues prevented this. He also claimed to have been inspired for this story by Kneale's The Stone Tape, which was broadcast at Christmas, 1972. The "stone tape" theory is an explanation for ghosts and other supernatural phenomena, where powerfully emotional events in a building can become attached to it, like sound recorded on a tape. Kneale's teleplay involved a scientific investigation of a haunted house, with a psychic as part of the team.
It should be remembered that Nigel Kneale was no fan of Doctor Who, thinking it too juvenile and constantly stealing his ideas (see Spearhead From Space, The Daemons and others).
As well as references to Kneale, and a 1974 setting, the episode also features the return of a blue Metebelis III crystal, which played a vital role in mid-1970's Doctor Who.
Although broadcast fourth in the second half of Series 7, this was the first episode recorded by Jenna-Louise Coleman as a regular cast member.
There are only three guest artists for this story. Portraying Palmer is Dougray Scott, who I first encountered in BBC Scotland's adaptation of Iain Banks' The Crow Road (which co-starred Peter Capaldi). Scott would later be considered as a potential James Bond. As Emma Grayling we have Jessica Raine. Best known for Call The Midwife, she would later in 2013 appear as Verity Lambert in "An Adventure in Space and Time", the 50th Anniversary docu-drama. She would also appear alongside Matt Smith in a Midwife / Doctor Who crossover skit for that year's Comic Relief.
The other guest artist is Kemi-Bo Jacobs, who appears as Hila Tacorien. The "Crooked Man" creature is played by Aidan Cook, who would become a regular monster performer.
As far as the season story arc goes, at first it looks like this has few connections. We have the TARDIS once again demonstrating a disliking towards her, but it is only much later on that we discover that the whole point of the Doctor's visit here was to see if Grayling could "read" her and see if there was anything strange about her.
Things you might like to know:
- An early draft had the pocket universe the prison of a renegade Time Lord, known as the Revenant of Anathenon - the Lost Lord. The dimension was known as the Hex, and the story title was "Phantoms of the Hex". A later story title was "Hider in the House". It only became Hide quite late in the day.
- Cross named the house after King Arthur's sword Excalibur.
- There is a running "Cumbrian" theme in the first few episodes of this half of Series 7. The Bells of Saint John had started with the Doctor in self-imposed exile in Medieval Cumbria, and the Doctor and Clara are later critical of the town of Carlisle. This story mentions Kendal Mint Cake, named after the Lake District town. If fans thought this significant, they were wrong, as the references simply petered out.
- There is a serious plotting issue, which I recall raising when I reviewed this story at the time. It is 1974. Palmer is supposed to have been a "Baker Street Irregular" - the Special Operations Executive who planned espionage missions in occupied Europe. However, if Palmer is supposed to be around the same age as the actor portraying him (in his 40's) then this would mean that he was only a young boy when he was supposed to be in the SOE, sending agents to their deaths on the continent. This must be a leftover from the earlier idea that the Prof would be Quatermass, who was already an older man in the 1950's.
- Matt Smith mispronounces "Metebelis". He got it right in rehearsals but stressed the wrong syllable (the -teh- instead of the -bee-) on the take.
- It's never explained how the Doctor got hold of another blue crystal, or why - as the last one led to him losing a regeneration.
- I went right off Clara from this story onwards. She dismisses homeless people as "dossers" and thinks whiskey is disgusting.
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