In which the Doctor and her companions find themselves in the Norwegian countryside, overlooking a remote fjord. They spot a cabin in the distance and, despite it being winter, there is no smoke rising from the chimney - suggesting it is deserted.
Approaching they find it boarded up with the door heavily locked, but Ryan spots movement at one of the windows. They gain access and search the building - seeing signs of recent activity such as food on a table.
They eventually come across a girl hiding in a wardrobe. Her name is Hanne. Despite her assured movements, the Doctor realises that she is blind.
An alarm sounds and Hanne explains that a monster comes out of the forest and hunts at this time every day. The Doctor is shocked that the girl has been left alone like this but she claims that her father Erik will be coming back for her. They then hear a fierce roaring coming from the woods.
However, on investigating it is found that the sounds have come from a set of speakers hung in the trees, linked to a recording.
Fearing that Erik may be dead, the Doctor explores the house further and discovers something strange about a mirror in an upstairs room. Graham had noticed that it did not reflect properly.
It transpires that behind the mirror is a portal to another dimension.
Ryan will stay with Hanne whilst the Doctor leads the others through it, hoping to locate Erik.
They find themselves in a dark cave system, lit by red glowing globes, then encounter a humanoid being who introduces himself as Ribbons. He offers to guide them to Erik if they give him the sonic screwdriver as payment.
Passing through the caverns they see a dead body and a number of large moths. Ribbons explains that these are flesh-eating insects. This place is the Anti-Zone - a buffer between dimensions and there are many hazards, chief of which are the moths.
He takes Graham hostage, demanding greater payment or he will devour him. Graham escapes and Ribbons trips as he chases him. He is overcome by a swarm of moths and killed.
Hanne tricks Ryan and escapes into the Anti-Zone, forcing him to follow.
The others emerge from the caves into a landscape almost identical to the one they left, but it is warm and sunny. In a cabin they find Erik along with his wife Trine.
However, Hanne had earlier revealed that her mother was dead. Outside, Graham is shocked to find Grace.
The Doctor has seen that this is a mirror version of the Norway they have left. She discovers that this is a pocket universe, inhabited by a single entity - the Solitract.
When the universe was created, one particular force of chaos was deemed impossible to co-exist with the rest of the cosmos. This incompatibility saw it confined to its own personal universe.
The Solitract has simply grown lonely, and now lures people to it by presenting them with the thing they crave most. Erik is reunited with his dead wife, and is so overcome by this that he has abandoned his daughter - locking her in their cabin and faking monsters to keep her from wandering off. It is a misguided attempt to keep her safe whilst he visits Trine.
Grace is another personification of the Solitract, determined to keep Graham here with it.
The Doctor is able to talk both Graham and Erik into going back home, this world merely an illusion. She agrees to remain behind with the Solitract if it lets everyone else go.
The entity manifests itself as a frog - a favourite animal of Grace's. However, the Doctor shows how this dimension is beginning to reject her. Nothing can ever be compatible with the Solitract.
Accepting this, the entity allows her to leave, resigned to its solitary existence, though it will use its dreams to create imaginary new friends.
Back in the normal universe Erik agrees to return to city life in Oslo with Hanne, as he must come to terms with Trine's death and look after his daughter.
As they return to the TARDIS Graham is pleased to hear Ryan refer to him as "granddad", as they have struggled to bond since Grace's death.
It Takes You Away was written by Ed Hime, and was first broadcast on Sunday 2nd December 2018.
Hime's background is primarily in radio drama, though he was also nominated for a BAFTA for work on teen drama Skins.
Not a great deal to say about this story. It's all about grief, and how people cope with it - or don't.
Erik is so obsessed with being reunited with his lost one that he actually becomes an abusive parent - something which the episode fails to deal with head on. Someone really ought to be reporting him to the Norwegian Social Services. Imagine the newspaper stories if someone had left their disabled child alone for days on end. Not content with neglect, he then adds psychological abuse to the situation.
The Solitract might be manipulating his own emotions, but what he does is clearly well planned and executed by him - rigging speakers up trees and using monster recordings. You can't blame the frog for all of this.
It's never properly addressed why he simply hasn't taken Hanne with him, or at least told her about what's going on.
The ending is far too trite, with the Doctor delivering one her patronising little speeches and sending everyone happily on their way. The Twelfth Doctor would have punched Erik in the face.
The guest cast is led by Eleanor Wallwork as Hanne. The series has cast deaf actors in the past, but she is the first blind person to be cast. Unfortunately, she's the only one to date. Perhaps RTD2 should spend less time deciding what's best for people with disabilities and more time giving them work.
Erik is Norse actor Christian Rubeck, who has appeared in Succession, and you may have also seen him in the biopic Amundsen, in which he played the explorer's brother.
Comic actor Kevin Eldon plays Ribbons. Recent straight roles for him have included the movie Napoleon and the TV series Sanditon. He has also played Corporal Jones - the Clive Dunn character - in the remakes of lost Dad's Army episodes.
Trine is Lisa Stokke, and we also have a return for Sharon D Clarke as Grace.
The only story arc point worth mentioning is Ryan calling Graham "Granddad", as he's been trying to bond with him since the opening episode.
Overall, it's a slight affair which clearly hasn't been well thought out, with significant matters left unaddressed. Once again, it's Graham who redeems the episode. His production of a cheese and pickle sandwich from his pocket - kept for emergencies - is almost laugh-out-loud funny.
For many, a CGI frog on a chair was the final straw and they gave up on Series 11.
It's certainly been a rather lacklustre series so far. At least the next instalment is the season finale. That's got to be something to look forward to, hasn't it...?
Things you might like to know:
- The story is supposed to be set in the Norwegian winter, and the script even makes a plot point of this. A shame no-one seems to have told the director, script editor or executive producers...
- At one point Yaz mentions reversing the polarity... - a nod to the Third Doctor's famous phrase.
- Kevin Eldon had a previous involvement with Doctor Who, when he played the Seventh Doctor's companion in web serial Death Comes To Time.
- Many aspects of the Solitract appear to have been borrowed from the Virgin New Adventures novel Christmas on a Rational Planet by Lawrence Miles - entity from the dawn of time incompatible with the rest of the universe and so banished into one of its own.
- The Anti-Zone was supposed to contain one other creature - a very tall being known as "Spindle Man" (below). Played by Paul Sturgess, his scenes were filmed but then cut for timing reasons.
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