Story 293: Can You Hear Me?

In which the Doctor's companions are spending some time back at home in Sheffield. Each has been experiencing vivid dreams, and discover that some of those closest to them have been suffering from nightmares. Ryan's friend Tibo has become a virtual recluse through depression. Yaz has been having flashbacks to an incident in her youth - the event which inspired her to join the police force. Graham recalls his cancer treatment, and worries that it may be returning. He also sees strange, fleeting images of a young woman with long white hair, and a pair of closely orbiting planets. She appears to be imprisoned between the two worlds, and calls out to him for help.

At night, whilst people sleep, they are visited by a tall shadowy figure. His fingers detach and insert themselves into their ears.

Meanwhile, in medieval Aleppo, a young woman named Tahira is staying at a hospital for people with mental health problems. She sees a huge savage monster attack the other residents.

The shadowy figure has infiltrated the TARDIS momentarily. The Doctor decides to investigate and traces the issue to Aleppo.

She arrives in the hospital and meets Tahira, finding that she is the only person left in the compound. She then sees the monster. It runs off, and she is puzzled to find that the creature could not be scanned by the sonic screwdriver.

As Yaz dreams of the youthful incident, she wakes suddenly and sees the sinister man in her room. At Tibo's flat, Ryan also wakes to witness the figure.

The Doctor returns, having brought Tahira with her. Her companions describe their experiences and realise they have all seen the same man, who attacks their dreams.

Graham is linked up to the TARDIS telepathic circuits so that the binary planetary system he saw might be traced. 

They locate it and the TARDIS materialises in a space station in stasis between the planets - their collision frozen by a forcefield.

Yaz finds a chamber full of disembodied fingers. These are broadcasting a signal to the trapped woman.

They also find a number of comatose figures bound in alcoves - including Tibo and Tahira's friends.

The mysterious man appears, accompanied by Chagaskas - the creatures which were seen in Aleppo. His name is Zellin, and he explains that they were created from the people's worst fears.

He fires his fingers at them.

Each finds themselves dreaming. Ryan sees an elderly Tibo on a devastated future Earth as Dregs roam the desolate landscape. He accuses Ryan of abandoning him. Yaz is on a remote moorland road, having run away from home. She has been found by a WPC. Graham is back in hospital, being looked after by his late wife Grace, who accuses him of not having tried to save her.

The Doctor wakes to find they have all been bound in the alcoves, with finger tips in their ears. These are feeding on their nightmares, which are then fed to the woman. She has heard of Zellin, but knows him only as a god-like being from another dimension.

He has schemed to free the woman - Rakaya - who is even more evil than he. Centuries ago she was imprisoned by the inhabitants of this solar system after causing mass death and destruction. The Doctor and her companions have been lured into a trap.

Rakaya is freed, and Zellin takes her to Earth to feed on the fears and nightmares of the human race.

The Doctor is able to escape and frees the others. She takes them all back to medieval Aleppo.

As Rakaya elects to feed on the sleeping humans slowly, they hear the Chagaskas calling from across the centuries. They transport themselves to the hospital to find the Doctor and her friends waiting for them.

She seizes control of the imprisoning mechanism as Tahira summons a Chagaska, having overcome her fear of them. The Doctor tricks the pair of immortals into thinking of their own worst nightmares then transports them back to the prison with the creature. They will be trapped there forever with their own nightmares.

Yaz has remembered how the WPC helped her when she was feeling at her worst, and back in Sheffield decides to seek out the woman - Anita - to thank her. Tibo agrees to join a group which will help him with his mental health issues.

Graham tries to talk to the Doctor about his worries about his cancer coming back one day, but she becomes embarrassed and evades the subject - electing to talk instead about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein...

Can You Hear Me? was written by Charlene James and Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on Sunday 9th February 2020.

This is James' only contribution to the series. Primarily a playwright, she has also contributed to supernatural series A Discovery of Witches and The Rising.

The theme is an obvious one - mental health awareness. The episode considers the emotional wellbeing of the Doctor's companions and some of their friends. Despite having just seen her planet destroyed, what it doesn't do is look in any depth at how the Doctor is feeling right now, other than a flashback to the Timeless Child.

The episode blows it in the final reel as a story about how important it is to listen properly to what our friends are family are saying sees the Doctor deliberately evade Graham's concerns.

For the principal character not to practice what is being preached is a serious error. We're all supposed to take the lead from the Doctor. Especially ironic when one considers that Chris Chibnall had himself received a cancer diagnosis.

This scene prompted complaints to the BBC who attempted to justify it - but it demonstrates how it was misjudged in the first place.

Whilst we get to see past experiences of Graham and Yaz - especially the latter's interaction with WPC Anita - Ryan's thread in the episode concentrates instead on his friend Tibo, last seen in the opening instalment of the series.

The main guest artist, playing Zellin, is the late Ian Gelder (he passed away on 6th May 2024). He had previously featured in Torchwood: Children of Earth, as Mr Dekker. Internationally, he was best known for portraying Kevan Lannister in Game of Thrones. He had also provided the voice of the Remnants in The Ghost Monument.

Rakaya is Clare Hope-Ashitey, who featured in the 2006 sci-fi film Children of Men.

As mentioned, Tibo (Buom Tihngang) has featured previously in the series as one of Ryan's friends.

Also returning in a more prominent appearance is Bhavnisha Parmar, who plays Yaz's sister Sonya. She appears in Yaz's recollections of her youthful incident as well as in the present day.

Playing the WPC who helped her - Anita - is Nasreen Hussain. She has appeared in Emmerdale and the 2022 adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos.

Tahira is played by Aruhan Galieva, an actor, singer and comedian who has featured in Black Mirror and the 2012 version of Anna Karenina.

Sharon D Clarke also returns, as Grace.

Overall, it's one of the more interesting episodes of Series 12, with an important subject as its background. Perhaps too many characters - a recurring problem in Chibnall episodes - and the side visit to Aleppo, whilst adding a little colour and visual interest, is superfluous to the plot. It could easily have concentrated on our modern world and its problems without the historical detour.

Things you might like to know:

• The first Doctor Who story to have a question mark in its title.
• There's an interesting animated sequence concerning the villains' history on the alien planets.
• Working titles included "Fingers" and "The Girl in the Orb".
• The Zellin character was originally envisaged as a man in a white lab coat, named Fingers, who appeared in various books and pictures throughout history. In early drafts Tibo was already receiving therapy for his mental health issues. Zellin was the name of a planet. Rakaya was Fingers' daughter.
• Instead of Tahira, the new companion-like character was a 17th century street urchin named Florence.
• The finale is set up as the Doctor is thinking about the Frankenstein novel, whilst Yaz and Ryan ponder their current lifestyle on the TARDIS and the impact it is having on themselves and their friends and family.
• Zellin namechecks the Eternals, the Guardians and the Toymaker as fellow immortal beings.
• The idea of a being feeding on nightmares had been used before in The Sarah Jane Adventures - in The Nightmare Man, where he was played by Julian Bleach. He is also ultimately trapped within nightmares himself.