Creepy, predictable and ultimately over too soon

There are two things that immediately bring that triumvirate of descriptions to mind: nighttime fumblings with Piers Morgan and the latest episode of Doctor Who, "Night Terrors" by Mark Gatiss. One of them is going to be reviewed, discussed and rated here as I've experienced it. But which?

No, I haven't had an affair with the flabby-faced ex-NOTW ed. I have, however, been disappointed by the TV, which hurts a bit more. Now don't get me wrong, I love Mark Gatiss probably an unhealthy amount. His particular brand of macabre interest in all things Victorian and creepy has taken me through Crooked House, A History of Horror, The First Men in The Moon, The Quatermass Experiment and his previous Who episodes, not to mention the Fear on Four radio series. And yet I felt that this episode was lacking something- the creepiness was lost due to it feeling rushed, and the ending was tied together far too quickly without much explanation or even enough time to really understand the reasons behind the story.

As an episode, it was definitely long enough and equipped with enough substance to be a two-parter episode. And oh, how quickly it all came together. I know it's for kids, but really? Dolls in the trailer, a glass eye in the drawer, a wooden "copper pan" and an "olde" gas light that is in fact electric? That's enough clue to put anyone on the right track, and even if it wasn't there are enough individual reveals to be spread out a lot further as Rory and Amy explore the dark house, which wasn't entirely dissimilar to the orphenage they left Melody, their daughter, in.

Oh, and talking of Melody- after the Melody/ River Song festival that was "Let's Kill Hitler" (or, due to a lack of Hitler, "Let's Give Birth To River Song"), it was extremely jarring not to have any reference to Rory and Amy's lost baby at all. No sadness on their part, no mention of River Song's bad/ good/ smug anti-hero arc in the last episode, nothing. Why? It was deliberately left as a stand-alone and was intended for the first half of the series, when none of the aforementioned had happened. Which felt very weird.

I could have done with being more scared. Gatiss is an incredibly clever writer, and if he'd used a little more skill in pacing the reveals, had had two episodes to work with and was prepared to add in a bit more creepiness a la Crooked House, as he is more than capable, it would have truly been equal to the Weeping Angels episode Blink and The Empty Child. And there's the issue.

The show needs to decide if it's for adults, with overarching plots and emotional difficulties designed for them, or kids, with gimmicky creatures and enclosed, adventure of the week plots for them, and stick to it. Or at least cater adequately for both. I was unsurprised that "Mels" turned out to be Melody, with the Hollywood entrance Moffat shoved down our faces in Let's Kill Hitler, and was left cold by Night Terrors because it flipped between audiences rather than simultaneously entertained both.

The benchmark Night Terrors failed to reach

The moment that pulled me out of any creepiness/ involvement was the "comical" old-lady-being-pulled-into-the-bin-bag-pile scene. It was unnecessary, and all too nicely fit together- why would the old woman hear a noise and immediately respond a) why are you, assumed person in the pile, trying to scare me? and b) that's you, isn't it George, the only child we see on this sprawling estate. Convenience ripped any disbelief I could suspend out of the crane it was held in, unfortunately.

And finally, as I mentioned, the "rhyme and reason" behind the episode felt very cobbled together in a Doctor info-dump. There was very little explanation as to where the baby had come from, the nature of its mimcry of the human form, and altogether sudden acceptance from Daniel Mays character when we hadn't seen any real struggle in him towards what he had thought was his son. They were left by the Doctor with no further explanation which fit well with the idea that they should accept him as theirs, but unfortunately it meant so was the audience.

I'm becoming disillusioned with the hit-and-miss nature of this series, and would like to see it come back on form, soon.

Oh, and having caught about ten minutes of the behind-the-scenes series (Confidential) for this episode, I'm doubting really if Moffatt has it all there. His description of Gatiss' nursery rhyme penned for this episode lauded it as genius, but it seemed a little cobbled together. Brief- must hint at Doctor's death. Hm... "Tick tock goes the clock, even for the Doctor" is a good line, let's use that. Hm.