‘Sleep No More’ is stretched past its limits by a 45 minute run-time, and fractured through too many eyes to feel as nightmarish as it should before so many viewer bedtimes.īut that’s just our opinion. The 50 th Anniversary minisode ‘The Last Day’ did the POV style and accomplished it, probably because it grounded the action from a single perspective and kept the idea to under 5 minutes. It’s also technically not the first time the show has dabbled with recovered footage. It doesn’t help that the final ten minutes are rushed and confused rather than the climax they’re meant to be. ‘Sleep No More’ is neither exciting, nor scary. It’s up to you whether you think he’s succeeded. All those scary bits, all those death-defying scrapes, and a proper climax for the really big one at the end. But if you’ve found the previous 42 minutes tedious is it rewarding enough to make up for it?Īs Rassmussen makes his admission it feels like Gatiss, and indeed every Doctor Who writer ever, is speaking through him: ‘I hope you’ve enjoyed the show, I did try to make it exciting. Gatiss has created a story about creating a story, and it’s only at the very end you realise you’re a part of it. A fourth-wall breaking trick, a trap a transmission to spread the Morpheus virus and turn the gunk in your eye into a Sandman (…really?). ‘Sleep No More’ lives or dies on its final twist. Perhaps because we’re watching it from too many viewpoints, the scares never feel anchored. But the longer it continues the more the dread melts away and the boredom sets in. It certainly works in introducing us to the characters, and initially it feels as enveloping as it is foreboding. And it goes all in on the found footage atmosphere, even ditching the titles for a quick glitch.ĭirector Justin Molotnikov’s direction is solid the first person perspective feels natural, unfussy. It’s merely the way it’s presented that’s novel for the show. Rassmussen is a part that’s obviously tailor-written for Shearsmith and he plays it with a vague quivering insanity, as if he’s half in Who, half in Inside No.9.įrom then on it hits all the familiar beats corridors, emergency lighting, some bland sand monsters stomping around, people being picked off one by one. A team of redshirt soldiers (the survival ratings for each soldier is a cheeky touch) board the Le Verrier station in orbit around Neptune on a rescue mission, only to bump into The Doctor and Clara, and then Gagan Rassmussen (Reece Shearsmith, completing the League of Gentlemen trifecta on Who).
Until the final moments it’s an unremarkable story. Depending on your POV, it’s either Who at its most stylistic, bold, and experimental, or a dull and overstretched story that lacks any real scares or drama, loses credibility the further it stretches the tension, and feels as hamstrung by its filming technique as it is propelled by it. ‘Sleep No More’ is something you’ll love or…very much not love. Last time he did a horror story for Who it was Season 7’s wonderfully camp Hammer pastiche ‘The Crimson Horror’. He’s written it ( Crooked House), adapted it (M.R James’ The Tractate Middoth) and made several excellent BBC Four documentaries on the subject.
Not that ‘found footage horror’ is really new, but if anyone should get away with it in the context of this show, it’s Mark Gatiss. You can’t fault a 52 year old show for trying something new. And that’s good, you gotta keep moving, as the Time Lord once said. That’s part of the reason it’s become what Moffat describes as ‘the ultimate predator’ – week on week, season on season, it adapts, it tinkers, it experiments. The show’s too ambitious, too imaginative, too fidgety. But breaking it down episode by episode, it can’t be all things to all people. Maybe you want all that.Īnd across a whole season Doctor Who will give you all these things. Maybe you like something that challenges your preconceptions, or provides you with the nostalgic comfort of running down corridors. Maybe you like smart sci-fi with an intergalactic sweep, or a daft historical romp. Who can say? That’s the thing about Doctor Who: every fan rightly loves it, but every fan loves it for different reasons. Which, depending on how you feel about ‘Sleep No More’, will either be a warning you’re glad you ignored, or one you wish you’d heeded.
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