Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S02E11 – Fear Her

In the eleventh episode of the second series of Doctor Who, the Doctor and Rose appear just in time for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London. They unfortunately land in a neighborhood that’s being affected by a strange girl with an unusual power. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.

Look, I don’t know what happened here. At heart, there are a lot of great ideas at work in “Fear Her.” Creepy kids. The idea that abuse can haunt a person long after it stops. Loneliness. The difficulties of being a single parent. THESE ARE ALL GOOD THEMES OR IDEAS, RIGHT?

Then how the fuck did this episode turn out so awful? Look, I’ve disliked episodes before and this hasn’t been a constant stream of perfection in television form, but jesus christ, this was a hard episode to sit through, let alone enjoy. I had a lot of hope at the beginning, but this episode does so many things that either had me steaming in silent rage or scratching my head that I almost wanted to call it quits and just move on to the two-part finale.

I have not had the chance to do this, so, if you’ll allow me, I’m going to jump into two sets of lists. PARTY.

THE GOOD

It’s not really fair of me to simply trash all of Matthew Graham’s episode and there were parts of it that I did like. As I said, this episode had the potential to be both terrifying and emotionally powerful, so there are things worth pointing out.

• I love that in the end, Rose is left to solve everything, without the Doctor. She’s been gradually taking more and more control of her adventures with the Doctor and it’s like watching her learn before our eyes. I acknowledge that she’s routinely selfish about things, but she acts entirely selflessly in “Fear Her.”
• Abisola Agbaje, who played Chloe Webber, was fantastic. That girl can ACT.
• Kel, the wonderful council worker, is MY FAVORITE SIDE CHARACTER EVER. Oh man, he was so SERIOUS about his paving job. A+++++++
• The concept of an Isolus is BRILLIANT. A being that travels with billions of members of its family and feeds on love crashing to earth and attaching itself to the loneliest human it can find? This should have had me weeping for days instead of shaking my fist with anger.
• Making the entire crowd disappear at the Olympic stadium? AWESOME.
• “Fingers on lips!”
• “I was a dad once.” WHAT!!!!!
• “You just took a council axe from a council van, and now you’re tearing up a council road! I’m reporting you to the council!” LOVE YOU FOREVER KEL.

THE ABSOLUTELY, MIND-BOGGLING AWFUL

• “It only seems like yesterday, a few Greek blokes were tossing a discus about, wrestling each other in the sand and the crowed stood around…now, wait a minute, that was Club Med!” NO, I’M SORRY, THE DOCTOR DOES NOT TRAVEL THROUGH TIME AND SPACE JUST TO GET EXCITED ABOUT CLUB FUCKING MED. JUST NO. NO.
• Why don’t people in this neighborhood seem more upset about the fact that KIDS ARE LITERALLY DISAPPEARING IN OPEN SPACES WITH NO ONE ELSE AROUND. If anything, everyone just seemed a bit peeved. As if it was irritating their kids were being kidnapping.
• Children’s drawings are nearly impossible to pull of as a scary device because they’ve been done like 40 billion times. SO NO. Am I supposed to be frightened by a drawing of a sad kid done with crayons? NO. NOT GOOD.
• An actual living scribble. Probably the most foolish thing I’ve seen someone commit to existing in a television show. If it can be simply erased, WOULDN’T ROSE TOUCHING IT HAVE SMUDGED IT?
• Ok, so the idea of the Isolus is fantastic. Here’s what I don’t understand at all. The Isolus feeds off the love of its family. HOW ON EARTH DOES TAKING A BUNCH OF STRANGERS WHO ARE CLEARLY UNHAPPY SOLVE THAT? You are sticking them in an environment devoid of love. So what was the Isolus feeding on? Imagined love? Or was it actually like some giant dance party inside the Isolus imagination pen?
• Let’s get to my big complaint: Was it just me or did this episode seem to portray abused children as really needy and annoying? As someone who was abused, I was constantly offended by the way the relationship between Chloe and her mom was portrayed and by the subtext to all of this. First of all, the mom acted like she was irritated that her daughter had been abused. LIKE IT WAS HER FAULT OR SOMETHING. Even worse, this episode aims to address the loneliness that comes with being an abused child and instead makes Chloe appear like a selfish, love-stealing brat. Yes, it’s the Isolus inside her, but could you have separated the two instead of trying to make them part of the same person? Jesus christ NO. JUST NO.
• The Olympic Torch resolution makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry forever on the sheer basis of its inanity. Is the ship the Isolus came in a separate entity? No? HOW DID IT KNOW TO FOLLOW THE TORCH AND LAND PERFECTLY IN IT. Look, this whole show is about suspension of belief, but that is just TOO far out there for me.
• I don’t even understand why Chloe drew her father. If it was meant to be a commentary on Stockholm Syndrome, it instead came out like HEY IF YOU WERE ABUSED, THINKING ABOUT YOUR ABUSER IS VERY BAD AND DON’T DO IT OR ELSE IT WILL CREEP YOU FROM THE TOP OF THE STAIRS.
• The Doctor. Carrying the Olympic Torch. This show is like 74% cheese, but seriously too much. I can’t. I just can’t.

This whole episode? All I kept yelling internally was I HATE THIS JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL

UGH. Cannot wait to move on to the super awesome two-part finale!!!