{"id":5627,"date":"2016-06-07T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5627"},"modified":"2016-05-23T13:53:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T20:53:58","slug":"mark-watches-doctor-who-s09e09-sleep-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/06\/mark-watches-doctor-who-s09e09-sleep-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S09E09 – Sleep No More"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the ninth series of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, WHY MUST THIS SHOW DO THIS TO ME. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So now you want to ruin\u00c2\u00a0sleep<\/i>? Thanks,\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I love a good scare fest, and Mark Gatiss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sleep No More\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is all about crafting an unnerving and unsettling experience. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not heavy on characterization beyond the rejection of Morpheus by the Doctor, Clara, and Chopra. Well, 474\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0get a bit of growth, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to pull that out of a script that tells us at the beginning that pretty much everyone is going to die.<\/p>\n

Still, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sleep No More\u00e2\u20ac\u009d zeroes in on paranoia and terror through the creation of the Sandmen, the products of the Morpheus machine. In the 38th century, time is a commodity, and in order to increase profit and production, the Morpheus machine allows people to compact all their sleep into a tiny burst. Otherwise, they stay awake until their next session. It honestly seemed wrong the second I heard it. SLEEP IS GREAT, WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO HAVE IT. But Gatiss takes that wrongness a step further by positing that the Morpheus creates a living creature out of the dead cells and skin that one finds in the corner of your eye when you wake up. The Sandmen. WHO ARE HUMANOID BUT BASICALLY JUST A GIANT MOUTH FOR A HEAD AND THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S IT.<\/p>\n

God, the sight of them made my skin crawl. On top of that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sleep No More\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is filmed entirely in the found footage style, something I believe is a first for\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a style that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so pervasive in horror that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to do it well\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0keep the story interesting, but there were at least a few things here that separated the story from everything else I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen. (Though now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reminded of my favorite found footage movie,\u00c2\u00a0Chronicle<\/i>. SO GOOD.) From the beginning, Rasmussen made it clear that what we were watching wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just found footage; it was his assembly of footage\u00c2\u00a0he<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0found, a context that made this a lot stranger than I expected. The camera switches from helmet cams to surveillance cameras and GUESS WHAT THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT EVEN TRUE.<\/p>\n

More on that in a second. The episode is broken up with Rassmussen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commentary, which is only made more interesting when we find out that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0horribly<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0unreliable narrator. As entertaining as I found \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sleep No More,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a very strange story since the whole point of it is to manipulate the characters\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the audience. Upon learning that Rassmussen orchestrated everything as a distraction, I did feel a little cheated. That was only exacerbated by the eventual conclusion, too, which is abrupt and bizarre. The entire episode is a story, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for sure, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story\u00c2\u00a0for<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the Sandmen, one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meant to be addicting, exciting, and thrilling, all so that people will watch it and tell others. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll pass it along and the Morpheus signal will continue spreading, guaranteeing the supremacy of the Sandmen.<\/p>\n

Sooooo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is this a two-parter? Because while the Doctor, Clara, and Nagata all escape, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get any confirmation that they succeeded in stopping the Sandmen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan. Obviously, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a meta level to this episode that I appreciate, but I\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0want the story to feel complete. And it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. What about the Grunts? Will the Doctor ever do anything about\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0horrible project? Will Nagata stop using the Morpheus machine? Did the three survivors head to Triton and destroy the machines, or is it futile, now that the video got out?<\/p>\n

I sense that Gatiss was going after the real-world creepiness that we got from the Weeping Angels, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stuck without a proper conclusion. It just feels like an experiment for the sake of it.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sleep No More\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Death Note<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/em>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"