Doctor Who Review: Knock Knock (Season 10 Episode 4)

Bill gets more than a few new housemates on Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 4, “Knock Knock.”

Let’s just get this out of the way: it’s totally the Master in the vault, right? No one else would play a piano that delightedly at the notion of young people being terrorized.

That has the Master (or the Mistress, one never knows) written all over it. Trapping a previous version of his best frenemy in a vault under a University and bringing them Mexican food as a peace-offering sounds just about right for the Doctor. Time Lord friendships are hard.

Elsewhere in the actual main plot of the episode, Bill moves in with a group of strangers.

This is painfully in character for Bill, despite its oddness; she is brash and brave (just as the best of companions are), and obviously quite lonely. Bill is always reaching out for any kind of connection with another person. It makes sense that she’d want to be surrounded by as many as possible.

I don’t know about you guys, but I wouldn’t move into a big ‘ol castle owned by a creepy old guy alongside a bunch of strangers, but that’s me. Totally me.

Crafting a tightly knit mystery that stands on its own (unlike “Thin Ice”), “Knock Knock” draws on some truly creepy horror tropes to scare the audience effectively. The sound of scratching and knocking from within the wall work particularly well to set up the episode’s “jump and spill your bowl of popcorn everywhere” moments, as well as the terrifying images of Bill’s friends half-submerged into the wood of the house.

One of the wonderful things about Doctor Who the constant possibility that any episode can end with many different sci-fi conclusions. Sometimes, the audience is quicker than the show.

But sometimes, like with “Knock Knock,” the twist inside the twist is just quirky enough to be unpredictable up until its reveal. It works beautifully here without feeling gimmicky at all.

Making Eliza the Landlord’s mother gives Bill more of an emotional connection to their story, particularly when a difficult question is put to the Doctor:

“If you could save the one who brought you into this world, wouldn’t you?”

I get the feeling Bill’s answer is yes.

Also, bugs. Why did it have to be bugs? An episode automatically gets the “creepy” label when weird, alien bugs are involved. Remember when Eleven found dinosaurs in space? Let’s go back to that nice, bug-free time.

One of the biggest standouts from the episode is Bill drawing clear boundaries with the Doctor: she has her life with him, and her life without him. She has no need to drop everything and run away with him indefinitely — Bill doesn’t have anything to run from (that we know of), so she chooses to plant roots in the real world.

So far, this season of Doctor Who is shaping up to be one with a good balance of emotion and intrigue. But seriously…what’s in the damn vault?

And how did no one make a “the sonic screwdriver doesn’t do wood” joke?

What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Doctor Who airs Saturdays at 9/8c on BBC/BBC America.

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