Doctor Who Review: The Haunting of Villa Diodati (Season 12 Episode 8)
Save the poet or save the universe. It’s a tough call on Doctor Who Season 12 Episode 8, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati,” but the Doctor is going to try to have her cake and eat it too.
On a technical level, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” is strong. There are gorgeous costumes, the setting is perfect for a Gothic novel, and the setup and lead-ins to the ultimate reveal of the Lone Cyberman are well-earned.
There’s a reason that Gothic horror and Frankenstein have endured to this day and it is because the tropes they established back in the 19th Century were terrifying, and they’re no less terrifying now. Even with science and an explanation, when you’re going through a maze of a house and your friend’s elbow brushes up against you, you’re gonna jump.
The portrayals of Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft Goodwin are interesting to watch and the use of Frankenstein to introduce the Lone–and Half-finished–Cyberman is an interesting parallel. Yet, the parallel only works because of the degree of humanity Ashad exhibits.
The appearance of the lone cyberman is a new look for the villain that is somewhat reminiscent of Danny Pink’s appearance in Doctor Who Season 8 Episode 13, “Death in Heaven,” except angrier and with a mission.
The idea of Cybermen is terrifying, but the more that the origins and myths are resurrected, the more I start to wonder if the Cybermen are going the way of Jaws. When the Cybus Cybermen were introduced in Doctor Who Season 2, their robotic voices and complete lack of empathy were part of what made them so terrifying.
The Lone Cyberman, on the other hand, seems to inch slightly more human, and as such doesn’t produce the same terror.
That’s not to say that Patrick O’Kane’s performance as Ashad isn’t terrifying, but when it comes to the fear of “the ultimate upgrade” I don’t quake in my boots.
More important than the appearance of The Lone Cyberman are the implications for the rest of the season. The trip to Villa Diodati starts off as a historical experience but ends up putting billions in danger.
Percy Shelley is the host to the Cyberium supercomputer, and it’s killing him putting the Doctor between a rock and a hard place. Jodie Whittaker has been killing the complex and angry parts of the Doctor this season.
Whittaker is able to take the Doctor from being goofy at the start of the episode to complete hopelessness and then absolute fury towards the end. The range of expressions we get with the Doctor is what Doctor Who should be because she has dealt with and seen a lot, and knows that sometimes the choices aren’t nearly as black and white as we’d expect them to be.
THE DOCTOR: Words matter. One death. One ripple and history will change in a blink. The future will not be the world you know. The world you came from. The world you were created in, won’t exist. So neither will you. It’s not just his life at stake, it’s yours. You want to sacrifice yourself for this? You want me to sacrifice you? You wannacallit? Do it now. All of you.
Yea, cause sometimes this team structure isn’t flat. It’s mountainous with me at the summit in the stratosphere, alone. Left to choose. Save the poet. Save the universe. Watch people burn now, or tomorrow.
Sometimes, even I can’t win.
When the Doctor finally makes her choice and uses the old Time Lord trick to make the Cyberium leave Percy there’s still the danger of giving it to the Ashad.
The exchange that occurs right before the Doctor gives up the Cyberium to the Cyberman — in spite of Captain Jack Harkness’s warning on Doctor Who Season 6 Episode 5, “Fugitive of the Judoon”— is haunting.
ASHAD: We are inevitable.
THE DOCTOR: Yes, you are.
When you take a look at the complete history of the Cybermen it does seem like they truly are an inevitability. The Doctor has seen them sprout on Earth’s twin planet Mondas, on a colony ship, and in a parallel world.
The Doctor manages to defeat them each time, but this time the stakes are higher.
One thing that has remained consistent throughout the series, is how the Doctor has adopted Earth. We’ve seen the Thirteenth Doctor fiercely defend Earth, and she doesn’t want to risk a cyber army being birthed on her beloved planet.
That all keeps within the Doctor’s characterization, but the realization that she has to let him have what he wants in order to fix it is jarring.
It’s not like the Doctor to knowingly put Earth in danger, but she does own up to it and is going to work towards fixing it. The implications of an upcoming cyberwar in the finale and the proposed danger means that the Tardis fam could be in some very adrenaline-filled danger for one of the first time in Whittaker’s run.
I’m not actually hoping for anyone to die in the finale. I am hoping they face the cybermen and come out victorious, but this episode does have me worried a lot about Graham.
The apparitions that appeared to Graham and brought him tea were an interesting touch, but the conversation outside of the Tardis is cause for alarm.
After the moment Graham had with the Doctor at the end of Doctor Who Season 12 Episode 7, “Can You Hear Me?” I wondered if they were setting this character up for a long goodbye. The introduction of ghosts and characters who aren’t there has been used before to signal things like a brain tumor.
In the end, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” is a strong lead-in to the finale. While I’m concerned for the Tardis fam, they presented an interesting historical plot using a narrative style that works, and have given the Doctor a moral conundrum that will carry her into the home stretch of her second season.
Stray Thoughts:
- Graham, stop giving the Doctor a hard time about her parking. This is just what the Doctor does, haven’t you traveled with her long enough to know that that Tardis shouldn’t in the midst of danger?
- Yaz being drawn into an enigmatic character: hmmm, wonder where that is going.
- I feel like Captain Jack is going to show up again in the finale and be like “Did you not get my message?” and I am here for Barrowman and Whittaker facing off and doing some dark comedic stylings about dooming the human race.
- Did anyone else cheer with Ms. Clairmont rejected Lord Byron after he used her as a shield?
- The Mrs. Doctor honorific was annoying, on the bright side, it’s one of the only times The Doctor didn’t have to say something about being a woman now.
- Hear me out, what are the odds that the events of the next few episodes are what made the Doctor a fugitive in “Fugitive of the Judoon?” Putting a protected planet in danger by giving up a supercomputer, that’s a pretty big felony I imagine, right? And what if this is another instance of parallel worlds on top of it? I have many questions after what we’ve been presented with this season.
What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.