Doctor Who – Hide

• Title: Doctor Who – Hide
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“Don’t trust him. There’s a sliver of ice in his heart.”

 

The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) arrive at Caliburn House where a former spy turned ghost hunter (Dougray Scott) and an emphatic psychic (Jessica Raine) are hunting the legendary Witch of the Well who has haunted the area even longer than the 400 years Caliburn House has stood. Intrigued, The Doctor and Clara begin their own search of the house which gives them their first glimpse of the apparition who The Doctor doesn’t believe is a ghost at all.

Leaving the present, The Doctor and Clara take the TARDIS for a spin, traveling through time over the entire life cycle of Earth on the exact same spot, stopping from time to time to allow The Doctor to take pictures of the scene. The enormity of what The Doctor does so easily, without showing any outward emotion, makes Clara look at the Time Lord in a new light and be slightly disappointed and afraid with what she finds. We also learn that Clara believes the TARDIS doesn’t like her, which an obstacle the plucky companion will have to overcome when The Doctor becomes trapped and only the TARDIS, and Clara, can save him.

Returning to the present, The Doctor shares the truth behind the apparition with Alec (Scott) and Emma (Raine). Their ghost is actually a time traveler (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) caught in a collapsing pocket universe running from something yet to be seen. Using Emma as the beacon, and somewhat casually forcing her to use her gift to suit his purposes, The Doctor jumps through the wormhole to retrieve Hila Tacorien (Jacobs), only to be trapped alone with the monster when the portal closes. In the last few minutes, however, “Hide” provides quite a few twists including Clara flying the TARDIS into the pocket universe and The Doctor realizing what the monster truly is and why it wants out of the pocket dimension.

The truth of both the ghost and the monsters are nice touches as, perhaps like Clara, they aren’t entirely what they seem. The epilogue feels a bit rushed, although it is kind of sweet (at least for a monster story). The real takeaway here is Clara’s evolving relationship to The Doctor as she sees him in an entirely new light and is also warned about him by Emma (who doesn’t like everything she sees in the Time Lord’s heart). The episode also continues to focus on The Doctor’s obsession as to just who and what the impossibility of Clara Oswin represents for the universe and for himself, which it turns out was the only reason he took Clara to Caliburn House to begin with.