Doctor Who Recap: “Hide”

by Sarabeth Pollock:

Doctor Who Recap: “Hide”
Original Air Date (BBC/BBC America): Sunday April 20, 2013
Season 7 Episode 9

First and foremost, I want to extend heartfelt condolences to the people who were injured and the families of those people who lost their lives  this week in Boston and in West, Texas.  This week took everyone through the full gamut of emotions, and I will admit that being able to escape for a while into the world of Doctor Who helped me a great deal.  That, in the end, is the cornerstone of great entertainment.  It allows us to get away for a little while so that we can hide from real life.  And tonight’s episode, aptly entitled “Hide,” was escapism at its best.

November 25, 1974.  The Caliburn House.  An experiment of some kind is about to begin.  Major Alec Palmer asks Emma Greyling if she’s sure she wants to go through with it given the trouble she went through last time.  Based on the Poltergeist-esque equipment lying about, it looks like the experiment has something to do with ghosts.  The house certainly is creepy enough, and once you mix in the rainstorm outside the setting is complete.  Emma says she’s ready.  The ghost they’re trying to contact is “so lonely,” she says.  Major Palmer turns on the equipment and Emma tries to channel the spirit, but something tells me the spirit is too powerful for these two.  Something blows out Palmer’s equipment so he grabs a camera instead, and as he snaps photos we see a phosphorescent white smudge moving toward—and eventually through—Emma.    After they both recover from the shock of the moment, there’s an appropriately ill-timed knock on the massive front door.  Palmer goes to answer.  It’s the Doctor and Clara, and they’re looking for a ghost.  “Who are you?” the Major asks.  Clara grins.  “We’re the Ghostbusters.”  (Random aside: Ghostbusters was released in 1984, ten years after the date given in this episode.  Just in case you were wondering.  Little Clara would have been a year old at that point.  Great movie.  End of random aside.)

The Doctor flashes the psychic paper at the Major and declares that he’s the Doctor. “Doctor what?” the Major asks. “If you like,” the Doctor replies.  He bursts into the main room and peers gleefully at the equipment.  He knows all about the Major, who also dabbles in secret espionage-type stuff and is also a professor of psychology.  He’s also a ghost hunter.  Emma interjects that the Professor wasn’t really involved in the war at all, having been captured as a POW, but the Doctor insists that was all part of the cover story for what he was really doing.  The Doctor acknowledges Emma as Palmer’s “assistant” because it’s the 1970s and she’s really more like a piece of equipment given that she’s a psychic, but who is he to judge?  Clara teases about his use of Companion and “assistant.”

When Palmer asks why the Doctor is there, he replies that he’s on a mission from Health and Safety.  That’s when he notices the equipment behind Clara and starts to wax poetic about the word “toggle.”  Great verb and noun, really.  The Doctor uses his specialized H&S tool, aka the sonic screwdriver, to do a quick check of Palmer and Emma, who haven’t been disrupted by any psychic emanations as yet.  Then, with the childlike glee that only Matt Smith can muster, he grabs a candelabra and proclaims “it’s ghost time!”

Wandering upstairs, Palmer insists that he won’t have his project taken away from him, and he insinuates that it’s happened before.  This is, after all, his house.  Clara can’t believe that he’d buy such a frightening place, a place, she says, where the birds are too afraid to fly overhead.  Later, Emma explains that she’s an empathic psychic, and the Doctor tells Clara that empaths are the most compassionate people you’ll ever meet.  While the Doctor rambles on about the depth of emotion they are forced to deal with on a daily basis, Clara sees that his words are impacting Emma and she stops him.  Good timing, because Palmer has his photo board ready.  Putting on his professor hat, Palmer explains that the house is over 400 years old, but the spirit inside is older than that.  The Caliburn Ghost, the Witch of the Well…she has been well known in local folklore.  She seems to be crying out. “For the love of God, stop screaming.”  Clara notes that her appearance never changes in the photographs.  Emma has been standing behind them, and she tells the group that the ghost knows she’s there. She needs help.  The Doctor ponders the idea of the Witch in the well.  He asks where the well is, but it doesn’t appear on the oldest copies of plans.  There is no well on the property that they have been able to find.

Clara is studying the picture of the screaming ghost woman.  The Doctor raps the back of her head, startling her, and asks if she’s coming with them to find the ghost.  “Why would we do that?” she asks.  “Because you want to,” he replies.  This is yet another lesson in Traveling with the Doctor 101.  When the Doctor issues a dare, Plucky Clara accepts.  As they leave, Emma informs them that the music room is the heart of the house.  The Doctor tells Clara that they’ll ask the ghost how she came to exist if they find her, and off they go on their search.  Meanwhile, Emma questions Palmer about the Doctor and whether or not he is from the Ministry.  As a psychic empath, she seems to be thinking about what the Doctor said about Palmer’s secretive past.  “Experience makes liars out of us all,” Palmer tells her.  There is clearly some sexual tension between them both, and when she tries to touch his hand, he rushes off under the pretense of tending to his equipment.

The music room is dark and sparsely decorated.  Clara has the distinct feeling that she’s being watched, and after the Doctor clarifies that it’s the prickly feeling on the back of one’s neck, he agrees.  As he wanders deeper into the room, he encounters a spot where the temperature drops and he can see his breath.  It’s literally one spot, and he tests it by stepping in and out of it before marking it with a chalk circle.  Clara turns and glances at the door.  Something seems to be affecting her.  The Doctor heads into the next room, and she hurries to follow him.

Palmer’s instruments start picking up activity in the house.  Smoke rises from the chalk circle.  The Doctor and Clara run into an invisible barrier, and Palmer notes a distinct drop in the temperature.  “She’s coming,” Emma warns.  And then there’s the banging.  The Doctor helpfully tells Clara that it’s a loud, angry noise, to which she admits she’s just a “teeny” bit terrified.  Smiling, the Doctor agrees with her.  Then all hell starts to break loose.

Clara thinks the Doctor is holding her hand, but he isn’t.  Something is in the shadows behind them, and the flash of lightening confirms that it’s something dark and scary.  They run downstairs, and as they arrive, a black disc appears in midair.  The sonic doesn’t provide any kind of reading (have you noticed the sonic has been kind of wonky this season? My sister pointed out that the light turned red earlier in the season), so the Doctor grabs Palmer’s camera and starts snapping photos.  While the attention is focused on the disc, Emma is focusing on the approaching apparition coming up from behind them.  We flash to a scene outside, where the apparition appears to be standing in the same way (perhaps over the hidden well?).  Clara notices Emma and gets the Doctor’s attention.  He starts taking pictures of the ghost as the disc starts to crack like a mirror.  Suddenly Emma faints, and a woman’s voice can be heard asking for help.  The disc and the ghost disappear, but the words “help me” appear on the wall briefly before fading away.

Clara tries to soothe Emma’s nerves with some whiskey, but both realize that tea would be much better.  The Doctor is in the dark room with Palmer developing the photographs, and the doctor probes him about the decision to become a ghost hunter after such an illustrious military career that involves U-boats and carrier pigeons.  Palmer killed people, and caused people to be killed.  He’s doing this now as a means of atoning for his past sins.  Clara has picked up on the tension between Emma and Palmer, and she’s surprised when Emma says she hasn’t acted on it.  She’s surprised because Emma is empathic and could pick up on his feelings.  Emma thinks that sometimes “people like her” pick up on things that they want to be real but aren’t.  Clara assures her that “it’s real.”  Palmer says he’s unmarried and at the time was willing to die for the cause, but now he’s alive and they’re gone.  If he had a chance, he’d say thank you to the people who died for him.  They finish developing the picture of the ghost over the Doctor’s shoulder. Palmer asks what he thinks the ghost is, and the Doctor admits that she’s not what he thought she’d be: fun.  Emma asks if Clara and the Doctor are an item.  (You know, for the 1970s, Emma seems really old fashioned.  I’d think it was the 1930s, really)  Clara waves off the idea, and Emma tells her to be careful about trusting him.  She references a “sliver of ice in his heart.”  Just then, the Doctor calls out for her.

The Doctor leads Clara out to the TARDIS.  It’s raining and Clara is tucked under the red umbrella.  She stops in front of the TARDIS and tells the Doctor that she thinks it’s looking at her, and that it doesn’t like her.  Interestingly, she said the same thing in “The Rings of Akhaten” when the door wouldn’t open. The Doctor assures her that the TARDIS is like a cat and is slow to trust people.  Of course, what he doesn’t realize is that Emma placed that little “sliver” of doubt into Clara’s head, so now Clara is unsure of everything.  This must mean that she was uncertain to begin with, because we didn’t see Clara rush to defend the Doctor.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor realizes that Clara has been locked out.  She comes inside and wonders where to put her umbrella.  That’s when the Doctor realizes that he thought he had a coat rack but now it’s not there.  Is it a matter of the new interior, has it gone missing to spite Clara, or is he going mad?  She shakes it out and he admonishes her for creating a health and safety nightmare.  That, he says, is not going to gain her any favor with the TARDIS.  Once that’s all sorted out, Clara asks where they’re going.  They’re not moving from that spot, the Doctor says.  “When are we going?” she presses.  This gets her a high five from the Doctor.  His response is cryptic: always.  (Always or all ways? Not sure yet.)  After rummaging around, the Doctor pulls out an orange jumpsuit reminiscent of the one worn on Bowie Base One during the special “The Waters of Mars.” Clara says the color hurts her eyes.  The Doctor hangs his head in mock defeat.

Back at Caliburn, Palmer remarks that he heard an engine but can’t see where they’ve gone to.  Emma agrees, but she’s rather distant.  When the lightning flashes, we see that the haunting figure is right behind them.

The TARDIS materializes in the middle of a lava field.  The Doctor steps out and snaps a picture.  Then they land in the middle of a lush forest with giant prehistoric bugs.  Another photo.  They do this again in the Victorian era, and then they land in a desolate spot.  During the last trip, the Doctor tells Clara to stay where she is.  He notes that she looks upset but she assures him that she’s fine.  While the Doctor is out snapping his photo, Clara stares at the screen that shows what’s happening outside.  When he returns, he sees tears in her eyes and admonishes the TARDIS for being mean.  Clara asks if they just witnessed the birth and death of Earth, which he acknowledges.  “And you’re okay with that?” she presses.  His answer is a tight “yes.”  He pleads for a cheat sheet to understand what she’s talking about.  Clara points out that they just went from 1974, when she hasn’t been born, to a billion years in the future when she, and everyone else, is dead.  How can he deal with that?  To him, she says, they’re all ghosts.  So why does he bother with them?  The Doctor appears troubled suddenly.  He tells her that she’s the greatest mystery worth solving.  Hmm….

Emma sees that Clara is troubled, and Clara admits she saw something she wishes she hadn’t seen.  Everything ends.  Not everything, Emma assures her.  Not love, not always.  She glances at Palmer longingly.  The Doctor aims the sonic at a slideshow (Yes! Remember watching slideshows after holiday dinners??) and he starts positing that perhaps the Ghast of Caliburn isn’t a ghost at all.  Perhaps she’s somewhere where time moves faster for her and slower for the rest of us.  What if someone could travel through time, in a box, perhaps a blue one, and gather snapshots of the same spot.  And then, voila, we see an image of a woman (who kinda resembles Martha, by the way).  The Doctor identifies her as a pioneering time traveler, Hilla Takorian.  Palmer argues that time travel isn’t possible, and the resulting paradoxes would…be worked out eventually, the Doctor finishes.  Emma is the lantern calling to her, so with a little help from the Metebilis crystal, they should be able to locate her and pull her back to this dimension.  Of course, there’s the small issue of the thing chasing her…and in the slide we see that it’s the same creepy crawly thing from upstairs that grabbed Clara’s hand.

While the Doctor prepares, Palmer tells Emma that she doesn’t have to do this, but she’s resolute on helping the lost soul.  We see that he also cares for her.  When the Doctor has Emma set up in the leather headgear with the blue crystal on her forehead, Palmer paces worriedly.  Emma asks if it will hurt, and the Doctor does a horrible job of admitting that he really doesn’t know.  The plan is for him to bungee jump into the alternate universe and pull Hilla out.  It should be simple, really.

Emma calls out to the spirit, and suddenly the clocks in the room start spinning out of control.  The disc appears and then shatters, and the doorway leading to the music room becomes a time wormhole.  With a reluctant “Geronimo,” the Doctor plunges inside and finds himself in a forest.  The forest, however, is on a splintered off piece of earth.  It is an alternate dimension, after all.  (Hmm.  Alternate dimensions…. Isn’t Rose and her family in an alternate dimension with Ten II?  Just saying….)

The Doctor can hear Hilla calling for help, but the forest is disarming and it’s easy to lose track of where you are.  And there’s something else there that he can’t see.  Eventually, he meets up with Hilla and half-explains that he has a way out.  She tells him there’s something in the mist.  So they run.  And that’s when he realizes that he’s lost the exit he told her about.  Back in 1974, Emma calls to the Doctor and guides him to a parallel house.  They run for it, with the monster hot on their heels.  They go inside and lock the beast out, but they don’t have long before he finds a way in.  Once they get to the music room, the Doctor uses his bowtie to close off the door.  The banging he heard with Clara was really the monster trying to break in from the alternate universe.  He tells Hilla to put the harness on and tug the rope, and when she does, Palmer starts reeling her in.  That’s when Emma passes out and the gateway closes, leaving the Doctor in the alternate dimension.

He looks around the room fearfully, and when he takes a step he finds himself back in the forest.  The monster is somewhere in the forest but he can’t see it.  In 1974, the TARDIS sits outside.  Clara begs for Emma to try again but Palmer says she’s too weak.  Hilla is on the floor gasping.  Clara begs her to try again, and then she rushes outside to the TARDIS.  Palmer holds Emma to his chest and praises her, telling her that she saved Hilla’s life, and she does have the strength to try again.

Outside, Clara hurries to the TARDIS and finds that it’s locked.  “Come on!” she cries.  Then, suddenly, an image of herself appears behind her.

Palmer tells Emma that she gave him a reason to be, and she brought him back from the dead.  She gets up and starts to try again.  She and Palmer form a circle with Hilla and call forth the alternate universe.

The TARDIS has initiated a visual image of someone that Clara would recognize.  The TARDIS cannot enter the alternate universe or else it will die.  Clara doesn’t believe that the TARDIS wouldn’t at least try to save the Doctor.  The simulation Clara disappears and the door opens.

The Doctor knows the monster is out there but can’t figure out why it hasn’t attacked him yet.  He calls it the Boogeyman, saying it likes to “hide” and keep people fearful.  He admits that he’s afraid, and he posits that the creature needs him to ferry across to the other dimension.  He tells it that it must try to catch him first, and so the Doctor takes off running for the parallel house.

Emma tries to keep the portal open but she’s fading fast.  Clara is guiding the TARDIS through the vortex (wait, how can she fly it?).  The monster attacks the Doctor and tackles him to the ground, and just when it seems like it’s all over, the TARDIS swoops in and knocks it away.  The Doctor grabs on and they get out of there.  As the portal closes, Emma screams in agony and the TARDIS materializes in the doorway with the Doctor hanging on for dear life.

Caliburn has been transformed into a happy, bright, beautiful castle once again.  Palmer and Hilla walk outside, followed by a beaming Clara.  The Doctor stops to talk to Emma.  Emma realizes that the Doctor was never there to see the ghost, but was instead there to see her.  He asks her what kind of girl Clara is.  Emma is confused and says she’s a normal girl.  The Doctor seems perplexed, but he smiles.  Outside, Palmer studies the TARDIS while Emma and Hilla exchange hugs.  Hilla has been declared dead so she can’t return to her time, and the Doctor quickly explains that history can’t be rewritten even though paradoxes work themselves out.  Hilla, it turns out, is Emma and Palmer’s great-great-great-great-granddaughter.  When the Doctor realizes that they haven’t even expressed interest (out loud) to each other, he mutters “paradox.”  The blood connection explains why Emma was pulled to Hilla.  Hilla could feel Emma near her.  Palmer wants to know what they should do next, given that they now know they’ll end up together.  The Doctor suggests holding hands and not letting go.

That’s when it hits him.  He smacks his forehead and admits that he’s slow but he always gets there in the end.  There is a monster in the alternate universe and there’s one upstairs in the house.  He asks Clara how sharks make babies.  She replies “carefully,” but he says “happily.”  Yes, she supposes their mouths full of sharp teeth do kind of resemble smiles.  The Doctor realizes that the monsters have been separated by time and space.  He asks Emma for one last favor.

The Doctor jumps through the portal and ends up back in the forest, but this time he’s not scared.  He tells the monster that he can take it to be with his mate, and when he turns around, the bony creature is there.  “Well, hello there, you Romeo,” he greets them.  The TARDIS approaches and the Doctor tells the creature he needs to get ready to jump.

So ends another fantastic episode.

Speaking of time travel, one more thing about last week’s episode, “Cold War”: as I was driving to work this week I heard Duran Duran’s song “Hungry Like the Wolf” during a celebration of the year 1983.  You’ll recall that Professor Grisenko and Clara were singing it last week.  Well, 1983 has another important meaning this season.  It’s the year Clara was born.  Sorry I missed that last week.  I was too caught up in the Bad Wolf/Hungry Wolf connection.

I really loved this episode.  It had a little bit of everything in it: horror, sci-fi, drama, romance, mystery, and some good old-fashioned monsters.  Neil Cross penned this episode and it did not disappoint.  It was also chock full of Easter Eggs that seem to be pointing to some kind of time rift where the past might meet up with the present.  I’m curious what led the TARDIS to not only open its door for Clara, but to also allow her to fly it.  That’s new.

At any rate, I’m eager to hear what you all thought of tonight’s episode.  Until next week, Whovians!

Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for DarkMedia. She covers True Blood, Doctor Who, and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy.  She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from True Blood to Doctor Who to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness.  Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com