259 –"Sleep No More" | |||
---|---|---|---|
Doctor Who episode | |||
Cast | |||
Guest
| |||
Production | |||
Directed by | Justin Molotnikov | ||
Written by | Mark Gatiss | ||
Script editor | David P Davis | ||
Produced by | Nikki Wilson | ||
Executive producer(s) | Steven Moffat Brian Minchin | ||
Music by | Murray Gold | ||
Series | Series 9 | ||
Running time | 45 minutes | ||
First broadcast | 14 November 2015 | ||
Chronology | |||
| |||
"Sleep No More" is the ninth episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 November 2015. [2] It marked the first time an episode of the series had not featured any opening titles - the title and writer were instead announced at the beginning of the end credits.
The episode is a found footage video engineered and narrated by Gagan Rassmussen (Reece Shearsmith), a crew member of a space station orbiting Neptune in the 38th century. In the episode, Rassmussen manufactures a perilous adventure involving Sandmen—humanoid creatures made of rheum—to make more people watch the video and allowing the spread of an electronic signal to other people's brains that will create more Sandmen.
The viewer is addressed by Gagan Rassmussen, a researcher aboard Le Verrier Lab, a space station in orbit around Neptune in the 38th century, through a glitch-filled video transmitted across the Solar System. Rassmussen warns the viewer not to watch the video, but says its found footage will explain the events that have occurred.
When communication with Le Verrier is lost, a rescue ship is dispatched from Triton. Aboard Le Verrier, the four soldiers, Nagata, Chopra, Deep-Ando, and 474, discover the station empty save for the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, passing off as assessors. The group is chased by "Sandmen", humanoid forms composed of dust.
They take safety in a lab filled with large pods, and discover Rassmussen. He explains he is the inventor of the pods, known as Morpheus, which are machines that send signals to the brains of the humans inside to compress a month's worth of sleep into a few minutes, and the pods on Le Verrier are more advanced than on Triton. The Doctor suspects that Morpheus has transformed the rheum in the corner of the eye into a carnivorous lifeform which digested the crew.
The gravity shields are powered down before the Doctor fixes them. During this, a Sandman appears to consume Rassmussen. Chopra, Deep-Ando, and 474 are also killed during their escape. The Doctor silently monitors the Sandmen and realises that Rassmussen is making them blind by hijacking the visual receptors in the rheum in the Sandmen and in the eyes of anyone who has used Morpheus to collate video footage.
They make their way to the ship but Rassmussen is alive, trapping them in a room with a Sandman. Rassmussen plans to use the ship to return to Triton and release Morpheus there with the Sandman, which he says is now spread by spores. Nagata shoots Rassmussen. The Doctor engineers their escape and destroys the gravity shields, sending the station and ship into Neptune. The Doctor comments that the inconsistencies in how Morpheus is spread along with the gravity shields being powered down seems to be contrived like a story. The Doctor, Clara, and Nagata escape in the TARDIS.
Rassmussen reveals to the viewer he is a Sandman, being pulled apart by Neptune's gravity. Rassmussen explains he wanted to ensure the video the viewer is watching was seen by others, as its glitches contain the Morpheus signal and will allow it to spread.
When debating with Clara about naming the creatures, the Doctor mutters "It's like the Silurians all over again", referring to an old adversary that first appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970). [3] [4]
According to writer Mark Gatiss, the Doctor's mention of "the Great Catastrophe" that befell humankind is referring to the collision between the Earth and the Sun described in the Season 21 serial Frontios . [5]
The title is in reference to the Shakespeare play, Macbeth : "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep" which the Doctor quotes during the episode. [4] [6]
Clara asks if the Morpheus Machine is actually named after Morpheus, the god of dreams. The Morpheus hologram also uses the term 'in the arms of Morpheus', a phrase meaning to be in a deep sleep. [4]
The Morpheus machine theme song, "Mr. Sandman", was popularized by the group The Chordettes among others in 1954. [4] [7]
Those like Chopra who refuse to compress their sleep via the Morpheus process are referred to as 'Rips'—a reference to the short story "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. [5]
The read through for this episode took place on 23 July 2015 and filming took place from 27 July to 12 August 2015.[ citation needed ] A new title screen specially designed for this episode was shown instead of the usual opening sequence, the first such instance in the show's history. [8]
Reece Shearsmith appeared in An Adventure in Space and Time as Patrick Troughton. Tom Wilton appeared as a Zygon in "The Zygon Invasion" / "The Zygon Inversion". Bethany Black is the first openly transgender actor to appear on Doctor Who. [9]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score) | 6.34 [10] |
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer) | 61% [10] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The A.V. Club | B [11] |
Paste Magazine | 8.0 [12] |
SFX Magazine | [13] |
TV Fanatic | [14] |
IGN | 8.4 [15] |
New York Magazine | [16] |
Radio Times | [17] |
The episode received mixed reviews and was watched by 4 million viewers overnight in the UK, an 18.2% audience share. This rose to 5.61 in final figures, which made it the lowest of any episode of Doctor Who since the show was revived in 2005, until the episode "Oxygen" in the next series, which received 5.27 million viewers. It received an Appreciation Index score of 78, the lowest since the 2006 story "Love & Monsters", which received a score of 76. [18] The episode also received the lowest score of the ninth series on Rotten Tomatoes, reporting a 61% approval rating with an average rating of 6.34/10 based on 18 reviews. The website's consensus reads "Doctor Who's effective horror elements and unexpected cliffhanger save 'Sleep No More' from being a gimmicky found-footage episode." [10]
The Sandman is a figure in folklore who brings good sleep and dreams.
The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.
Morpheus is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's Metamorphoses he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name began to stand more generally for the god of dreams, or of sleep.
The Sandman is the pseudonym of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. They have appeared in stories of various genres, including the pulp detective character Wesley Dodds, superheroes such as Garrett Sanford and Hector Hall, and mythic fantasy characters more commonly called by the name Dream. Named after the folklore character that is said to bring pleasant dreams to children, each has had some thematic connection to dreaming, and efforts have been made to tie them into a common continuity within the DC Universe.
Doctor Destiny is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Jenna-Louise Coleman is an English actress. She began her career in television, making her acting debut as Jasmine Thomas in the soap opera Emmerdale in 2005, followed by a recurring role in the BBC school-based drama series Waterloo Road (2009). She made her film debut with a small role in the American superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and made appearances on diverse British period miniseries, including Titanic (2012), and Death Comes to Pemberley (2013).
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, or shares adventures with, the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as an audience surrogate by providing the lens through which the viewer is introduced to the story, and often, the series itself.
"The Day of the Doctor" is a special episode of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, marking its 50th anniversary. It was written by Steven Moffat, who served as an executive producer alongside Faith Penhale. It was shown on BBC One on 23 November 2013, in both 2D and 3D. The special was broadcast simultaneously in 94 countries, and was shown concurrently in 3D in some cinemas. It achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama and won the Radio Times Audience Award at the 2014 British Academy Television Awards.
The 2013 specials of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who are two additional episodes following the programme's seventh series. In addition to the traditional Christmas episode broadcast on 25 December 2013, a feature of the revived series since 2005, there was also a special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the programme broadcast on 23 November 2013, both airing on BBC One.
The War Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the English actor John Hurt. Although he precedes Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor in the show's fictional chronology, his first onscreen appearance came eight years after Eccleston's; the War Doctor was retroactively created by showrunner Steven Moffat for productions celebrating the show's 50th anniversary. Hurt would reprise the role in the 2015 audio drama series The War Doctor until his death in 2017, with actor Jonathon Carley taking over the role from 2020 onward.
The ninth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who premiered on 19 September 2015 with "The Magician's Apprentice" and concluded on 5 December 2015 with "Hell Bent". The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, alongside executive producer Brian Minchin. Nikki Wilson, Peter Bennett, and Derek Ritchie served as producers. The series is the ninth to air following the programme's revival in 2005, and is the thirty-fifth season overall.
"Deep Breath" is the first episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One and released in cinemas on 23 August 2014. It was written by showrunner and executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Ben Wheatley.
"In the Forest of the Night" is the tenth episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 25 October 2014. The episode was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and directed by Sheree Folkson.
"The Magician's Apprentice" is the first episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 19 September 2015. The episode was written by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie MacDonald. It is the first of a two-part story; the second part, "The Witch's Familiar", aired on 26 September.
"The Witch's Familiar" is the second episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 26 September 2015. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie MacDonald, and is the second part of the story begun by "The Magician's Apprentice" on 19 September.
"La Couchette" is the first episode of the second series of British dark comedy anthology Inside No. 9. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith and directed by Guillem Morales, the episode is set in a sleeper carriage on a French train. English doctor Maxwell, who is traveling to an important job interview, climbs into bed. He is disturbed first by drunk, flatulent German Jorg, and then by English couple Kath and Les. Later, while the others sleep, Australian backpacker Shona brings posh English backpacker Hugo back to the cabin, but the pair make a surprising discovery. The episode stars Pemberton, Shearsmith, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mark Benton, Jessica Gunning, Jack Whitehall and George Glaves.
"Cold Comfort" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British dark comedy anthology television programme Inside No. 9. The episode, which was written and directed by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, was first broadcast on 16 April 2015 on BBC Two. Most of "Cold Comfort" is composed of a stream from a fixed camera on the desk of Andy, the protagonist, with smaller pictures on the side of the screen, in the style of a CCTV feed. "Cold Comfort" was filmed over two and a half days in Twickenham, and was, like "A Quiet Night In" from Inside No. 9's first series, highly experimental. It was Pemberton and Shearsmith's directorial debut.
"The Zygon Invasion" is the seventh episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 31 October 2015, and written by Peter Harness and directed by Daniel Nettheim. The episode is the first episode of a two-part story, the second part being "The Zygon Inversion", which aired on 7 November.
"The Zygon Inversion" is the eighth episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 7 November 2015, and was written by Peter Harness and Steven Moffat and directed by Daniel Nettheim. The episode is the second of a two-parter, the first being "The Zygon Invasion", which aired on 31 October 2015.
"Face the Raven" is the tenth episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 November 2015, and was written by Sarah Dollard and directed by Justin Molotnikov.