Hide was such an annoying episode for me. The 70's setting, haunted house and very minimal (but strong) cast would have made for an awesome episode... If they hadn't gone out of their way to make it everything except a ghost story!
There is definitely a point at which "clever genre twisting" just becomes frustrating and this episode certainly did that. Such a shame, because the set-up would have been fantastic for a classic Tom Baker gothic horror story.
Dougray Scott managed to shine despite his unimportant and cliche role, while Jessica Raine was interesting to see because she'll be playing Verity Lambert in the anniversary documentary. Here I thought she was fine but despite having the more interesting role she didn't seem to have the dramatic weight to it, though I suspect it was more of a script issue. Both did well with what screen time they had, it is a shame the story didn't amount to more than it did.
Certainly I was amused by the nods to old continuity. The inclusion of a crystal from Metebelis 3 and the Eye of Harmony were fine, but did feel like name-dropping for the sake of it, still no harm in that.
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The problem is that for an episode built around the conceits of a haunted house mystery, it rushed through the tropes so it could then try to squeeze in three more subplots that all felt underdeveloped to me. We have a time traveller, a bogeyman pursuing her in a collapsing bubble reality, the TARDIS resisting Clara still, a romance between the two non-regular characters, a romance between the bogeyman and another bogeyman that is also yet another bloody ghost...
This episode needed stripping down before it hit the screen. Most of these ideas are pretty good but all of them are underwhelming except perhaps in the decision to include them all at once. After the very nicely paced "Cold War", I'm afraid "Hide" failed to impress me at all.
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Since this review is a little late I have had a chance to see what other people have said and the episode has had almost universal praise. Tastes differ I suppose. Neil Cross (who also wrote the Rings of Akhaten) is a potentially good addition to the writing team, but he has to stop throwing so many ideas into his episodes at once.
The problem is that for an episode built around the conceits of a haunted house mystery, it rushed through the tropes so it could then try to squeeze in three more subplots that all felt underdeveloped to me. We have a time traveller, a bogeyman pursuing her in a collapsing bubble reality, the TARDIS resisting Clara still, a romance between the two non-regular characters, a romance between the bogeyman and another bogeyman that is also yet another bloody ghost...
This episode needed stripping down before it hit the screen. Most of these ideas are pretty good but all of them are underwhelming except perhaps in the decision to include them all at once. After the very nicely paced "Cold War", I'm afraid "Hide" failed to impress me at all.
Since this review is a little late I have had a chance to see what other people have said and the episode has had almost universal praise. Tastes differ I suppose. Neil Cross (who also wrote the Rings of Akhaten) is a potentially good addition to the writing team, but he has to stop throwing so many ideas into his episodes at once.