How could I not like ‘Sleep No More’? It’s written by one of my favourite writers Mark Gatiss, guest stars the wonderful Reece Shearsmith and is based on found footage horrors. So how could I not like ‘Sleep No More’? It was far too easy I’m afraid.
Each series of ‘Doctor Who’ has that one episode ‘Whovians’ never speak of. The most notorious of these is the David Tennant era ‘Love & Monsters’. ‘Sleep No More’ could be the ‘Love & Monsters’ of series nine.
It’s not that it was awful just so un-engaging it was passable. The shame is that it could have been so much more. The premise sounded so promising. Monsters created by mans desire to not sleep. When it was revealed these monsters were mutated sleep dust you could almost hear an audible collective groan from across the country. They were less scary and more like the pixelated monsters from the 1993 computer game ‘Doom’.
Much like episode five of this series ‘The Girl Who Died’ ‘Sleep No More’ almost felt like a prologue for the next part of the story. The rescue team seemed under developed and were so unlikable I felt no jeopardy about their situation. Reece Shearsmith wasn’t given enough screen time. Which is a shame as his character ‘Rassmussen’ did give the episode some real menace.
As you’d expect from something written by Mark Gatiss there was some great humorous dialogue within ‘Sleep No More’. The exchange between the Doctor and Clara about the word space prefixing other words in the future, with a punch line which referenced the part missing Patrick Troughton episode ‘The Space Pirates’, was well executed and timed. But a few funny lines could not hide the fact that most of the dialogue was just so laden.
So a great idea poorly executed. It could have been worse but, it had the potential to be so much better. So fellow ‘Whovians’ let’s move on to ‘Face the Raven’ and, as is our ways, let’s never speak of ‘Sleep No More’ again.
Rating out of 10: 6.5
Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
The CW has released a new extended trailer for The Flash, offering up some new footage from several upcoming episodes and teasing the unmasking of Zoom:
Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more
At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more
In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
It is the final episode of Season 1, and as expected following the somewhat calmness of last week's episode this week is about to go off the scale. Our crew Read more
Episode 5 of Zomboat! is the penultimate episode of Season 1 and it gave the audience a chance to catch their breath before the grand finale. Instead of the fast Read more
In Zomboat! Episode 4 we discover that even a shopping trip can be hazardous to your health in post-apocalyptic Birmingham. With the boat moored and apparently safe Amar (Ryan McKen) Read more
After our diversion last week our Zomboat crew begin travelling in the right direction and end up back where they first got on the boat. This also happens to be Read more
Zomboat! burst onto our screens last week and while we loved it we noted that it felt "a bit rushed with lots crammed in." As Episode 2 washed over us Read more
Debuting on ITV2 in the UK, Zomboat! is filmed in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio of most zombie movies and answers the life long question of what would happen if you Read more
When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more
Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more
Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, Zombie Tidal Wave aims to pick up where the Sharknado franchise left off. More serious in tone, the film plays more like the original Sharknado Read more
Zombie Hotel ran for twenty-six episodes in 2006 and focuses on Fungus and Maggot - two child zombies who pretend to be human to get into their local school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXhCDspKxU Read more
2 thoughts on “Doctor Who – 9.9: SLEEP NO MORE”