They come across the remains of the first victim, reduced to bones despite having been killed recently, and return to the TARDIS. He and Naomi join the Celts in their Samhain ritual and witness spectres of headless women and fire horses appear, after which they help a woman search for her daughter, Wynna, whom they find sleeping in the woods. He researches the area, learning that many unexplained deaths and disappearances have been reported on Halloween, and travels back three thousand years when the area was settled by Celts. The Doctor hurries to the TARDIS with Naomi and dematerialises before realising that Harry is not on board. The Doctor feels that there is something malevolent in the air and uses his sonic screwdriver to locate other bones, dating back centuries. They help Cavan find Gilly, his sister, who has found a skeletal human hand in the woods. They arrive near Chester in 1969 and flee from a demonic creature and ghosts before realising that they are at Shockstock, a Halloween festival. The Doctor decides to take Harry and Naomi to Aquilina, but the TARDIS picks up the sound of screams and they decide to go and help. This may be one cry for help better left unanswered. They find that people have been dying on the same spot on this day across millennia.īut in their bid to stop the nightmare, the travellers have unleashed the Doctor’s old enemy. The Doctor, Harry and Naomi respond to a scream for rescue. I used to be excited to catch the next episode, but now it feels like drudgery just to get through it.Halloween 1969. I get that the showrunner said they were going to stay closer to earth and old foes would not revisit the show much if at all, but the stories just feel juvenile and lack depth.

Also, the old doctors used to have some fun. But is feels like they have erased much of her past. I get that they are trying to do some new things, take new paths and so some breaks with earlier seasons are necessary. They are technically the same person! I'm not asking her to be the same as the previous doctors. But there seems to be little continuity between the old and new doctor.

I get that the transition to a new doctor takes some time both in terms of storytelling and character development. The writing is so weak and the stories so dull and plodding that I can't blame the cast. I just finished the 5th episode with Jodie Whitaker as the new doctor.

Doctor Who by Lisa McMullin