Doctor Who Recap: Episode 7.10 "Hide"
Last week the Doctor and Clara fought a Martian Ice Warrior in the depths of a Russian Submarine. This week – a ghost hunt.
Hide starts off in an old mansion, with Professor Alec Palmer and his young psychic assistant, Emma Grayling. The Professor’s house is haunted by a ghost, the Witch of the Well, and they are determined to bring her out of the shadows and help her cross to the other side. If you weren’t impressed with last week’s episode, then you will be with this one because it is quite frankly terrifying, something we haven’t had in a very long time. After a close encounter, a couple of knocks on the door reveal the Doctor and Clara, seeking a ghost. The Doctor reveals that our Professor was actually a heroic spy, and Emma explains that her empathic powers allow her to connect with the ghost. Palmer has been taking many photos of the ghost, and Clara realizes that the ghost seems to be in the exact same position in every single photo ever taken – spooky, eh?
Clara and the Doctor take off around the house to look for the ghost, and it becomes apparent that Emma and Palmer have some romantic feelings towards each other that they are both too scared to act on. Our time-traveling duo arrive in the music room, where the Doctor feels a sudden cold spot that he spends a few moments obsessing over – feeling a bit like Supernatural, anyone? The temperature in the entire house begins to drop, something unknown grabs Clara’s hand, a loud banging echoes around the house, and when the four meet up again a strange black disc is floating in the middle of the room. The ghost cries out for help as everything overwhelms Emma, who faints, and the mystery disc disappears.
Emma wakes up and has a talk with Clara about her romantic feelings for Palmer, but is afraid that they aren’t reciprocated, as empaths like her can often get mixed signals. The Doctor and Palmer chat in his dark room, and the developing image is of the Doctor taking a rather dashing selfie with the ghost (and maybe he should’ve turned that flash off, you know how well that works with pale English skin). The Doctor has a sudden brainwave and jumps into the TARDIS with Clara, hopping throughout time to take photos of the ghost, from the beginning of the Earth, all the way to the end. Like many previous companions, including Rose, this rattles Clara, who believes that to the Doctor who can travel anywhere in time and space, they must all be like ghosts to him. The Doctor replies that they are the only mysteries worth solving, and I will admit my heart clenched a little at that.
The Doctor returns back to Emma and Palmer’s time, and reveals that our mystery ghost is none other than a woman named Hila Tukurian, a traveler from the future who has become trapped in a pocket universe, where seconds of her life seem like hundreds and thousands of years to us; Emma is the beacon that is leading Hila home. With a little bit of fiddling around, the Doctor manages to rig up a psycho chronograph, powered by the TARDIS and Emma’s psychic abilities, opening up a wormhole to Hila’s pocket universe where she’s trapped. He launches himself in and manages to find the lost traveler, gets chased by a freaky-looking alien and Hila manages to get pulled through to Clara and the others – however Emma is not strong enough to keep the portal open, and it closes before the Doctor can come back.
Clara is enraged and runs out to the TARDIS, who we know doesn’t like her, and demands that she let her in so they can travel to the universe and save the Doctor. The TARDIS, clever thing she is, talks to Clara through a hologram of herself, expressing concern at how long she will be able to survive in the universe. Clara manages to sway her, and the two travel haphazardly into the pocket universe and pick up the Doctor before the alien can get him.
In the end, everything is fixed as per usual – Hila is saved, everyone is safe, Emma and Palmer reveal their feelings for one another and oh yes, Hila is their great-great-something-granddaughter. Wonderful! But before the Doctor leaves, he realizes that there is a second alien living in the house, the one that grabbed Clara’s hand, and realizes that the two aliens are in love (how sweet), and jumps back into the pocket universe to save our dashing skeleton-alien Romeo… thing. So in the end, everyone is happy and in love, and Clara is still a complete mystery.
A frankly terrifying episode written by Neil Cross, and tune in next week for the exciting episode, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.