A spooky house, an unreachable tower, a creepy landlord, and a bunch of young folks moving in together. Join Deb, Erika, and Liz as we discuss what these ingredients add up to. Was it a delightfully scary tale or something less than that? Let us know what you think in the comments!
^E
Also covered:
- Liz
- is thrilled to have Doctor Who back regularly!
- watched “The Face of Evil”, which is fine!
- Erika
- live-tweeted Peter Capaldi’s Q&A at Calgary Expo!
- appeared (with Liz!) on the TeeVee Podcast to talk about “Thin Ice”!
- got to watch new Doctor Who with her mom!
- Deb is delighted by Doctor Who rap battles!
Bonus links:
P-Cap at the Science March
Reality Bomb live from New York
Foolproof
Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Liz “reviews” series 10 eps
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
The “Knock Knock” house on Airbnb
Download or listen now (runtime 1:19:06)
VerityPodcast.com 
Comments on: "Episode 136 – Knock Knock, Who’s Here." (22)
Not a theory as to who’s in the vault, but I posit that Nardole was partway to being converted into a Mondassian Cyberman (maybe one of the first) before being rescued by (River?)
Reblogged this on Confessions of a Curator, Editor, Geek and commented:
NEW VERITY! NEW EPISODE!
An interesting and *very* kind discussion of an episode that made absolutely no sense, even by “Who” standards.
I’ll try to limit myself, but here’s a question about the “mother/daughter” reversal – why are we supposed to care? It’s not as though the entire episode hinges on that role switch. The false assumption was introduced only moments before, pertains to characters we’ve barely met, and doesn’t change anything about the actual threat. It seemed dropped in only to give Bill a chance to be clever, but the actual specifics felt irrelevant.
More: why/how did these bugs save the mother? Why save only her and kill others? What is the nature of the death if the housemates can come back from it? Why exactly 6 people every 20 years? Why the contract/lease? Did the landlord actually work out a specific arrangement with these nonverbal space-bugs, and if so how? With a tuning fork? And how does the “sound controls them” thing actually explain the skipping record player/wall-man? (It doesn’t.) What does the landlord do in the intervening 19 years? Does his changing tone/maturity level make any real sense, given that he could live a relatively normal life for 19 years, 364 days at a time?
Yes I’m nitpicking, but there were SO many nits.
Look the Time Lords only gave the Dr only one extra regereration & In the vault is missy, The master, Susan & The doctors mother “HYBRID” using their regeneration energy to send the Dr back to his first regereration ( the Modavian cybermem)c
The wood-woman was NOT computer generated, it was actual full-body prosthetics!
Elinor is correct. Watch the Doctor Who Fan Show, and David Suchet expresses his admiration for the actress inside the prosthetics because he said she did not complain once.
David Suchet said so on The DOCTOR WHO Fan Show on YouTube. He was amazed at the actress’ ability to act in that make-up/construction!
One suggestion re: what to call the era since the revival in 2005 rather than “New Who”
I’ve been using “pre-Hiatus” and “post-Hiatus” at my blog for years (though I have used Classic and New more often of late). Some long-term fans have expressed distaste for my nomenclature because to them the “hiatus” referred to the gap in middle of Colin Baker’s tenure. I still think my terminology works. 🙂
I haven’t used the term New Who (or Nu Who) for a few years now, and call it Modern instead.
This one is my 4th favorite so far, if we’re ranking. It was fun, I adored all the characters, I really loved David Suchet (I’ve only seen him in Poirot I think, so even his accent was fun for me), and it was great to see (as pointed out by the writer in Doctor Who Magazine) Bill & the Doctor having some of the adventure separately. Bill can definitely carry a scene on her own, no problem.
I wasn’t crazy about the general unexplainedness of a lot of it – like with Smile I just got hung up on the plot holes, or maybe it’s better described as missing information. Both of these stories could have really used more episodes. Really interesting issues that could be further developed. It wasn’t quite scary enough for me either, though my 17 year-old daughter thought it was plenty scary, and unlike me she likes scary stuff. I was probably just too busy wondering why wood lice were devouring people, then somehow also putting them in the walls, or whether the wooden lady was related to the wood people of The Doctor, the Widow & the Wardrobe, and why she got to be a wood person when the other people were devoured, etc. etc. (Wrote this off line, other good questions noted above!) I still need to do a rewatch with subtitles, that may help.
Thin Ice is still my favorite this season by far. But it may be one of my favorite eps of all time, so there’s that.
I have two quick questions. First, did you read in Doctor Who Magazine where the writer, Mike Bartlett explains that Harry is Harry Sullivan’s grandson? (Not the Great Wall-visiting grandfather who is mentioned.) So is that canon? I thought that was a very cool idea, and it’s too bad the line was cut. It would be fun if the young Harry actually knows a lot about the Doctor & gets to come along for a bit. Fan fic for somebody who is not me to write perhaps :).
Also, I’m wracking my brains & can’t remember what you call an episode that takes place in a confined space. Not thinking of this one, but say a submarine or whatnot. My daughter hates those, but I enjoy them. Neither of us can remember the usual term.
Going to watch Hide again, not sure yet. In my memory Hide was more complicated but possibly hung together better. Not a big favorite as I recall, but these things change over time…
Thanks again for the wonderful podcast! A much needed and refreshing midweek palate cleanser from all news all the time ;).
I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, and your podcast!
I don’t know about Bristol, but I want to let Deb know for her next visit, that we have a lovely Mexican restaurant here in Edinburgh. It’s run by a Mexican family so you can be sure the guacamole is not coming out of a squeezy bottle. 🙂
http://www.viva-mexico.co.uk/
Perhaps it was the binaural experience or the presence of a charismatic guest star but I really quite enjoyed this. At the time it didn’t seem to matter much when the plot turned out to be a bit feeble. In retrospect, however, I do think it’s a problem that the same has been true in all four episodes. It’s starting to feel like a whole series of ‘The Woman Who Lived’; some great character stuff tacked on to a weak story.
I haven’t seen this mentioned but the vault scene reminded me of the last Sherlock episode where the violin playing of Sherlock’s evil captive sister changed when she was displeased. I’m worried that this is Missy and when she turns the tables on the Doctor we’ll get a rehash of ‘The Final Problem’ with John Simm crashing in from out of the past in the same way as Moriarty.
“20th Century Who” and “21st Century Who”? (Can’t remember now which website I got that suggestion from)
V1.0
And
V2.0
With 8th doctor being. 1.1996?
https://t.co/ZSrI7cw16J?amp=1
Some thoughts
Hi there.👋 Knock Knock my favourite season episode. It’s got the things I like. A bit spooky and a happy ending. Great as ever to see David Suchet and I liked the independent life being established for Bill. I wonder if we’ll see these kids again? The first thing that came to mind when I saw the house was that the Sarah Jane Smith Adventures cast was going to show up. There’s an old horror movie called Burnt Offerings. Stars Oliver Reed and Burgess Meredith. I really looks like this episode was directly based on it. I’m enjoying your podcast and I’m always happy when there are Canadian hosts.🍁Best wishes from Calgary.Alain LaVerdiere🇨🇦🏳️🌈
This has nothing to do with “Knock Knock”, but I thought the Veriteers and all their fans would appreciate yesterday’s Chosen One of the Day from Syfy Wire: http://www.blastr.com/2017-5-11/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-hair
Really enjoyed the episode, except for the part where it didn’t make a lot of sense. How did the mother get turned to wood? Why did the most recent batch of renters get returned to life, but not all the others? Were they just not…digested…yet?
Plot weaknesses aside, the Bill/Doctor relationship continues to fill me with joy. Have we ever seen a Companion as easy and relaxed in The Doctor’s company as this one?
You mentioned that Bill was able to point out the age discrepancy of the landlord without making The Doctor seem stupid. As a confirmed Clara-hater, I raised an eyebrow, because this was one of the key things that I didn’t like about her character. She was written in a way that made her seem brighter than The Doctor in so many situations.
And a final question…if Bill and all of her roomies had to flee at the end, does that mean she had to abandon all of those “newly-discovered” pictures of her mother? I would be so sad…
Oh gosh the pictures… that IS a sad thought!
Got my answer, base under siege. Of course. Thought that might come up this weekend 😉 Thx Fan Show.
Deb mentioned in this episode that the insects circling around someone and causing them to disappear into the wood reminded her of when the Vardy from Smile would swarm around someone and kill them leaving only their bones behind. In addition to these similarities, consider Thin Ice where the small underwater creatures would circle beneath someone’s feet and cause them to be pulled under the ice. That’s three shows in a row with very similar ways of creatures causing people to “disappear”. Interesting pattern…
[…] – And Verity!, course, where I mostly flailed about Knock, Knock and […]