That is a haunting title right there and I love it! But it’s a little misleading as to the tone of this episode and the content of its story. “It Takes You Away” is not the monster horror it initially appears to be, and while the unexpected direction of the plot keeps you interested, it’s not until late in the episode that we get clarification what it’s really about. There is some vital character study in “It Takes You Away” and some unique plotting and ideas, but the fragmented tone and focus makes it a cracked mirror. Fascinating to look at and with shards of beauty, but not coherent.
In present-day Norway, the TARDIS team come across a seemingly abandoned old shack in the woods. There they find a blind girl called Hanna waiting there for her father to return while hiding from a monster she believes stalks the vicinity. Exploring the house though, the Doctor finds a mirror that seems to be a dimensional portal. Leaving Ryan to look after Hanna, she, Yaz, and Graham explore the strange world on the other side of the mirror and whether or not Hanna’s father is somewhere within.
It’s not so much another dimension that they travel through as an Antizone which the Doctor likens to a buffer between dimensions -one that resembles in some ways the Upside Down from Stranger Things in its dark and decaying state. Specifically we later learn it’s meant to keep one dimension at a distance from a more dangerous one (therein lies a big mistake of the episode: ours would undoubtedly be the more dangerous dimension). And the episode spends a goodly time with the characters navigating this Antizone with the help of an untrustworthy alien played by a barely recognizable Kevin Eldon. You never quite know where its going but the tone is grim and foreboding, especially after Eldon is devoured in a fantastic implicitly gruesome way by flesh-eating moths. The rope that our heroes are following has austere suggestion as well. Unfortunately this whole environment doesn’t go anywhere, at least not with any relevance to the plot. Eldon, the flesh-eating moths, all amounts to little more than padding. As pertains to the story, essentially the Antizone is merely the equivalent of the tunnel between worlds from Coraline as the Doctor, Yaz, and Graham emerge at the other end in a seemingly pleasant new dimension.
It’s here and in the latter half of the episode where the story gets interesting, though it has little to do with what came before. The atmosphere changes radically and though there’s still an air of mystery, it becomes dominated by more of a straightforward though very compelling speculative theme. The reality they’ve entered is one where Hanna’s father Erick has been for a long time, confirming Ryan’s bluntly expressed hypothesis that he’d just up and left his daughter (can’t blame Ryan for jumping to that conclusion of course). And he’s been here with what appears to be his deceased wife Trine, who has convinced him she can’t leave this dimension and therefore he can’t go back for Hanna. Who else is there conveniently but the late Grace O’Brien to lure Graham into staying as well. This is a world that entraps people by preying on their loss, and though the Doctor explains it’s some kind of exiled, conscious universe called a Solitract, we get the idea and it’s really fascinating and creepy. But it isn’t given enough room to develop in the seductive, unnerving ways it could. The Antizone is neat and could make for a worthy environment of a Doctor Who episode on its own, but the meat of “It Takes You Away” isn’t there.
With this Solitract and the brief resurrection of Grace, Graham suddenly becomes a major focus point in this part of the episode too. And though there’s no build-up to it, making its execution rather clumsy, it can’t be denied this is a powerhouse showcase for Bradley Walsh, deftly channelling Graham’s sadness and love as he’s tempted by this version of Grace. It’s the climax of the grieving process that began in “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” and has popped up again in “The Ghost Monument” and “Arachnids in the U.K.” especially. Faced with the possibility of living in this new world with Grace, it takes a great deal of strength and resolve to finally let go. And the insidious nature of the Solitract keeps its facsimiles of Grace and Trine ignorant of what they really are, possessing all the memories of their counterparts but not entirely their character. This is the catalyst of Graham seeing the truth, when Grace suggests he abandon Ryan, something Graham knows his Grace would never permit. The fact that Graham leaves her for Ryan is a really touching one too, made even more touching when Ryan upon learning of Graham’s choice at the end, finally calls him “Grandad”, at last acknowledging Graham as having been there for him where no other family member has and accepting him. For the record, Sharon D Clarke is once again great through this entire plot.
It works fine enough, but it would have been even more effective if it was the focus of the majority of the episode, if Graham had spent more time with this version of Grace. The side-effect of shoving all this into the last twenty-five minutes is that Erick gets no real character arc (he makes the right choice to come back in the end, but he’s still an asshole who abandoned his daughter and kept her in a perpetual state of fear), and Trine even less, and it hurts your interest and investment in either character.
Ryan back in our world, has a near-bonding experience with Hanna, who takes an instant dislike to him for his earlier insinuation about her father; something he doesn’t remedy by locking her away from the mirror portal. She outsmarts him and goes through it anyway. But Ryan does discover that her monster was just a sound system put in place by her father and when he tells her this in the Antizone, I guess they connect a little. It’s still not very believable by the end though that they’ve had any meaningful relationship. And the sound system is a pretty disappointing Scooby Doo-like answer to the monster plot point, except in that it makes Erick the monster. It’s worth noting that the house and the monster were the only things emphasized in the teaser for this episode, yet neither play much of a part. The monster as an idea is just about completely pointless.
Outside of Graham’s arc and the concept of the Solitract, “It Takes You Away” does have pockets of really good stuff. Graham and Ryan discovering they don’t have reflections is genuinely eerie, as is just the shabby way the shack is built, again making you think that will be a focal point of the episode. I like the Doctor writing a message for Ryan on the wall while claiming she’s drawing a map of the perimeter to reassure Hanna. Maybe it’s a little thing, but it’s nice to see the Doctor being just a little duplicitous to protect someone and showing real sensitivity that I’m pretty sure her immediate predecessors wouldn’t. I also love the lighting in the Antizone, or at least the parts of it bathed in blue and red of that torch which really looks vibrant on screen, and casts the Doctor in excellent profile. Yaz doesn’t offer a lot for the episode, playing the part of the conventional companion, but of course I was tickled by the callback when she suggested randomly the Doctor “reverse the polarity” and for the Doctor to proudly declare she’s speaking her language before doing just that to escape the Solitract.
Despite carrying a lot of drama, Graham still brings a humourous attitude. I love that he keeps sandwiches on him during trips, it just fits his character so well. Because of course Graham would approach travelling through time and space as any road trip, and I just love the mental image of Graham making sandwiches and preparing snacks for himself in the TARDIS kitchen. The Woolly Rebellion of 2108 is a mildly funny if inane idea, but the joke that wins this episode is the Doctors fifth Granny. That’s how the Doctor knew about the Solitract, from childhood bedtime stories. Between “Granny Five” telling seemingly inappropriate stories to the little Doctor and having a conspiracy theory about Granny Two being a Zygon, she gets more of your attention than the important plot device being exposited here.
But one can’t talk about the comedy in this episode without addressing its misplaced anticlimax. The Doctor offers herself to the Solitract over Erick, due to her immense knowledge, and the Solitract finally expels him, turns the dimension into a white void, and takes on the form of a talking frog with the voice of Grace. It’s beyond strange and certainly unintentionally hilarious -the kind of thing New Who fans would point to and dislike as exceedingly silly, especially after some of the ultra-serious moments that characterized the Davies and especially Moffat runs of the show. However, this is the kind of thing pulled from the campiest recesses of the Classic series: the Kandyman, the Mara snake, the Krotons, and of course Alpha Centauri. It’s impossible to take anything the frog is saying about having a friend and universes seriously, but I kind of like it. The effect is awful, the way its mouth moves is laughable, especially with Clarke’s voice so collected and pleasant coming out. But in a way it feels like an homage to Doctor Who’s roots. Was that the intent? Certainly not, but it’s how I’m taking it anyway.
“It Takes You Away” needed a rewrite and a consolidated focus, instead of the amalgam of tones and plots it was. Because the crux of the episode is strong, but it would have been much stronger without the meandering in the Antizone, a pointless Kevin Eldon appearance, and an anticlimax that doesn’t amount to much more than some silliness. The greatest takeaway is the culmination of Graham’s mourning arc and everything around it, including what looks like positive evolution in his relationship with Ryan. As for next week, it’s the series finale and we’ll see if any more threads wrap up as the gang find themselves in the middle of a battle with Mark Addy.
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/jbosch/
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