The main teaser for series eight consisted of a shot of the TARDIS floating/suspended above the Earth with its doors open. The camera then moves up to show the Doctor sat cross legged on the roof, he looks straight down the lens and says "Listen!"... It appears that this, the episode with that title, opens with this sequence then cuts to the console room as the Doctor paces around talking to himself (or it may be that the BBC chose to put the two together). He is talking as if giving a lecture, projecting with authority but pondering on the subject of why we talk aloud when they know we are alone. He suggests that it is because we know that we're not alone! There is a sequence to demonstrate his study of how different animals have evolved to best survive their respective habitat as a hunter or a defender - this includes a lovely shot of the TARDIS underwater as the Doctor stands in the open doorway observing a blowfish. We see him writing on his blackboard again, like a teacher, but he puts his chalk down to ask a question... If a creature evolved to stay perfectly hidden and undetected, what would it do when we start talking aloud for no reason... when he returns, the chalk has moved (it rolls on the floor) and the answer has appeared on the blackboard... Listen!
Interesting, clever and a little creepy... the pre-title sequence is a good indicator of what is to come, but there's plenty of suspense and surprise waiting to be uncovered...
The question and the episode are about fear of the unknown: the noises we hear in the quiet of night, the thought that something is under our bed, the irrational nerves on a first date. After the title sequence, we join Clara as she returns home from another awkward encounter with Danny Pink and we see their first date in progressive flashbacks revealing bad jokes, awkward misunderstandings and troublesome explanations. Clara has returned home alone, only to find the Doctor hiding with his TARDIS in her bedroom. He repeats his question and theory to Clara, only not as succinctly and introducing the idea that everyone has had the same nightmare about something under their bed that grabs their ankle if they step off it. And so the adventure begins. The Doctor introduces Clara (and the viewers) to the TARDIS telepathic interface so the can visit the first time she had the dream... only she gets distracted when her phone rings and they take a detour...
They encounter a young boy called Rupert, huddled in the corner of his room afraid of what might be under his bed. When Clara dives under it to show everything is OK, Rupert joins her only to find that the 'something' is now sitting on top of the bed under a blanket. The Doctor arrives in his own inimitable style and talks them through the theory that being afraid makes them stronger and that whatever is under the blanket just doesn't want to be seen so if they don't look at it, it will go away... Written like that it sounds like a simple light scene but it plays out on the screen with tension and stress with extra chills as the blanket starts moving towards them while they aren't looking and slowly uncovers itself (seen only briefly and out of focus) before it apparently leaves through the bedroom door which slams behind it. To reassure Rupert that he is safe, Clara lines up toy soldiers to protect him and points out that the broken one without a gun is the boss, a soldier so brave that he doesn't need a gun, he can keep the whole world safe - clearly referencing the Doctor. Rupert, who has already told Clara that he doesn't like his name and is going to change it, says he will call him Dan the Soldier Man... The Doctor helps him sleep (using his sleep trick that Madame Vastra reflected back on him in Deep Breath) and says he has given him a "Big ol' dream about Dan the Soldier Man" and it finally confirms for Clara that it was Danny all along and that she and the Doctor have just set him on his course to join the army and she decides that the disastrous date needs a better ending because she's just screwed up his life enough already...
The Doctor takes Clara back to the restaurant in time to see herself walk out but things still don't go well and this time Danny walks out. At this point, as punctuated by Clara, things take an even more surreal twist and then another...
The ultimate spoiler comes after the Doctor is knocked out and is one of the biggest character developments/revelations since the series returned... a flashback, of sorts, to the Doctor's childhood! For some reason the TARDIS takes Clara to a barn where she finds a child crying under his bedsheets. As the boy's parents approach, or perhaps his guardians, she hides under his bed so as not to be seen... her second under-bed experience this episode. She hears them talk about the boy not wanting to be a soldier but that he can't go to the academy and that he'll never be a Time Lord. As Clara realises it must be a very young Doctor, the old Doctor calls out from the TARDIS, the boy sits up and swings his feet down to the floor and Clara instinctively grabs his ankle to stop him from running away... and realises that she has just instigated his fear of the creature under the bed! It's been a bad night for Clara Oswald and she has one more thing to put right. She reassures the young Doctor (is he even called that Doctor at such a young age?!), partly with the words he had used earlier and partly with reference to the events seen in The Day Of The Doctor when he returns to the same barn as the War Doctor to end the Time War (with flash back clips of John Hurt)
The episode as a whole is quite a ride of time travel and wonder, with what Jenna Coleman has described as Moffat Loops as well as character developments for Clara and Danny as well as the Doctor. There is drama and continuing story as well as self contained adventure with many layers and time lines to juggle. A Moffat masterpiece with just two points left a little unresolved... the fear factor is kept alive by not explaining what was under the sheet in Rupert's room, or what happened with the Doctor's chalk (possible, but implausible explanations are offered for both); and why does Orson give the broken soldier, and what happened to it once the Doctor has it? Oh and why does the TV in the children's home keep going off...?
There is also a hint that Danny will either travel in the TARDIS himself or that Clara will end up with him - Orson Pink states that time travel kind of runs in the family... that remains to be played out but Clara was at least able to resolve her date night with a better ending. This is an episode with relatively few effects and a very small cast, instead focussing on the ideas behind the story and the sounds and moods presented to the viewers, and I think it will be a well loved episode for a long time.
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