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Sunday 1 January 2017

Live Review: S9.E9 - Sleep No More

This episode was a brave move into uncharted territory. It was risky. It was edgy. It was strangely disturbing. It was written by Mark Gatiss and its warped psychological angles showed it. It opens with Gatiss's 'League Of Gentlemen' cohort Reese Shearsmith talking into the camera through a fuzzy CCTV type presentation. "You must not watch this" he say. "I'm warning you, you can never un-see it" a warning which many viewers would wish they had heeded. Shearsmith introduces himself as Gagan Rassmussen and gives a few more details to set the scene before the screen flickers and is filled with letters and numbers looking like code. Two vertical groups of letters glow briefly to reveal the words "Doctor Who" whilst also subtly drawing attention to a horizontal group of letters which both words cross "Clara Oswald". There's just enough time to perhaps make out what could be another name before the screen clears again. In the episode's first departure from the norm, that is as close as it gets to a title sequence. This is not an episode of a TV program, this is an edited collection of found footage...