Let's Talk About... Doctor Who: Can You Hear Me?

**WARNING MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR 12X07 FOLLOW**

I didn't know anything about 'Can You Hear Me?' before it aired and honestly, I was quite pleased about this. I expected this to be a dark story but not knowing anything really let me ingest the episode without any expectations - and I really liked it!

The basic premise of the story is a really interesting one; a character who is taking your nightmares, by sticking his detachable fingers in your ear, this is a really cool and original story for Who (which admittedly does bare some resemblance to the Sarah Jane Adventures story, 'The Nightmare Man'), Ian Gelder brings the villain Zellin to life with a tremendous amount of gravitas and he absolutely steals every scene he's in. Speaking of which, one of my favourite scenes was the confrontation between the Doctor and Zellin. This scene really allowed Jodie to shine through and let us finally see some of the darker elements of her Doctor, as opposed to the light and cheery personality we've previously seen.

I particularly enjoyed Jodie's Doctor in this story, seeing her operate on her own without her 'fam' really made me see what her Doctor will be like when Ryan, Yaz and Graham eventually leave, which, given what Ryan says to Yaz at the end may be sooner rather than later :( This leads me to probably the main takeaway from this story was the development in the companions (Fianlly!) these storylines were heartbreaking to watch, particularly Graham and Yaz's stories, and I found myself connecting with the characters a lot more now, almost as if they are real people because they have been through real problems.

However, this leads me onto perhaps my biggest complaint of the episode, the story of Yaz feeling suicidal and her subsequent path to finding herself again has come far too late for me, this would've been a story I would have much rather seen in Series 11 to make us connect with her character more. As a result it felt quite tacked onto the ending, almost as if the episode under-run and they used this side-story to fill the episode up to its 50 minute time slot.

Also, the ending scene where Graham tells the Doctor about his fear of his cancer returning and her reaction of not really offering any words of encouragement and instead walking away. This scene has proved quite divisive, some say that she did the right thing because she isn't human and wouldn't know what to say. Unfortunately I side with the majority of the crowd on this one, she should've comforted Graham and told him that everything was going to be okay. Not doing this felt really out of character, not just for Jodie's Doctor, but for the Doctor in general.

The Syria story could've been dropped in my opinion as there was so much going on in the episode already, I personally would've much rather more focus be put on Zellin and his backstory. These are my opinions and im sure many will probably disagree.

I did however grin like a kid in a candy store when Zellin references the Eternals, Guardians and the Celestial Toymaker!

Overall, despite my gripes I really did enjoy this story and it was probably my second favourite of the season (behind 'Fugitive Of The Judoon'). I'm really looking forward to next weeks as well, and then there's the, what promises to be epic, season finale!

7/10