Review of Scaredy Cat by JustAsPlanned
13 May 2024
This review contains spoilers
Why does everyone always dunk on this one? It's got almost everything you could want in a good doctor who episode - an interesting setting, a creepy atmosphere, a moral dilemma based off of time travel, and development for C'rizz. I've seen reviews saying that the main cast are off their A-Game this week and I couldn't disagree more - the team felt like a team here a lot more than they did in a lot of divergent universe stories. (That yowl from Paul near the end when he was being tortured by Flood caught me way way off guard!) Eight was wonderfully eldritch here, and having C'rizz - the more overtly alien of the pair - questioning him was a neat parallel. Charley sadly didn't get as much to do this ep, which I've gotten the vibe will become a theme in this stretch of main rang stories, but it wasn't glaringly obvious here.
The idea of a planet having a subconscious is tried and true, but it being a creepy little girl singing nursery rhymes is a fun new take on it. Flood was a fun villain and a definite highlight - despite being your garden variety murderer, the actor playing him was clearly having a good time. Planets being more malleable early in their evolution is really cool; concepts that even the Doctor doesn't want to mess with always hit different.
Overall a really fun episode with a cool mystery and good development for the rest of the team. Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!