Hide

We actually had to watch this episode at a later time, but we had a good reason. Tricia and I became Mr. And Mrs. that very day as our wedding was going on. We had such fun that day. When we saw it, we loved it. We had such a great honeymoon!

And Neil Cross never wrote for Doctor Who again... and good! He had two cracks at it, both of which in my opinion simply did not work. I do not feel like Hide should not have led to Rings of Akhatan being commissioned.

Hide has frustratingly muddled storytelling. It is initially a brilliantly chilling ghost story, tapping into well loved 1970s horror tropes; then transitions into a generic adventure story, chucking the atmosphere out the window; then rushes awkwardly to the end as an even less focused love story. Its a mishmash of so many uncomplimentary flavours, after what had been initially a very pleasant ride.

​At points it feels like bits had been hacked out of the story in the edit. The ending is especially random and hurried. Its a shame as the cast is brilliant and the production looks phenomenal.

Series 7 does feel like the show is at a point where it has slightly lost its footing.

Really liked this. Started off as a simple ghost story, became a sci-fi story and finished off as a love story whilst also adding to the season arc. There were some great scenes between the characters, though I will say that the woman in the pocket universe was completely pointless in the end.

Every lonely monster needs a companion...

Prerequisites: Nothing specific, but there is a reference to The Impossible Girl arc, for which you'll need the previous bits of Series 7 to understand. The rest of the episode is stand-alone though.

Spoilers!
I quite like Hide, and I think it's one of the better episodes of Series 7. For starters, I really like the concept; ghost hunting has always been a fun activity to watch in media, and combining that with Doctor Who seems natural. The setting and atmosphere here are suitably creepy, and I even love the entire concept of this shadowy pocket dimension. The side characters aren't anything amazing, but I think they're suitable (and the love story is cute). Really, the only major complaint I have is that the last-minute of Hide simply doesn't need to exist. From browsing the wiki, it seems like this was tacked on later to emphasize the story's themes, but I honestly think it retroactively weakens the story by portraying The Crooked Man as nothing more than a lovesick creature. In a way, not only does it posthumously remove tension, but it also renders certain story beats confusing (like why The Crooked Man would bother with scaring the Doctor in the first place). Still, I very much enjoy the rest of this episode. It's nothing amazing, but this is a very solid time.