Stories Television Doctor Who Series 12 Episode: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The Haunting of Villa Diodati 3 images Overview Characters How to Watch Reviews 8 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 6 Transcript + Script Overview First aired Sunday, February 16, 2020 Written by Maxine Alderton Directed by Emma Sullivan Runtime 49 minutes Time Travel Past Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Celebrity Historical, Ghosts Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!) The Lone Cyberman Inventory (Potential Spoilers!) Psychic Paper Location (Potential Spoilers!) Villa Diodati, Earth, Switzerland UK Viewers 5.07 million Appreciation Index 80 Synopsis The Doctor and her companions visit Mary Shelley on a fateful night in 1816 when she creates Frankenstein but all is not as it seems. The rooms of Villa Diodati keep shifting around and ghosts are stalking the halls. And the group soon remember a familiar warning: "Beware the Lone Cyberman. Do not let it have what it wants". But why is Percy Shelley not where he should be according to history? Watch Watched Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save Characters Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker Graham O'Brien Bradley Walsh Yasmin Khan Mandip Gill Ryan Sinclair Tosin Cole Ashad First Appearance Mary Shelley George Byron Claire Clairmont John Polidori Show All Characters (9) How to watch The Haunting of Villa Diodati: Watch on iPlayer Blu-Ray The Complete Twelfth Series [Steelbook] Blu-Ray The Complete Twelfth Series DVD The Complete Twelfth Series Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Default Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 8 reviews 12 May 2024 · 151 words Review by dema1020 Spoilers 3 This review contains spoilers! It's stylish enough, and even a little substantive for the standards of Chibnall. In spite of others liking it I don't really get much out of this episode. It's fine. Unusually coherent for a 13th Doctor episode, but still kind of pointless. Ashad has some of the biggest build-up of any Doctor Who villain ever and it really feels like it doesn't amount to anything. He's just going to get tossed away in a couple of episodes. Who cares? It reminds me a lot of some of the stuff we've heard about what production was like during this era. Rushed, to the point that scripts were delaying filming - and the writing shows for it in stuff like this. I bet people could watch this and be disengaged enough and unable to follow things to the extent they would have no idea Frankenstein's writer was involved in the story at all! dema1020 View profile Like Liked 3 2 May 2024 · 220 words Review by RoseBomb Spoilers 3 This review contains spoilers! The good Chibnall-era episode, with sharp writing, humour and wit. With an honestly impressive ability to juggle characters and have them all be fleshed out, with added characterization for Thirteen (that genuinely makes me excited to listen to her inevitable Big Finish audios, providing they use this as a template as to how to do Thirteen right). With mood, atmosphere and stakes. Similar in ways to a couple of my favourite stories from Doctor Who, Like The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon for the haunted house vibes of the second part, similar to The Chimes of Midnight for being about a house where weird stuff takes place filled with fleshed-out cooky characters and similar to Master for it being a story completely carried by the character-work. Altogether, it is just brilliant writing, and It was a breath of fresh air to those of us who dreaded every new episode of Who after realizing that it had lost everything we held dear about it. It was clearly an overwhelming success for those who didn't like Chibnall Who (like myself) as I heard several people say she should be the next showrunner, which I personally think is a bit far for a completely new writer to the show with one great episode and nothing else, but I certainly get the gratitude. 9/10 RoseBomb View profile Like Liked 3 27 December 2024 · 206 words Review by uss-genderprise Spoilers 1 This review contains spoilers! I have to admit, I don't really get the love for this one. It's a really solid episode, delightfully creepy with great atmosphere and set design, but that's pretty much where my praise for it ends. The Lone Cyberman was hyped up quite a bit, but I don't really get his deal. If I remember later episodes correctly, he isn't even properly utilised in them. A Cyberman without an emotional inhibitor is an interesting idea, but I don't think it's done well here. I feel like, for being the most famous person in the episode, Mary Shelley was sidelined quite a bit. Everyone knows Frankenstein, but I don't think I've ever heard of any of Mr. Shelley's writing. I think the guardian thing would have worked better if it was Mary who was holding the Cyberium, instead, but for all I know they were drawing from real life for the way it effected him. It was also just a bit slow. A lot of it was building up the tension, sure, but it was a bit too much for my taste. I do love Thirteen in this episode. She has a few fantastically odd moments, as well as some great speeches, but that's not really unusual. uss-genderprise View profile Like Liked 1 19 July 2024 · 88 words Review by WhoPotterVian Spoilers 2 This review contains spoilers! There is no other word for that episode than utterly fantastic. I loved the spooky haunted house vibe, the stuff with the constantly changing house and Ashad The Lone Cyberman. Its design is impeccable, and the Cyberman having no emotional inhibitor is unique. Jodie Whittaker's speech about sometimes not always being able to win and not wanting to lose someone else to the Cyber-conversion is going to go down in Who history as one of the all-time greats. Yet another instant classic after three already in one series. WhoPotterVian View profile Like Liked 2 6 April 2025 · 84 words Review by Dullish Spoilers 1 This review contains spoilers! Haunting of Villa Diodati Another long title from Chibnall, this episode is what Captain Jack tried to warn Thirteen about 2 episodes ago. Thirteen and "the fam" meet Mary Shelly on the night she writes Frankenstein, which is also the night Eight meets her, when he directly influences the story. Percy Shelly is missing and a Lone Cyberman walks the halls. This is the first appearance of Ashad a half converted Cyberman. Supernatural occurrences are happening at Villa Diodati, "The Fam" must do something. Dullish View profile Like Liked 1 Show All Reviews (8) Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating840 members 3.81 / 5 Member Statistics Watched 1664 Favourited 183 Reviewed 9 Saved 3 Skipped 2 Related Stories Doctor Who S12 • Episode 5 Fugitive of the Judoon Rating: 3.58 Story Skipped Television Reviews(5) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Series 12 Set of Stories: Doctor Who (2005-2022) Set of Stories: Thirteenth Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Doctor Who S12 • Episode 10 The Timeless Children Rating: 2.62 Story Skipped Television Reviews(13) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Series 12 Set of Stories: Doctor Who (2005-2022) Set of Stories: Thirteenth Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Doctor Who S12 • Episode 9 Ascension of the Cybermen Rating: 2.90 Story Skipped Television Reviews(5) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Series 12 Set of Stories: Doctor Who (2005-2022) Set of Stories: Thirteenth Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Main Range • Episode 123d Mary’s Story Rating: 3.88 Story Skipped Audio Drama Reviews(3) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Big Finish Main Range Set of Stories: Big Finish Main Range 101-150 Set of Stories: Main Range: Eighth Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Battles in Time The Creative Spark Rating: 2.40 Story Skipped Comic More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Battles in Time Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Link to Quote Favourite DOCTOR: Words matter! One death, one ripple, and history will change in a blink. The future will not be the world you know. The world you came from, the world you were created in won't exist, so neither will you. — The Haunting of Villa Diodati Show All Quotes (6) Open in new window Transcript + Script Needs checking [Lake Geneva, June 1816] (Thunder, lightning and torrential rain, probably thanks to the eruption of Mount Tambora the previous year which caused severe global cooling as the ash blocked out sunlight around the world. A woman holds her young child as she looks out of the window of a villa.) [Drawing room] BYRON: Confined again. I cannot bear it.MARY: The very world itself seems sick.POLIDORI: A most ungenial summer. I've never known air as dank and frigid.BYRON: Oh. Dank and frigid. Who does that remind me of, I wonder? Oh. (Snaps his fingers and points at Polidori.) Show Full Transcript Open in new window View Script (PDF)