Ye olde haunted house ep but not in the sense of ghosts, which made a change. Though we did get the spooky sounds and creaky floorboards just what you'd expect in an old house. Another one of those Doctor Who eps where you get the mass of potential Vics, like the hotel ep The God Complex, with Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith) and a few other eps too. Bill (Pearl Mackie) decides she an d her five friends all need to move in somewhere and can't find a suitable house, until they chance upon one owned by a old codger who's willing to give them all a lease, subject to signing of course. Which means not only signing away your life, well literally it did, but also everything you own, cos you won't be needing it! Ha. Of course Bill was right when she queried why it was being rented dirt cheap, always the case with such properties in real life too. No it's true, you have to know what you're getting into cos there's not much you can do after you've bought it.
Bill waits for the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) to arrive in his TARDIS so she can move her things, well he can move them and also get a chance to suss something's not quite right with the tower or the house. The tower being off limits. Then the trees are moving but there's no winds so he's staying, as she has to introduce him as her grandfather, the Doctor. But surely they all know him from the uni anyway. Paul (Ben Presley) has got a bit of a thang for her and asks hr out to the freshers party in the park, as well as helping her with the boxes. Pavel's (Bart Suavek) locked himself away with his music, but he's already missing, the first Vic.
Everyone heard noises and some tiny footstep like sounds from the floor above Harry's (Colin Ryan) room. That sound to me was like someone's false teeth chattering, seriously not insects at all or lice as the Doctor referred to them. Of course they were wood lice of the alien variety, what else would you find in wood and the walls. The Doctor's staying for Chinese too as he tries to eat a prawn cracker without too much noise. As the old codger landlord (David Suchet) turns up again with his tuning fork. There's plenty of things need fixing and the Doctor is right, so he says he'll get onto that as a landlord cos he can't have them moving out. They haven't noticed Pavel missing since they say he spends ages in his room trying to get used to it.
The house tries to shut them in as the others go to bed, Bill tells Paul that she's into girls and he's not really disappointed cos yeah he wasn't rejected for a fellow bloke! Though Shireen's (Mandeep Dhillon) into him. He makes sounds and then he vanished too when they knock on his door and there are knocks back (ha that could've been a pun, sorry!) Then knocks are heard from all around them and as the doors close they try to find the way into the tower, which had to be behind a bookcase naturally. Here they find abed and a musical box which Shireen opens, as well as the man's daughter, Eliza (Mariah Gale).
The Doctor and Harry try to stop Felicity (Alice Hewkin) from leaving but she manages to get out through the window only to be swallowed by the tree outside. The Doctor then discovers the lice, which he thinks could be wood nymphs or triads as he calls them cos it's better than lice. As the kitchen's infested with them, the Doctor and Harry escape through the lift or rather the dumb butler kinda lift, surprised that worked and is met with the Landlord again. The Doctor talks about his daughter and how she couldn't be saved but he's a Doctor so he can help. As Harry runs and is swallowed up in the stairs by the lice, okay alien triads! Bill and Shireen meet Eliza and she's all wood, anyone think Pinocchio here? They end up in the tower and the Doctor tells them the story of how he found the insects in the garden and bought them in to show his daughter, which helped her. Asking why a father would bring in insects to her when she was ill. And what would he be doing pottering around in the garden, maybe some gardening.
The Doctor realizes she's not his daughter but he's her son, since he's older than her but is still younger. Only a boy would bring in insects from outside to show his mother. They made her wooden and also the vibrations from the music brings them out, as the Landlord does so now using his tuning fork. The Doctor tells her she's the parent and she needs to control this now and she makes the insects disappear. He tells her she needs to see the world outside, after all what's the use of surviving if hes' stuck inside. Eliza tells him she has to make this right and this is their time to end this. She brings the others back as they run out of the house and it destroys itself.
The Doctor gets back with takeout as Nardole (Matt Lucas) tells him he doesn't need to go off world since terr are plenty of threats and enemies here. He tells him to have a break cos he's hungry and he wants to look after the vault now. Which plays Beethoven's Fur Elise on the piano. Nardole commenting he put a piano in there. He tells whatever's inside the vault the story with plenty of death and it begins to play again, this time, Pop Goes the Weasel. Still can't help but say it just looks like it's all be done before. As for the 'knock, knock' jokes well, there was one funny bit when the Doctor says what? Doctor What?? Ha. Okay maybe it was just me then!
Clearly the Doctor will always be around to solve whatever mystery or event needs to be unfolded even if he drops massive hints for grandfather to leave, he thinks he's too old to be a grandfather, but of course we know that in his 'real' life he is one. Also how he needs to be here cos he helps earth as we know. He also tells Bill about the Time Lords, that's his species and they have big collars. Bill: "sounds posh, do you wear robes and big hats?" Although Bill wasn't too curious to know more about them and what happened to them, if anything. She'd rather just have this time to spend with her flat mates and herself. Bill does mention the puddle again and the robots, as well as the big fish.
David Suchet was menacing and not a hint of Poirot anywhere (though the little grey cells must've been working overtime! ha. Bill is knocked for having Little Mix on her phone and the house was the same one from the ep Blink. Let's not forget Bill muttering "Indiana Jones" when she was at the bookcase. Also we got the Doctor's allusion to regenerating here, so that was a bit too timely a mention, saying, "sleep is for tortoises, unless we've regenerated or had a big lunch." Which would've been a little cryptic for Bill. But we knew what it meant and means for the future! Funnily enough or not, the Doctor brings Mexican food back and not Chinese, so who has a penchant for Mexico, though we know the last series had a trip to New Mexico with UNIT and the Zygon
invasion, though Mexico isn't the same thing I know. Also Rose (Billie Pipe) had a friend named Shireen too.
As for the Landlord saying who wouldn't try to save their mother, a reference to Bill and her own mother. Sure there's some foreshadowing going on here and scope for an episode with her mother. The Landlord could've been a great spin-off series here with David Suchet in the title role, continuing his dastardly removal of humans! In a little Psycho-esque mode!
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