TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Doctor Who Season 11 Episode 9: It Takes You Away

One of the best things about Doctor Who is when it shies away from the “villain-of-the-week” setting and goes into something much deeper and complex. And that’s exactly what “It Takes You Away” did.

What I particularly liked was the feint in terms of what was going on. It had all the makings of a monster movie at the beginning. A lone girl alone in the house, a “monster” that took away her father, and of course, a portal to another world. But as things got on, the whole plot got deeper and more complex.

We find out via the other world that the “lost” father wasn’t lost at all, he was in a world that had his dead wife brought back to life, and the reason he was away from his daughter was so he could spend more time with her. Things got even more crazy when Graham entered this “mirror universe” and found Grace waiting for him.

What was going on? How was all of this possible? Well, leave it to the Doctor for an unknown “history of the universe” lesson, where we meet the Sollitract, a part of the origins of everything, a living consciousness of a universe. The problem was, with it in our universe, nothing can survive. So the universe banished it, and after so long, it found a way back.

Why is this better? Well, it’s two-fold. Not unlike “Twice Upon A Time”, there wasn’t a real bad guy here save for some flesh-eating moths. This universe just wanted to have what the main universe had. Friends, love, and more. That’s why it was doing all these illusions to have that.

Graham’s interactions with the fake Grace were heartbreaking to watch. Not because of bad acting, but because the dialogue was everything it needed to be. Graham suspected trickery, but Grace was acting like she should for the most part, including having knowledge only she and he would have. But it was all a lie, and seeing him lose her again was hard, but necessary. And it came with a big payoff via the interaction with him and Ryan in the end, showing Graham that he really wasn’t alone.

Speaking of alone, the Doctor having to leave the Sollitract alone to be free was sad in its own right, but as the Doctor said, it could return.

The only real downpoint of the episode was that of the Anti-World place. Ribbons was an interesting looking alien, but he was killed off far too quickly for my taste. Plus, the addition of the moths just felt unnecessary.

Still, “It Takes You Away” was a very strong episode, and a good lead-up to the season finale next week. I’m very curious on how the season will end. Guess we’ll find out!