Doctor Who: Sleep No More

**8/10**

Boy, where to I even start?

I am OBSESSED with Sleep No More. Sure, it may be a little clunky. Sure, its tone may be mismanaged with the Mr Sandman computer scene and the Sandmen being made of eye dust (which was never mentioned in Space Babies with the snot monster, RTD you make me angry). Yes, the POV shot on the gun is weird. Yes, some parts are goofy and so-bad-they're-good. Yes, the characters are a bit basic, YES it confused me on first viewing, YES a lot of people aren't a fan of it and some downright hate it, but... end of the say, I still bloody love Sleep No More!

The realistic of the POV shots allows this to be a Doctor Who horror experience like no other. It's not every day you get to be in the POV of a Doctor Who character, and it's for this reason that Sleep No More stands out from every other episode of Doctor Who. Found footage horror ain't for everyone, but it really worked for me here.

But it ain't just people looking at a camera lens and leaving it on for no reason, unlike most found footage films. There's a twist I won't spoil if you haven't seen the ep, but it really takes advantage of the format and uses it in a really clever way... except for one scene when there's a camera on the gun for some reason. That was an odd directing choice from the otherwise fantastic Justin Molotnikov.

The episode may not be long enough to explore the 38th century world in full, but it hints towards a dystopian world where capitalism is taking over, continuing the strong anti-capitalism themes Doctor Who thrives on (if we ignore Kerblam). Gagan Rassmussen (played by Reece Shearsmith, who this episode introduced me to) is the inventor of the Morpheus sleep pods, and he appears to be motivated by productivity. ("We spend a third of our lives asleep, and time is money."). Writer Mark Gatiss presents a fascinating idea about how if we could sleep less, workplaces would make us work longer, which would be fascinating to explore. It's inspired me to write a novel exploring Gagan's life and how he wanted to improve society's efficiency with Morpheus, how it deteriorated his personality and made him create abominations, but that's getting into spoiler talk.

In my heart, Sleep No More is a 10/10 masterpiece. But it's important to acknowledge the flaws in the things you love. Still, I think this is easily the most underrated episode of Doctor Who, and definitely one of my favourite pieces of media of all time. Sleep No More is to me what Tamatoa is to Schaffrillas. Just a random thing I happen to be obsessed with an may or may not make a feature length analysis on someday...👀

Also this is episode 9 of series 9, and it stars Reece Shearsmith... this is literally an extra long episode of Inside No. 9 without Steve Pemberton, isn't it!