After last night's episode, we're down to the big two-part finale for Doctor Who Series 12.
Before we get to the Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children, the Doctor and the fam pay a visit to Mary Shelly, the writer and creator of Frankenstein.
We could be in for some good old fashioned gothic horror. But will this adventure to the past set any groundwork for any shocks to come?
We'll find out after the spoiler warning.
THE HAUNTING OF VILLA DIODATI
by Maxine Alderton
It's a dark and stormy night. Gathered at a villa in Geneva in 1816 are some young creative types including Lord Byron who is seducing and flirting with everyone including one Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin who will one day be better known as Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein.
Arriving at the villa are the Doctor and her fam to witness the historic night when Mary first comes up with the idea of Frankenstein.
But weird stuff is happening. The creative geniuses of 1816 are not creating anything but are spending their time dancing both literally and metaphorically. The house keeps shifting about, causing people to run around in circles. There's a skeleton hand on the loose.
Then we have to contend with a new visitor, pushing through the walls of space, time and perhaps reality itself is a Cyberman.
Yes, a single lone Cyberman like the one Jack Harkness warned us about a few weeks ago.
But this Cyberman is unlike one we've ever seen before. Built around the design of a modern age Cyberman, it's form is battered and incomplete with more of a human face sticking out of the helmet than we're used to seeing. It's a Cyberman that remembers it's name (Ashad) and is still connected to emotions, expressing rage, irritation and arrogance.
Ashad is from the future to retrieve something from the past, Cyberium, a liquid silver metal that contains the sum knowledge of all Cybermen. This Cyberium can restore the defeated Cybermen of the future to their former glory.
The Cyberium is currently stuck inside Mary's future husband, Percy. Percy will have to die years before his time for Ashad to retrieve the Cyberium out of him.
The Doctor does not care for that.
But what was Jack Harkness very, very clear on in his warning to the Doctor's fam? "Do not give the lone Cyberman what it wants, no matter the cost!"
Long story made short, the lone Cyberman gets what it wants. It's not for a lack of trying but with Ashad threatening not just Percy Shelley but the entire Earth with premature death, the Doctor makes the hard call.
Jodie Whitaker finally gets one of those Doctor rants that companions have to hear, that sometimes the choices are too hard, the options too limited and the risks are too big and only the Doctor alone can make them.
Once again, the episode is too crowded. With a guest cast at just under a dozen people, the fam gets lost in the crowd.
Graham gets a good line at the start of the episode, snarking on the Doctor parking too far away from the villa.
Yaz has a moment with Mary where Mary professes her lack of insight into how Lord Byron feels about her, that when she asks him directly, his answers lead to only more questions. Yaz note she has someone in her life who does that too. Which sounds like the Doctor to me. But since Mary is talking about someone she has romantic feelings for, does this give us more fuel for the Doctor/Yaz shippers?
There were, as one might expect, a lot of parallels with Frankenstein in this story. And there were a lot of atmospheric flourishes to add to the tension.
Over all, "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" is a thrilling episode and sets the stage for what the Doctor and her fam will face next.
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