Sleep No More (2015) Review

Despite building some clever intrigue, Sleep No More was just a mess. And not a very exciting one at that.

PLOT

The Doctor and Clara find themselves in a space station that's been conquered by sleep dust creatures, created by the mad scientist Rassmussen to TAKE OVER DA WORLD!! Yeah, unless it's the guy from The Underwater Menace, no craps are given. 

The episode is constructed in a found-footage format, but it turns out to be a play engineered by Rassmussen to turn viewers into sleep dust monsters. He manipulated the Doctor and everyone else to partake in a story. I think.

ANALYSIS

Besides the outdated story and the found footage gimmick, this episode just wasn't really enjoyable. Much of the humor didn't seem to have a punchline(or more likely, I just didn't get it), the characters were not the strongest, the whole thing took place in dark, shadowy space and every five minutes, there would be a new shocker twist. I wouldn't be surprised if several viewers just threw their hands up and said "don't get it, screw you." 
Even I had to go over the ending twice just to understand what happened.

Personally, I feel the story would've worked much better had it relied on psychological horror a la The Blair Witch Project and would either have not shown the monsters at all or at least kept them entirely silent. I mean, why would sand creatures scream anyway?

Also, it would've been another nice twist if there was no musical soundtrack accompanying the "found footage". 

CHARACTERS

Reece Shearsmith's performance as Rassmussen brings to mind Gibbis from The God Complex. He looks and sounds harmless and annoying, wears nerd glasses and everything, but he's rotten to the core. Literally, as it turns out in the end.

His creatures, the Sandmen, aren't very interesting. They only speak in the end through Rassmussen so what we're left with are "childlike" gunk monsters who scream and punch stuff. Oh, da horror. Maybe if they were completely silent like actual sand, they'd be scarier. Sentient sand that works like actual sand would be creepy.

The only other characters worth something in this episode were Grunt, a slow-witted clone trooper(ha!) who dies saving the other worthwhile character whose name I fail to recall. The other one had a character arc where he learns the value of friendship. And then dies. So that sucks.

Yeah, I really don't care about this one.

NOTES

*Apparently Mark Gatiss wants to write a sequel to this story in Series 10. Even though I disliked this episode, I think it was pretty well set up for a sequel and I'd really like to see where he takes the Sandmen. Hopefully it will make more sense without the found footage gimmick. Looking back, I do understand exactly what happened, but unlike most episodes, you have to work it out.

*I'd like to re-iterate though, that that doesn't make this a good episode. It wasn't. It wasn't good entertainment, just a good set-up for a sequel.

*I have to admit I did like the opening since it's the first time we see the traditional "Doctor and companion find themselves on a ship" opening through the eyes of the supporting cast. It made them look a lot more suspicious and ridiculous. 

CONCLUSION

This is an episode I'll never watch again.