‘Doctor Who’ season 9, episode 9 review: Did ‘Sleepy No More’ really work?

One of the biggest things that we are going to commend “Doctor Who” very much for at the moment is taking risks. This is not a show to play it safe, and that is why there is such a priority in bringing back top creative minds.

Unfortunately, we feel like “Sleep No More” was the sort of episode that was much better in concept than execution. Mark Gatiss really went for it in giving us an episode that was mostly found-footage, really to the point that there were not even any credits and theme music for the first time we can remember. The story itself used the device often, but all of the frequent cuts took something away from it.

What else did? The fact that we’re not entirely sure just what in the world happened at the end. Maybe that will be better answered at the end of the next episode, since these “two-parters” as they are being called are linked in some way.

As for the much-hyped appearance of the Sandmen as the villains, we will say that they were particular scary … but the problem is that we actually think that there have been scarier things this season. (Plus, those spiders from “Kill the Moon” have us paralyzed.)

We really just wish at the end of the day that the show had done more of a straightforward story, especially since the whole Morpheus concept where everyone becomes so used to not sleeping thanks to new technology that nothing has changed is fascinating. It’s almost a warning that sometimes the best ideas are also the worst, and that people have become so hyper-focused on doing this or that, they don’t give themselves time to think. Grade: B-.

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