Running Time: Approx. 55 minutes. Written by: Rafaella Marcus. Directed by: Ken Bentley. Produced by: Noga Flaishon.
THE PLOT:
The Doctor intends to take Yaz to New York, 1926, to enjoy a night out in the Jazz Age. The TARDIS brings them to the right year - but instead of New York, they're in London. A mysterious message in the Doctor's psychic paper results in them investigating the recent death of Esther (Liv Andrusier), a local stage medium who is only the latest of several supposed psychics to have either died or disappeared.
It doesn't take long to learn that this is the work of Col. Maltravers (David Robb). He lost his family to the influenza epidemic, and his mourning has attracted an alien identifying itself as "The Eidolon," an interdimensional creature that feeds on grief. To Maltravers, its existence is an opportunity, one that he believes will allow him to rejoin his late wife and daughter - and to achieve that, he'll happily sacrifice the lives of a few charlatans, and even all of London if it comes to it!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: The Eidolon scents her memories of loss - something the Doctor reacts to by walling that part of herself off and firmly stating that she does not wish to relive that. She's less blunt when Yaz questions her, but she still rapidly turns the subject away from herself and toward the alien. She's cheerfully chaotic when she confronts Maltravers in his lab, admiring his scientific equipment, even as she makes sure that it won't be immediately usable by him at the end of their conversation.
Yaz: She responds almost eagerly to the mystery, relishing the opportunity to behave as a police investigator. She uses the TARDIS to search for their suspect, using it like it was the FBI database. When the Doctor starts to fret about the danger of potentially peeking into their own future, Yaz nips the lecture in the bud by informing her that she restricted the search to information that was available the day before their arrival.
Col. Maltravers: The villain of the piece. Maltravers is driven by a sympathetic and human impulse, grief for his departed family. But he's taken it to an extreme, allowing his loss to transform him into a serial murderer. At first, he and his assistant, Kidney (Jospeh Arkley), prey on fake psychics who willingly consent to be part of his experiments in hopes of earning some extra coin. When that proves insufficient, he turns to outright kidnapping, his attitude becoming increasingly manic.
THOUGHTS:
The Violet Hour treads much of the same thematic ground as Lionesses in Winter, involving the Doctor and Yaz in a tale of grief and loss. I liked this one better, mainly because it does what I felt the earlier story badly needed to do: It slows down, letting the character scenes play out and making sure that the Doctor's own losses are properly reflected within the narrative.
The initial Act plays very much like a period detective story. The period setting helps lend it atmosphere. There's also some sense of jeopardy when Maltravers' assistant, Kidney, begins stalking the next victim. This part the story is particularly good for Yaz's character, with the young constable clearly reveling in putting her training to proper use.
Clues lead the Doctor to Maltravers and then to the Eidolon. I particularly enjoyed the scene in which Doctor first communicates with the creature inside her own mind, even as Yaz deals with Maltravers and Kidney in the waking world.
While I really enjoyed most of this story, I felt just a bit let down by the climax, which feels as if it could have and should have been more dramatic. There's a moment that makes use of the Doctor's buried grief, the exact memories that she suppressed earlier in the story. This feels like something that should be played big. Instead, it gets skimmed over, with minimal emotion from the Doctor, making what should have been one of this range's most memorable scenes play out as oddly muted.
My only other complaint is that the story overuses the Sonic screwdriver. An early scene, in which the Doctor uses it to affect Kidney's shoes, is amusing and just about works within the confines of what the device should be able to do. But it's also used as a stand-in for a Star Trek tricorder. And then Yaz ends up using it as a stun weapon. That's too many uses, and too many completely different uses, for a single 55-minute episode.
The Violet Hour has absolutely been written with "Thasmin" shippers in mind. When Yaz shows off her period outfit at the start, the Doctor's appreciation slips beyond simple approval into being a bit flirtatious. Yaz's conversation with Megan in the previous episode seems to have set her mind to work, as well. When she needs to shock the Doctor into consciousness, she finds a rather unconventional method - though I'm not sure that this doesn't cross a line into unintentionally creepy behavior.
OVERALL:
The Violet Hour is a generally solid story that makes fine use of its period setting. It folds in themes of grief and loss more effectively than the earlier Lionesses in Winter did, and I was happy to see a shift to a slightly slower-paced story told on a smaller scale. The script may leave a few potential dramatic crumbs on the table, and one moment with Yaz is arguably misjudged. For the most part, though, I enjoyed this.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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