Doctor Who: Listen - 7 Failures Which Destroy The Story

7 . A Sudden Start, A Lack Of Motivation

The introduction to the episode shows the Doctor on a manic search, trapped in his own thoughts and drawing up personal theories. Being one step away from Russel Crowe in a shed thinking up government conspiracies, it's one of the first moments which could have defined this Doctor. No incarnation of the character, on audio drama or television, has ever behaved in quite this manner and it shows the sort of individual he has become upon getting a new lease on life. Unfortunately, as with many things on this list, it falls to bits as soon as the ending is revealed. The introduction is fairly elaborate, building upon the idea behind the Doctor's theory and presenting possible proof which strongly suggests he may be right, that his manic swing may be driven by the fact he is actually onto something. It re-enforces it with the idea everyone has the same dream as the one he describes, even shows it happening, but then the script tries to be smart about it and turns this into a long lost memory exclusive to the Doctor. The motivation behind the Doctor's actions was already dubious, but it could be accepted thanks to the fact the story was obviously going somewhere. Now the audience is simply supposed to accept that it was an old fear, an old nightmare that has never been mentioned before. All of a sudden, after over a thousand years without it ever coming up, we're suddenly supposed to accept that out of the blue he has become obsessed over this. For something so critical to his character, there is no trigger, no moment which ever addresses why he is only now confronting this, nor even why his last twelve incarnations never brought this up. Even ignoring the fact we've seen the Doctor's deepest fears presented on the show several times over, not one of which ever involved this, it comes completely out of nowhere and ends just as quickly with nothing truly addressed.