Listen [TV/2014.9.13]

★★★★☆

  "Fear makes companions of us all."

  I still remember Listen being hot stuff back when parts of it (an unedited version of the episode, I think) were leaked on the Internet and people were going crazy about it, hailing it as a new classic for the ages. Nowadays, nobody seems to remember its existence, and it's such a shame. Listen is still, to this day, a fascinating exploration of the Doctor as a character and a generally complex script as well. I was honestly surprised by how layered the thing was, and how much I enjoyed the experience this time around.

  Like it or not, Clara Oswald is integral to the genesis of the Twelfth Doctor. She's to Twelve what Rose was to Nine, acting as a mediator, a template and an invaluable partner. That facet is explored best in this episode, I think. She pulls off the kind of fairy-tale yarn to comfort a child that the Eleventh Doctor used to do so well, and you can see his successor sitting in the background and... taking it all in. She's not afraid to talk back or express her honest emotions in front of the grey-haired Time Lord whenever he pushes too far, and she literally becomes both the Doctor's boogeyman and guardian angel. At the same time, Clara gets to go out with Danny Pink on a date and flub it up spectacularly. It's a moment of vulnerability that I never saw coming from a character Steven Moffat loves; these were two people talking, having a laugh and hurting each other's feelings without having meant to. It shows just how good Jenna Coleman is, because this could have been a total disaster and it isn't; I was never too bothered by the companion or her importance to the Doctor's timeline, and Clara was always credible thanks to her actor's talent.

  On the other side of the room, this brooding, introspective take on the Doctor is much more up Peter Capaldi's alley (rather than the default 'Moffat-penned buffoonish Doctor' setting he's been all too frequently been cornered into for the past few episodes), and he sparks like a supernova. Performance wise, I'd say this is one of the better Capaldi outings during his tenure. He perfectly embodies a being of legend, a traveller amongst the stars who brings out bravery in others and yet hides the most terrible of fears within the self. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  Out of Series 8, and out of the New Series in general, I don't think any story is quite the way Listen is. It's smarter than it looks, it presents many fascinating ideas about the concept of fear and its strengths and weaknesses, and it deepens our understanding of the Doctor. If I were to choose an episode to write a college thesis about, this would probably be the one. Still, after so many years, a damn impressive adventure.