The Haunting of Villa Diodati (TV story)

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Revision as of 12:23, 17 February 2020 by Alientraveller (talk | contribs) (→‎Culture: it refers to the "spark of life" in the book but you'd need to know the context of the era to get what it refers to)
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The Haunting of Villa Diodati was the eighth episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.

It offered an alternate account of the conception of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to that of the audio story Mary's Story featuring the Eighth Doctor.

The episode featured the return of the Cybermen, in their first television appearance since 2017's The Doctor Falls and their first encounter with the Thirteenth Doctor. Specifically, The Haunting of Villa Diodata properly introduced the Lone Cyberman, as well as its motivations, after he had been mentioned by Jack Harkness in Fugitive of the Judoon.

Synopsis

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Plot

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Cast

Crew

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References

Locations

History

  • Graham searches for the lavatory, but finds that they're too early in history to enjoy the invention of toilets.

Culture

  • Graham begins "It is a truth universally acknowledged...", but the Doctor interjects "wrong writer".
  • The Doctor has instructed her friends not to mention Frankenstein, or otherwise affect its inception. Mary Shelley wonders if Ashad is a composite of multiple men (like the creature in her novel), and refers to his creators as a "Modern Prometheus" (the novel's full title is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus). She watches him recharge via a lightning strike; in the novel, it is implied the monster is brought to life via electricity.
  • Ryan plays "Chopsticks" on the piano.
  • The doctor quotes Lord Byron's poem "She Walks in Beauty".
  • Lord Byron believes that the Doctor is after the third stanza of his work Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
  • The Lone Cyberman recites Percy Shelley's poem "Queen Mab".
  • The poem read aloud by Byron at the end of the episode is "Darkness".

Food and beverages

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Technology

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Story notes

  • The episode had a "cold opening".
  • Unusual to a normal set up, this particular episode did feature a cliffhanger but it wasn't set at the end of the episode, instead appearing before Team TARDIS head back to the TARDIS, in the final scenes in Villa Diodati.
  • In the real world, the competition to create the best ghost story took place over the course of three days, not one single night.

Ratings

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Filming locations

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Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

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Continuity

Home video releases

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External links