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Sleep No More was the ninth episode of the ninth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

It broke away from the traditional filming style of the series by featuring a unique and non-musical title sequence and depicting the events of the story through a found-footage style of direction, featuring all of its scenes in a manner that suggests they were being viewed through video recordings rather than in third-person.

It also was the first episode of Doctor Who to have its title given during the closing credits rather than the opening credits. The only other time that a television story did not feature a title during the opening titles was the 2005 Children in Need Special, which did not display any discernible title at all.

Synopsis

From footage in the Le Verrier space station, the Doctor and Clara are shown to be up against terrifying Sandmen in a situation which involves sleep and lots of death.

Plot

Professor Gagan Rassmussen breathlessly introduces a video heā€™s assembled from found footage, warning would-be viewers of the recordingā€™s inherent (but unspecified) danger. 

Nagata and her team (Chopra, Deep-Ando, and Grunt 474) dock with the Le Verrier space station, armed and ready to execute a rescue mission.  The soldiersā€™ personal equipment apparently includes helmet-cams which ā€” in addition to the stationā€™s security system ā€” document their unsuccessful search for Le Verrierā€™s personnel.

Instead, they encounter Clara and the Doctor, who present psychic paper to identify themselves as engineers stress-testing the stationā€™s structural integrity. Together, the sextet search the corridors, commenting on 38th-century architecture, which blends Japanese and Indian elements.

Cast

Uncredited cast

Crew

to be added

References

  • The Morpheus sleep deprivation pods play a hologram of four female singers performing the song "Mr. Sandman", and is used as a key on the security system.
  • The Doctor recites the lyrics "Part of the furniture?" from the song "Consider Yourself" from the musical Oliver!
  • The Doctor argues with Clara's naming of the Sandmen, saying that he does the naming. He complains that "it's the Silurians all over again."
  • The Doctor quotes from Macbeth, and mentions Shakespeare.
  • The sleep deprivation pods are named Morpheus after the Greek god of dreams.
  • The presenter says there will be no more Rip Van Winkles, referring to the syndrome of too long sleep, and there will be a new generation of Wide-Awakes.
  • The Doctor can tell the century and the week-day by wetting his finger and touching his ear.
  • The Le Verrier space station is in orbit around Neptune.
  • The Doctor mentions "the Great Catastrophe".
  • Grunts are artificially grown human soldiers.
  • The rescue crew are all from Triton.
  • Rassmussen said he would transmit his video to the whole Solar system.

Story notes

File:Sleep no more title card.jpg

The Doctor Who title logo used for the episode.

  • This is the first televised episode of Doctor Who to carry no opening titles. The episode title and writer credit were instead placed at the start of the closing credits. The Big Finish audio story LIVE 34 previously utilised a similar format of presentation, with no titles or credits whatsoever. However, when Rassmussen's initial video footage ends, the series title appears in the form of a code. All characters' names as well as the space station's name all appears in the code.
  • The story is notable for using the found footage format, and for using elements of first person monologue told by Professor Rassmussen.
  • It is also notable for being the first episode in the series to cast an openly transgender actress, Bethany Black.[2]
  • The Radio Times programme listing was accompanied by a small colour head-and-shoulders shot of a helmeted Nagata, with the accompanying caption "Doctor Who / 8.15 p.m. / Found footage shows what fate befell the rescue mission led by Nagata (Elaine Tan)".
  • Writer Mark Gatiss had visited the countries Japan and India prior to writing this episode, which in turn inspired the use of them in this episode.[3]
  • This is the first TV story written by Mark Gatiss to be set in the future rather than the past.
  • The Doctor mentions "The Great Catastrophe". After the airing of this episode, writer Mark Gatiss confirmed it was a reference to Frontios.[3]
    • However, Frontios is presumably set in the far future (beyond the 38th century and around the time of The Ark) with the Great Catastrophe referring to Earth colliding with the Sun, which occurs billions of years in the future in The End of the World.
  • The space station in this story is named after French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier.

Ratings

Filming location

to be added

Production errors

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

to be added

Continuity

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

External links

to be added

Footnotes

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