'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' (Story Code 12.08) by Maxine Alderton and Chris Chibnall

“I'm getting this really weird vibe from your house... Yeah, I don’t want to worry you, but I’m sensing that it’s sort of, unrelentingly evil.” - The Doctor

The Doctor takes her friends to the Villa Diodati at Lake Geneva, on a dark and stormy night in June 1816, when Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was inspired to create Frankenstein and his monster. After blagging their way into the villa, the Doctor looks forward to a night of ghost stories, but Mary and her friends Lord Byron, Doctor Pollidori and Claire Clairmont would rather dance and gossip, and there is no sign of Mary’s partner, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Strange things start happening in the house: a vase smashes itself into a wall and a picture falls off its hook, releasing a skeleton hand that scrabbles away… Graham goes looking for the loo and ends up walking in circles, while catching glimpses of a creepy maid and child. Yaz finds Claire trying to break into Byron’s room, and learns how much the girl resents his attitude towards her; while they chat Yaz sees a man illuminated in a lighting flash, who then vanishes. Fending off Byron’s advances, the Doctor hears that Percy Shelley is indisposed; she also picks up an evil vibe emanating from the house. Graham returns to the drawing room in time to see Ryan inadvertently offend Pollidori; demanding a duel, Pollidori is about to fetch his pistol when the skeletal hand appears and starts throttling Ryan. The Doctor arrives, and with help from Mary and Fletcher the valet, they make short work of Ryan’s disembodied attacker. After the Doctor dates the hand as Fifteenth Century, Byron shows off his collection of war relics, including the ancient skeleton of a soldier – now with both hands missing. Mary reveals that Shelley had visions of a sinister figure floating above the lake, and is now away writing in their chalet on the shore. While Pollidori has a nap in the drawing room, Graham is spooked by the maid and her child, who provide him with a snack. The villa starts to turn on its occupants: Mary, Yaz and Ryan find themselves walking in circles around the house; the Doctor, Claire and Byron are unable to leave Byron’s room; shadowy figures appear around the house; and Elise the nanny tends to Mary’s son William and sees a glowing figure on the lake outside. Pollidori starts sleepwalking, passing through the wall before Graham’s amazed eyes. After all the lights are all blown out, the Doctor and her friends yell to each other across the halls and via the chimney. Pollidori sleepwalks through the wall of Byron’s room, causing the Doctor to realise that the house is casting illusions; by closing their eyes, Mary, Ryan and Yaz are able to find William’s room – only to discover a skull and hand in his cot instead. After Mary’s scream wakes Pollidori, the Doctor rushes her party downstairs, where a wall blocks the front door; ignoring the illusion the Doctor opens the real door, but an invisible barrier prevents her from leaving the villa. The Doctor wonders why the house is folding in on itself like a giant panic room, and whether it is linked to a year famously without a summer. Seeing the glowing figure appear above the lake, the Doctor identifies it as a traveller moving through time, the cause of the major disturbance. Then a Cyberman materialises in the hallway. Its armour is a mixture of damaged technology, and its partially-revealed face demands the location of ‘the Guardian’. Barricading the door against the creature, the Doctor explains to Mary and her fam what a Cyberman is. Meanwhile, the Cyberman kills Fletcher and goes looking for the crying William; finding Elise hiding in a cupboard with the baby, the Cyberman slays the nanny and takes the child for conversion… Finding the Cyberman searching Byron’s room, the Doctor tries talking to the man inside the casing; his power depleted from the time hop, the Cyberman punches through a window, attracting a bolt of lightning that recharges his batteries. Revealing that he is searching for something called the Cyberium, the Cyberman experiences a power feedback that causes it to quote lines written by Shelley. Mary, Yaz and Ryan find Shelley’s room, its walls covered in writing, pages of notes scattered all around. Graham, Claire and Pollidori search the cellar and find Shelley cowering in fear, babbling about being ‘the Guardian’. The Doctor finds baby William lying in the hall, just as everyone else arrives on the scene; concerned over the deaths of the valet and nanny, the Doctor warns that history is being changed. Racing to the cellar, the Doctor watches as Shelley banishes the Cyberman with a word. Deducing that Shelley is affecting the house, the Doctor links minds with him and learns that he found a strange quicksilver-like metal on the edge of the lake; when Shelley picked it up, the metal took root inside him and filled his mind with strange symbols. He returned to the house, but no one could see him, so he hid in the cellar to clear his confused mind. The Doctor explains that the Cyberium is an A.I. from the future, Cyber-tech containing all knowledge of the Cybermen, which was somehow stolen and sent into the past. When her fam recall Captain Jack’s warning against giving the ‘Lone Cyberman’ what it wants, the Doctor is faced with a difficult decision: leaving the Cyberium inside Shelley will kill him; but his death will radically change history - so she vows to save him. The Cyberman finally gets into the cellar, and orders the Cyberium to release its host; Mary tries appealing to the man inside the cyber-armour, but the soldier, Ashad, threatens her life instead. The Doctor mind-links with Shelley, taking him to the moment of his death; this forces the Cyberium from Shelley’s body, and resets the house. The Doctor and the Cyberman fight for control of the Cyberium – which chooses the Doctor, and fuses with her body. A hole appears in the storm clouds outside, as the Cyberman summons his ship. The Cyberman vows to destroy the planet, leaving the Doctor with no choice but to relinquish the Cyberium. Its mission completed, the Cyberman vanishes. As the clouds clear to reveal a sunny day, Shelley awakes. But the threat is not over, and the Doctor resolves to go to the future and stop Ashad from rebuilding the Cyber-Army… Later, Claire ditches Byron for his disrespectful behaviour, while Mary, Shelley and William are thankful their ordeal is over. As the Doctor and her friends walk to the TARDIS, Graham mentions the maid and child, only to learn that no-one else saw them – were they ghosts after all? Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor offers to take her friends safely home; but they stick by her in the mission to stop the Cybermen, and Yaz even has a page of Shelley’s notes containing the coordinates to find the Cyber-Army... Some time later, Byron gives a reading of his latest work to a group of friends, a piece inspired by the mysterious woman known as the Doctor…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brian), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Lili Miller (Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin [Shelley]), Jacob Collins-Levy (Lord Byron), Nadia Parkes (Claire Clairmont), Maxim Baldry (Doctor John Pollidori), Patrick O’Kane (Ashad), Lewis Rayner (Percy Bysshe Shelley), Stefan Bednarczyk (Fletcher), Sarah Perles (Elise)

Directed by Emma Sullivan
Produced by Alex Mercer
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
16th February 2020 @ 7.10 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz

*Part one of a three-part story