'It Takes You Away' (Story Code 11.09) by Ed Hime

“It’s a juddering dimensional portal in a mirror in a Norwegian bedroom.” – The Doctor

The TARDIS transports the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz to the edge of a Norwegian fjord in 2018, where they discover a boarded-up cottage in the woods. Using her sonic screwdriver to unlock the triple-bolted door, the Doctor and her friends search inside and find a terrified young blind girl named Hanne hiding inside a wardrobe. Hanne explains that her father, Erik, has been defending their holiday house from a “thing” in the woods, a creature that got inside and took him away four days ago; Hanne has been alone since then, her mother having died some time ago. Ryan and Yaz explore the shed outside, but just find bear traps and dead birds; hearing a loud animal roaring the two rush outside, where they meet the Doctor and Graham, but see no sign of the thing. Another terrifying roar sounds out, so the gang return to the house and secure themselves inside. While keeping lookout from the attic window, Graham finds a strange mirror that reflects everything except him, and which starts to judder when he touches it. When the Doctor sees the mirror, she sonics the glass, activating a portal that leads into another dimension. Leaving Ryan to look after Hanne, the Doctor, Graham and Yaz step through the portal and find themselves in a dark, misty tunnel carved into rock. Unwinding some string to track their path, the Doctor leads her friends along the passageway towards a red light ahead; they soon arrive in a cave lit by a spherical red globe, which floats above a strange, humanoid creature busily plucking feathers from a dead bird. Identifying itself as Ribbons of the Seven Stomachs, the creature offers to trade information on the whereabouts of Erik in exchange for the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver; promising payment on delivery, the Doctor agrees, and together they set off further into the tunnels - unaware that Ribbons has severed the Doctor’s string... Meanwhile, Ryan drags a mistrustful Hannah downstairs, locking the attic door behind them. After hearing another roar from the woods Ryan notices a wire leading outside the house; following it he uncovers a speaker hidden in the garden, which has been emitting the fearful sound. Ryan rushes back inside to tell Hanne, but the girl slams the door in his face, knocking him out so that she can retrieve the key to the attic… In the tunnels, the Doctor, Graham and Yaz encounter a flesh moth, a voracious insect that Ribbons distracts with a dead rodent. When Ribbons comments that the caves are an ‘anti-zone’ his words strike fear in the Doctor: they are in a protective buffer zone created by the universe itself, to protect the fabric of space-time from threats. More moths appear and the lantern goes out, allowing Ribbons the opportunity to make a grab for the sonic screwdriver; but this attracts the attention of the flesh moths, which swarm all over him. With the moths distracted with devouring Ribbons, the Doctor picks up her sonic and follows Graham and Ryan as they run through another portal nearby; they emerge into the attic – but this version of the cottage is back-to-front: they are on the other side of the mirror… Back in the real cottage, Hannah reaches the mirror and walks through into the tunnel beyond; her fingers find the Doctor’s string, and she starts to follow it along the passage… Exploring the mirror-cottage, the Doctor, Graham and Yaz meet Erik, busy cooking breakfast for two: himself, and his late wife Trine. Erik confesses that he created the myth of the thing in the woods to keep Hanne inside the cottage, allowing him to slip away to visit Trine; Yaz and Graham are appalled at this act of terrible parenting - but then Graham receives a shock of his own: his late wife, Grace is also here... Ryan catches up with Hanne in the cave; leading the blind girl away from the remains of Ribbons, they follow the string deeper into the tunnels… Graham questions Grace about things only she should know, and she seemingly passes the test when she recounts the history of his frog pendant. Convinced that neither Grace nor Trine are real, the Doctor and Yaz try to solve the puzzle of recent events: the mirrors link the two worlds, with the anti-zone in between created by the universe in order to stop them from touching. The Doctor realises that they are inside the Solitract, a creature of Time Lord myth from the beginning of time, a consciousness that prevented the universe from working properly; to solve this problem the universe exiled the consciousness - the Solitract - to a different plane: the mirror-world in which the Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Erik now find themselves. Deducing that the mirror-cottage is a trap, the Doctor tells Graham that he must give up Grace and return with the others through the mirror; she tries sonicing the mirror but it won’t budge – the Solitract has adapted. In the tunnels, Ryan and Hanne avoid a swarm of flesh moths and race for the mirror at the end of the tunnel. Following Yaz’s suggestion of reversing her sonic screwdriver’s polarity, the Doctor manages to activate the portal, just as Hanne jumps through – but then the gateway closes, trapping Ryan in the anti-zone. As the cottage begins to shudder, the Doctor realises the presence of so many people from the real world is now overloading the Solitract’s universe with different energy. The Doctor deduces that the Solitract was lonely, and created the cottage to lure in Erik for company. Yaz speaks out against Grace, but is zapped through the portal by Trine. Erik begs Hanne to stay with him and Trine, but his daughter can sense the woman is not her mother, and she too is ejected through the mirror. The Doctor tells Graham to reject Grace so that they can leave, but her friend finds it too hard to leave the wife he misses so much. As reality collapses around them, Graham worries about Ryan; Grace just dismisses his concerns - an act that convinces Graham that she is a fake. No longer needed, the faux Grace zaps Graham through the portal then dissipates into Solitract energy. Erik still refuses to leave Trine, so the Doctor makes the Solitract choose between him and her; attracted by the Time Lady’s wealth of experience of the real universe, the Solitract uses the fake Trine to send Erik away, stabilising the mirror-universe. The Doctor now finds herself inside a white void, confronted by a frog sitting on a chair: the manifestation of the Solitract, which the conscious universe based on Grace’s favourite choice of animal. Now resigned to spending all eternity with her new best friend, the Doctor is dismayed to find herself juddering out of phase: the mirror-universe is still destabilising. Faced with the choice of remaining alone or causing the imminent destruction of itself and its new friend, the Solitract allows the Doctor to return through the portal. Racing through the crumbling tunnels, the Doctor catches up with the others just as they pass through the mirror, emerging emerge inside the real cottage just before the anti-zone collapses. After shattering the mirror into pieces with her sonic screwdriver, the Doctor hopes that her friend the Solitract survived... Later om, the Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan bid goodbye to Erik and Hanne. Erik has faced up to his responsibility to his daughter, and is taking her back home to their house in Oslo. Graham is saddened at losing Grace a second time, but the experience has brought him closer to Ryan, who is finally willing to call him ‘grandad’…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brian), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sharon D Clarke (Grace), Eleanor Wallwork (Hanne), Kevin Eldon (Ribbons), Christian Rubeck (Erik), Lisa Stokke (Trine)

Directed by Jamie Childs
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
2nd December 2018 @ 6.30 pm


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