Fear Her - Is it really among the worst Doctor Who episodes?

Currently the 11th lowest rated Doctor Who episode on IMDB, Fear Her was also once rated the 2nd-worst story in the entire history of Doctor Who in 2014 by Doctor Who Magazine (which is a thing). I personally never took major issue with it, but going back to watch it, I did notice some things which made me reduce my opinion.

For context, Fear Her follows the investigations of Rose and the Doctor into the disappearance of kids in a housing estate, during the 2012 London Olympics. All of these kids seem to be connected to the drawings and activities of Chloe Webber, and soon crazy stuff follows, as is common in an episode of Doctor Who. It’s a bit more light-hearted than the previous few episodes (two of which involved meeting literal Satan), and considerably cheesier.

Interestingly, Fear Her was never intended to be made originally. This spot in the season was going to be a special episode written by Stephen Fry of all people, but he backed out, requiring writer Matthew Graham to pull something out of his brain real quick. Graham has since spoken about this, as well as the many letters he got from kids who loved the episode, but also those from adults who hated it. Intrigued by this, I decided to watch it again.

Me sitting in silent meditation as I contemplate this episode.

So booting up the episode on my TV, the thing that stuck out to me most immediately was how overexposed the cinematography was in certain scenes. What I mean is that the lighting is too intense, making everyone look too smooth and slightly luminescent. It could get frankly a bit ugly at points, which is confusing as it was shot by the same guy who worked on 22 other episodes, none of which have the same problem. The director Euros Lyn also worked on many other episodes without this exposure problem, further mystifying the situation.

That’s the only immediate technical issue I can pinpoint with this episode, aside from some bizarre special effects (which was part and parcel with Doctor Who until later episodes). The setting and production of a housing estate is a great choice – such an innocent place with a possibility of dark evil underneath, much like Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist.

What I can pinpoint as the most prevalent issue with the episode is how unrelentingly cheesy and stupid it is. It’s nowhere near the insulting levels of an episode like Orphan 55 (which I’ve already reviewed), but the comedy and the dialogue are often so ridiculous that they have the opposite effect of what they want. For example, at the end, all the characters are watching the Olympic torch-bearer running on TV, and you can hear the announcer going in the most passive voice “Well, earlier some lightning seemed to strike him, and…he’s down. He’s dead. The Olympic dream is dead”. Instead of “Jesus, someone call an ambulance, why is this guy still running the torch after being struck by lightning?”

And then immediately follow that up with the Doctor picking up the Olympic torch, NOT being arrested or questioned by the police and being cheered on by millions of people. It reminds me so much of that scene in The Patriot where Mel Gibson runs across a battlefield waving a ginormous American flag while essentially the American national anthem plays in the background.

It’s also disappointing villain-wise, as the “monster” of the episode is actually a child alien who feels lonely and so takes children into the drawings of a girl she possessed, Chloe (Abisola Agbaje). Besides looking like a small, floating flower, there’s little sense of a constant threat once the backstory of the creature is laid out, and the tension deflates. The concept is original and the build-up is good, but there’s little in terms of threat, especially compared to previous episodes.

Spooky.

But there are still things to like in this episode, which are why the writer Matthew Graham got so many letters from adoring child fans. The episode deals with themes of abuse, as Chloe had an abusive father who died and who she created a parodic distortion of in her drawings from psionic energy. While it’s not focused entirely on this specific theme, it addresses aspects of the long-term impact and how relationships can be affected in the family, and I do appreciate that.

And it’s impossible to dislike David Tennant as the Doctor, with all of his quirks and modest insanity powering through the occasionally stiff comic relief.

Billie Piper does most of the lifting for the episode, and she handles it pretty well. The side actors are fine, if not outstanding, but they certainly aren’t bad by any means.

And as I already said, this episode has a great location and a decent setup, and even if the villain isn’t threatening, they are an original concept. There’re all the ingredients for a great episode, but they are waylaid by a thick layer of cheese, bland cinematography and the typical Doctor Who technical gripes.

I understand why in 2014, this was voted the 2nd-worst Doctor Who episode of all time, due to the villain and the cheese of it all. But looking back, it’s definitely not the worst episode ever. Several of the Whitaker era episodes are much, much worse by comparison, and it’s not like every story from the classic era was good. Fear Her just lacks the threat and the seriousness of the best episodes.

I’m going to give Fear Her a C.