Doctor Who: Every episode of season 12, ranked from worst to best
By Lacy Baugher
The Haunting of Villa Diodati
A fantastic period-set ghost story, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” has almost everything a Doctor Who fan could want: A great historical setting, a fantastic guest character in author Mary Shelley, and a surprising sci-fi twist. In this case, the arrival of the “Lone Cyberman,” who is also clearly the inspiration for Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein.
The best sort of Doctor Who historical is one in which real facts are mixed with fantastical elements to create something entirely new. That is the case in this episode, which sees Team TARDIS crash the actual 1816 trip to Geneva in which Shelley began Frankenstein, casts the house in which they’re staying as a magical puzzlebox that can change the order of its rooms to protect itself and its “Guardian,” and uses the canonical fact of Percy Bysse Shelley’s early death as part of the story. Plus, it’s a gorgeous episode to look at with a great story.
Here’s to more like this in season 13.