Oh yeah, I hate the memory manipulation of the Silence episodes, but this episode is the most Lovecraftian 'Something nasty and alien and hateful' and *you never find out what it is*.
It's for the best we never know I think, just adds a layer of creepiness. The memory manipulation from the Silence was a cool idea I thought, but would've worked better as a one off episode like this. Having them appear a few times ruins it for me.
I was always under the impression that the creature singled out the Doctor not because he was the "cleverest voice in the room" but because he was the most scared. The creature singles out Ms Silvestry because she was the most scared of the passengers. Whatever the creature was it grew from a targets fear, perhaps the drivers fear of seeing something on the planet is what drew it to them.
It's an interesting way of looking at it. My interpretation always was that the Doctor was a threat; help was coming and he was the only one really to fully recognise the danger this posed if the creature returned unsupervised. Take him off the board and the creature has the run of the place. The humans want blood anyway so it kills two birds with one stone. It certainly used Sky's fear as the opening to get in, but it had advanced into the next stage later on in the episode once it took over the Doctor. It is a little odd that these tours run all the time yet the creature had never appeared, perhaps it has been but never been glimpsed before? Or was this bus filled with enough vulnerable people for it to attack? Open to debate that one! 🙂
My favourite Tennant. A shame they used those particular other actors as most of them played it too lightweight, slightly comedic. But you can’t go too dark on Doctor Who
