History Recap / DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway

* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: The antizone, a maze of dark caves and MothMenace swarms which has cut the MagicMirror portal in half.

* SdrawkcabName: The text on Erik's Music/{{Slayer}} shirt is reversed, which could either be a side-effect of crossing over or a strangely predictive fashion choice on his part.

* ReverseThePolarity: Suggested to the Doctor by Yaz.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Ryan's first instinct, based on his own past, is that Hanne's father has deliberately run off instead of being taken by a monster. He's quickly scolded for being rude, but it turns out that he's correct; Erik has run off to a parallel world where a version of his wife exists, and the monster is just a recording he set up to keep Hanne in the house.

* NonMaliciousMonster: The Solitract only wants to have company. It's too bad [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt this threatens the universe's existence]].

* CrazyPrepared: Graham has a sandwich on him just in case he needs to eat, since stopping for food tends to be low on the Doctor's priorities.

* BittersweetEnding: All the humans and the Doctor are returned to the main universe; Erik and Hanna will start over in Oslo and Graham and Ryan's relationship is stronger for the experience. The Solitract must be alone forever, but the Doctor will always remember it, and it her, so it won't be ''truly'' lonely.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: Though Grace has all the memories of the original, she reveals herself as a fake when she tries to talk Graham out of helping Ryan. The real Grace would make that her first priority.

* FreezeFrameBonus: In the Solitract universe, the Doctor's appearance is noticeably mirror-reversed, with her earrings and hair-part on the opposite side to the usual.
** A trait that is much easier to spot with Erik's ''Slayer'' shirt; the logo of the iconic thrash-metal band displayed in reverse when they find him.

** To "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate Warriors Gate]]", which also contains mirror portals in a collapsing labyrinthine VoidBetweenTheWorlds, though in this case the WhiteVoidRoom is on the other side of one of the portals, rather than the void itself.
** In "The Rings of Ahkaten", the climax had the Eleventh Doctor offer its memories to the parasite planet in hopes of appeasing it since no one else around has as many memories as he does. Here, the Thirteenth Doctor offers to stay with the Solitract because just having her, with all of her experiences, around will give it much more to work with than Erik would (which helps Erik realize his "wife" is an illusion). In both cases, the Doctor's solution doesn't work out but there's an alternative -- the Eleventh Doctor's memories can't compare to the ''infinite'' memories-that-never-were that Clara's leaf offers the parasite, and Thirteen can't stay with the Solitract after all because both universes will collapse but she can promise to remember it as a friend and vice versa, which it accepts as enough.
** Pointed out by the AV Club review: As in "Last Christmas", a companion of the Doctor is tempted to stay in a false reality in which a deceased loved one is still alive. The main difference is that the Solitract doesn't intend to harm Graham, whereas the Dream Crab was slowly killing Clara Oswald.

** Two to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Rosa]]":

** In "The Rings of Ahkaten", the climax had the Eleventh Doctor offer its memories to the parasite planet in hopes of appeasing it since no one else around has as many memories as he does. Here, the Thirteenth Doctor offers to stay with the Solitract because just having her, with all of her experiences, around will give it much more to work with than Erik would (which helps Erik realize his "wife" is an illusion). In both cases, the Doctor's solution doesn't work out but there's an alternative -- the Eleventh Doctor's memories can't compare to the ''infinite'' memories-that-never-were that Clara's leaf offers the parasite, and Thirteen can't stay with the Solitract after all because both universes will collapse but she can promise to remember it as a friend and vice versa.

* CallBack: To "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate Warriors Gate]]", which also contains mirror portals in a collapsing labyrinthine VoidBetweenTheWorlds, though in this case the WhiteVoidRoom is on the other side of one of the portals, rather than the void itself.

The Doctor and her friends land on the edge of a fjord in northern UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}, where the only sign of life is a cottage that doesn't have smoke coming from the chimney despite it being winter. Upon arriving at the cottage, the Doctor and company find that the cottage has been boarded up, and Ryan spots someone inside. Entering, they find signs of life, with shoes scattered around the entryway and candy wrappers on the kitchen table. Searching upstairs, Ryan and Graham find a girl hiding in a wardrobe. A sandwich Graham has been carrying in case he gets hungry proves to be the ticket to persuade her to come out. Downstairs, the girl asks how they got in, and the Doctor says they were in the area, and asks what the girl is afraid of. She explains that her father went missing four days ago, taken by a monster living in the woods. The fact that the girl, Hanne, is blind only makes her situation harder.

As everyone looks around outside, loud roars are heard, which Hanne explains is the creature coming, as it hunts at this time every day. Searching the shed, Ryan and Yaz find bear traps, but the loud roars of the creature prompt everyone back to the cabin in a rush. Graham, sent upstairs to look out the window for signs of the creature, is distracted when he discovers the mirror at the other end of the room, Hanne's father's bedroom, isn't reflecting him. Ryan and the Doctor come up to see it too, and the Doctor, after taking a peek, deduces that the mirror is a portal of some kind. Hanne wants to come through to look for her father, Erik, but the Doctor won't let her, telling her to stay with Ryan while she, Graham and Yaz investigate. Hanne isn't happy, disliking Ryan for his automatic assumption that her father ran off instead of having been abducted. The Doctor writes a message to Ryan on the wall, suggesting that he assume Erik is dead, but says aloud that it's a map of the house's vulnerable points. On the other side of the portal, the Doctor and company discover a dark, maze-like space, which the Doctor deduces is an antizone, a space between the two halves of the portal, created only at points where time and space is in serious danger.

The Doctor, Graham and Yaz meet a mysterious figure in the antizone, who introduces himself as Ribbons and has the only light source. He offers to show them the path Erik took in exchange for the sonic screwdriver, and the Doctor insists on payment after delivery. Ribbons eventually tries to double-cross them, having cut the string the Doctor was using to mark their path, but gets eaten by the dangerous flesh-moths inhabiting the area. Fleeing, the Doctor, Graham and Yaz discover the other end of the portal, and through it, a mirror-reversed version of the cabin. Downstairs, they find Erik, who's living with a mysteriously alive version of his late wife, Trine. And there's another new arrival: the late Grace O'Brien. Back in the normal reality, Ryan discovers that the monster roars are being played by a set of speakers outside, but Hanne, already suspecting that he's lying about something and distrusting him, knocks him out by slamming a door in his face, takes the key to her father's bedroom and heads through the portal herself.

Talking the situation out with Yaz, the Doctor realizes that the reality they are in is a Solitract, a sentient universe that was exiled from the main universe because the universe couldn't hold together otherwise. She also realizes that the whole situation is a trap, and that they have to get Graham and Erik out of there. Graham, talking with Grace, is initially skeptical that she's really her, but starts to believe otherwise after a long enough talk. However, the Doctor arrives and insists they have to leave. Ryan, after coming to, eventually catches up to Hanne in the antizone, and they head to the other side of the portal. However, they attract the attention of the flesh-moths. Hanne makes it through, but Ryan is left behind to hide. In the Solitract, Hanne realizes that the version of Trine isn't her mother, and Graham realizes that Grace isn't really Grace because she doesn't care about Ryan's safety. Eventually, the Doctor persuades the Solitract to send everyone out except her, as the humans flee back to the normal universe. The Solitract, taking the form of a frog with Grace's voice, talks to the Doctor in a WhiteVoidRoom. However, the reality is still collapsing because of the Doctor's presence, and the Doctor persuades the Solitract to send her back as well by explaining that friends try to help each other.

When everyone is back in normal reality, Erik and Hanne decide to return to Oslo, instead of their lonely cabin. The Doctor and her friends head back to the TARDIS, to travel on. And Ryan, for the first time, calls Graham "Granddad".

* BrickJoke: In the first scene, the Doctor sees a sheep in the woods, and mentions the Woolly Rebellion. In the last scene, noting the sheep has gone, she suggests it's probably off plotting.
* CallBack: To [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate “Warriors Gate”]], which also contains mirror portals in a collapsing labyrinthine VoidBetweenTheWorlds. Though the WhiteVoidRoom is on the other side of one of the portals, rather than the void itself.

** Two to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]]:

** When the roars of the creature are first heard, Hanne says that it hunts at the same time every day. It turns out it's actually a recording, set to play on a loop.

* JerkassRealization: When Erik returns and sees the Doctor's writing on the wall. He realises what he almost did and who he nearly abandoned.

* MothMenace: The antizone is home to creatures called flesh-moths that will strip the flesh from any source of meat they encounter.

* ParentalNeglect: Erik isn't the father of the year. Erik saw his dead wife in another dimension and never wanted to leave. Not wanting his daughter to panic, he set up speakers to play sounds to keep his ''blind daughter'' in fear of leaving the house.
* ProperlyParanoid: When the lantern goes out and Ribbons advises everyone to run, the Doctor tells her companions to remain still as Ribbons has demonstrated he isn't to be trusted. Sure enough, it's shown that the moths would have eaten them if they had run and made themselves targets, so Ribbons gets eaten, instead.

* ScoobyDooHoax: The creature roars that Hanne is afraid of are coming from a speaker, set up by Erik to stop Hanne leaving the cabin.

* AnimalMotif: Frogs, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway "It Takes You Away"]]. Grace has a liking towards frogs and treasures a frog necklace that Graham gave her. In the ending, the Solitract takes the form of a talking frog with Grace's voice.

* EldritchLocation: The antizone between the main universe and the Solitract, described by the Doctor as a thing created when time and space is under terrible threat as a means of protection.

** The Doctor says that her fifth grandmother (of seven) thought that her second grandmother was a Zygon spy.

* CallBack: To [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate “Warriors Gate”]], which also contains mirror portals in a collapsing labyrinthine void between universes. Though the WhiteVoidRoom is on the other side of one of the portals, rather than the void itself.

* CallBack: To [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate “Warriors Gate”]], which also contains mirror portals in a void between universes.