YMMV / Doctor Who S34 E4 "Listen"

• Broken Base:
  • A large percentage of fans responded positively to this episode, with some going so far as to naming it the best episode ever. A large percentage of fans were decidedly unimpressed, with some going so far as to naming it the worst episode ever. While this is nothing unusual with sci-fi fans, there seems to have been a large contingent of episode-haters who have gone onto the various forums honestly perplexed at its acclaim, moreso than most episodes of this type. Exacerbated by the fact Moffat is fast approaching, if not already past, the "best before" date usually set on showrunners by some aspects of fandom (most sci-fi showrunners end up being increasingly hated if they stick around for more than a few years). By comparison, Russell T Davies had just produced "Midnight" at the same point in his tenure.
  • The fact that Clara once again has a huge role in the Doctor's past. Some don't mind, others are tired of it.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Doctor tells Clara that she could use the TARDIS' telepathic units to see her own death, which she insists not needing a preview of.
  • We get a glimpse of the Doctor as a child afraid of joining the military. "The Timeless Children" reveals that this was a situation engineered for the Doctor by the Division, adding another level of cruelty and horror to it.
• Memetic Mutation: In mid-2019, a template from this episode emerged from the conversation the Doctor and Clara have in the first act in the TARDIS, with the format having Clara ask "is four a lot?" and the meme continuing with Capaldi's very expressive face answering with "X? No. Y? Yes" depending on the subject of the meme. Notable for being the rare Doctor Who meme to hit the mainstream meme community and even more impressive due to the episode being nearly five years old at the time of the meme.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • The hypothetical monster in this episode may not exist. If it does, it doesn't seem to be much of a threat. All it does is hide, listen and possibly try and scare you once in a while.
  • The episode even suggests the possibility that said unseen things typically used for Nightmare Fuel in some of Moffat's episodes may actually be benevolent.
• Paranoia Fuel: Distilled down to its purest form. The episode is arguably nothing but paranoia. Question: How do you know there isn't a perfectly hidden creature in the room with you right now? Answer: You don't.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: According to Steven Moffat, he assigned himself the season’s obligatory cheap episode to prove to himself he could still write a tight, high-concept single episode without the benefit of the finales' massive budgets and mythology.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: We're meant to be sad that Clara's date with Danny went badly - except that she behaves in a such a smug and condescending manner, that you wonder why anyone would want to date her in the first place.

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