YMMV / Doctor Who S37E9 "It Takes You Away"

• Epileptic Trees:
  • Some people have latched onto the Doctor's mention of her fifth grandmother, who she says was her favourite, as a possible solution to the identity of the mysterious Woman in White from "The End of Time".
  • In the absence of any explanation of what exactly Ribbons even is, some have suspected he's some kind of twisted remnant of Daughter of Mine from back in Series 3, thanks to them both holding red balloons and being found behind mirrors.
• Memetic Mutation: The climax went viral after the episode aired due to the fact that the episode ends with a frog, which is either amazing or terrible depending on who you talk to due to the... interesting puppet, being the physical form of a sentient universe and talking to the Doctor, who is in love with it. The frog then proceeds to Force-push her out of its plane. Needless to say, reactions were very varied.
• Narm Charm: The frog puppet is exactly the level of classic Doctor Who whimsy, bizarreness and camp that in spite of the Special Effects Failure, or maybe because of it, many fans adore it.
• Padding: Everything involving Ribbons is just misdirection for what the episode's story really is, and several fans and critics were annoyed that he took screen time away from the far more interesting real story — Erik and Hanne's relationship especially got short shrift as a result, with the former effectively being a Karma Houdini for his tricking and abandoning her, though his My God, What Have I Done? expression when he sees the Doctor's message on the wall telling the group to assume he's dead and that they'll have to find someone else to look after her mitigates this slightly.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The frog puppet falls well short of looking even mildly convincing.
  • Not to mention the "lantern" that was obviously a balloon with a glowstick inside.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Much of the build-up for the episode suggested it would be a horror-esque monster-in-the-woods plot, only to be tossed out the window as a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax in favour of Ribbons and frogs.

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