The Haunting of Villa Diodati (TV story)

The Haunting of Villa Diodati was the eighth episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.

It offered an alternate account of the conception of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to that of the audio story Mary's Story featuring the Eighth Doctor, though with the story acknowledging that what it was depicting was the result of history becoming unusually flexible around that night.

The episode featured the return of the Cybermen, in their first television appearance since 2017's The Doctor Falls and their first encounter with the Thirteenth Doctor. Specifically, the story properly introduced the Lone Cyberman, as well as its motivations, after he had been mentioned by Jack Harkness in Fugitive of the Judoon.

Synopsis
The Doctor and her companions visit Mary Shelley on the fateful night in 1816 when she creates Frankenstein but all is not as it seems. The rooms of Villa Diodati keep shifting around and ghosts are stalking the halls. And the group soon remember a familiar warning: "Beware the Lone Cyberman. Do not let it have what it wants". But why is Percy Shelley not where he should be according to history?

Plot
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Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
 * Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin - Lili Miller
 * Lord Byron - Jacob Collins-Levy
 * Claire Clairmont - Nadia Parkes
 * Dr John Polidori - Maxim Baldry
 * Ashad - Patrick O'Kane
 * Percy Bysshe Shelley - Lewis Rainer
 * Fletcher - Stefan Bednarczyk
 * Elise - Sarah Perles

Uncredited cast

 * Voice of the Lone Cyberman - Nicholas Briggs

Crew
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Locations

 * Villa Diodati is near Lake Geneva.

History

 * Graham searches for the lavatory, but finds that they're too early in history to enjoy the invention of toilets.

Culture

 * Graham begins "It is a truth universally acknowledged...", but the Doctor interjects "wrong writer".
 * The Doctor has instructed her friends not to mention Frankenstein, or otherwise affect its inception.
 * Mary Shelley wonders if Ashad is a composite of multiple men (like the creature in her novel), and refers to his creators as a "Modern Prometheus" (the novel's full title is  Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus).
 * Ryan plays "Chopsticks" on the piano.
 * The Doctor quotes Lord Byron's poem "She Walks in Beauty".
 * Lord Byron believes that the Doctor is after the third canto of his work Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
 * The Lone Cyberman recites Percy Shelley's poem "Queen Mab".
 * The poem read aloud by Byron at the end of the episode is "Darkness".
 * Byron reads the book Tales of the Dead. Characters in the book include Hildegarde the Death-Bride and a Count.

Food and beverages
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Technology
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Story notes

 * The episode had a "cold opening".
 * Curiously Nicholas Briggs went uncredited for his voicing of the Lone Cyberman.
 * Unusual to a normal set up, this particular episode did feature a cliffhanger but it wasn't set at the end of the episode, instead appearing before Team TARDIS head back to the TARDIS, in the final scenes in Villa Diodati.
 * In the real world, the competition to create the best ghost story took place over the course of three days, not one single night.
 * Although uncredited, the Cyberman's helmet design visibly appears to be based on Matthew Savage's 2006 design.

Ratings

 * 3.86 million (BBC overnight)

Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * In another account, the Eighth Doctor was involved in this night's events. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
 * Mary also travelled with the Eighth Doctor for a time, as his companion. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk, The Witch from the Well, Army of Death)
 * In one of their adventures, Mary encountered another lone Cyberman, popularly known as the Silver Turk, in 1873 Vienna. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)
 * In a second account, the Tenth Doctor saved Mary from a bandaged alien during her stay in Switzerland, partly inspiring her to write Frankenstein, and certainly leading to the book's ultimate title. (COMIC: The Creative Spark)
 * The Shelley Cabal's encounters with the Mal'akh are detailed in PROSE: The Book of the War.
 * Although taking on Shelley's name, Mary and Percy are not yet officially married. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
 * The Doctor mentions that she knows Byron's daughter, Ada. (AUDIO: The Enchantress of Numbers, TV: Spyfall)
 * Team TARDIS recall Jack's warning about the Lone Cyberman. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * The Doctor understands that even a single Cyberman can lead to thousands. (TV: Cyberwoman, Closing Time)
 * The Doctor refuses to lose anyone else to Cyber-conversion. (TV: World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls)
 * Mary calls the Cyberman a "modern Prometheus"; this would form part of her title for Frankenstein. (COMIC: The Creative Spark et al.)
 * Percy sees ahead to his future death at sea. (PROSE: Managra, The Book of the War)
 * The Doctor gains a chance to finally end old enemies and sacrifices it for the common good. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Home video releases
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