'Doctor Who' Season 12 Episode 8 Recap: "The Haunting of Villa Diodati"

It was a dark and stormy night in Lake Geneva, 1816. Known as "The Year without a Summer" after Mount Tambora's eruption screwed with the global climate, this was the summer that inspired Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Lili Miller) to write Frankenstein. So perhaps it should not be surprising Doctor Who's cold open begins during the infamous night in June she spent in Switzerland with Lord Byron (Jacob Collins-Levy), John Polidori (Maxim Baldry), and Claire Clairmont (Nadia Parkes). (The Tales of the Dead they're reading is a real novel, published in 1813.) Nor should it be a surprise this is the night the Doctor drops in.

Ryan: Nobody mention Frankenstein. Nobody interferes.
Yaz: And nobody snog Byron.

That Graham doesn't know Jane Austen from Mary Shelley is merely the tip of the iceberg. The Doctor knows this is a delicate but pivotal moment in history, but she wants the fam to have a chance to "soak up the atmosphere." Whatever she was expecting, I doubt it was silly dancing and gossip now that Mary's baby William is in bed. As this is a history episode, it gives the show an excellent opportunity to drop facts about Mary's non-marriage to Shelley at the time and Byron's growing scandals. Also, let's hear it for that long-suffering valet, Fletcher (Stefan Bednarczyk), who also plays the piano.