Doctor Who is in season 9 of the reboot era, and we are delighted that the sofa factor is back.

Long time fans of Doctor Who know that when the show was originally aired by the BBC starting in 1963, they wanted to tell stories that were entertaining, mysterious, and that had a sci-fi scare. The storylines got more complex as the series continued to air, and the fear factor ramped up over time. One of the things the more detailed storylines brought, especially with the advent of color TV, was the proper scare factor. Looking back at forty-year-old footage, some things might not seem that scary by modern sensibilities, but at the time they were. This season, the scare factor returned with this past Saturday’s episode, “Sleep No More.”

Even though Doctor Who was conceived as a show for children, it has always brought the scare factor. The term “watching from behind the sofa” is actually attributed to Doctor Who. Early fans, who are now adults, talk about loving the scare factor. David Tennant, John Barrowman, even the reigning Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, have discussed watching the show with their parents terrified of Cybermen, Daleks, and The Master.

It was really refreshing to see a proper scare factor episode this past week in “Sleep No More.” Now don’t get us wrong, there have certainly been intense moments over the past two seasons, but not in our opinion truly scary ones. We haven’t really had a scary new alien since The Silence were introduced back when Amy and Rory were travelling with the Doctor.

The episode certainly had some flaws. The concept of the “found video” is older than The Face of Boe. The shaky helmet cam footage makes for a jostling viewing experience. We leave the episode without quite the same satisfaction as we had with “Blink.” Despite the title of “Sleep No More,” probably no one over age ten had serious issues sleeping.

Nonetheless, bringing back a classic tactic can be good. Steven Moffat even spoke about deliberately being inspired by The Blair Witch Project, which was released back in 1999. At the same time, maybe it’s kind of genius to go that route since it’s almost twenty years since The Blair Witch Project was released. There’s a whole generation of people who haven’t seen it. What’s old becomes new again.

Although the Sandmen aren’t around in alternate earth forms, like stone angels, to make you wonder if you are being watched, the Sandmen were still quite scary. The SFX budget has obviously increased over the reboot era. On top of that, Reece Shearsmith as the deluded leader/parasitic victim of the Sandmen was really creepy in a bonkers evil genius kind of way.

The other factors that made for a good scare this episode are the pacing and lighting. There was lots of running to escape this past episode. The team didn’t have too much time to compare notes and puzzle out what was going on before the next danger struck. “Sleep No More” got right in terms of pace, what other episodes like “Cold War” and “Time Heist” got wrong.

With “Sleep No More,” the dim lighting with the red tones could have gotten really annoying, but fortunately it was used sparingly. It worked to give us just enough of a view of the Sandmen to be terrifying. The shadows played well on their nooks and divots. If the episode had been done in full light, we would have ended up with something like the Zygons who really aren’t that scary. The Zygons come off more as refuges from an old Power Rangers episode. The Sandmen, on the other hand, you would run in terror if you saw them again.

Did you think the Sandmen brought the fear factor back to ‘Doctor Who’?