'Doctor Who' Season 12 Episode 8: The Doctor travels to 1816 Geneva when Mary Shelley wrote first sci-fi novel
Where has the time gone? It feels like we have been waiting forever for the 12th Season of 'Doctor Who', and this Sunday, finally the eighth episode of the season will air. The significance? It will be the final episode before the season's two-part finale which is sure to be the culmination of all things that have come to pass so far this around.
It started with the Master's return in the season premiere where he mentioned the 'Timeless Child'. Then, of course, there was Jack Harkness's return after a decade. The final two episodes will also feature the iconic 'Doctor Who' villain Cybermen. To boot, the finale is titled 'The Timeless Children'.
But, before that, the Doctor and her companions will be traveling to 19th century Geneva -- to the year 1816 to be precise. Of course, avid science-fiction fans might recall a special historical event from those coordinates to be the birth of science-fiction.
One summer in 1816, at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, writers Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley got together. Byron then comes up with a challenge for everyone to write a ghostly tale.
The tale Mary Shelley wrote was 'Frankenstein', the story of a scientist who brings life to a likeness of a man with disastrous consequences. 'Frankenstein' has since been considered by many to be the first science-fiction novel.
It is this particular meeting that the Doctor and her companions will be traveling to. All they plan to do is enjoy the presence of three literary greats, with just three warnings from the Doctor, "Nobody mentions Frankenstein, nobody interferes, and nobody snog Byron."
However, the foursome's literary R and R will be interrupted and it may turn out that ghosts could be real, or just aliens. But we may very well see 'Doctor Who's' version of what inspired 'Frankenstein'.
'Doctor Who' Season 12 Episode 8 'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' will air on February 16th on BBC America at 8/7c.
Watch the promo for the episode below.