# The Haunting of Villa Diodati

"The Haunting of Villa Diodati" is the eighth episode of the twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 16 February 2020. It was written by Maxine Alderton, and directed by Emma Sullivan. The episode stars Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, alongside Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as her companions, Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan, respectively.
The episode is about the historical origins of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, portrayed by Lili Miller, and takes place at the Villa Diodati in 1816 where she was inspired to write the work. The episode also featured the return of the Cybermen in their first television appearance since the tenth series finale "The Doctor Falls" (2017). The episode was watched by 5.07 million viewers, and received positive reviews from critics.

## Plot

Mary Shelley, her infant William, along with her stepsister Claire Clairmont, and writers John Polidori and Lord Byron, are staying at the Villa Diodati. Mary's fiancé Percy Bysshe Shelley, is inexplicably missing. Because of the inclement weather, Byron suggests each write a ghost story to scare the others. Later, the Doctor and her companions arrive, only to discover that the expected ghost story sharing has been abandoned, and that Percy is not there, although he should have been.
Strange events occur in the villa, such as a repeated rearrangement of its layout, objects moving of their own accord, and skeletal hands crawling around the halls. Byron suggests it is a ghost that haunts the villa but the Doctor suspects something else is occurring; the events are part of a security system designed to hide something. The group sees an apparition which the Doctor recognises as a being moving through time; the apparition resolves into a half-converted Cyberman.
The companions remind the Doctor of Jack Harkness's warning of the lone Cyberman; the Doctor Orders her companions to stay with the others, and heads off to confront the Cyberman. The Cyberman, named Ashad, was sent back in time to look for the "Cyberium", a liquid metal with the collective knowledge of the Cybermen. Ashad had tracked it to the villa, but his power had been sapped. As the Doctor tries to lure Ashad away from the villa, he is struck by lightning, recharging his power core. Yaz and Claire discovers the walls of Percy's room have been covered in strange gibberish in his handwriting.
The Doctor races to warn the others but instead finds Percy hiding in the cellar with a crazed look. She discovers he is possessed by the Cyberium, having found it a few days prior, and that it is sapping his energy; the Cyberium created the supernatural events to prevent discovery. The others arrive, and the Doctor questions whether to save Percy, or to stop Ashad from getting the Cyberium. Ashad arrives, and the Doctor tricks the Cyberium into leaving Percy's body and entering hers; Ashad threatens to destroy the planet, forcing the Doctor to turn the Cyberium over to him, despite Harkness's warning.
The Doctor and her companions depart, making plans to follow Ashad to the future using coordinates from Percy's Cyberman-based writings.
* ↑ As seen in episode five "Fugitive of the Judoon" of the season

## Production
### Development

"The Haunting of Villa Diodati" was written by Maxine Alderton. Chris Chibnall called Alderton "an absolute Mary Shelley and Byron… not a buff, she's an expert in that". Much of the setup of the episode is true to known fact for Lord Byron, Mary and the others, including that the summer during their stay at the villa was unusually stormy due to the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora that led to the "Year Without a Summer".
A scene in which the Doctor warns her companions to stay away from the Cyberman, was confirmed to allude to Bill Potts, a former companion of the Twelfth Doctor who was cyberconverted during the events of "World Enough and Time".
Though a original story, this was not the first Dotor Who story to feature Mary Shelley. Contradictly, a series of Big Finish audioplays (the canonicity of all non-televised stories are held to be ambiguous), which involve the Eighth Doctor meeting Mary Shelley around 1816, upon which she had joined him briefly as a companion; one 2011 audioplay, The Silver Turk, involved the two meeting a damaged Cyberman, which became an inspiration for Shelley to write Frankenstein.
The Doctor mentions Ada Lovelace to her father Lord Byron; the Doctor had met her as an adult in 1834 in this series' two-part premiere "Spyfall".

### Casting

Maxim Baldry, Nadia Parkes and Jacob Collins-Levy appeared as Dr John Polidori, Claire Clairmont and Lord Byron respectively in the episode. The Cybermen, set to appear in the twelfth series finale, first appeared in the episode.

### Filming

Emma Sullivan directed the fourth block, consisting of the seventh and eighth episodes. The Merthyr Mawr estate was the filming location for the villa's interiors.

### Literary references

Early in the episode, Byron and the Doctor exchange lines of verse from Byron's short lyrical poem She Walks in Beauty written in 1814, and shortly after that he mentions his long narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which was published in instalments between 1812 and 1818. Later, Ashad the Cyberman recites parts of Shelley's long poem Queen Mab which was published in 1813. At the end of the episode Byron reads the conclusion from his own poem Darkness which he composed in July 1816.
Mary Shelley describes Ashad as a "Modern Prometheus", the alternate title for her novel Frankenstein.

## Broadcast and reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer) | 94% |
| Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score) | 7.9/10 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| The A.V. Club | B |
| Metro | |
| Radio Times | |
| The Independent | |
| The Telegraph | |
"The Haunting of Villa Diodati" aired on 16 February 2020 on BBC One. "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" was watched by 3.86 million viewers overnight, making it the seventh most watched programme for the day in the United Kingdom. The episode had an Audience Appreciation Index score of 80 and received a weekly total of 5.07 million viewers across all devices.

### Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode received an approval rating of 94% based on reviews from 16 critics, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states: "A proper ghost story that strikes the perfect balance between horror and history, 'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' is Doctor Who at its best."
Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times rated it 5 stars, citing an "impressive" Jodie Whittaker, highlighting Emma Sullivan's direction, and calling the episode a "fine work indeed".