A television short, eh? Possibly electrical field control, possibly some sort of signal interference. The Doctor could work with that. He set his own sunglasses on his face to try them and abruptly scowled. It was a big, exaggerated scowl. "These are preposterous. And people say rude things about my tie."
The shades promptly came back off and he set them on the table so that he could fiddle with them. Once they were down, he reached out a palm to Fred. He didn't ask for her pair. He assumed she'd understand.
"It's easy to label a mystery a 'monster.' Granted, monsters are absolutely real and absolutely everywhere, but not everything strange or scary wishes you dead." See? The Doctor was listening, even though he wasn't looking at Fred. Not reassuring, really, but definitely listening. "Was it intelligent? The plant-monster."