TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Before The Flood

Having spent a good deal of the forty five minutes of ­­­­Before The Flood watching from behind my hands, I can happily conclude that this episode scared me more than most Doctor Who episodes. 

Travelling back to the time the spaceship first landed, The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) left Clara (Jenna Coleman) et al behind on the submarine fending off the ghosts – who now included an eerie ghost Doctor in their number. Inconveniently locked in his own time stream, he found himself up against the terrifying Fisher King, desperately trying to stop anyone else, winding up as a ghostly transmission device. 

Terrifying seems a good place to start with this episode. Several scenes of the episode wouldn’t have felt out of place in an indie horror film. And that’s before we even consider the Fisher King. A shell-fish, cockroach type of creature with all the warmth of The Grim Reaper, The Fisher King gave us our second, totally brand new, totally nightmare-inducing monster of the series – not bad for episode four. It was also a noticeably long time before we got a good look at him, which may have frustrated some, but for me, artfully built on our innate fear of the unknown. 

When we weren’t busy being terrified of the Fisher King, it’s worth mentioning that the invasion themes, Cold War and military style settings of Toby Whithouse’s writing married together perfectly. So too did the two different time streams and locations in that perfectly executed countdown sequence, The Doctor linking the two with this own timeline. Much akin to the night and day settings of the submarine, this episode was very much the shade to Under The Lake's light, literally much darker in places because of the minimal lighting, and with far fewer jokes, the stakes felt high here, even though we knew that, ultimately, The Doctor and Clara would probably be fine. 

Particular stand out moments include Sophie Leigh Stone’s Cass having to feel for the vibrations along the floor to find out that an axe wielding ghost was right behind her, and O’Donnell (Morven Christie) cowering round a corner from the Fisher King. Indeed senses were a key theme throughout, with Cass without hearing, the ghosts without eyes and, without the phone, Clara and The Doctor unable to talk. The Beethoven’s 5^th Framing Device worked well, too - the episode needed tying together somewhat as the timey-wimey elements were slightly more complicated than usual and not terribly well explained in places. Fortunately, Capaldi’s style is perfectly suited to the occasional breaking of the Fourth Wall.

I couldn’t help but slightly regret the fact that Missy didn’t jump out of the preservation pod at the end, umbrella in tow, yelling ‘surprise!’ at the top of her voice, so integral does her character now feel to the Doctor Who universe. But admittedly that may just have been me. 

Ably supported by a fantastic cast of secondary characters in both episodes of this pairing, the Capaldi/Coleman partnership itself continues to flourish (another reason why the absence of Missy was perhaps a good thing). Naturally this can only mean, even if we didn’t know it already, that we may well be about to lose Clara. The Doctor departing the scene without her, with two other companions in tow, felt a little like a test run for Capaldi sans Coleman. Much as Clara can be outshone by the nearest 40 watt desk lamp in some of her more 2D moments, she feeds off Capaldi’s energy well, provided a great straight woman to The Doctor’s emotional eccentricities. It will certainly be interesting to see who ends up replacing her.

Again, I pulled slightly the short straw here reviewing part two of the story, as the concluded episodes do tend to suffer a little of the anti-climax. But it’s a minor quibble really in what was another strong episode. So many of last series’ outings just felt like filler – I’m still waiting for that to happen this time around, but I feel like it might be a while off yet.

Next week look’s brilliant, as has every next episode preview so far.

Becky will be here to walk you through The Girl Who Died.

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Under the Lake

The Doctor and Clara find themselves on an underwater base, amongst the ruins of a world once flooded after a dam collapse. The base is now an oil-drilling operation, ruled over by the bureaucratic Pritchard and looked after by a military and scientific crew. They discover mysterious writing on the wall of a salvaged spaceship, their commander dying shortly afterwards. However, it's soon apparent he's come back from the dead and accompanied by another ghost, they start attacking the living crew members. When the Doctor and Clara join them, they start setting about solving the mystery of the ghosts and the answer may lie back in time.

A crew trapped on their vessel/base and menaced by something horrible is a fairly standard Doctor Who format, but it's produced some great episodes over the course of New Who. It also happens to be a particular favourite format of mine because they often come down to the Doctor using his ingenuity to solve a puzzle. It may end up being overly-complicated or make no sense (this is, after all, Moffat's tenure), but it's always fun watching the process. Under the Lake is one of the better examples of this particular episode type, piling on the atmospherics and allowing Peter Capaldi to command the screen with his grumpy enthusiast Doctor. 

It doesn't really stretch the formula at all, but the one thing that does help the episode greatly is the return to the two-parter format. One of our most common complaints here on Assorted Buffery when it comes to Doctor Who is that so often stories are rushed to get through them in the 45(ish) minutes that defines the running time. Because Under The Lake is only the first part of the story, it's a much more effective episode, giving the story time to breathe and the mystery to evolve. The solution doesn't have to be rushed because the plot can space itself out over the course of the two episodes and as a result, it's a much more satisfying experience.

It helps that it's one of the creepier Who episodes too, the ghosts with their lack of eyes providing suitably ethereal and chilling antagonists. The story uses them sparingly too; we're not subjected to endless chases or ghostly apparitions behind the living characters, but they lurk threateningly over the course of the episode. The last shot of the Doctor as one of them, despite being so obviously not what it seems (we're only on the third episode after all), is also pretty creepy. Capaldi cuts a darker figure than his predecessors anyway, but an eyeless Doctor is a scary Doctor.

Another enjoyable aspect of the episode was the relationship with Clara and the Doctor, now a full mutually dependent that melds her people skills with his intelligence. I loved the cards that she now has ready for some of his more difficult situations, which offer further glimpses into their travels together. Who else wants to know what happened to the guy from Aberdeen? It's great that their relationship extends beyond the scenes we see as part of the episodes and it creates the impression of a wealth of experiences that we're only allowed glimpses of. 

Under the Lake continues the Capaldi-era trend of producing strong, atmospheric and yes, creepy episodes with a doozy of a cliffhanger to finish with. It may not do anything particularly revolutionary with the formula, but it's a lot of fun to watch. Jen will be with you for the next instalment, Before the Flood.

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of The Witch's Familiar here.

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