TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Flatline

Jamie Mathieson's adventure is one of the better episodes of this series so far (it's going to take a lot to beat Listen for me) and messing with the usual dynamic caps off a thread that has been occurring throughout. Clara and the Doctor may be back on good terms at the end of Mummy on the Orient Express, but there is still the sense that she doesn't quite understand his methods, or agree with them. So how do we solve a problem like that? Stick Clara in the Doctor's shoes, arm her with the sonic screwdriver and see how she does. It's a bold move for an episode, even in a series that has delighted in messing with the Doctor-Companion dynamic and it proves to be an interesting one. 

We've got used to seeing Clara take the lead a little more here and it's given Jenna Coleman a lot more to do. She's handled it brilliantly and her slightly offbeat, slightly antagonistic chemistry with Peter Capaldi has been nicely removed from the mooning and flirting of previous years. Here, she gets to take on the role of the Doctor entirely, even saying cool things that the Doctor would say. I know some people will likely grumble at the Doctor being relegated to a supporting role in his own show, but Capaldi's screen presence is such that the fact he was in one location for much of the episode barely registered. He's still a fantastic Doctor and got to fire off one liners with ease. 

Keeping him in the TARDIS, the one to be rescued, is a further exploration of the idea of playing roles. When the Doctor is guiding Clara through becoming the leader in the group running away from the episode's monsters, the pair discuss the best way to keep them on side; give them hope, they'll run faster, play the hero, they'll believe you can help. There's a lot in here about adopting the name (Clara becomes the Doctor) and playing up to a performance that people have come to expect. By the end of the episode, the Doctor's back with a full size TARDIS and triumphantly becomes 'the man who stops the monsters', which he then of course does.

However, with all this switching, role playing and name changes, there's a sense that the carefully built up identity of the Doctor is fracturing slightly. It's a thread that's run right through the series; this is a man questioning his identity and his actions in this universe and I'm still not sure the Doctor likes what he sees. Even though he's grown in confidence as the series has gone on and picked up hi own recognisable traits, there's a sense of doubt in there. With the Doctor's final parting comments about 'goodness', we're back full circle to his initial question to Clara back in Deep Breath; 'am I a good man?' How far is the Doctor accountable for the deaths and tragedies that occur under his watch and, by extension, is Clara?

In amongst all of this, the actual mystery to be solved at the centre of Flatlines is a rather good one, a locked room mystery with added 'the floor is lava' potential. There have been some creepy foes so far (the Mummy was horrible) and the monsters here continue that run, especially in the creepy stop-motion like animation that created them as they hit three dimensions. It's also refreshing that the Doctor just got rid of them at the end; there wasn't a coda that revealed they were just trying to be nice all along. No, they killed people and threatened others so the Doctor sent them back to where they came from without any fuss at all.

This brings us nicely to the final moments. In characteristic fashion, it appears that one massive revelation has been dropped on us with that last, brief line. If Clara has been chosen by Missy to be the Companion, surely that makes her the woman in the shop who gave her the number for the TARDIS? Given the effect that Clara has had on all aspects of the Doctor's life, this revelation has the potential to be huge. But then, it didn't really reveal all that much and the original questions remain; just who is Missy and how did she get that number? The Missy teases have been handled really well this series, nothing that overshadows the episode's proceedings and just enough to hint at the wider plan. Michelle Gomez may not have been in it all that much just yet, but she's cast a long shadow over the proceedings and I can't wait to see her in action properly. 

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of Mummy on the Orient Express here.

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Mummy on the Orient Express

 After last week’s trip to the moon, (read Becky’s review here), Doctor Who went all Agatha Christie this week, although naturally there was a non-Earthly twist or two.

‘Mummy on the Orient Express’ provided yet another state the obvious title, although admittedly quite a charming one. Dressed in a gorgeous 1920s flapper dress which I don’t even need to Google far to know caused many a Whovian fan-boy heart to flutter, Clara (Jenna Coleman), joined The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) for what turned out to be their ‘last hurrah’, despite last week’s colossal, and completely called for, row. Anyway, as this was an episode of Doctor Who, and not Downton Abbey, despite what the lavish surroundings would suggest, all is not quite what it seems on board the beautiful space train.

In actual fact, and again you probably got this from the title, there is a Mummy on board, picking off victims one by one, with one particular grandmother murdered even before the opening credits. Phewf. From the moment the victim sees the Mummy, and they alone see it, as, chillingly, it is invisible to everyone else, they have exactly 66 seconds to live. A little specific, The Doctor is quick to establish. Perhaps this is more than just your average Ancient Egyptian monster?

In typical murder mystery fare, it turns out there are plenty of smart alecs aboard who are willing to help, including professors, doctors and ex-soldiers, continuing the running theme of the series. Also on board is Frank Skinner, in a star turn as chief train engineer Perkins. Whilst it wasn’t necessarily  a bad job from the comedian, far from it, he could happily turn up again and it would totally work, you couldn’t help but feel that, unlike other guest turns or even the tiny cameo from the uber cool singer Foxes at the start of the episode, the show was doing more a favour to him as a Whovian than it was to audiences. But ho hum.

Whilst ‘Mummy…’ was good fun, and certainly one of the more visually memorable situation specific episodes of recent times, it didn’t really contribute a whole lot to, well, anything really. As I mentioned earlier, Clara’s ‘wobble’ of last week, is all but ignored as she walks straight into shot just a few minutes in, virtually arm in arm with The Doctor. Her later U-turn on her original feelings, whilst not remotely surprising given her evident reluctance to walk away as the episode went on, did her a disservice as a companion shaping up to be just a little tougher, and more confident in her own mind than previous doe-eyed travel pals have been. She’s had quite a few chances to shine in recent episodes, and all credit to Jenna Coleman for some really cracking performances, it just that this wasn’t one of her character’s better moments.

The monster, and indeed its architect, whilst clever in concept during the middle chunks of the episode, weren’t really explained by the end, leaving us wondering, and perhaps hoping, that something more will come of them later. This was another episode lacking in the Missy department, so perhaps they’re in some way connected with her? 

All that said, the episode did deal well with the elements of this new, slightly reckless Doctor that we’re still getting used to just as much as Clara is. In what was probably one of the best scenes of the episode, Clara, having once again lost her faith in this Doctor who blatantly lies to her face and asks her to do the same, awakens to find herself on the beach of a far-off planet, wrapped in a chintzy blanket. (Perhaps it will turn up as a blouse later?) Still not entirely sure what’s happened, when she asks about their fellow passengers survival, she’s met with exactly the sort of darkly sarcastic reply that only Capaldi can really pull off: ‘No, I just saved you. I let everyone else suffocate’. Whilst a brilliant line in itself, this also showed a wonderful awareness of The Doctor’s increasingly callous attitude, and isn’t a line we’d really have heard from any other recent incarnation of the character.

So, whilst I had a few issues with ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, and its brushing under the faux 1920s carpet of several key things, I’m not going to argue too much with an episode that included the line Are you my Mummy?, to a mummy, in what was generally an excellent script from newbie Jamie Mathieson.

Next week’s ‘Flatline’ looks like quite a Clara-centric episode, which might give us some much-needed answers as to her future in the police box and stop me harping on about it too much.

But Becky will be telling you all about that, so keep an eye out for her review!

Jen
@jenniferklarge

You can check out Becky’s thoughts on Time Heist  here.

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