Flatline (Doctor Who)

"Flatline" is the ninth episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, written by Jamie Mathieson, and directed by Douglas Mackinnon. The episode stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, with Joivan Wade and Christopher Fairbank guest starring. The episode received critical acclaim, with particular praise directed at Coleman's performance.

Plot

On returning Clara Oswald to London, the Doctor finds that something is draining energy from the TARDIS and they end up in Bristol instead. They find the TARDIS' exterior size has shrunk as a result of the energy drain, and the Doctor sends Clara out to learn more while he tries to stop the drainage. Clara befriends Rigsy, a graffiti artist now performing community service with a small crew. Rigsy informs her that several people have gone missing recently, their disappearances depicted on a mural in a pedestrian tunnel painted by an unknown person. Clara returns to find that the TARDIS has now shrunk so much that the Doctor cannot come out of its door. He passes her his sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, and an earpiece to let her communicate with him, and asks her to carry the TARDIS with her as she rejoins Rigsy, taking on the role of "Doctor Oswald" and adopting several of the Doctor's mannerisms.

At the flat of the latest disappearance they find nothing amiss save for a strange mural of a desert on one wall. With the help of police constable Forrest, they enter the flat of the first disappearance, and the Doctor instructs them to tear out a wall as he suspects that the source is within. In the next room, PC Forrest is suddenly absorbed into the floor, and by the time Clara and Rigsy arrive, she is gone. The Doctor finally realises that the murals are in the shape of a human nervous system or a human skin and that the attacks come from creatures, which he nicknames Boneless, that live in two dimensions and are experimenting to understand the third dimension. Clara and Rigsy manage to escape through a window using a hanging chair. During the escape, Danny Pink calls Clara as she is late for their meeting in London. The Doctor overhears the call and knows that Clara has lied, both to Danny about the nature of her travels with the Doctor, and to the Doctor in affirming Danny's acceptance of her traveling with the Doctor.

Clara and Rigsy race to stop the community workers from painting over the murals in the tunnel, which the Doctor has deduced are victims, but the creatures are hiding among them and they take one of the workers. Clara directs the rest to a nearby train maintenance yard and follows the Doctor's instructions to try to communicate with the creatures in the hope there may be a misunderstanding. The creatures however take another of the workers before the group flee into a disused tunnel, finding their escape routes blocked by flattened doors. Though the Doctor creates a device for Clara to restore the door's dimensions, the creatures have learned to project themselves in three-dimensions through shambling versions of their past victims and give chase. With the TARDIS losing further energy in the process, it spills out of Clara's handbag and falls onto an active train track; the Doctor activates the TARDIS's "siege mode" to protect it from harm from an oncoming train, but leaving it powerless to revert out or for the Doctor to communicate with Clara.

Clara is able to stop an out-of-service train and they use it to attempt to ram the creatures and give themselves time, but they simply transform it to a two-dimensional image. As they flee, Clara finds the TARDIS, now simply a cube, and takes it with her. In a disused office, Clara comes up with a plan, and has Rigsy paint a realistic-looking door on the back of a large poster which they then hang over an open doorway in a tunnel for the creatures to find on the assumption that it is a flattened door. When the Boneless attempt to unflatten the fake door, their energy ends up funneling power back to the TARDIS, which returns to its normal size while creating a barrier to hold the creatures in place. The Doctor, seeing that they have no interest in peace, returns the Boneless back to their dimension with a warning for those that survive the process never to return. Clara rejects a call from Danny, catching the Doctor's attention. He notes that she enjoyed "playing the Doctor" for the day.

The episode concludes with Missy, seated in a darkened room, watching Clara's adventure on a tablet computer. Missy says, with regard to Clara, that she has "chosen well".

Continuity

The TARDIS exterior was also shrunk to doll house size in the serial Logopolis, with the Fourth Doctor trapped inside.^[1] The First Doctor conversely shrank the interior of the Monk's TARDIS in The Time Meddler, thereby trapping the Monk outside of it and stranded powerless on 11th century Earth.^[2]

The further-miniaturised TARDIS in "siege mode" resembles the Pandorica, the inescapable prison first mentioned in "The Eleventh Hour" and shown fully in "The Pandorica Opens".^[3]

Production

The read through for "Flatline" took place on 19 May 2014. Filming began soon afterwards, on 28 May, and concluded on 18 June 2014.^[1]

Reception

Overnight viewing figures were estimated at 4.6 million, the lowest overnight rating for the show since "The Hungry Earth" in 2010 and the second lowest rating since the show returned in 2005.^[4] The episode was watched by a total of 6.71 million viewers.^[5] In the US, this episode was seen by 0.75 million viewers, being also the lowest rating for the series.^[6]

The episode received critical acclaim, with many praising Mathieson's script, Coleman's performance and the uniquely designed monsters. The episode also received an AI of 85, considered excellent.^[7] Neela Debnath of The Independent praised Capaldi and Coleman's performances and believed this episode to be the stronger of Mathieson's two episodes, although she was critical of the CGI effects.^[8] Matt Risley of IGN gave the episode 8.3 out of 10, praising the concept of the episode and the performance of Coleman, but criticising the guest cast.^[9] Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy gave a mixed review of the episode, calling it "a bumpy ride." He too was critical of the supporting cast, citing lack of depth to their personalities. He was however, positive of the CGI, calling it "the most impressive and distinctive this show has featured in recent memory." Overall he gave the episode 3 stars out of five.^[10]

Reviewing the episode for The Daily Telegraph, Michael Hogan noted that Christopher Fairbank was billed as the guest star but Joivan Wade outshone him. He stated that the episode had "outlandishly original ideas, smartly executed. It was thrillingly unsettling and ultimately satisfying."^[11] Dan Martin, for The Guardian, wrote that Jamie Mathieson's script "is one of the more effective demonstrations of how to do the 'cheap one'." Martin also stated that Clara is "becoming more and more like the Doctor".^[12] Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a B+, stating that "the show is on a hot streak we haven't seen in a long, long time". Wilkins closed his review by saying "'Flatline' isn't perfect, but it underlines just how great the 12th Doctor and Clara have been for each other, and how great their pairing has been for the show, if for no other reason than their complex relationship has forced the show to be thoughtful in a way it hasn't in quite some time".^[13]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Twelfth Doctor

• "Flatline" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "Flatline" on TARDIS Data Core, an external wiki
• "Flatline" at Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• "Flatline" at the Internet Movie Database