This story in a nutshell:
Creatures from another dimension bleed in to ours with devastating
consequences...
Impossible Girl: Finally Steven
Moffat has made his dream come true and excised the Doctor from the show and
pushed a companion of his making centre stage. Moffat has a similar obsession
with Clara fronting the series as Davies did with Rose and yet I find the on
the whole the Doctor managed to keep hold his series in the first four years in
a way that Capaldi failed to do so, relenting a little in season eight. The
main thrust of the series is the Clara/Danny relationship, Listen saw her
taking another important position in the Doctor's history, Kill the Moon left
the weight of the climax entirely in her hands whilst the Doctor skipped off for
some tea, Flatline writes him onto the sidelines whilst Clara does all the
reacting and come the end of the season Jenna Coleman has replaced Capaldi's
face on the credits and her name shoots at the audience first in a bizarre gag.
Make no mistake - Moffat has gone on record as saying the show is more about
the companion than it is the Doctor and certainly this season he has set out to
prove it. Strangely I have reached a point in Flatline where I don't mind
anymore. Clara is being written for in such a skilful way and Coleman's
performance rockets as a result. Seriously, go back and watch her struggling
with the insubstantial characterisation she was handed in series seven and then watch Flatline.
There is a massive difference. I don't know if it is confidence, growth or
simply that the writing is geared to making her a character who struggles as
opposed to a character who smugly takes everything in her stride. It has taken
a whole season (Kill the Moon is where I really felt the shift in her
character) but finally Clara works and what's more she's likable,
practical and relatable. Credit where it is due, that is quite a transition.
Flatline shows you how the show can be fronted by a companion and it can still
be recognisably great Doctor Who (the only other time I have felt that was Turn
Left, which this episode can't quite match).
Sparkling Dialogue: 'It's bigger
on the inside!' 'You know I don't think that statement has ever been truer.'
'It's long been theorised but
no-one could go there and prove its existence without a heck of a diet!'
The Good:
* A beautifully simple teaser that
tells you very little about the villain of the piece but informs you that it is
going to be something very different to the norm. I love the dreary lighting
and uncharismatic panic of the man, right from the off Flatline is aiming for a
cold realism.
* I commented in my piece on
Listen that horror is far more frightening when you don't know what is
frightening the characters. Despite something of an outcry at the indefinite
conclusion of Moffat's best episode of the year, I stand by that opinion. A
shadow moving, a noise in the next room, heavy breathing behind you, something
brushing past you in the dark...scary ideas that would lose their impact if the
lights came on and you could see the nasty that you are facing. Imagination
takes you much further than prosthetics and CGI. Flatline takes the idea of an
unknowable horror and puts a fascinating spin on it - the horror from another
dimension is so different from us we can't tell whether their terminal attacks
are intentional or simply their attempts to communicate with us. That's a
terrifying notion, especially when you could have the dimensions sucked out of
you and wind up a silhouette on the wall in the effort to determine their
intentions. At the end of the story we still don't know whether this is a
spectacularly bad introduction between the human race and the two dimensional
beings or whether they deliberately leaked into our plan of existence to wipe
us out. The various ways in which the creatures attempt to understand us prove
to be far more chilling than any bog standard Doctor Who monster dribbling
along a corridor. There is enough of a hint (the chilling moment where they try
and communicate verbally and we realise they are targeting the numbers on the
workers jackets) that they are doing something by design...but it is
never confirmed what.
* I was starting to wonder with a
sense of dread that I had seen everything that this show had to offer (at least
under a Moffat administration). At the beginning of the season everything was
starting to feel a little samey (the Paternoster Gang, another take on the
droids from The Girl in the Fireplace, a lone Dalek in a cell, a celebrity
historical, the Doctor living the life of a human being for a spell, etc) but
somewhere along the line the innovation train took over and fresh ideas have
started to emerge. Imagine my delight with Flatline and it's shrinking TARDIS,
an idea so simple (and low budget) that I'm surprised nobody (aside from
Christopher H. Bidmead before he officially fell in love with the TARDIS and
married one) has played about with it before. A toy sized TARDIS with the
Doctor inside? A genius notion that kids can mimic with their toys. The rapidly
shrinking doors offering some wonderfully odd visuals and comic moments.
Matheson doesn't just suggest the idea, he really plays about with it to see
how many ways he can delight us. The 2DIS. Come on, a weapon that bring a two
dimensional drawing to life and flatten a three dimensional object into an outline?
That's bloody cool.
* 'No decent
characters....bibble bibble bibble' That's pretty much been my biggest
complaint in Moffat Who and I've started to sound like a broken record. To be
honest the characters in Flatline aren't much cop either, which is a shame
after Matheson provided a stellar guest cast in Mummy on the Orient Express.
What saves this is the performances, the fact that the situation they are
placed in is so interesting and that they are true to themselves throughout.
Fenton might be a one-dimensional bully that enjoys getting in the way and
insulting people but nothing that he goes through in this episode changes that
one jot. Rigsy (an unfortunate name that left me thinking about Rising Damp) is
Clara's one-shot companion and he's likable enough. You can't help but cheer
for the underdog and clearly society has treated this lad badly. I think the
problem with the characters in Flatline is that that the setting is looking to
be as naturalistic as possible and as a result the cast are all folks you could
meet on the street without any particular quirks that make them stand out.
* I can't remember the last
episode that conjured up as much dazzling and terrorizing imagery as Flatline;
the one dimensional victims trapped in the walls slowly coming to life, the
teeny weeny TARDIS with Capaldi's grumpy face peering out, the spatial
dimension trickery of seeing the Doctor in the TARDIS being held by Clara (I
kept doing a double take), the blistered desert crags adoring the wall that
turn out to be a blown up piece of human skin, the fluidic effect of the
creatures running across the floor to reach out to the police officer and
watching her melt away into the carpet (a million times more effective than a
similar scene in Night Terrors), the giant hand that snatches its victim away,
the flickering, screaming shadows emerging from the tunnel...
* Why on Earth is there a chair
hanging from the ceiling? That was my first question. Where can I get one? That
was my second. What followed was one of my favourite set pieces to have sprung
from the last four series of Doctor Who. When the couch bursts and melted away
like paint simultaneously exploding outwards and inwards I was slack-jawed and
had no idea what was going on. That's an exciting feeling I haven't felt for
ages. Terrifying in it's strangeness, whacky in design and an amusing cameo by
Danny (let joy be uncontained, he can be funny)...I was in seventh heaven
watching this on transmission. That would go down as my favourite scene of the
year if it wasn't for the TARDIS on the train track (the Doctor on the train
track - Uncle Terrance must be appalled!). Walking the TARDIS off the track
with his hand and his little dance when he has succeeded left me applauding the
TV. I haven't been this much in love with the show for a long time. The build
up to the TARDIS being smacked by the train was expertly handled by the
director, leaving me breathless.
* One aspect of the show that I
cannot fault this year is the music. There have been some repetitive cues but
that doesn't matter one iota because they are all fantastic. Flatline has a
terrific soundtrack that allows for quiet moments of understated horror as the
reality of the danger that the characters face sinks in and also fast moving
action, foot tapping cues that me dancing in my seat whilst gripping the arms
in fear.
* Trains! Just when you think this
is going to be the super cheapie of the season (comparisons with Fear Her were
fair, at least in budgetary terms, until about halfway through) Clara and her
chums head into the train dock into what proves to be a vast and robust
setting. There are no concessions to this being science fiction as far as the
setting is concerned, it's forbidding realism all the way. A neglected council
estate, the filthy, forgotten storage area of a train station and dark and dank
tunnels underground. After reading Damaged Goods this is was precisely the sort
of urban realism that I expected Russell T Davies to bring to the show.
* In a season that has thrown all
kinds of horrors at us - hands grabbing from under the bed, giant spiders
spitting in the face, a desiccated mummy reaching out of its victims - Flatline
delivers the most frightening visuals of the year. Ambling forwards awkwardly
like Walking Dead rejects with features that melt and cohere endlessly, the two
dimensional beings cloaked in human flesh are a chilling sight to behold. No
way to reason with them, no way to stop them. They're coming out of the dark
and they're coming for you for goodness only knows what purpose. They're
relentless, even after Clara has deployed the train. That's enough to give me
nightmares. It's their indefinable nature in conception and realisation that
chills the blood.
* Even the climax isn't a cheat.
Another of my regular complaints is that the conclusion so often fails to match
up to what has gone before it. Unanswered questions, bad logic, deus ex
machina, spectacle over intelligence...there are a wealth of reasons why so
many NuWho adventures don't quite click. Flatline works because it makes up its
own rules and it uses them to provide the solution. The creatures trying to
open a door that never existed and leeching the power back into the TARDIS
(when it was drawn from it in the first place) makes perfect sense. It's very
cleverly done.
The Bad: I am reliably informed by
a very handsome friend of mine that despite the odd gesture to suggest that
this story is set in Bristol that it does not recognise any part of it that he
knows (and he should know, he works at the Caaaaan-cel). It's not a problem for
me, Doctor Who often dresses up parts of Wales as other parts of the globe but
I wonder if it would be different if it were my home town that was being
misrepresented? The closest we've come is Brighton in The Sound of Drums and that
nearly brought me out in hives.
Result: The series eight episode
that single handedly restored my faith in Doctor Who. Kill the Moon was bold
and uncompromisingly frightening and daft and Mummy on the Orient Express
provided an atmospheric thrill ride but Flatline truly went where Doctor Who
has never gone before and I was all of a tingle throughout. I haven't felt this
kind of excitement from the show simply through the possibilities of the ideas
and the breadth of the storytelling since series four. Flatline is Doctor Who
being made for adults with very little in the way of light relief, pleasant
characters or quirky settings and it has a truly foreboding menace. How this
aired in the same season of The Caretaker baffles me. You wouldn't want the
show to be like this every week but my word has it pulled its socks up and
delivered something unique and transfixing. What I loved about this story was
how it never stopped giving; it opened up in an unique approach (the shrinking
TARDIS) and rather than rest on that idea it kept delivering surprising and ingenious
notions until my brain was rattling with them. Matheson pins them to a gripping
narrative that puts Clara centre stage and truly allows her to shine. Goodness
knows where MacKinnon has been hiding these talents but he is making huge leaps
in quality with each episode he directs (check out the progress: The Sontaran
Stratagem/The Poison Sky, The Power of Three, Cold War, Listen, Time Heist,
Flatline). This is the most tautly directed piece of drama to have leapt from
Moffat's era, packed full of memorable images and with a tangible sense of
tension. I've not been discreet when it comes to my dissatisfaction with the
series over the past couple of years and I will equally effusive in my praise
for a season that has just knocked three standout episodes out of the park,
each one improving on the last. Flatline is bold, imaginative, terrifying and
original. An argument for a season comprised entirely of new writers has been
made. This is the evidence: 9/10
3 comments:
hi, sorry for the off-topic. I have been reading your Gallifrey reviews and missed your comments seasons 2 and 3, have you reviewed them yet or plan to do so?
thanks
Absolutely agree with you on this one - a highlight of this season. Just one thing though, I don't think "Listen" is Moffat's best episode of the year, it comes a close second behind "Dark Water" which I would give 11/10 if I could.
I thought this was a very good episode, maybe not as good as you thought, but another strong story for Clara, who had pretty much been entirely redeemed as a character in my eyes at this point in the show. It's interesting to reflect on the different stages of how she sees the Doctor over her time with him - first as an adventure, then an obligation, now an addiction. Next season he'll be a coping mechanism.
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