User Reviews

So...who did compose Beethoven's Fifth? Before the Flood could go down as the most conceptual episode of Doctor Who's entire history. Whilst last week's Under the Lake was classic Doctor Who in every way possible, Before the Flood blows all of that simplicity quite literally out of the water. This was a particularly brave episode from the offset; not only does it almost refuse to give us any real, grounded answers, but the entire opening sequence broke the fourth wall. Before the Flood opens with the Doctor telling the audience to quickly go and google the term 'bootstrap paradox' while telling us the story of a man who loved Beethoven so much that he went back in time to meet him only to discover that Beethoven didn't exist, and so he publishes the music himself, ultimately inspiring his future self to go back and meet Beethoven...etc. It's a near impossible concept to wrap your head around, and Before the Flood's entire narrative is rooted in this idea. The story loops back on itself endlessly, so much so that even Clara herself doesn't really understand what on Earth happened in that base. And I don't think I'd want it any other way.

Narrative wise, this was all pretty superb stuff. Pacing and structure were some of Under the Lake's greatest assets, and they helped this episode spring into a fairly quick pace from the offset. After the Doctor's fourth wall breaking (which was fantastically acted and directed, by the way), the story soared by without ever slowing down, yet it also never felt rushed. For 90 minutes of screen time over the two episodes to be occupied by 90 minutes of story is pretty damn rare for Doctor Who, but these episodes weighted the narrative seamlessly. The whole boostrap paradox is an undeniably interesting concept, and it was deployed excellently here. Never did the Doctor explain too much to the supporting characters that it started to get a bit too exposition-y, but he rather he tells us to go and Google it at the beginning of the episode, setting up the conclusion nicely. There were a vast number of twists and turns in the final act, and all of them stuck the landing. The Doctor's "ghost" being a hologram may not have quite have been good enough to justify the whole "The Doctor has to die" trope yet again, but when these episodes are looked at in isolation they aren't weakened by it. Every direction this story took was excellent, here's hoping Whithouse can come back for another two- parter some time soon.

This episode also further demonstrated how much the visuals have improved this year. Whilst the cinematography here was just as effective as last week's, the underwater base still felt claustrophobic while the army base felt open and vulnerable, the special effects were arguably some of the best this show has ever put out. A few years ago if Doctor Who attempted to flood a town, it would have to happen off screen or the effects would be so laughably bad it would ruin the tension. But Doctor Who can actually show this now, and it looked great. The Fisher King itself was also wonderfully realised, horrifying in how it looks down on the Doctor with its colossal height, ear piercing roar and booming voice. While it could have done with a little more screen time solely to do this masterful achievement justice, what time it did have was great. Other small complaints include the two sudden love stories that just sort of sprout at the end out of nowhere; Cass and Lunn I have no issue with, but Bennett and O'Donnell was difficult to buy into with little to no foreshadowing before her death. Also, O'Donnell's ghost only appearing in the underwater base after we see her die in the 1980's is confusing too. If she died in the army base in the 80's, surely her ghost would have been in the underwater base the entire time?

But, flaws aside, Before the Flood continues this fantastic surge of excellent episodes. Doctor Who is taking more risks this year than it ever has before, and it is genuinely thrilling to see a show eleven years into its run try to remodel itself so effectively. We've already had Davros and the Master in the opening episode and a story which ultimately had no resolution on the Doctor's behalf yet also manage to be entirely rewarding, and we've still got a newly structured two-parter, a found footage episode and an story featuring no actor besides Capaldi still to come. These alterations wouldn't work, of course, without Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, who are proving to be the best Doctor-companion pairing this show has seen since its revival. They bounce off of each other wonderfully well, but also completely sell the serious moments too. Clara might not be as foregrounded now as she was last year, but I don't mind that. I'm fully on board with these two now and it's gleefully exciting to be able to just sit back and watch them fly through time and space as fast as they possibly can.

Before this episode I was scared that they were going to give us a disappointing conclusion to the story like they did with the Witch's Familiar. How paranoid was this fan Doctor Who again does not disappoint this week, as the Doctor must discover the real plot behind the great flood and the origin of theses ghost transmitters before he becomes one. This story absolutely has us glued to find out what happens as the Doctor faces mystery and terrifying monsters.

This week also returns with heart racing and scary moments that will have you ion the edge. Sadly though there were parts to the episode which could have been emphasised more or had more passion not let vital elements to the story just be forgot about. Although I think there had great performances and emphasis on the Doctors inevitable outcome on becoming a ghost, I think here we could see the characters deadly serious about the outcome, and it nearly had this viewer convinced that it could happen.

Concluding this episode was a great conclusion to the story and absolutely nailed itself as a narrative. This episode is a solid 8/10 and one of the best second part episodes this fan has ever seen.

Sorry for gushing, but it needs to be said: this two-parter should be considered of the best episodes of both new and old WHO. The second part not only managed to be even better than the already excellent first episode, but also managed something that "Who" rarely does: telling a truly scary and mysterious story that is brought to a satisfying closure without resorting to a cheap deus ex machina (ok, the bootstrap paradox is a deus ex machina, but was presented in such an interesting way that you wondered why a series about a time traveller never adressed this paradox in it's 50+ years existence in such an elegant manner). One should not only applaud the fantastic, emotional and ingenious script by Toby Whithouse but also the very efficient and intelligent direction of Daniel O'Hara, who has a refreshing tendency towards giving emotional moments the time they deserve and cleverly setting up scary moments without ever being cheap. Kudos also to really all the actors - the story basically contains three love stories (if you count Clara and the Doctor), and the one that doesn't end happily is truly devastating, which is rare in a show that features characters that are only around for 1-2 episodes at most. The creators also took their time to create some additional fun stuff: like having the "Who" theme suddenly played by electric guitar and the Doctor seemingly talking directly to the TV viewers. It also seemed like a perfect episode for Peter Capaldi, the doctor for grownups, and he certainly pulled it off with gusto. He truly is the new worthy successor to Tom Baker!

For about 80 out of its 90 minutes, "Under The Lake"/"Before The Flood" is a solid, suspenseful two-parter in the classic "Satan Pit"/"42"/"Waters Of Mars" tradition. It is skillfully directed, with some well-timed shocks, imposing monsters, likable "guest" characters (Morven Christie is both sweetly nerdy and very sexy!), and some great lines for the Doctor ("You can go back it time? How do you do that" - "Extremely well"!). "Under The Lake" ends with one of the finest cliffhangers of the series, and I appreciated the (partial) change of scenery in "Before The Flood". The problems start when writer Toby Whithouse tries to out-Moffat Steven Moffat in timey-wimeyness, writes himself into a corner, and comes up with a muddled cheat of an ending. I rate the first episode 8/10, the second was looking at a 9 for a while, but ultimately I gave it a 7.

Unlike the best of the Dr Who "two-parters" that manage an impressive (augmentative) change of mood between I and II, "Before the Flood" perpetuates the same (lack of) atmosphere as could be esperienced in its predecessor "Under the Lake". The pair of episodes might be though to bear a passing resemblance to the Season 2 pairing of "the Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" and therefore offers a salutary lesson. The latter (chronologically far-earlier) Tennant-Piper outing featured a very strong/superb supporting cast while this pair of episodes has to make do with the lacklustre Capaldi and Coleman with some rather quickly-forgettable others. The Season 9 outing also lacks the amazing music of its predecessor, the genuie scares and atmosphere, the thought-provoking questions and clarity of plot.

Here the Doctor jumps through hoops to try and make things meaningful, but somehow it all sounds like trying-too-hard, pretentious twaddle in the end. Self-belief is somehow lacking, humour is also thin on the ground, and - despite the endless verbosity - this episode actually has rather little to say.

The time-paradox reveal here is beyond my comprehension (veteran of such episodes as I am), and more to the point ... who really cares?

The follow up episode to "Under the Lake" mostly follows the Doctor, Bennet, and of course an ill-fated damsel in distress (I'll check her name later) as they travel back in time to before the flooding of the base to uncover the origins of the "ghosts." And it's a decent follow up. The thing that throws fans the most is really what the episode set out to explore - - time paradoxes. And although Doctor Who is laced with them, none so blatantly obvious and unresolved as this episode. Which was the point. Unfortunately, it does kinda go against the Doctor's typical assertion that these damage time and the stability of the universe itself and this callous treatment of them is what seems to have hurt this episode for most fans.

Me, personally, I find stuff like this fascinating. However, I do have some gripes. First off, stupid characters acting stupid to get themselves killed. Don't peak around the corner when a giant monster was just there - - that's common sense. Secondly, the monster, "The Fisher King" is relatively one note and we literally learn no details about his origin or his name (other than to sound cool I guess), why he needs human souls to boost a distress signal, why the distress signal should be so cryptic, etc. The design is pretty cool tho, even though he was beaten rather ignominiously.

I was glad however, that the "ghosts" pretty much cease to be featured in this episode, cause as I said, I'm not one for ghost stories. The tension is still ramped up pretty well even without them as much of a threat. And the layering of time paradoxes was quite intriguing and for the most part well done, with a satisfyingly contemplative conclusion. Probably just lazy writing being unable to resolve the holes dug in the story from part one, but at least it's done in a fun way. In all honesty, I consider this a personal best for writer Toby Whithouse. Take that as you will. 8.5/10

The Fisher King? Where do they find the people who write this rubbish? The Ecclestone and Tennant eras had some wonderful stories and some great characters. The Smith era had a few good moments but was mainly dross but this new Doctor is making the Sylvester McCoy Doctor look staggeringly good. Even the Liquorice Allsort man was a better idea than The Fisher King.

What lazy writing and it seemed nobody had seen the excellent Terry Gilliam film and remarked on how odd that it was actually based on a real person, albeit a rather large member of the Finnish rock band Lordi, who was going to enslave the human race. Too late mate as we already are slaves to the mobile phone.

A lot of stupid running around and some utterly idiotic actions by the crew turned into a truly stupid resolution followed by some cosmic guff that will obviously stun us with it's brilliance in future episodes.

Perhaps once Clara pops her clogs we might get some decent story lines. From the trailer next week looks bloody stupid but maybe the excellent Maisie Williams might just save the day and add something interesting to what has sadly become a very tired and banal series. Matt Smith was a decent actor but had to work with utter dross. Peter Capaldi is a fantastic actor so give him something worthwhile to get his teeth into.

Get some decent writers for God's sake and take the programme back to what it was before Moffatt took over.

And the sonic glasses are a truly stupid attempt to look 'cool' whilst the guitar playing is a desperate gimmick. The Moon is an egg, Trees grow in the oceans and an alien menace is named after a famous 90s movie. What next Ritchie Blackmore tries to subjugate the planet and only the Doctor's rendition of Smoke On The Water stands between us and utter destruction.

What a good ending this episode had, classic linking back to a previous point, I should have seen it coming, but alas I did not. I was originally concerned that this episode would be padding as I saw no reason why this story line should be two parts but I'm glad it was as this episode was great, very well made, very well done.

And so the second 2-parter of Series 9 has drawn to a close. It's weird that we're already four episodes into Series 9 and yet we've only finished its second story. And how did this episode turn out? Pretty good, as far as I'm concerned.

The Doctor and Clara continued to shine (as is expected). I loved seeing the Doctor face off with the Fisher King and the opening scene with the Doctor talking to the audience was great fun. I liked how this episode continued to explore Clara's gradual transformation into her own Doctor persona. Series 8 showed Clara's travels with the Doctor becoming somewhat of an addiction and that addiction has never been more apparent than it was in this episode. Of course, the Doctor surviving at the end came at no one's surprise. But, when it comes to problems like this, a lot of the appeal comes from seeing how the Doctor will overcome the threat. Here, we got to see the classic "did the chicken or the egg come first" situation with the Doctor surviving and flooding the town only by seeing his ghost, which helping provide its past self with the clues. I also had a pretty good hunch that the Doctor had been the one in the stasis chamber.

The supporting characters continued to shine. I was actually pretty saddened to see O'Donnell die and I felt for Bennett. Cass continued to shine as a great character. One of my favorite moments in the episode was when she was being stalked by Moran's ghost with the axe. The moment where she knelt down and felt the vibrations was oddly similar to Toph's ability to sense vibrations in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was really happy to see Cass and Lunn end up together at the end, even if it was a bit predictable.

The Fisher King was also a great villain for this episode. He had a huge, intimidating presence and the moment where he was stalking the Doctor, Bennett, and O'Donnell was really intense. The Fisher King also has one of the greatest alien designs this show has ever had IMO. I really hope we get to see more of his species in the future because that design was way too good for just a one-off appearance.

This episode felt just as intense as the previous episode. There were a lot of "hold your breath" moments and the feeling of impending doom was felt throughout the whole run time. The also liked the bit where the Doctor and Bennett went a half hour into the past. I always love time travel stories like that. The return of Security Protocol 712 from Blink was also a nice addition. And that rock version of the theme song for the opening credits was freaking AWESOME!

Overall, I really liked Before the Flood and found it to be a great conclusion to Series 9's second 2-parter.

After the appearance of the Doctor's ghost at the end of the last episode the big question to be answered here was how did he become a ghost and how will he survive… unlike the previous story where Clara and Missy were apparently killed in part one there is no rush to show us how the Doctor will survive; instead the story opens with The Doctor telling us a story about Beethoven that features a paradox… much like the one that will feature in this stories ultimate conclusion.

The action then moves to the point where The Doctor, O'Donnell and Bennett return to the village before it was destroyed by the bursting dam. Here they find the spaceship but at this point there is no writing on the wall, both power cells are present as is what looks like a coffin. The Doctor determines that this is in fact a hearse… something confirmed when they meet the undertaker, an alien from the planet Tivoli, who is the first ghost seen in the previous episode… only here he is alive.

Back in the future it is determined that the 'Ghost Doctor' is reciting the names of people in the order that they die; the list includes everybody from the base as well as The Doctor and Clara; will he be able to change events to prevent such an outcome? When the alien in the coffin, 'The Fisher King' turns out to be very much alive and planning to invade Earth, The Doctor will have come up with a particularly clever plan.

Time travel stories inevitably create paradoxes occasionally and this stories resolution is one such example… however unlike most such cases it is not ignored; in fact here it is blatantly stated that it is a paradox. I rather enjoyed the way this was done. The ghosts continue to be creepy and the Fisher King was one of the series' scarier looking aliens. Often secondary characters are killed off almost as if they don't matter but here when a character dies, and can't be saved, we are allowed to care about them first and the effect of their death on others isn't avoided. Some welcome humour is added by the story by the Undertaker, a member of a race that is proud to come from the most conquered planet in the galaxy! The cast did a fine job and the special effects were impressive; especially the bursting of the dam and the creepy eyeless ghosts. Overall a fine conclusion to the story; I hope the series continues to be of this standard.

Following on from the mostly excellent first part of the story this second part continues strongly. It introduces another paradox, a Steven Moffatt obsession, but does so cleverly and interestingly. It also touches on the dark moral decisions of the Doctor yet again, another Moffatt obsession, which often I find annoying as it is such a hugely overused and over exaggerated theme in this era. Thankfully in this episode it is not used too badly and it does show how the Doctor stands up against evil and makes decisions to try to save as many people as possible.

The time travel element is used really well and the whole plot is very strong. All the characters so well established in Under the Lake continue to be great and to be very well acted. Peter Capaldi is superb and Jenna Coleman acts well as Clara. I only have two complaints:

The issue continuing from Part 1 of the Doctor not understanding (or the TARDIS not translating) sign language which I feel was a sad omission.

The adversary, the Fisher King, is not the most interesting, thrilling or convincing of villains. He is created by a man in a big rubber suit as with many classic era stories and it is not 100% successful. His voice performance is not that good, his motivations seem unclear and he does not convince as posing enough threat or menace, being pretty easily defeated in the end.

There are enough great elements to this though that the minor quibbles over a reasonable but unexceptional baddie do not detract too much. There is drama, fun, creepiness and interesting characters. It is also great that they have a strong role for a deaf actor which had not been common in TV prior to this.

Overall a good episode which completes a good 2-part story.

My Rating: 8.5/10.

My Overall 2-part Story Rating: 8.5/10.

Series 9 Episode Ranking: 9th out of 14.

After last weeks very effective base under siege adventure one had hoped we'd be getting more of the same but I was left with a bit of apprehension that the concluding part wouldn't sustain things . This has been a constant problem under Moffat . Think back to the season five conclusion with The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang being two different stories that don't really hang together and are merely connected via a tenuous reboot button . Wit this two part story by Toby Whitehouse we see something similar

The episode opens with the figurative wall being torn down and The Doctor addressing the audience . It might seem radical but remember we've seen this before in other media . Anyone remember the mid 70s series GANGSTERS that started off as a play For Today then ran for two series only to end with a bizarrely meta-fictional final episode ? Then there's those ROAD TO... movies with Bob Hope talking to camera And of course there those Laurel And Hardy shorts where Ollie turns to camera giving an exasperated fatalistic look . In other words it's not as modernist as it thinks it is and worse still it's being used as exposition in order to explain the plot mechanics and this can only be seen as a failure . If the title character has to step out of the show and explain the rationale and plotting of the episodes that's patronising , especially when the plot isn't that exceptionally complicated and is slightly better than the mind bending nonsense we've previously had with Moffat

This self conscious approach and execution doesn't really work . If one was to watch this and the previous episode back to back then the story as a whole won't really hang together . This is a great pity because I thoroughly enjoyed last weeks Under The Lake episode mainly because it was an old fashioned creepy story where as this week it's back to timey wimey stuff which Moffat seems obsessed with . A great pity

So 3 episodes into Peter Capaldi's 2nd season as the Doctor and things are still not clicking for me. Overall the writing keeps going down is quality. In fact it's gotten sloppy to the point of laziness. This story is set in the early 22nd century yet a) the deaf character can only communicate through another person's sign language, b) society is still so dependent on fossil fuels that a major corporation is named Vector Petroleum, c) that such a company would build a huge underwater facility in a shallow lake when surface platforms to drill for oil at sea in the 20th century, and d) that the lake was created when the dam broke. Lakes are created by the construction of dams, not their destruction. The town would have been flooded but not submerged as anyone putting a tiny bit of thought into this would have realized. The real problem, though, is that this story opens a door that 'Doctor Who' has specifically avoided for decades. The TARDIS traditionally transports the Doctor and companions to a certain time and place in which they have their adventure. Unlike most time travel stories, they don't jump back and forth in time to alter events because that would break the show. This episode blithely does that with unsatisfying results. At least the 'bootstrap paradox' is addressed in a lame 4th wall breaking bit but acknowledging a plot hole isn't the same as dealing with it. I'm reminded of a video game that featured umpteen battles around crates in warehouses. At one point of the game, a character says "Not another warehouse" in frustration. Ha, ha, ha but admitting your game is bad still means your game is bad. And so it goes with this story.