Doctor Who: Season 8, Episode 9

Doctor Who

Episode: “Flatline”

Channel: BBC

Director: Douglas Mackinnon

Writer: Jamie Mathieson

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 45 min

Rated: TV-PG

Original Air Date: October 18, 2014

The trouble so far with this season of Doctor Who for me has been a question of momentum. The writers have made only the barest attempts to introduce an overarching plot to the season, combine that with the scarcity of high quality episodes and the season has seemed to plod along without much sense of focus. The best episodes of the season have been one-off monster of the week type episodes, and the momentum that these episodes have provided has quickly dissipated with less than stellar follow ups. Season eight, thus far, has been composed more like a sitcom from the 90s than like the current trend intelevision to have a major plot unfolding each week. The tenuous links that have been attempted to bring the episodes together have felt more like like Dr. Claw at the end of an episode of Inspector Gadget than anything the audience can bring themselves to care about.

Flatline does not buck this trend. Instead we have an odd type of Doctor-lite episode, sure the Doctor is there, but he's rendered mostly powerless, allowing Clara to take over another episode. There are a couple of entertaining moments when she tries out a piece of Doctor schtick for herself, but overall it just fell flat for me. The setup was creepy, and I thought we might have a good episode on our hands. Like “Kill the Moon” before it, the problems with “Flatline” keep it from living up to the promise shown in the first few minutes.

Capaldi does give a good speech at the end, when the TARDIS is restored. The strange thing about that sequence is the ease with which he dispenses with the Boneless. After an episode spent running from them, the resolution felt unsatisfying. Oh, and a graffiti artist can paint a lifelike recreation of a door with just a handful of cans of spray paint just left lying about.

Conclusion: This was an episode of Clara Who I could have done without. There are three episodes remaining in this season, and the audience is no closer to understanding what 'heaven' is or what's going on with that Missy character. I'm really hoping that we're not subjected to an exposition dumping montage showing how she was involved in some contrived way every step of the way throughout the season in the finale.

Rating: 5.5/10