It’s new territory for Doctor Who, or maybe it’s a return to
an old staple. After last
week’s upper class art deco spaceship, the show brings us right down to
earth to a council estate. In Bristol. It’s never really acknowledged a world
of community service and graffiti, but the episode breezes past that and
straight into a big old monster movie. It’s more Misfits
than the Powell Estate, and a lot like Attack the Block. And
putting aside the unique monsters and how it gets the Doctor out of the
picture, Flatline is refreshingly low
concept - and like most of this series, refreshingly free from the history of
the series. It’s Clara on an adventure trying to beat the monsters and protect
people.
It’s obvious that by separating her from the Doctor, Clara
gets lots to do here. The latest in her arc plot ties up and moves forward the discord
of the last episode. Their continuing relationship was left mostly ambiguous
last time, and that continues this week as she takes on the traditional lead
role. Her struggles to lead her team of survivors and protect them is making
her get closer to understanding the Twelfth Doctor, but his noticing those
changes troubles him. It’s Frank Skinner’s “this job could change a man” line
writ large: is Clara lying to herself, as well as Danny and the Doctor? Or
being selfish and, well, Doctor-like? However the series decides to continue
it, it feels great that Clara herself is at the heart of her own story this
year (if that’s not a tautology for the Impossible Girl).
Whilst Clara takes centre stage, that doesn’t mean the
Doctor isn’t there: he’s in the background talking to himself and giving a
snarky running commentary on it all. The writer, Jamie Mathieson, has
proved he has a great sense of irony that fits in with the best that Doctor Who
has to offer. The Doctor’s situation isn’t exactly played for laughs but it’s
often very very funny, exploiting every visual gag it can. It’s the sort of setup
which sounds bonkers on paper in a bad way, and looks bonkers on the screen in
a good way. The effects are often pleasingly low budget (hands sticking out of
model TARDISes, false perspective on the actual TARDIS set), clever solutions
to what was no doubt a whole load of directorial headaches.
That contrasts with the ultra cool monsters the Boneless who take all
sorts of forms as they try to push themselves into our world. These make for
some great set-pieces, particularly a perilous moment in a living room that
makes a perfect ‘playground game’ out of the episode. The rippling monster
effects look absolutely beautiful, and the rest of the episode looks very
stylish too, something hard to do when it’s not all space galaxies and
starlight. Both the 2D and 3D incarnations of the monster are creepy, with the
latter reminding me of badly sculpted toys, uncanny valley style. Like many
previous episodes in the series, the sound effects make it all the more creepy.
It’s an episode that feels traditional on the surface - it’s
the Doctor and Clara against scary monsters. And that’s not even a criticism,
we haven’t had that sort of story in ages. But there’s plenty more to enjoy, a
very new configuration of the show that does everything at once. Hilarity mixed
with horror, fitted snugly into forty five minutes, which makes this an
exquisite bite of Doctor Who.
many thanks to
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