Doctor Who: Flatline by Jamie Mathieson (Doctor Who review).
Be careful: There may be some unintentional spoilers although I won’t give away the ending.
‘Flatline’ has to be the best episode so far this season. The TARDIS is smaller on the outside and getting smaller as a menace from a 2-dimensional reality merges with our own, claiming a lot of lives along the way.
An ingenious plot, switching the roles of Clara and the Doctor although I would have wondered what would have happened had it been the other way around with the Time Lord lacking his technology. A locked room mystery with a flattened twist. Squeezy easy.
Again, Jenna Coleman is essentially taking the lead again leaving Peter Capaldi literally talking to himself stuck inside the TARDIS. He nearly becomes a secondary character but not quite this time. The antagonists are still pretty much an unknown quantity with nary note of their true intentions and barely any dialogue. The series is really screaming for some kind of opponent that can talk although there is a hint at the end that someone else is coming along.
If I have to be critical then the solution is more deus ex-machina because it really lacks a true explanation. Even the sonic screwdriver is still used as a magic wand. Calling the creatures the Bolus is an unusual choice because that’s the medical term for a piece of food you swallow.
Don’t look back.
Geoff Willmetts
October 2014
It’s actually the “Boneless”
Hello Xris
An hour after the show, I went phonetically.