Before the Flood review
WARNING! I know I say it every
week, but I still feel the need to warn you that if you haven’t seen the
episode yet, please do so before reading on because of the spoilers contained
in this review.
Once again, there are quite a few
talking points from this episode that I want to explore.
First of all, I just want to say
that I correctly predicted that it was the Doctor in the coffin and that he
would somehow use this to get back to Clara and the base. As it turns out, the
Doctor did not die and become a ghost, he just created a hologram of his ghost
to pass on a message to Clara and the others on the base, whilst being inside
the suspended animation chamber found on the ship. This has become such a
typical aspect of the show, not just in Moffat’s time but also Davies used to
do it before him (such as at the end of series 4 with the regeneration which wasn’t
a regeneration but actually now it turns out was a regeneration) so in many
ways this made this episode fit in with so much of what actually makes the show
unique.
Something which does bother me
about this episode is that there seemed to be very little detail about the
Fisher King, this week’s alien. We had no real explanation of who he was, where
he came from or indeed why he was turning people into ‘ghosts’ and I am undecided
as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it would
have been nice to understand a bit more about this mysterious villain and the
motives behind his actions. However, I also think that sometimes, this explanation
is not needed and it can be nice to not know everything and to always have
questions in your mind. In this case, I think it might perhaps have been better
to have been given a bit more about the character and where he came from, but I
suppose it is up to us to guess these things.
One of the more confusing aspects
of the episode was the concept that somehow the whole situation was
reverse-engineered by the creation of Beethoven’s 5th symphony. When
the Doctor was playing the music, it put the ideas into his head about how to
ultimately save himself and Clara on board the base. Usually, I can get some
sort of grasp on how these complex plotlines come together, but this time I am
struggling to get my head around it. Maybe, as with the Fisher King, this is a
point to think about once the show has finished and it seems to be up to us to
work out the dynamics of this situation. Saying that though, I love how Doctor
Who can get away with this kind of storyline and still make us, the audience,
love it and keep watching.
Now I want to talk about the new
aspects of the Doctor which have been added this series. Just like the 11th
Doctor and his love of bow ties, fezzes and Jammie Dodgers, this Doctor now
seems to have found his own unique gimmicks; the sonic glasses and the electric
guitar. Last year, it came across that the Doctor was trying to discover who he
was and it is now in this series that some of his personality has begun to
emerge, to great hilarity. I am going to say that these two things are going to
define this incarnation’s comedy and character and I have to say that I love
it. Gone are the days of bowties (still cool by the way) and long live the electric
guitar!
Overall, I think this episode contained
a lot less action than the first part of it. Although Under the Lake was
fast-paced and full of drama, this appeared to be lacking in Before the Flood. In
places, we lacked detail about areas of the characters and plotline. It does
however give us a satisfying, if once again lacklustre, conclusion to a
two-parter full of intrigue, fascination and drama.
Rating for Before The Flood
7/10
This week, I got a unique and
wonderful opportunity I want to share with you. On Saturday, I got given the
chance to stand in and run a meeting of my university’s Doctor Who Society. I felt
so honoured to be asked and trusted to do it and tried my utmost to make it a
great meeting. It was such a fun occasion, as these meetings always are, but I am
delighted to have done this and thank you to those committee members who
offered me this chance. To those who attended, thank you for coming and making it
worth all of my organisation and time and of course, I hope you enjoyed it
enough to want me to do this more in the future if need be.
Before I sign off, I want you to
first of all, get excited about next week’s episode which features Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams in a
mysterious role not yet revealed to us (MOFFAT!) and it is hopefully going to
be another cracker.
Also, let me know if you agree
with what one of the society members said about the episode.
“I loved the Cold War base
setting and that tough Russian Orthodox exterior was so cool. The use of a deaf
character was also brilliant and done perfectly in this episode. I particularly
enjoyed how they used the silent perspective when she was being chased by the
ghost with the axe and the fact that she got together with her signer at the
end. That was amazing! I suppose I just have two real questions about this
episode. Why did they leave the Undertaker alone with the body if they knew he
was going to die? And surely if they didn’t want the ghosts to get the phone
when it was outside of the cage, shouldn’t they have just wrapped it in a clear
plastic bag or something?”
And there you have it, the review
of episode 4. Let me know if you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said or
whether you think I missed something important to discuss. You can do so by
following me on all of my social media links below or by commenting on this
post. My next post should be up on Friday, where I will be discussing my week
with you all. Come back on Friday if you want to see that, but until then keep
smiling, keep happy and above all, keep believing.
TRENT
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