{"id":1565,"date":"2014-10-23T12:43:36","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T12:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2014-10-23T12:43:36","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T12:43:36","slug":"so-what-did-i-think-of-flatline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/10\/23\/so-what-did-i-think-of-flatline\/","title":{"rendered":"So… What did I think of Flatline?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Doctor-Who-Flatline-TARDIS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another monster-of-the-week story, another Jamie Mathieson script, a further exploration of the Doctor\/Clara relationship and \u2013 I have to say \u2013 another triumph for all concerned.<\/p>\n

It seems as if the reduced episode count hasn\u2019t resulted in the obviation of a Doctor Lite episode, and this was it, with Capaldi filming just one day on location and one day on the TARDIS set. But the rationale is amazing and created some of the episode\u2019s best moments, from the enormous sledgehammer Clara pulls out of her handbag, to the delightful Addams Family routine on the train tracks. Only in a couple of shots of the Doctor\u2019s face peering out of the tiny TARDIS did the effects fall in any way short. Ironically for an episode so devoted to the difference between 2D and 3D, I suspect this is because 2D shots of Capaldi were inserted into existing footage of the TARDIS prop, instead of having the actor actually shove his face through a set of tiny doors, but other than that, the effects are lovely.<\/p>\n

And scary too. The various scenes of Clara and Rigsy menaced by drawings are properly exciting, and if the budget can\u2019t quite stretch to the hanging chair crashing through the window, the pace of the editing and Murray Gold\u2019s music just about manages to bridge the gap.<\/p>\n

Of course, this episode can\u2019t help but call to mind the lamentable Fear Her<\/em>, a feeble cough of an episode which dragged down the average of an otherwise pretty solid season. In both cases, animated drawings come to murderous life, but Flatline<\/em> has atmosphere, jokes, and a cast of supporting characters to spare where Fear Her<\/em> just lies there, begging for euthanasia.<\/p>\n

In fact, the supporting cast put me more in mind of Midnight<\/em>, one of my favourite Tennant episodes, wherein we see how petty, short-sighted and selfish people can be if you put them under enough pressure. That nasty side of human nature is here represented by Christopher Fairbank as the odious Fenton \u2013 who naturally has to survive, while bright, good-hearted folk like PC Forrest get slaughtered by The Boneless.<\/p>\n

Clara\u2019s audition as The Doctor is an interesting twist and with the revelation that the she has been lying to Danny about her \u201cbreak-up\u201d with her Timelord chum, it now becomes possibly to see the run of stories from The Caretaker<\/em> to this as a very clear and logical progression of the relationship.<\/p>\n

Niggles? Yeah. A few. As well the iffy Doctor\/TARDIS shots, the train whizzing through the tunnel looked very digital to me, and I didn\u2019t quite buy Rigsy\u2019s Noble Act Of Self-Sacrifice (although I was amused to see him substituted with a scrunchie). Clara\u2019s use of Rigsy\u2019s artistic talents to Road Runner The Boneless into regenerating the TARDIS was a great twist, but it was a shame that when the Doctor emerged, all he had to do was Sonic them away.<\/p>\n

A bit like its immediate predecessor then, Flatline<\/em> gets high marks from me, not because it dared to do something extraordinary, but because it did what Doctor Who is supposed to do and did it to a very, very high standard. Funny, scary, weird, arresting, original and exciting, it\u2019s Saturday family viewing at its best. Four-and-a-half stars, and we are really on a roll now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another monster-of-the-week story, another Jamie Mathieson script, a further exploration of the Doctor\/Clara relationship and \u2013 I have to say \u2013 another triumph for all concerned. It seems as if the reduced episode count hasn\u2019t resulted in the obviation of a Doctor Lite episode, and this was it, with Capaldi filming just one day on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[18,19],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-doctor-who","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-pf","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1567,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions\/1567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}