Early Access - Doctor Who | Reaction & Review 8x9 "Flatline"
Added 2023-03-24 04:22:50 +0000 UTCComments
Like Time Heist, this one was a favorite of mine as a kid. You're spot on that this is when I warmed up to Capaldi because of that ending speech where he's so heroic (and the monsters this episode are so cool, it's overall an accessible episode), though my tastes weren't well developed yet, and it wasn't until he blew me away another particular speech (*cough* Zygon Inversion *cough*) that I was sold on him, and it wasn't until a few episodes after that when I realized he had hands-down become "my Doctor" and there was no denying it. It's a good neutral episode like the last one, but of course the overarching character beats are inescapable. It's still a great standalone episode, however: solid villain and a few good gimmicks (Doctor Clara, the shrunken TARDIS, and the 2D flattening). The idea of the dimensional villains isn't that out there, but the execution is just great, I love the buzzing sound and the way people almost melt into flatness like the paint strokes of their existence is messed up. There's something very creepy about that shot of the guy who seems to be alright but the camera movement conveys how he's been flattened, and I agree with you that the one sore thumb in the vfx is the giant claw grabbing one of the fodder characters. I think it could actually look decent if they just had it quickly snatch him off-screen rather than track the camera along the movement, which creates a goofy cartoony feeling. On that note, despite this episode obviously having depth it does have a lighter fluffier tone than last ep's. I tend to not be a fan of the bouncy noise-cues type of humor in this show, and Clara this episode is not as angsty as I typically like (lol kidding, but her wanting the Doctor's validation at the end makes up for it) but I do like the mini TARDIS. Like you said, not the most memorable cast of characters but Clara has her own companion in Rigsy and I like that the cast is tied together through a commonality rather than being an oddball combination of random civilians as is often the case in these type of episodes (maybe mostly in RTD episodes at least). Plus, the memorial paintings of the missing people being actually the missing people was creepy. Missy cameo is okay, though I have a pet peeve about villains that have magical vision of the characters in the same reality that we the audience do. Is it that hard to film it from a slightly different angle, or at least downgrade the quality, or use a different aperture? I feel like the villain having a magical iPad to view everything on is the modern equivalent of our childhood cartoons where the villain had a crystal ball or a puddle/pond or something to view the protagonists through, haha.
tom
2023-08-21 19:57:44 +0000 UTCAh, when you commented this ages ago I really racked my brain to find a natural way to tie it into Capaldi playing the electric guitar to put it into Im's head before he started S9. But I couldn't think of it, which was a shame because I knew about Capaldi's musicality before S9 and it was in a similar vein to the jewellery fact which I also knew, so these only made how Twelve was written in these seasons feel more flavorful. Brilliant stuff.
tom
2023-08-21 19:53:09 +0000 UTCoh i take that back lol because the first doctor had a big and stunning blue stone ring he wore!
Belinda
2023-03-24 20:00:39 +0000 UTCanother s8 favorite! I just love the whole 2 dimensional idea! some real sci-fi ideas. jamie mathieson, writer for this and ep8 was a real surprise this season and such a perfect choice for dw..i had big hopes he would become a regular on the series *sigh* oh well..dw really needs more writers like him! thanks ♡
Belinda
2023-03-24 05:59:16 +0000 UTCThat's really funny you bring up the Neil Gaiman episode (the Doctor's Wife) because despite seeing this episode several times, today is the first time I noticed that the TARDIS in siege mode very closely resembles the messenger cubes of the time lords in that episode. The main difference being that in the Doctors wife they were translucent and lit up, whereas here it looks like it's made of steel, or aluminium.
SeeJay
2023-03-24 05:57:53 +0000 UTCOh that’s lovely!
FILMBuFF
2023-03-24 05:10:58 +0000 UTCabout peters ring, he never takes off his wedding band so they made a beautiful green topaz(?) ring to blend together w/ his wedding band. peter is just the sweetest human and i love they accommodated him with that. I believe he's the first doctor to wear a ring ♡
Belinda
2023-03-24 05:09:15 +0000 UTC
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