Doctor Who Series Nine Reviews: 9.03

“Under the Lake” by Toby Whithouse: Observations

I’m going to change the format of my Doctor Who series nine reviews: as this series is mostly made up of two part stories, and I could do with finding a way to save time, I will make bullet notes about the first part of each story, and then do a more in depth analysis of the whole story at the end of the second part, when I will have seen the whole story, and will be able to make a more informed judgement of the story’s quality. Kicking off this new review format, here are my thoughts on “Under the Lake”.

• Hooray for Cass, the awesome deaf female scientist who is the cleverest person in the room, takes command of the crew, and is touchingly protective of Lunn, her interpreter. It’s particularly nice that her lip reading helped solve a key plot point in the episode. The general diversity of the guest cast this week, with the crew made up of female and POC scientists, of whom Cass is the highlight.

• Although on the topic of diversity, did the show really do the “Black Man Dies First”? It’s probably the result of the creators casting colour-blind rather than any bad intentions, but intent isn’t magic, and it’s still very disappointing for an episode that otherwise did very well on the representation front: the people involved in making this should be smart enough to recognise the harmful and clichéd trope they were using.

• The sonic sunglasses worked well here, being used sparingly to solve visual clues. They’ll take a bit of getting used to, but if they’re here to stay, then they fit in well with the aesthetic of Capaldi’s Doctor. It helps that he used the sonic screwdriver less than David Tennant and Matt Smith in his performance anyway.

• I loved the Doctor’s little smile when Clara tells him he’s itching to save some planets. That was a lovely Doctor/ Companion moment.

• “Hello! Did you want to show us this? It's very nice.” – Capaldi’s delivery of this line was very Patrick Troughton.

• Pritchard really was loathesome, with his obsession with his paycheck overriding any ethical concerns, but the Doctor’s responses to him were marvellous. “I understand: you’re an idiot”, and “Why is this man still talking to me?” were very Capaldi-suited lines, and the scene where he threw away Pritchard’s business card reminded me a lot of the Tenth Doctor and Donna tearing up Mr Lux’s  forms in “Silence in the Library”. The Doctor having no patience with beauracratic types and petty businessmen is always a lot of fun.

• My Gosh, Capaldi’s good in this. It’s standard “Doctor solving a problem” type material for the most part, but he takes on every scene in a fresh and surprising way – he’s just so assured in his second season in the part. I particularly loved his manic glee upon realising that these are real, proper, ghosts, and the Doctor’s awkwardness at attempting to address his concerns about Clara’s adrenalin-junkie behaviour (“Can I stop now?”/ “Please do”).

• The Cue Cards for the Doctor’s apologies for his poor social skills were a cute touch.

• Clara’s somewhat sidelined here (for the second successive episode), but there are some interesting character notes, in particular the way she is seeking out action and adventure, wanting to save some planets and seek out thrills, with noticeably less concern for helping people and empathising with the crew members. Her nonplussed response to the Doctor raising concerns about this was particularly telling. As we head towards her departure, these are ominous signs (I’ll be fine with a sad ending, much as I love Clara, though I really hope they don’t go for shock character death).

• Aside from Cass, the crew were rather one dimensional. Hopefully each character will have a bit more room for development after being split into two groups for the cliffhanger.

• Loved the parallel between the “Do you trust me” scene when the Doctor and Clara are separated, and the “Sorry too slow” scene from Deep Breath, where Clara gets trapped with Half-face man. The direction helps this parallel: the Doctor and Clara looking through circular windows visually references the scene from “Deep Breath”. It’s a very good way to show the development in their relationship: the scene from “Deep Breath” reflects the uncertainty that drove their relationship at that point, whereas the scene here is one of mutual trust and openness. The Doctor explains why he can’t take Clara with him, and why he has to go, and Clara trusts him to come back.

• Loved the cliffhanger. The Doctor going back in time with O’Donnell and Bennet sets up a part two that should be very different to part one, which is how these two part stories should work, while Clara being alone with Cass and Lunn should give her the chance to shine after a second episode in a row, where, despite some interesting character notes, she’s been rather sidelined. And the reveal of the Doctor’s ghost, while being something most people probably called a couple of seconds before it happened, is marvellously done, and an excellent way to change the status quo for “Before the Flood”.