8x09 Flatline (Discussion/Grading) SPOILERS!

[Brent]

I thought he said "bitch" too, did he not? It sounded like it anyway.

I found a lot of words harder to understand this episode, some of the sounds, like the sonic screwdriver + the music were so loud and overpowered the actors speech.

There was also a couple of words I couldn't tell what the Doctor said, right after they stepped out of the smaller tardis at the beginning, and were looking around it, the doctor said a couple words in that dialog I just couldn't figure out.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

He said "I've got our bench" but with BBCA time compression it might be even harder to understand.

 

[Nightowl1701]

There was also a couple of words I couldn't tell what the Doctor said, right after they stepped out of the smaller tardis at the beginning, and were looking around it, the doctor said a couple words in that dialog I just couldn't figure out.

"Och...well, I wonder what caused this? I don't think we're bigger, are we?"
"Bristol?!? Doctor, we're in Bristol!"
"About 120 miles from where we should be. Impressive."
"No, not impressive! Annoying!"
"No, this (the TARDIS) is impressive, this (Clara) is annoying! The TARDIS never does this - this is huge! Well, not literally huge...slightly smaller than usual, which is huge!"

 

[Guy Gardener]

Compared to the "This planet is protected" Christmas invasion speech, or Mat's first big "Oi! Come back here and get a talking to!" speech, not so impressive.

Besides since there as a 90 percent chance he was about to murder them, and that they may not have understood the language so precisely, it was really quite gratuitous.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

This was surprisingly good. It also felt like an episode from the RTD era. I can't quite explain why, but it just had that "feeling" about it..it's like we haven't had an episode like this since his era, or at least since The Eleventh Hour. I liked Capaldi as the Doctor too. He's getting more expressive, he had his first "powerful" moment (although "this plane is protected!" isn't as grandiose as "This planet is protected!"). He really clicked here.

Clara was great again in this episode. I know she's a polarizing character for many fans but to me, she's the best companion of the series since it restarted. I can only wonder where this whole Missy thing is going.

8/10 from me.

 

[Timewalker]

The Thing moment... don't think I've ever laughed so much at something in Doctor Who, ever.

Why didn't the psychic paper work on that guy? I get the feeling we might see him again... but then, maybe not.

Psychic paper only works on people with imaginations.

(Production Meeting 4 months ago.)

"We need to sell more toy TARDIS' or someone is going to get fired!"

ThinkGeek sells a lot of toy TARDISes. I have several different kinds.

Just Meh for me. Some great tension until the aliens went 3D, then it was just another chase episode. The sonic also seemed even more of a magic wand than usual.

Yep, it seemed to be an all-purpose point-and-whatever-is-needed-shall-be-done thing this time.

The sentence by the Doctor towards Clara at the end gave me chills. "You were an exceptional Doctor. Goodness had nothing to do with it." I'm intrigued. I suspect we'll get the whole story about the Doctor's doubts of his own goodness by the end of the series.

I get the impression that the Doctor wasn't pleased to discover that Clara has been lying to him. Lying to Danny? Not good, but less offensive than her lying to the Doctor.

What did everyone think of Missy's appearance at the end? It was too enigmatic for me to make sense of but I'd be interested to hear your takes on it.

Some people have speculated that Missy is a female incarnation of the Master. If so, the Master using Clara reminds me of how he used Adric against the Doctor in Castrovalva. Or perhaps another rerun of a different Fifth Doctor story element: The Black Guardian used Turlough against the Fifth Doctor.

I hope these speculations are wrong, though.

I'm thinking about season one when 9 says that the TARDIS doors won't hold because it's a "real" Dalek Army on the other side of them.

1. Siege mode.

2. Stop reducing the weight of the ship. If the TARDIS was suddenly expressing the weight of a planet, it would have powdered the Dalek ship it was berthed in, and crushed the rest of the fleet too as thousands of transsolar disks were drawn towards it's colossal mass.

3. (Skipping ahead to last fortnight) If the TARDIS weighs the same as a moon, yet doesn't exhibit those characteristic because of Timelord technology, couldn't the TARDIS have as easily reduced the weight of the moon even as it's mass was increasing?

Shh... you, a mere viewer, are not supposed to reason things out like that.

There was also a couple of words I couldn't tell what the Doctor said, right after they stepped out of the smaller tardis at the beginning, and were looking around it, the doctor said a couple words in that dialog I just couldn't figure out.

"Och...well, I wonder what caused this? I don't think we're bigger, are we?"
"Bristol?!? Doctor, we're in Bristol!"
"About 120 miles from where we should be. Impressive."
"No, not impressive! Annoying!"
"No, this (the TARDIS) is impressive, this (Clara) is annoying! The TARDIS never does this - this is huge! Well, not literally huge...slightly smaller than usual, which is huge!"

I guess the Doctor has forgotten how the TARDIS shrank with him inside it in Logopolis?

The part where the Doctor had to use his hand to get the TARDIS off the train track was cute.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Or Planet of the Giants back in 1964?

Although why didn't the master 'shrink his Tardis control room rather than using an axillary remote control shoe box after he had that accident with his tissue compression eliminator?

According to Lagopolis the TARDIS (and everything else) exists quantifiablely in 37 dimensions.

 

[Timewalker]

Although why didn't the master 'shrink his Tardis control room rather than using an axillary remote control shoe box after he had that accident with his tissue compression eliminator?

'Cause we would have missed the scene where Peri kept swatting him?

 

[intrinsical]

"I know another race with 64 stomachs, who talk to each other by disembowling."
Did they just cannonize Curse of the Fatal Death?

 

[Brent]

There was also a couple of words I couldn't tell what the Doctor said, right after they stepped out of the smaller tardis at the beginning, and were looking around it, the doctor said a couple words in that dialog I just couldn't figure out.

"Och...well, I wonder what caused this? I don't think we're bigger, are we?"
"Bristol?!? Doctor, we're in Bristol!"
"About 120 miles from where we should be. Impressive."
"No, not impressive! Annoying!"
"No, this (the TARDIS) is impressive, this (Clara) is annoying! The TARDIS never does this - this is huge! Well, not literally huge...slightly smaller than usual, which is huge!"

Thank you! That cleared that up a lot, appreciate it!

 

[Guy Gardener]

(Production Meeting 4 months ago.)

"We need to sell more toy TARDIS' or someone is going to get fired!"

ThinkGeek sells a lot of toy TARDISes. I have several different kinds.

I imagine a new design, that when you open the front door, a full sized human land leaps out and tries to grab you.

(Yes, from an engineering perspective, much like a Jack in the Box.)

 

[Mitty]

Just watching it again When Clara asks the Doctor to open the doors to show Rigsey, he flicks a control on the console and we hear the same sound we always heard in the original series when the doors opened

EDIT meanwhile I want a Siege Mode TARDIS!

 

[John Clark]

The old guy? That's Christopher Fairbank, and he is wonderful at playing foul, soulless, angry characters.

For me, he'll always be Moxey (Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) though I've seen him in bucket-loads since. Fine actor.

As for the episode itself, I wasn't quite sure going off what I'd heard, but I enjoyed it.

 

[JoeZhang]

I thought a lot of the characters were two-dimensional.



I'll get me coat...

 

[Mage]

Really liked this one, and it seems the Doctor is really becoming the Doctor again. As in, the caring man who would do anything to save people.

But more teasing of Missy.... I'm a bit worried though. With only three more episodes to go, we'll either get two or three episodes REALLY focusing on the Missy storyline, or one longer finale episode, which might feel rushed and packed with to much stuff.

Or the last episode of this season will end in a cliffhanger that will be resolved in the Christmas special.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

For me, I feel like I am back at square one - Who is Clara? It feels to me that we have a season-and-a half arc wherein we and the Doctor are learning about this companion.

I think I have seen in past episodes the Doctor updating his TARDIS. I think it's probable in the centuries between the ninth and twelfth incarnations that the Time Lord learned about and incorporated the siege mode into his home.

I liked the character Rigsy.

 

[Mitty]

After watching the Addams Family scene again, it got me thinking, particularly the part where he first "rights" the TARDIS. If he can tip the TARDIS up the right way, I'm not sure why he didn't stick his entire arm through the hole and stand it up (which would have been a much more amazing effect if they could have pulled it off). Just sticking his hand through almost made it more difficult than i he'd used his entire arm. Unless he's worried the hole is going to shrink even more.

 

[Cutter John]

Well now that I've rewatched it a second time and caught a few things I missed (the 2d train, and the Doctor saying he'd found a solution while still trapped in the Tardis), I'm inclined to change my vote to at least a Good.

Now I'm wondering what it might actually be like to encounter a 2d species. Surely this has been covered in sci-fi before?

And I still want Rigsy as the next companion.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Now I'm wondering what it might actually be like to encounter a 2d species. Surely this has been covered in sci-fi before?

Of the top of my head... TNG - The Loss

 

[Romulan_spy]

One of my favorite quotes from this episode is when the Doctor says "this is embarrassing. I'm from the race that built the Tardis. Dimensions are kind of our thing."