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8x09 Flatline (Discussion/Grading) SPOILERS!

What do you think about the episode?


  • Total voters
    105
An interesting tidbit from the writer's blog is that in the original drafts the Doctor was not originally sidelined in the TARDIS. That came about after he was asked to make it a Doctor-light episode.
 
As for the whole Missy thing, we've only seen her in just a few episodes this season right? How can a character only showing up for like 10 minutes of screen time be so integral to the arc? I'm a little worried after finding a new revelation last night.
The character of Harold Saxon appeared in 0 minutes of screen time prior to "Utopia," and yet he was integral to Series 3's arc. I don't really understand this complaint.
I was really hoping that we would actually see Clara as a normal girl this season, but I get the sense that she won't be. I even saw some speculation about going back to how Clara got the Doctor's Tardis number and the whole "Woman in the Shop" thing (Which I completely forgot about) and I'm worried that this series has turned into CLARA Who instead of DOCTOR Who. If my fears are warrented, than I will be glad to get a new companion soon.

Has the new series ever had a companion that someone didn't think was overtaking the show?
 
Most famously, Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is all about a fellow named A. Square from a two-dimensional universe who ends up travelling both to "Spaceland" and "Pointland." It's excellent and hilarious.

A more recent example is The Planiverse, by the Canadian mathematician A.K. Dewdney. One of the humorous aspects of Dewdney's story is that the two-dimensional creatures could not have a complete digestive tract (since it would cleave them completely in two). Rather, they were required to excrete wastes from the same orifice by which they consumed food. :eek:

Ooh, that sounds fun.

Mathieson actually cites Flatland among his inspirations: http://jamiemathieson.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-boneless.html Hence the reason the story takes place on the "Abbott Estate." I didn't even catch that!
 
As for the whole Missy thing, we've only seen her in just a few episodes this season right? How can a character only showing up for like 10 minutes of screen time be so integral to the arc? I'm a little worried after finding a new revelation last night.
The character of Harold Saxon appeared in 0 minutes of screen time prior to "Utopia," and yet he was integral to Series 3's arc. I don't really understand this complaint.
I was really hoping that we would actually see Clara as a normal girl this season, but I get the sense that she won't be. I even saw some speculation about going back to how Clara got the Doctor's Tardis number and the whole "Woman in the Shop" thing (Which I completely forgot about) and I'm worried that this series has turned into CLARA Who instead of DOCTOR Who. If my fears are warrented, than I will be glad to get a new companion soon.

Has the new series ever had a companion that someone didn't think was overtaking the show?

I didn't think Rose over took the Doctor in the first season. I also thought Donna and the Doctor had great chemistry in the 4th. It seems like ever since Moffat took over, it's been more emphasis on the companion than on the Doctor himself.

As for Missy, I just want to see more of her, especially with three more episodes left in the season.
 
Now I'm wondering what it might actually be like to encounter a 2d species. Surely this has been covered in sci-fi before?
Flatland.

Carl Sagan also discusses this in Original Cosmos.

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatterland

A more recent example is The Planiverse, by the Canadian mathematician A.K. Dewdney. One of the humorous aspects of Dewdney's story is that the two-dimensional creatures could not have a complete digestive tract (since it would cleave them completely in two).

His gut busts him, as per the quote. A flatlander could spear a human arm and hold it fast. Ironically, I've heard it said that knots only stay tied in three dimensions. The Cheela come close--but have some height.

Rudy Rucker also talked about adventures for us in higher dimensions.

http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker/spaceland.htm

To contact the boneless, you have to intruduce what a one dimentional being would look like to someone in two dimentions--shades of a recent Space Dandy episode.

But the Boneless did appear at least to be real monsters. I think I would rather be eaten alive by Walkers than being dichotomized by the boneless. I imagine it was like being spaghettified by a black Hole or flattened by neutron star gravity. But seeing those things fluctuate--rather like what Adult Swim does with images of people moving against a background--composed of that background---eesh.

Moffett's fears are rubbing off on other writers.

What I was most reminded of was the creepy TNG episode with the woman phased through the floor--or China Miéville's Details:

http://tomcatintheredroom.com/2012/05/25/details-china-mieville/
 
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I was listening to the commentary for the 1970 and 1971 serials. The people were discussing the length of the serials. They felt that six or seven episodes was really stretching the serials, and, by the last one or two, the writers were struggling to write something. Four episodes were considered by some as the right number. Having an episode that was 45 minutes was viewed by some as being rushed. So, for the other fan who felt this episode and another one this season were rushed, it is the nature of the modern Doctor Who to have "rushed" episodes. For me, the issue is that the commercials interrupt the flow of the episode.

I hope that they end the Clara arc, and answer the question - who is this character this season? I am rooting against another season where this arc is ominpresent. I am in the minority - I don't find the actress attractive. For me, it's her performance that elevates her. (Who do I find attractive? Barbara Wright.)

The strongest male character I have seen traveling on the TARDIS in the modern era was not a companion - he was a hunter from the early 1900s who developed a friendship with the Egyptian goddess. The boyfriends of the companions have been depicted negatively overall. It's like they are in a competition with the Doctor, and their girlfriends are out of their league. A possible exception is Rory, perhaps. Other than Ian and Jamie, I can't think of a strong male companion.

I think the reason the Doctor used his hand, and not his arm, was that this was the extent of his body he could move past the doors.
 
An interesting tidbit from the writer's blog is that in the original drafts the Doctor was not originally sidelined in the TARDIS. That came about after he was asked to make it a Doctor-light episode.
Why? Was Peter Capaldi too busy?

As for the whole Missy thing, we've only seen her in just a few episodes this season right? How can a character only showing up for like 10 minutes of screen time be so integral to the arc? I'm a little worried after finding a new revelation last night.
The character of Harold Saxon appeared in 0 minutes of screen time prior to "Utopia," and yet he was integral to Series 3's arc. I don't really understand this complaint.
Missy and the Nethersphere isn't an arc. Everything we have seen of them so far amounts to no more than a teaser.
 
As for the whole Missy thing, we've only seen her in just a few episodes this season right? How can a character only showing up for like 10 minutes of screen time be so integral to the arc? I'm a little worried after finding a new revelation last night.
The character of Harold Saxon appeared in 0 minutes of screen time prior to "Utopia," and yet he was integral to Series 3's arc. I don't really understand this complaint.
Missy and the Nethersphere isn't an arc. Everything we have seen of them so far amounts to no more than a teaser.

I thought it was an arc because of the way people here kept bringing her up. Also, the whole Saxon thing really wasn't referred to much in the third season, was it? It's been a long while so I don't remember.
 
Saxon's in the background all the way through series 3...in fact he's even mentioned in Series 2 and in the Christmas special between 2 and 3.
 
I really enjoyed this episode, even moreso than last week's, which I liked as well. Same writer too, imagine that. This is one of the few times this season where I've actually enjoyed Clara beginning to end in an episode and didn't dislike her to some degree or other. More of this Clara please. And while the episode was exciting & scary, it was also a lot of fun. More of this too, please!
 
An interesting tidbit from the writer's blog is that in the original drafts the Doctor was not originally sidelined in the TARDIS. That came about after he was asked to make it a Doctor-light episode.
Why? Was Peter Capaldi too busy?

As for the whole Missy thing, we've only seen her in just a few episodes this season right? How can a character only showing up for like 10 minutes of screen time be so integral to the arc? I'm a little worried after finding a new revelation last night.
The character of Harold Saxon appeared in 0 minutes of screen time prior to "Utopia," and yet he was integral to Series 3's arc. I don't really understand this complaint.
Missy and the Nethersphere isn't an arc. Everything we have seen of them so far amounts to no more than a teaser.

That we know of. Until we get the join the dot scenes to all the other scenes throughout the season we won't know how big the arc really is. The death experiment and mummy soldier from last episode is likely part of it.
 
Ah sorry, I was on my tablet earlier and couldn't post a screenshot. Heres what I meant about the windows (Someone else mentioned it earlier).

beek36_zpsa3a45951.png
 
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