Doctor Who - Before the Flood Review
After the events of "Under the Lake", the Doctor starts the episode breaking the fourth wall, talking directly to the audience explaining a time paradox: a time traveler decides to go back in time to meet Beethoven, whose music he admires. However, he discovers that Beethoven never actually existed. The time traveler then decides to publish Beethoven's music himself, essentially 'becoming' Beethoven. But, the Doctor asks, how did the music first originate, then? "Who really composed Beethoven's Fifth?" The main credits start and we can hear an electric guitar playing the main theme, awesome!
The Doctor then arrives to the Army base in 1980, before the mysterious flood and discover the space ship is carrying a deceased conqueror called The Fisher King. Back in the future, Clara, Cass and Lunn realise that the Doctor's ghost is uttering a list of their names instead of coordinates. When the Doctor contacts Clara and is informed about his ghost, he is badly shaken by this certain knowledge of his future. Clara forcefully encourages him to try to change events, but the Doctor argues that he cannot and ultimately accepts the eventuality that he must die to keep events in motion.
Then, back to the past, the Doctor and his team find out the Fisher King is still alive and hides the statis chamber before going after them. After he kills one of the team, he decides to go back to the future to save Clara but, somehow, he's trapped in his own life steam and cannot go back.
The Doctor confronts the Fisher King. The creature reveals that the ghosts he's created will signal his people to send an armada to conquer Earth. The Fisher King also taunts the Doctor's unwillingness to alter the future, but the Doctor chastises him for violating the souls of those who died simply for his own ends. The Doctor then tricks the Fisher King into going back to the spaceship by lying about erasing the writing from the wall. The Fisher King realizes the Doctor tricked him and has used one of the power cells (shown as missing in the earlier episode) to destroy the dam wall, flooding the town with Fisher King caught in the torrent. The TARDIS' security protocol activates with Bennett still inside, but the Doctor's whereabouts remain unknown as the town floods but it seems like he gets inside the stasis chamber in order to survive the flood and awakens back into the future with Clara.
The episode was intense and full of surprises, the change to see two Doctors in one same scene was unexpected and the change to see Capaldi playing the electric guitar once more memorable. His performance as the Doctor is even stronger than before, showing us once again he's the perfect choice. The rest of the cast did a great job as well, even better than in the previous episode.
We also got the change, finally, to see Clara and mention how travelling with the Doctor makes her forget about past events relating Danny Pink at last. It is nice to see her character finally evolving again.
The first minutes were a fun surprise, the first time seeing the Doctor talking directly to the audience; while this doesn't sound like a good idea to have the main actor talk to the camera (especially in Doctor Who), it ended up being the best part, perfectly well made and acted!
To say something bad about this episode, the main villain had a scary design (reminded me to Predator somehow) but while it was very important for the plot, he was defeated easily and didn't have so much screen time. Plus, the episode tries very hard to explain itself and have some real logic...this is Doctor Who, we don't need logic!
To say something bad about this episode, the main villain had a scary design (reminded me to Predator somehow) but while it was very important for the plot, he was defeated easily and didn't have so much screen time. Plus, the episode tries very hard to explain itself and have some real logic...this is Doctor Who, we don't need logic!
· Quote of the episode: "Maybe it will mean that the universe will be ruled by cats or something in the future"
· Best of the episode: Great ending for this two-part episode - Peter Capaldi's acting, better than ever - Nice to see Clara evolve again - Electric guitar!
· Worst of the episode: The Fisher King was a scary monster but way underused...
· Best of the episode: Great ending for this two-part episode - Peter Capaldi's acting, better than ever - Nice to see Clara evolve again - Electric guitar!
· Worst of the episode: The Fisher King was a scary monster but way underused...
9.0
:: Doctor Who - Series 9 ::
1. The Magician's Apprentice (9.5)
2. The Witch's Familiar (9.5)
3. Under the Lake (8.7)
4. Before the Flood (9.0)
5. The Girl Who Died (??)
6. The Woman Who Lived (??)
7. The Zygon Invasion (??)
8. The Zygon Inversion (??)
9. Sleep No More (??)
10. Face the Raven (??)
11. Heaven Sent (??)
12. Hell Bent (??)
13. Christmas's Special (??)
