Before the Flood (Doctor Who)

255b – "Before the Flood"
Doctor Who episode
File:The Fisher King in Doctor Who.jpg The Fisher King (voiced by Peter Serafinowicz), the villain of the piece
Cast
Doctor Peter Capaldi (Twelfth Doctor)
Companion Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald)
Guest Paul Kaye – Prentis Sophie Stone – Cass Morven Christie – O'Donnell Arsher Ali – Bennett Colin McFarlane – Moran Zaqi Ismail – Lunn Steven Robertson – Pritchard Neil Fingleton – The Fisher King Peter Serafinowicz – Voice of the Fisher King Corey Taylor – Roar of the Fisher King
Production
Directed by	Daniel O'Hara
Written by	Toby Whithouse
Script editor	Nick Lambon
Produced by	Derek Ritchie
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Brian Minchin
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	Series 9
Running time	2nd of 2-part story, 45 minutes
First broadcast	10 October 2015 (2015-10-10)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Under the Lake" Followed by → "The Girl Who Died"

"Before the Flood" is the fourth episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Toby Whithouse and is directed by Daniel O'Hara. It was first broadcast on 10 October 2015. It is the second part of a two-part story - the first part being "Under the Lake" - featuring alien time traveller the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman).

The first episode of the story is set after events in the second episode. "Under the Lake" is set in 2119 and "Before the Flood" is set in both 2119 and a hundred years before, in 1980.

Plot

The episode opens with the Doctor explaining the bootstrap paradox to the audience before landing in the 1980s with Bennett and O'Donnell. They discover not only that the Tivolian, Prentis, is still alive and that the writing has not yet been scratched into the wall, but that the spaceship is in fact, a hearse, 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. The Doctor contacts Clara and tries to reason with his ghost but it unlocks the Faraday cage, releasing the others. Back in the 1980s, the Fisher King is revealed to be alive, writing the words on the ship's wall and killing Prentis.

O'Donnell, Bennet and the Doctor flee but they get separated and O'Donnell is killed by the Fisher King. The Doctor attempts to return to the future to save Clara, but the TARDIS is locked in his timestream and instead goes half an hour backwards in time. O'Donnell's ghost appears in the future and steals Clara's phone, her only means of contacting the Doctor. Lunn is able to retrieve the phone as the ghosts ignore him because he never saw the words, however once he picks up the mobile phone, they trap him in the main room, by triggering a door emergency security lock.

Leaving Bennett in the TARDIS, the Doctor confronts the Fisher King, tricking him into leaving the church and the stasis chamber behind only to find that the Doctor has used the missing power cell to destroy the dam wall, flooding the base and killing the Fisher King. The stasis chamber opens in the future, its occupant revealed to be the Doctor as saves Clara, Cass and Lunn using his own ghost hologram which he programmed from the stasis chamber. The ghosts are sealed within the Faraday cage to be dealt with by UNIT and the Doctor and Clara leave in the TARDIS. The Doctor erases the memory of the writing from everyone's mind, and Bennett convinces Lunn to admit his love for Cass, and they kiss. The Doctor asks Clara who thought of what to program the ghost to say, as he programmed it to say what he had already seen it say in the future, drawing a parallel with the bootstrap paradox from the episode's introduction.

Continuity

The electric guitar amplifier seen in the Doctor's prologue has a plaque reading Magpie Electronics, a shop originally owned by Mr Magpie and visited by the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler in the episode "The Idiot's Lantern". The name often appears on electronic equipment throughout the series, such as Martha Jones' television in "The Sound of Drums". Additionally, what appears to be a clockwork squirrel can be seen placed on one of the amps. Clara mentions in the previous episode that the Doctor made this using parts of his radio.

O'Donnell mentions prior companions Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Amy Pond, as well as Harold Saxon and events from "Kill the Moon". She also mentions "the Minister of War", but the Doctor has no knowledge of this, surmising that this will be in his future.

The TARDIS' "Security Protocol 712" first appeared in "Blink". Other console room holograms have included the Emergency Program One ("The Parting of the Ways") and the "voice interface" with a holographic feature ("Let's Kill Hitler").

Outside references

During the episode's prologue, the Doctor mentions that he met the actual Ludwig van Beethoven - "an intense fellow".

Ludwig Van Beethoven went deaf later in life; he used vibrations to 'feel' his music. Cass uses echolocation in a similar manner to locate Moran's ghost who is scraping a fire axe along the ground.

Cass's echolocation looks like the echo visor from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

O'Donnell alludes to Neil Armstrong's famous line from the first moon walk: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". The Eleventh Doctor made use of Armstrong's line when he first defeated the Silence in "Day of the Moon".

The Tivolian mortician Prentis has business cards with the motto "May the remorse be with you." This is a pun on the Star Wars catchphrase "May The Force Be With You".

Broadcast and reception

Doctor Who saw a considerable rise in the overnight ratings to 4.38 million. The show had a 21.5% of the available audience and little competition from the Rugby World Cup. Doctor Who came forth for the day ratings wise.

Critical reception

The episode received critical acclaim.

IGN praised the episode, giving 9 out of 10 (Amazing). They praised the resolution to the episode particularly, as well as the performances of Capaldi and the guest cast. Dan Martin of The Guardian praised Coleman's performance believing her and Capaldi to be "surely now one of the most successful pairings in Doctor Who’s history." He praised the design of the Fisher King admitting that it actually scared him. Morgan Jeffrey of Digital Spy thought the episode was "scary and smart," and an improvement over the previous episode. But he was disappointed by the lack of screen time given to Paul Kaye's character Prentis and some of the crew members of the base. Overall he felt that the story was Whitehouse's best since "School Reunion". Den of Geek gave the episode a positive review, praising Capaldi saying, "it just feels like he utterly belongs there...he's been on excellent, excellent form." However, they found the design and use of the Fisher King to be "not really very arresting, really. Disappointing, even." Overall, they found the episode to be "patchier than last week's, but I'm not grumbling about the strength of the two parter, I do still strongly feel that the move towards two parters has been beneficial to Doctor Who series 9 thus far." However, Catherine Gee of The Telegraph gave the episode 3 stars out of 5, arguing that the episode "needed more Fisher King."

External links

• "Before the Flood" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "Before the Flood" on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• Template:Brief
• "Before the Flood(Doctor Who)" at IMDb