Steven Moffat has commented that the double episode stories in this series are not so much adventures told over two parts but more two part adventures. That is to say that while the second follows on from the first, the narrative and pace take a bit of a dog-leg and make a shift in gear. The first story saw episode one hanging off the mystery and setting the scene whereas episode two threw us into the action. This time, Under The Lake gave us a scary ghost story in a classic 'isolated base under siege' scenario that led to the ominous cliffhanger of the Doctor appearing as one of the ghosts then Before The Flood transposes the Doctor and three of the crew back in time to investigate the origins in the open space of the un-flooded village.
Before that however, the first new content for this episode does two, if not three things I didn't like. First of all, the Doctor is alone in the TARDIS and talking to himself... this is fine until you realise that he's not just talking to himself as he did in last year's Listen but he is talking to the audience and often directly into camera. Secondly, he is telling a story of a time traveller who wanted to meet Beethoven as if it really happened (presumably to him) but he states that it isn't a true story. Finally, he explains that the point of the story is to enlighten the viewers about the 'bootstrap paradox' saying "Google it." thus pointing at what is about to happen in the episode (why else talk about it?) and almost apologising for it, or at least warning the critics that the writers already know the potential pitfalls that they will moan about. It does however give Peter Capaldi an excuse to play his electric guitar again and Murry Gold an excuse to rock out the theme tune...
All that nonsense aside, the TARDIS has landed in what appears to be a bleak Russian town but which the Doctor soon points out is an abandoned Cold War training site in 1980... I say 'abandoned' because there is nobody there and the mysterious space ship they have come to investigate sticks out like a sore thumb! The Doctor explains that it is the hight of the Cold War and the military were being trained for combat on enemy soil... so should it really be so deserted? Is this a plot hole or was it a mistake to specify that it was 1980? Perhaps the town was only in occasional use on an ad hoc basis...
There's a little teaser snuck in to this establishing scene as well. O'Donnell reveals that she knows a fair bit about the Doctor, referring to Amy, Rose and Martha, because she is ex-military intelligence (she was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window!) The little teaser comes as she registers the time they have arrived in, it's before Harold Saxon, the Minister of War, the Moon exploding and the big bat coming out of it... The Doctor picks up on "Minister Of War" because it's not one he's aware of but then stops her from explaining "I expect I'll find out soon enough." The question is, is this something being set up by Moffat for later in the series, or some time beyond? Or is it just a random idea dropped in by writer Toby Whithouse for anyone to pick up or not? Only time will tell, obviously.
We learn that the spaceship is a hearse and the funeral director is Prentis, the first ghost seen on the Drum. He is from Tivoli, the land of sniffling idiots who like to be oppressed and conquered (You remember David Walliams's character in The God Complex?). The Doctor phones Clara from the TARDIS (as a video call) and learns of his ghost. To Clara's dismay, he explains that it means he will die and that there is nothing he can do to change that because the future has happened, she's seen it. The phone conversation has some nice touches in the performance and Clara moves her phone around from portrait to landscape orientation, the Doctor does the same with his monitor. Ultimately, the Doctor decides that they will all be safer if they lock themselves in the Faraday cage but they'll have to leave the phone outside so they don't lose the signal... which is fine until one of the ghosts takes it!
The atmosphere is just as tense and scary as the previous episode but with an added sense of foreboding as we wait for the inevitable. When O'Donnell dies, the Doctor tries to return to the Drum and change the course of events but the TARDIS won't let him, instead they arrive at the moment they first arrived in 1980, trapped within their current time stream and destined to play out what must be played out, to meeting the Fisher King, a tall and grotesque creature determined to spread his co-ordinates to his invasion forces.
Clara and Cass go creeping around the Drum looking for Lunn (who has gone to retreave Clara's phone) and inevitably get separated and persued by a ghost dragging an axe... it's worth pointing out now, in case I haven't already, that Cass is deaf, so when Clara starts calling her name (albeit in a hushed voice so as not to attract the ghosts) she feels more than a little stupid!
Long story short (because, you know, you need to watch the episode yourself) when the TARDIS is threatened by the impending flooding of the village its emergency protocol returns it to the Drum wit Bennett inside but the Doctor isn't there... so you can expect him to die and become the ghost then, right? Well, he's the Doctor, so obviously! The solution is a tad predictable and the follow-up that resolves the whole situation has already been sign posted bay prior events. Clever, intelligent but a little predictable and I'm perfectly fine with that. The Doctor uses his sonic glasses to clear the Fisher King's message from everyone's memory and the ghosts are trapped ready to be taken away and left to fade. All very neat and tidy until the Doctor points out the ultimate bootstrap paradox to Clara and repeats his previous question "Who composed Beethoven's fifth?" which a cheeky shrugging look to the camera.
Another pair of pretty strong episodes concludes. Only the Doctor talking to the camera drag it down... it's not just that the Doctor is breaking the fourth wall, but also the fact that it is completely outside the story. In a narrative sense, the Doctor is in the TARDIS with Bennett and O'Donnell, he is not alone and the whole pre-title sequence is unnecessary. It occurred to me that this all made it feel like an extra scene, added to pad the episode out a bit and to insert something before the titles rather than just having the recap. Indeed, the episode still comes in a little short so I stand by the assumption, be it right or wrong. I can say now, however, having seen almost the whole series (I'm woefully behind writing these reviews now!), that there is a reasonable justification for the Doctor talking alone in the TARDIS when he shouldn't be. I don't think it's an actual justification for the scene, but it is an acceptable explanation to apply to it if you're still not comfortable. But I'll leave the explanation until I get the the relevant episode. Meanwhile, it looks like the Vikings are coming...
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