BWW Recap: DOCTOR WHO Battles Creatures from Another Dimension

The Doctor and Clara have to deal with a lot of obstacles and a different kind of antagonist in this week's DOCTOR WHO. In "Flatline" we find a shrunken TARDIS, and Clara taking over as "Doctor" for the day in order to save a town from creatures from another dimension! Keep reading for my recap and feelings on this weeks episode, but be warned there are major SPOILERS!

As the Doctor returns Clara back home, he realizes that there has been an issue with the TARDIS and getting her back at the same moment they left. Clara notices the door to the TARDIS has shrunken, and when they open the door, they see that it has shrunken to about the size of a person. Clara notices that they are in Bristol, and The Doctor is stumped as to what could be the cause of the TARDIS shrinking. Clara goes off to investigate the nearby area, and The Doctor goes back inside the TARDIS to figure out what's going on. While inside, he sees the door has shrunken even more.

Clara finds out from a local graffiti artist that people have gone missing all around the area, and she calls The Doctor to see if there may be a connection. Clara heads back to the TARDIS to find that it has shrunken to the size of a small box (just like the one on my desk!) The Doctor tells her that the external dimensions are being leeched by something nearby, possibly aliens.

The Doctor gets a rough fix on the location of whatever is leeching the dimensions, but since he can't get out of the TARDIS, he gives Clara his psychic paper, sonic screwdriver, and a nanotech earpiece that hacks her optic nerve so he can see what she sees. Tiny TARDIS in her handbag, Clara heads off to investigate.

Clara runs back into the graffiti artist, Rigsy, and he asks for her name, to which Clara responds in true Doctor style, "I'm the Doctor. Doctor Oswald, but you can call me Clara."

As Clara and Rigsy are investigating one of the places someone disappeared from, a police officer gets sucked into the carpet. Clara and Rigsy hear the officer scream and when they go in to the room she's gone. This makes The Doctor realize that whatever is doing this is trying to understand three dimensions and he realizes they are in the walls. Clara and Rigsy get trapped in the room and Clara uses the sonic to escape through the window.

The Doctor sees the mural of the victims out in the tunnel, and Figures out that the creatures are wearing the dead like camouflage. The creatures start to go after Clara, Rigsy, and the cleanup crew, so they run away to safety-at least momentary safety that is. She and The Doctor talk and try to figure out the next move.

The Doctor tells Clara that these creatures might not know they are hurting people, and that they may just be trying to understand them. They figure out a way to communicate with the creatures, and the TARDIS translates what the creatures are saying, which is "55," the number of the crew member they killed, and then "22," the number of one of the crew members, George, that's there with them. The creatures take George and the rest of them run away in to the tunnel.

The Doctor makes a device that can restore three dimensions- he calls it the "2dis"-and he gives it to Clara to try on the flattened door handle in the tunnel. When she tries it, it shorts out. The creatures are leeching the TARDIS again, and one of the other workers is taken by the creatures, who have figured out how to use 3D. The Doctor fixes the 2dis, and Clara is able to get the door opened. She uses the 2dis again to reverse the process once they get through the door, but the creatures have a new ability: they can restore dimensions.

The Doctor knows a way to send these creatures back, but the TARDIS doesn't have enough energy to do it. Clara drops the TARDIS down onto the train line, and there is a train coming. In order to stop the train from running over the TARDIS, The Doctor puts his hand out the door and moves the TARDIS, "Addams Family" style. Except, the TARDIS gets knocked over a bit and The Doctor has to put it into "siege mode" to protect it,. This means there is no way in or out, of the TARDIS and there isn't enough power to turn it off of siege mode.

The creatures start coming back at the same time another train is coming down the tracks. They stop the train driver, and Rigsy drives the train towards the creatures, intending on ramming them to buy Clara time. But Clara won't allow Rigsy to die, so she uses her hairband to make the train drive without a driver and they both jump out of the train.

Clara has Rigsy graffiti what looks like an old door onto a large sheet of paper, and she uses it to trick the creatures to use their power to restore three dimensions on the TARDIS cube. This restores the TARDIS to its original size. The Doctor talks to the creatures and says he tried to reason with them, but they are monsters and he and he is "the man who stops the monsters." The Doctor sends the creatures back to their dimension, ending the terror that these scary creatures caused to this town.

Clara and The Doctor say goodbye to everyone. As they are getting in the TARDIS, Clara tells The Doctor to admit she was good, and he responds saying, "You were an exceptional doctor, Clara. Goodness had nothing to do with it." (Ouch. What is that supposed to mean?)

Finally, in the last scene of this episode, we see Missy who is looking at Clara on what seems to be an iPad. As she watches her, Missy says, "Clara, my Clara, I have chosen well."

Wow. Great episode! The main plot was definitely very good-creatures that can kill by absorbing people into different dimensions, talk about scary! But, there was a lot more sub-plot wise that made this episode that much better!

First off, Clara is getting herself into some hot water with both The Doctor and Danny. In this episode, The Doctor finds out that Clara lied to him when she told him that Danny was fine with her traveling with him. This causes The Doctor to be noticeably upset with Clara after they stop the creatures. With only a few episodes left in this season, I have a feeling there is going to be some kind of blow-up between the three of them. I just hope Clara is able to tell the truth to Danny and The Doctor and make the right decisions when things get tough (as I presume they will).

However, I am continuing to love Clara and how strong and confident she is! She really took charge tonight, and was able to save the day in the end, not because she asked The Doctor, but because of what she has learned from being with The Doctor. She has really begun to trust herself and her instincts, and I love how she is able to stay calm and make good decisions, even when things seem hopeless. Clara is giving The Doctor a run for his money this season!

In this episode we also saw the return of Missy, our favorite enigma. However, in this episode, we see that Missy somehow "picked" Clara, which most likely means she was the end of the helpline who put The Doctor and Clara in touch. The question is, why? What is Missy's endgame? And better yet, who even is Missy, and how can she watch what The Doctor and Clara are doing? We are almost at the end of this season, and I still have so many questions!!

Finally, one of the characters in tonight's episode is worth mentioning, not because of his importance to the plot, but because of his sheer antigonistic nature. Fenton, the leader of the cleanup crew, spent the entirety of the episode insulting Rigsy, Clara, The Doctor, and pretty much anything else he could. He constantly questioned Clara and her plans, and he we nothing but a hinderence to their escape efforts. But what really got me was what he said at the end of the episode: after the creatures are defeated and The Doctor returns everyone back home, Fenton remarks about how he "wouldn't lose any sleep" over those who were killed by the two dimensional creatures. He called them scum, and said that they were just the cost of saving everyone else. That moment struck me because it effectively illustrated how there are people who watch people die and are lucky enough to survive in the end, but come out of it with a negative and close-minded attitude. Fenton shows the other side of those who travel with The Doctor. Where most people come out of the experience changed for the better, like Rigsy and so many before him, Fenton is still the same negative person as before. How sad.

Memorable Lines:

The Doctor: "This plane is protected"

• Very reminiscent of when the eleventh Doctor asked the Atraxi, "is it protected?" when talking about the earth.

Rigsy: "It's bigger on the inside"

• That's the first time we heard it that way!

Clara: "Well I'm usually quite vague about that, I think I just picked the title because it makes me sound important "

• Poking fun at why The Doctor is called "The Doctor."

The Doctor: "Fluorescent pudding brain"

• His oh so lovely name for Rigsy

---

Do you think you know what Missy is up to? Do you love Clara's new take charge attitude? Let me know in the comments below, or tweet me at @k8linmilligan! And be sure to come back next week as I recap another episode of DOCTOR WHO!

To post a comment, you must register and login.