Doctor Who 9.02 Under the Lake

[selenak]

Toby Whithouse! You're back - and despite the occasional objection to some of your Being Human narrative decisions, still my candidate from the currently involved writers to take over from Moffat. BH icon used in your honor.



Maybe I'm misremembering, but I think this is the first time in New Who that an opening two parter is followed immediately by another two parter. Not that I object, but it was completely unexpected. Mind you, the cliffhanger manages to both effective - great chilling final image - and not, given we know they won't kill off the Doctor. Though it occurs to me that since obviously the Doctor can't really be dead and a ghost, that means Meron (spelling?) who got ghostified in the teaser might still be alive as well. (Not Pritchard the greedy company man, though, on screen drowning doesn't leave much room for ambiguity, unless you're the heroine's love interest. (*waves at Michael Vaughn from Alias*) )

Back to the beginning: I wonder whether the Doctor's sudden concern re: Clara displaying his own adrenaline junkie tendencies is some sort of preparation for an eventual exit? Not that it's coming out of nowhere, Clara-as-Doctor was a big thing last season, as was his feeling very torn about this on at least one occasion. I like our ensemble of the week: making Kas a deafmute (I'm not sure whether this is the correct term in English, if not, I apologize and want to learn the right one) who communicates via sign language as well as in charge of the group was a great idea, though I agree with jesuswasbatman, logically her entire team should be able to use sign language, not solely one of them, for security reasons alone, and the obvious Doylist reason for this is that unless you're Joss Whedon writing and directing Hush, you don't get to do mostly silent episodes on tv.

Kass and Lunn are the two most fleshed out so far (other than Pritchard the late), but I expect since the team split up and the yet minor lines part ended up with the Doctor, they'll get more to do the next time.

The use of the Faraday cage was clever both on a Doylist and Watsonian level: although in retrospect it was clearly set up, I didn't see the Doctor's idea of trapping the ghosts there coming, which is how it should be.

"Someone stealing souls" of dead people for a complicated tech scheme and nobody, neither the Doctor nor Clara, mentions Missy? I mean, I don't expect it to be her, not so soon after the latest attempt (the Master usually varies his gambits), but after last season's arc, either of them should at least consider the possibility.

Speculation: the Doctor is actually in the suspended animation life capsule/coffin; the "ghost" whom Clara et al are seeing in the cliffhanger is a holographic projection, the way Clara herself was to trap the ghosts earlier. Maybe that trip back in time with the TARDIS to find out what happened will even be what inadvertendly makes the other space ship crash in the first place, that's the kind of timey-wimeyness the Moff likes.

Question: why didn't the Pritchard!Ghost kill or hurt Lunn? That was so pointed that it may figure in the eventual solution of the mystery. (Can't be because Lal didn't see the writing on the wall (literallly, he did - unless I'm misremembering?.)

All in all, a good part I of an adventure. Bring on part II!

Comments

[lonelywalker]

Going by the episode titles, I think all the episodes this season may be two-parters. Although I may be totally mistaken.

I think Kass was the only one not to see the writing. Maybe they didn't kill Lunn because they already had the four "transmitters" they needed. But if that was the case, why follow any of the crew at all? I feel like having two crew members who know sign probably has plot relevance (rather than just being some good representation). Something about how knowing languages also rewrites your brain? I assume that verbal languages and sign languages are processed in different ways by the brain.

It's possible Kass can speak, but strongly prefers not to? Or there's sufficient technology to translate for them all in an emergency?

[felis]

Lunn was the only one who didn't see the writing, that's why they didn't kill him. Cass kept insisting that he shouldn't go inside the ship because it was too dangerous; he complained, but did indeed stay outside.

I like your speculation that it's the Doctor in the capsule, definitely makes the most sense so far.

Favourite line of the episode: "If I die, at least you know I really will come back to haunt you all."

[selenak]

Okay, if he didn't see the writing, that is explained. (BTW it also shows the ghosts don't kill randomly, they have enough purpose and/or conciousness to limit themselves to strictly whom they can use as fellow transmitters.)

[selenak]

felis below says Lunn was the only one not to enter the space ship and see the writing, which would explain the not killing.

Something about how knowing languages also rewrites your brain? I assume that verbal languages and sign languages are processed in different ways by the brain.

Now that sounds plausible! Especially since it's repeated twice the TARDIS doesn't translate the signs, as opposed to usual written language. Maybe Kass and Lunn will turn out to be immune from ghostly murder even after having seen them because their language processing works slightly differently...

[lonelywalker]

Oh really? My mistake. So that would make sense.

[felis]

No random killing, yes, that would undermine their goal. But maybe it's some kind of sensor to detect if the person has already been affected by the writing - they stared very attentively at Clara and the Doctor at the beginning before leading them to the ship. Because so far, none of the ghosts has shown any kind of left-over personality, so it doesn't look like there is some kind of individual consciousness left. Since there has been a lot of talk about electromagnetic effects and the like, it wouldn't surprise me if they were some kind of projection after all, coming from ~extracted brain energy patterns~ or something. If the Doctor figures that out at some point in the past, he might be able to project his ghost!image while still being alive, maybe to tell Clara and the others something, because they conveniently divided the group so that the person who is able to read lips is left with Clara. /wild speculation

[selenak]

Yes, I think projection is how it works, only the ghosts so far don't do it on their own initiative - by which I mean they're operating on a very limited parameter "locate anyone living who also qualifies, kill same, create environment conditions friendly to creating more transmitters", and that's it -, and the Doctor will have to figure out how to do it outside this. It occurs to me that this might be why he needed to get inside the life capsule (if it's him inside as I've speculated) - to lower his life signs until almost coma, thus faking death without actually dying, and then to use whatever was used to create the ghosts to create his own projection.

Definitely agreed Kass will have to translate for Clara what ghost!Doctor will be saying!

[jesuswasbatman]

The Doctor did refer to the Nethersphere (Missy's fake afterlife) in his speech rattling through all the other kinds of ratinalised "ghosts" he'd encountered.

[jesuswasbatman]

There's a recent DWM comic story in which a mentally-destructive and infectious visual memetic weapon turns out not to work on dyslexic people.

[selenak]

In which case I'll blame Capaldi for talking too quickly. :) Seriously now, I'm glad it was namechecked, because it's an obvious comparison (while at the same time this is something else).

[kalypso]

I checked the line on a rewatch: he lists various possibilities he's ruled out (I didn't write them all down but I think Flesh avatars and Autons featured) and concludes with "They're not digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere."

[nenya_kanadka]

I think you'd just call Cass a deaf (or possibly Deaf) woman in English. "Deafmute" is pretty much out of fashion/considered insulting these days.

And I was totally delighted to see her (yay deaf characters, even though I don't sign myself) and that she was the team leader (how often do you see that!?) AND that she's not dead yet! I really hope the guy who died first isn't really dead, because killing the black guy first is no good. But this was a fun episode. Loved all the stuff with language and transmitters and so on. Also Pritchard totally had it coming, heh.

I was a bit surprised at the sudden two-parter, but that means more next week with these characters, so I can't complain.

[nenya_kanadka]

I was watching with subtitles and yeah, he mentioned Autons and Flesh avatars and possibly something else, and the Nethersphere, which I thought was a good callback.