Rate and Discuss: Before The Flood

[SiHart]

The Doctor is a ghost. Just what happened before the flood? And who or what is in the coffin?

What did you think of Before The Flood?

[Andrew Curnow]

Interesting, and will probably need a second watch to really understand. At the risk of sounding like an 80s apologist, though, I'd say the Ancient Haemovore was a more impressive creation twenty five years ago, than the oddly-disappointing Fisher King.

[Rob McCow]

I really loved that. A nicely gripping sci-fi time-travel story.

As usual, it all seemed to make sense to me (or at least as much as Doctor Who ever does). The characters who seemed a bit interchangable last week came to life properly. I suppose that's an advantage of 2-parters. I still think everyone on the base should have been forced to wear those really short shorts if the girls had to wear them though.

They're starting to build up Clara's character too - I wonder where that's leading?

I was a bit disappointed that the Fisher King's last words weren't "Damn!"

[Martin Curnow]

Need another viewing to understand the timey wimey bootstrap paradox.

[Andrew Curnow]

I'd almost forgotten, what about the 'Merry Christmas to all of you at home'-style pre-titles? Very different!

[egdcltd]

Anyone read Tim Weaver's The Anubis Gates? There's something in that book very similar to the example the Doctor used to describe the bootstrap paradox (also, I think the Wikipedia entry didn't quite get it right when they added this episode as an example in fiction).

[Philipnet]

I loved the bootstrap paradox and the continuity in the episode.
It makes a re-watch sooo much more rewarding as you looking out for extra things in the episode as you see it played out from multiple angles.

It didn't take me too long to figure out that the Doctor was in the coffin - but I didn't get why the Doctor's ghost was saying something different (until the explanation at the end).

[SiHart]

I thought this was a great episode. Wonderful episode overall!

[Dino]

Voted a 7 as the first ten minutes seemed to undo all the greatness the previous episode established. It picked up again nearer the end and both together this story is one of the best two part stories then new series has had.
And it was easily Toby Whitehouse's best story and script for the show as well.

[Perry Vale]

5/10, very disappointing. Moffat, even with his over-use of it, does timey-wimey much better, imo.

I didn't know who I was supposed to care about with Clara's "emotional character traits of the week" bludgeoning me in the face, and the crew who hadn't improved since last week.

Breaking the 4th wall...

I'd say the Ancient Haemovore was a more impressive creation twenty five years ago, than the oddly-disappointing Fisher King.

I honestly thought the he was going to be the reveal for quite a bit of the episode!

[Darren]

6 out of 10

A better paced episode with some tense moments but..... the pre- credits sequence with Capaldi talking to camera about Beethoven broke up the flow and tension generated by the end of the last episode and was only there to give support to the poor deus ex machina ending.
The scene where the guy told the other guy to sign to the deaf girl that he loved her was a bit empty as I had not spotted any sign of unrequited love before. The supporting characters were bland and ill defined (I couldn't tell ypu their names, even).
And the sonic sunglasses are really stupid.

[Andrew Curnow]

That would certainly have been a twist!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I absolutely loved the pre-credits sequence of the Doctor talking to the camera. Made me aware of just how much Capaldi IS the Doctor. To me, just one of the most fun moments in the new series so far.

I noticed though this is the second story again (this season) where "predetermination of the Doctors death" is "a thing". Remember all the "will of a Timelord" last story? Well, the problem is this is getting kind of boring now - we had the whole Lake Silencio business two years ago, and then the stuff in Name of the Doctor / Time of the Doctor.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Brief fan speculation. O'Donnell mentioned something like "the minister of war" - which sounds a very Warlords from The War Games kind of title.

She also mentions this as they're standing in the middle of a village used for war games. Tenuous, but wonder if there'll be something here (don't get my excitement up).

[duncan]

For me, not as good as last week. I'm firmly in the "don't break the 4th wall" camp so I disliked Capaldi's talking to camera scenes immensely. I too worked out that the Doctor was in the coffin quite early on. 7/10

[SiHart]

Funny how no-one disliked the Doctor breaking the fourth wall last year in Listen!

[Rob McCow]

I very much enjoyed the Doctor talking to camera this week. I think if he did it all the time it might be annoying, but here it was a fun way to set up and bookend the episode.

However, I agree they've gone as far with 'The Doctor is deffo gonna die this time' as they can. On top of Lake Silencio we've had Trenzalore and the Confession Dial incident. It's all getting a bit depressing.

Especially seeing as the DWM comic strip had a much better wheeze at killing the Doctor when they introduced the 8+1th Nick Briggs Doctor.

[Antony Cox]

Perhaps it's just me, but I found this episode unintelligible and confusing. I enjoyed the previous week but Before The Flood almost seemed as if it wasn't connected to it.

The bootstrap paradox was interesting but I'm not a fan of breaking the fourth wall, and DEFINITELY not a fan of the silly guitar thing or the sonic glasses. I mean, sonic glasses? Even the name is naff!

[Philipnet]

I'm guessing that no one else noticed the Magpie Electricals sign on the Amp?



http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Magpie_Electricals

[Alex]

A 7/10 from me, a little bit of a disappointment after last week's episode. Whilst I've no problem with (occasional) fourth wall breaking, it did kind of reveal how everything was going to be wrapped up which I thought was a shame. And the two love revelations seemed a bit forced, perhaps with some better acting it might have worked better. Still, other than that I enjoyed it a lot, and Capaldi was once again really great in it.

I doubt it'll be the case, but I'd really like it if the guitar version of the theme tune became the regular one, I really enjoyed the added oomph it gave to the theme.

[Stuart Wallis]

It'd help to hide the main fault with the theme at the moment - the melody line is rather reedy, several of us agree with that!

7/10 for me as well. Can't quite put my finger on why it wasn't as good as last week, but still a pretty good one all the same. oh, one thought: the Fisher King was generally impressive, but the mouth did look very hand-operated.

[MacNimon]

Not quite as good as last week, but unlike many Part 2s it wasn't a major disappointment. Much as I loved the opening sequence with Capadi breaking the 4th wall, it broke up the tension and pacing of the story. I retrospect, I think it would have worked much better at the start of last weeks episode (at the beginning of the story rather than being midway through it) and would have kept us puzzled for a week or so wondering what it was all about...the crew didn't grow on me any more than they did last week, a few bland and forgettable characters, but I loved the story in general...the time travel paradox stuff was great. It's nice to see them using this as part of the story rather than just using time travel as a means of getting the characters to the start of the next episode. And I enjoyed the guitar version of the theme as well, a refreshing wee change...

7/10 for this episode (mostly down to the editing and pacing, I'd say) and 8/10 for the story overall...a few tweaks with the opening scenes and maybe better acting from the guest cast (or the characters better written, possibly?) to make the crew more memorable is all that this needed for improvement.

[Perry Vale]

Has anyone mentioned yet that real Faraday Cages give people nausea and severe headaches...?

[Stuart Wallis]

The thought of lead-lined Faraday cages did worry me somewhat...

[Rob McCow]

Well, at least Faraday cages don't make your head explode.