Doctor Who Review: Before the Flood (Season 9 Episode 4)

This week’s episode of Doctor Who, titled “Before the Flood,” is a continuation of last week’s underwater ghost tale.

We take a step into the past to see who the person inside the coffin is (the Fisher King) and how The Doctor apparently died (he didn’t, it was a hologram). Most importantly, we get to see how truly selfish The Doctor and Clara are. Now that’s where things get interesting.

Let’s talk about it.

Fisher King, a.k.a. stuff out of nightmares.

The big bad this week…is horrifying. No, scratch that. He’s terrifying. The Fisher King is a huge bulky mass on two legs that resembles a crustacean on steroids. When The Doctor is confronting him for the first time in a darkened room, his voice raises things up a notch. He sounds, if this is even possible, villainous. Like he’s going to steal your soul and then take over the world (wait, isn’t that what he tried to do?)

His screen time is too short and his return is most welcome. Maybe next time, someone of his race could be given a more solid storyline, not just something to allow The Doctor to bend the rules or for Clara to argue about. That would be swell.

The Doctor is going to die…again.

For a moment, The Doctor contemplates his death in this episode. It’s not like before where he could slip and slide his way out of death one way or another because there were no definites, and he’s so clever.

His ghost is concrete evidence that his time has come.

This Doctor actually takes the time to contemplate that this is the end. That there is nothing he can do, because the events are locked in time. Of course, he fixes it with a fancy hologram, but the moment still stands out as The Doctor taking stock of what is truly important and how his time will come like everyone else’s.

Here’s hoping that he will pick up on his search for Gallifrey and realize that his relationship with Clara is slowly spiraling down.

Selfish: Table of 2.

Clara and The Doctor are the most selfish pair of companions ever.

The Doctor sacrifices the life of a woman who totally fangirls all over him, just to check how it would affect his companion; to see what his chances of saving her were. He doesn’t deny it when questioned by another character and they never go back to address what he did. Everything is fine at the end because The Doctor saved his friend, no matter who gets caught in the crosshairs.

It’s despicable.

Taking a look at his companion, she’s just as selfish. When Clara is faced with The Doctor’s death, she makes it about herself. Clara has come to depend on the way The Doctor distracts her so she doesn’t have to take a look at how destroyed she still is after Danny’s death and The Doctor’s regeneration. She even plays the ‘if you love me, you’ll do this’ card to make him come back for her in the face of impossible odds.

These two have become so co-dependent that it’s rippling outwards and hurting people around them. They do not work anymore. They’re grasping at straws to save something that has already been lost. The best thing to do right now is to remember the good times and move on before more people get hurt.

Other Observations:

1. Sophie Stone as Cass is brilliant. This young deaf actress was able to express herself more clearly than any other character in the episode.
2. Lunn and Cass are so cute! Lunn confesses his love for his commanding officer, and all our hearts start cheering!
3. The sonic sunglasses are still lame. Chuck them!
4. The Fisher King is played by Neil Fingleton, who is over 7 feet tall, and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz.

Are you sick and tired of The Doctor and Clara? Did you find what they did so selfish that you want to delete the episode from your memory banks? Did the Fisher King give you nightmares? Tell us in the comments section below!

 

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Doctor Who airs Saturdays at 9/8 c on BBCA.