Doctor Who: "Before the Flood" Recap/Review (Series 9, Episode 4)

"Before the Flood" was an exciting and timey-wimey conclusion to this story, though it kind of failed to give satisfying answers to some of the major questions raised in"Under the Lake."

The episode opens unusually for a Doctor Who episode. The Doctor breaks the fourth wall and explains a "bootstrap paradox" to the audience (The example given: going back in time see Beethoven write his fifth symphony only to find out Beethoven never existed and that it's you, using knowledge from the future, who writes it). This was a fun and unique way to open the episode, and proved to us , once a gain, that Peter Capaldi IS The Doctor.

After a rockin' title, we get back to the main storyline. The Doctor, Bennett, and O'Donnell land in 1980 in the village/military training camp where the underwater base will eventually be built. They find the spaceship and meet Prentis, the Tivolian ghost from the previous episode, just before he dies. He's an undertaker tasked with burying the body of the Fisher King. After the trio return to the TARDIS, Prentis is killed by the Fisher King.

Meanwhile, back at the underwater base, Cass notices the Doctor's ghost is saying something different from the others. He's saying all their names, including Prentis', over and over again. The Doctor calls Clara and Clara informs him of his ghost. The Doctor realizes he HAS to die. He also theorizes his ghost is telling them the order in which the group members will die (Moran, Pritchard, and Prentis have already died. O'Donnell is next on the list). After the Doctor tries to have a conversation with his ghost, Ghost Doctor begins to repeat something else: the chamber will open tonight. The Doctor tells Clara, Cass, and Lunn to get the Farraday cage (the Doctor Ghost freed the other ghosts) and leave the phone outside so it can still get a signal.

The Doctor, Bennett, and O'Donnell return to the ship, but find Prentis dead, the carvings freshly scrawled on the wall of the ship, and that the Fisher King has moved the suspended animation chamber to the church. The Fisher King begins to pursue the three and manages to kill O'Donnell, who appears back at the base as a ghost. Bennett confronts the Doctor, believing that he wanted to see if his theory was correct and that it's only now that he'll try to save everyone else since Clara is next on the list. 

The two head back to the TARDIS where the Doctor tries to return to the base, break the rules of time,cheat death, and save Clara. The TARDIS refuses and, instead, takes them back a half hour. There is now past versions of the Doctor, Bennett, O'Donnell, and Prentis and present versions of the Doctor and Bennett running around the military camp at the same time. Bennett tries to save Prentis and O'Donnell, but the Doctor tells him he can't since it would tear time apart. After trying stop Bennett, the Doctor gets a tear in his jacket, which is what his ghost had. The Doctor realizes it's almost time for him to face the music. 

Back at the base, Ghost O'Donnell has taken Clara's phone, and Clara has Lunn, the only person who didn't see the carvings on the wall, to get it, much to Cass' objection. Lunn succeeds in finding the phone, but is captured by the ghosts. Clara and Cass go after him and are drawn into the ghosts' trap and are pursued.

The Doctor has sent Bennett back to the TARDIS and now believes he is ready to face the Fisher King. He finds the chamber in the church and is confronted by the Fisher King. The King reveals he is using the signal to call the rest of his people to Earth so that the oceans can be drained and the humans enslaved. He taunts the Doctor about his willingness to die instead of break the rules of time. The Doctor one ups him, saying he has removed the writing from the ship, so the attack on the base will never happen. 

The King leaves to check, but finds the writing in tact,but one of the power cells missing (the same one from the previous episode). The Doctor has set it to explode and placed right by the dam over looking the camp. Hello, flood! Goodbye, Fisher King!

The ghosts have cornered Clara, Cass, and Lunn in the hanger. The chamber opens to reveal...the Doctor! TOTALLY CALLED IT! His ghost summons the other ghosts to the cage, where they are one again trapped and the Ghost Doctor is revealed to have been a hologram the entire time (More on that stupid twist in a bit). 

The Doctor uses his sonic glasses to remove the writing from everyone's brains and Bennett (who was returned to the base by the TARDIS' emergency program) urges Lunn to tell Cass he loves her, since he didn't get a chance to tell O'Donnell. 

The Doctor and Clara return to the TARDIS, where he explains everything to her. The messages his ghost hologram was saying were for him, not Clara and the others. The remaining names on the list were random after Clara. Clara was next so that it would give the Doctor the urgency he needed to save the day. The message about the chamber was so that he would know what time to set the chamber to open. He only programmed the hologram to say those things because that's what he was told his ghost was saying. So where did he get this really complicated idea from?

Who really wrote Beethoven's 5th?

In Summary:

• As I mentioned at the start, the episode doesn't give satisfying answers to the questions from last week. Huge negative. 
• The big negative being "the Doctor's ghost was a hologram this whole time." Are you kidding? Yes, the Doctor couldn't die, but there must have been a better and more believable way to resolve the dilemma. It felt like more of a cheat than a well-written resolution.
• Side side note: If the ghost was a hologram, how could it interact with the control panel and free the other ghosts? 
• Nevertheless, the episode was still very exciting. The tension when Clara and Cass searched for Lunn was off the charts and when the time-travelling trio were being stalked by the Fisher King was off the charts.
• Any episode which finds a way to creatively incorporate the time-travel aspect of the show gets some major brownie points.
• The military camp was a cool set. Very unique.
• The fourth wall breaking was a fun addition to the episode
• The Fisher King was super underutilized. His big plot seemed cliche', but he still seemed like he could have been an interesting character and had an AWESOME design and voice. I'm kinda hoping he turns up again someday...
• There were more easter eggs than usual in this episode. Did you catch:
• The Magpie Electrics logo?
• The clockwork squirrel?
• The Rose, Martha, and Amy mentions?
• The references to "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords" and "Kill the Moon?"
• The seemingly meta mural in the base's cafeteria? (Good eye, Radio Times)
• The Star Wars  homage on Prentis' business card?
• Bennett on Prentis: "First alien and he's an idiot."
• Cass is kind of a Daredevil.

Rating: 7.9/10 stupid ghost holograms

This Saturday is the first of yet another two-parter! Jamie Mathieson, who wrote last season's "Mummy on the Orient Express" and "Flatline" returns. Yay! Also, Maisie Williams' mystery character is introduced. If she's a returning character it's either Jenny, Romana, or Susan. Callin' it again!

Noah