Doctor Who - Flatline

I love these Radio Times posters.

"You are monsters! That is the role you seem determined to play, so it seems that I must play mine – The man that stops the monsters."

Landing on Earth, the Doctor and Clara encounter a problem. The TARDIS is losing its external dimensions, and as the outer shell becomes smaller, so do the doors. With the Doctor trapped inside, it's up to Clara to lead the investigation; to find out what is happening to all the missing people on the estate where they have landed, and to learn who is responsible for the rash of graffiti in the area. It's up to Clara to be the Doctor, with all that that entails.

The Good

• This episode does a lot to redress some of the imbalance in the preceding stories between Clara and the Doctor. By confining the Doctor to the TARDIS, Clara is left in the lead, and without the Doctor's usual brusqueness to counter, finds his high-handedness coming quite naturally to her. 'Grow your own conscience' yourself, Clara.
• The satirical element of the story, the invisible killers and victims representing the 'invisible' victims of class-based social segregation, is more than usually effective.
• The story explores the Doctor's method - his deception, his tendency to assume control of a situation - and by so doing it actually restores some of his standing in the series.
• The Twodis was kind of adorable.
• Conversely, the way that the Boneless kill is really pretty horrifying.

The Doctor has a small problem.

The Bad

• Doctor Who once more revisits old ground with an enemy beyond perception, and the Boneless are too alien to have anything very new about them beyond their gimmick.

The Ugly

• I still don't like Clara, even if I understand her better.

Theorising

• Missy has a particular interest in Clara, claiming to have 'chosen' her. Is she chasing the Doctor's timeline in the same way as Simeon/the Great Intelligence and Clara herself?

Top Quotes

• Doctor: Could you not just let me enjoy this moment of not knowing something? I mean, it happens so rarely.
• Doctor: Congratulations. Lying is a vital survival skill. And a terrible habit.
• Doctor: It’s true that people with hope tend to run faster, whereas people who think they’re doomed …
  Clara: Dawdle. End up dead.
  Doctor: So that’s what I sound like?
• Doctor: They may not even know that they’re hurting us.
  Clara: Do you really believe that?
  Doctor: No, I really hope that. It would make a nice change, wouldn’t it?
• Doctor: On balance?
  Clara: Yeah. That's how you think, isn't it?
  The Doctor: Largely so other people don't have to.
• Clara: I was the Doctor and I was good.
  Doctor: You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara.
  Clara: Thank you.
  Doctor: Goodness had nothing to do with it.

The Twelfth Doctor
The Twelfth Doctor is both excited and frustrated by things he doesn't understand. 

The Verdict
Flatline has some effective moment and an honestly horrific conceit. The Boneless are pure monster of the week; that's no bad thing, but they aren't quite distinct enough from other unseen killers to make this episode truly stand out. The development of Clara into a character that I get, but really dislike, continues. I hope that I'm not supposed to like her, because I suspect that that will really screw up the finale for me.

6/10