Doctor Who - 'Before the Flood'

“Who composed Beethoven's 5th?”

The Doctor's ghost appears in 2119, presaging his death in 1980, where he, O'Donnell and Bennett are checking out a Cold War replica of a Russian town. While Clara, Cass and Lunn struggle to survive, the Doctor has to face the fact that he can't save himself, and maybe won't be able to save anyone.

The Good

• The whole thing of the Doctor and Clara putting people's lives at risk is much easier to stomach when a) someone calls them on it and b) they don't deny it.
• It was great to see Cass ably avoiding becoming a victim.
• The bootstrap paradox ending was good use of time travel.
• The Fisher King was pretty spooky, if a little stiff. I guess we can put that down to having been mostly dead all day.
• I really liked the guitar arrangement of the theme tune, which was somewhat reminiscent of the version for Big Finish's 'Horror of Glam Rock'.

The Bad

• The timey-wimey was a little strained here, and the Doctor's total dedication to saving Clara whatever happens had a whiff of bootstrapping the arc plot's central conflict. On the plus side, it's less offensive than last season's soldier bit.

The Ugly

• The Tivolians annoyed me in 'The God Complex' and are as annoying here. Still, I suppose that is the point.

Theorising

The Doctor is talking to us again. We've not seen this particular behaviour since 'Listen', which is an episode with a few unanswered questions yet.

A little spoiler, perhaps, as O'Donnell mentions an incident we haven't seen yet. Somewhere between Harold Saxon and the Moon exploding lies the Minister of War. Is that a throwaway line or something definite for this year?

The 'Next Time' preview featured a race of the deadliest warriors in the Universe, which is presumably a title hotly contested with the Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans. This is perhaps another emergent theme for the series, and makes me wonder if the Fisher King didn't see himself the same way.

"Aren't you tall."

Top Quotes

• "You robbed those people of their deaths. Made them nothing more than a message in a bottle. You violated something more important than time. You bent the rules of life and death. So I’m putting things straight. Here. Now. This is where your story ends."
• "I used to be in Military Intelligence. I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window." Damnit, I liked O'Donnell, but I suppose that was the point. They killed the corporate dickhead last week; it had to be someone we liked or we wouldn't have cared.

The Verdict

Did I mention before that I like the two part structure? I'm not sure this was quite as good as its set-up, but it had a lot going for it, and seemed to be building towards the arc themes of the season as well. That's something else I'm liking - arc themes rather than arc plots, per se.

Score - 7/10