Doctor Who Review : Series 9 Episode 3 - "Under the Lake"
When an underwater base comes under attack, the Doctor and Clara must save the trapped, frightened crew and defeat the impossible threat.
Before I go into true detail, the review is going to have spoilers so if you don't want the episode to be spoiled for you then I suggest you read this after you've watched it. However if you have watched it then it's fine.
This story is written by writer Toby Whithouse who wrote stories like School Reunion, The Vampires of Venice, The God Complex and A Town Called Mercy. I've never been that overly keen on his stories in the past. But that doesn't mean I think he's a bad writer. I think the stories he has done prior to this have been no where near as enjoyable or gripping as this latest one. I think he's been one of these writers who has always been one to play it safe and tells a very simplistic story with stories like School Reunion and Vampires of Venice. I was surprised with this one, simply by just how gripping and spooky it actually was. This time Whithouse is not playing it safe, he's going the extra mile, probably because he was allowed to and he tells a hugely imaginative, clever idea that eventually leads into taking us into the past.
So going into the basic synopsis. The story for this episode is set on an underwater base in the year 2119. One of the most exciting things about this story is it's setting. It's your
typical base under siege type story, the same secluded space and time running
out fersard. It's been done many times throughout the
show and fans such as myself are very familiar with this type of format and we
relish it coming up every now and again. It starts
off brilliantly with a bit of mystery, not too much given away and a man
dying a gruesome death but he comes back to life as a ghost.
The Doctor and Clara arrive into the mix, three days after the events of the pre-title sequence and for the first bit of the episode it reminded me a bit of 'The Ark in Space - Episode 1' or 'The Wheel in Space - Episode 1' where you just got the Doctor and companion looking around, trying to find some clues as to what happened everything is set up very atmospherically to give off a very chilling effect and the sort of 'oh, what's going on here?' type thing.
Anyway once you're into it and all the introductions are out of the way, and people have met and you understand who's who. You can then have time to concentrate on the story itself, and for me this seemed to be a very talky one for a base under siege plot. Lots of dialogue and not much running about or heavy action happening. The story kind of reminded me of classic 'Hinchcliffe and Holmes' type story. Stories which focussed on the gothic horror with story science fiction elements. Something I wasn't ever sure that the production would ever catch on ever again. I understand as much as any fan that Doctor Who always tries to interest its viewers in different ways, its how the show has been able to grow and build as big a fandom it has today. I just didn't think they'd go for spooky capacity which is equal to possibly the greatest 'era' of the shows history. I just didn't think it would tap in that again simply because of the way television has moved on and the way audiences have moved on. However personally I loved that element because to me I went 'Yes, THIS IS DOCTOR WHO' This is the show I want it to be, it took them a while but they got there.
The one thing you need to know about this story is 'water'. there is water everywhere and It was the intention of director Daniel O Hara to give off the feel that the people on the base and the audience were surrounded by water all the time on every set on the base. It's logical, we are under water therefore lets make the nature of our surroundings known. It was very well done, everything looked realistic : sky lights in the corridor, massive windows in the gallery, and they've lit through the skylights with a water effect and there were also little pools in the hanger as well to provide ripple trays and as well as that glittery cartons just to give off the impression that there was always the presence of water. Obviously working with water is very difficult because of the wires and electrics on set, people it can create health and safety hazards. If its contained then its ok, however the problem is its the volumes of water that are used in this episode. You've got water running on the floor, gushes of water flying out all over the place so it can easily create a technicality problem.
I loved the ghosts. I think to me they were the stars of this episode. They looked amazing and very sinister and creepy and just added the horror factor to this episode. What I found interesting is the peril or threat that are in this story has got nothing to do with being under water. As much as I'd love to see the sea devils or fish people or genetically monster like sharks or sea weed creatures from the black lagoon rise from the depths it was just straight forward ghosts and very scary ones as well.
The ending I found a bit of let down, it was all starting to build well to the cliffhanger and when Clara said 'Oh no, this is a new ghost' I kind of clocked it that it was going to be either Clara or The Doctor that was going to be the ghost and as it turns out it was The Doctor. How that's logical I don't know, will have to find out next week. Trouble is The Doctor is a time lord he can just regenerate can't he?
Overall I thought this was a really good all rounded episode, the pacing was a bit slow but apart from that no major faults to point out really. It was all really good indeed. 3/5!
Next Week : Before The Flood.
