Doctor Who, Season Nine

[Aractus]

Disappointed in part 2 of "Under the Lake". Partially because I'd already worked out most of the episode, and partially because I had a better idea for part 2 than was used. Note: SPOILERS!!

I didn't particularly like the doc explaining the bootstrap-paradox at the start. Seemed like a waste of time.

The preservation chamber is a coffin, and the spaceship is a hearse - yep I'd worked that out.

The doctor was in the coffin all along - yes I'd also worked that out too.

I didn't believe you had to "die" to create a "ghost" and I believed that the ghost was under the control of a living entity - I was only partially right on that one. The doctor was controlling his as it was nothing more than a hologram, but the others were self-sustaining.

The doctor uses one of the fuel cells to blow-up the dam causing the flood - I had worked that out.

I liked/loved the Albar Prentis character and thought he was under-used. I didn't realise he was the funeral director - but then I had only watched "Under the Lake" once, and if I'd watched it a second time I probably would have worked it out from his attire. I loved his business card too:



The real enemy was another alien that wasn't quite dead - the "Fisher King". I liked that it was not over-used.

Despite the fact I'd worked out most of what was going to happen, I'm not too pleased. It's just "The Pandorica" all over again really. Secondly it would have been really nice if it was some type of vampire in the coffin. This would have explained why it had a ghost that could only come out at night - perhaps the vampires have evolved to have a ghostly presence outside of their bodies when their bodies are incapacitated - as is the case with it being locked inside a stasis-chamber. That's the idea I had that I thought would have been much better than having doctor who pop out of it. It would have meant the infection is passed person-to-person, they die, become zombies/vampires, that are able to use their physical bodies or create a ghost if their bodies are incapacitated in some way.

There is no real danger of doctor who dying, so the entire storyline of having his ghost is just kind of bland. It could have been Clara that went back in time and came back as a ghost instead - that would have been interesting. It kind of would have had a bit more danger - until people realised the trailers for the show have shown Clara in other episodes already. But, annoyingly, it would have been even more similar to the The Pandorica. He could have instead revived O'Donnell and put her in the chamber, and had that part of the episode reveal her alive. That would have been more interesting - we could have had a flashback to the doctor saving her somehow (just god please not with "regeneration energy").

The other problem with O'Donnell's death is that her ghost should have been there from the start, along with Prentis. Yet in the episode it just "appears" at a random time in the future. It should have been there from the start, it would have been more interesting!