2nd Opinion: Under the Lake
David Selby and Connor Johnston give their verdicts on the 3rd episode of Series 9.
David’s Verdict
It was, as I had expected, a delight to see a business-as-usual episode of Doctor Who. I’m not going to pretend that ordinary adventures every week are enough to sustain a series – the fiftieth anniversary was the most interesting time to be a fan of the show – but when the series starts with a finale-style opening two-parter, and its last Christmas special was concerned with tying up the emotional arc of the previous series, business-as-usual is more like ordinary-business-at-last. Deprived of the format for so long, I actually found myself missing it. This is perhaps a good thing; the show getting us to a point where we’re excited about filler episodes as well as the event stories.
Toby Whithouse showed a deft understanding of the previous successes and failures of base-under-siege stories by subverting our expectations and omitting unnecessary clichés. For instance, the Doctor was never trapped for any meaningful period of time without the TARDIS. The issue I find with a lot of base-under-siege stories is that they are inherently uninterested in the threat. When the story is one of people being attacked from a force outside, the moral of the week is ‘keep the aliens’ out, which is frankly dull, and if pulled off badly enough, sociopathically xenophobic. I appreciated that the crew decided to stay because of their fascination with the ghosts and their desire to solve the mystery, rather than because unlikely circumstances forced them to (however, I also appreciated the quarantine scene, which was an unusual take on the Doctor’s role in a base-under-siege).
Unfortunately, Whithouse also chose to ditch the idea of developing secondary characters. A good base-under-siege needs to have characters for the audience to invest in for the model to work – after all, why care about the fate of a base and its crew if none of them are characters worth caring about? Some of the best base-under-sieges have accomplished this by bringing in the affairs of their chosen time period (The Waters of Mars as an example – and on that note, oil in 2119 must surely be a miracle, and something worth exploring in the episode?), or by fleshing out the lives of characters beyond what their role is in the plot (The Almost People as an example – Jimmy’s son, and Jenny’s obsession with growing to be a stronger woman than she was as a girl). Parts of Under the Lake were a little flat, and one does wonder why those slower moments weren’t used to bring in fleeting but meaningful snippets of the outside world and the personal lives of the crew. (Pritchard, meanwhile, was so over-the-top I could swear he eats puppies.)
On the other hand, Whithouse’s character development far exceeds his usual standard. A part of this is luck – the fact that, for instance, he’s always written the Doctor a bit too much like Capaldi’s Doctor and always written companions a bit too much like Clara – Moffat giving Whithouse a story where the only real danger is going out of his way to screw up. But for once, Whithouse showed proper engagement with the overall themes of the series (Clara mirroring the Doctor) and brought them together in a strong Doctor/companion dynamic and in generally accurate renditions of both the Doctor and the companion.
Most appealing of all is the prospect of next week, the ultimate subversion of a two-parter: one episode set before the other. After a strong opening half, I’ve got undemanding but firm expectations for next week: a good resolution, more tangible tension, the development of secondary characters, and, well, continuing to not screw up.
Connor’s Verdict
A claustrophobic base, an ancient and mysterious threat making its way through a limited selection of innocent bystanders, a killer sci-fi twist and the Doctor seamlessly wedged in-between it all! With Toby Whithouse using his first script since 2012 to tackle the well-used formats of both a ‘Base under siege’ and a ‘Ghost’ story, one would be forgiven for feeling as though they were submerged in familiar waters (Sorry) watching “Under the Lake” upon broadcast. However where some might see this as the recycling of worn-out ideas, I would argue the complete opposite in asserting that what “Under the Lake” proves is that Doctor Who is still rich in enough creativity to revisit illustrious tropes and present them in a totally fresh and unique way without sacrificing an original and enthralling plot in the process.
The third episode of this series is robbed of any significant consequence to the show’s narrative on a larger scale and has no returning foe or legacy to make use of, making it quite bluntly a clear example of ‘filler’ episode – but a filler episode that spares no effort in proving it’s worth in this encouraging line-up of new ‘Who’ with a watertight premise (sorry), a rippling threat (sorry) and a crystalline finish (just stop reading now).
For our two protagonists, “Under the Lake” really does stay true to the pre-series promises of showcasing the Doctor and Clara’s ‘golden years’ by picking up mid-way through their adventures. Where this episode finds its grounding early on is through its exploration of the pair’s relationship and more specifically Clara’s worrying enthusiasm for risking her own life. Whithouse’s stories have always had a poetic beauty when it comes to fleshing out the Doctor’s relationships with his characters – one need only look to Amy’s loss of faith in the Doctor during “The God Complex”, Rory’s challenging of the Doctor’s carelessness in “Vampires of Venice” or Sarah Jane’s striking reconnection with the Doctor in “School Reunion” to find examples of this. For this episode, the exploration into Clara and the Doctor’s relationship cultivates in the TARDIS scene and fits effortlessly into both Clara’s ongoing character development and series’ continued sense of foreshadowing to her eventual departure – which admittedly becomes increasingly difficult to accept with every new episode outwardly advertising her value to the series.
Peter Capaldi continues to strengthen his legacy as the Doctor, with this week offering yet another dimension to his interpretation. While last week showcased the Twelfth Doctor’s fierceness, this week we see his ferocious curiosity, which – along with the more noble reasons – is great to see continue as a key motivator in the Doctor’s travels. It is quite refreshing to see intrigue despite imminent danger play a role in both the Doctor’s and the crew’s investment in the mission – rather than the cliché “We must only act to survive”. In my view this attitude allows for a more honest way of storytelling and indeed greater scope in constructing the plot.
In the true 2nd Opinion fashion, I’m going to make a polarising move and challenge a call made by my beautiful co-writer above in regards to the developing of secondary characters. In a remarkably short amount of time, it’s the combined efforts of both Whithouse’s phenomenal script and the various actor’s dedication that award each crew member with a distinct personality as well as individual merit to the narrative. Each character is weighted with a great sense of purpose to the episode’s plot which I’m sure we’ll see extend further next week. To highlight one individual in particular, I’d like to return to my comments from last week in which I described Doctor Who as a perfect tool to teach, inspire and inform. It was incredibly moving to see the show not only make tremendous use of a disabled character, but also a disabled actress and have her main merit in the episode be her natural leadership skills and intelligence. Cass and the treatment of her character reminds us that Doctor Who intertwines an enormous amount of social commentary to its episodes by portraying a society that is accepting, undiscriminating and celebratory of each individuals value to the universe – a society we can only wish inspires our own.
Where the episode slightly stumbles is in the lead up to the climax – with certain scenes seemingly lacking conviction and almost dragging leading into the second half of the story. In an opening episode of a two parter it’s understandable that a solid portion of plot is dedicated to a build up towards a cracking cliffhanger and strong second half. Fortunately for the sole merit of “Under the Lake” the pace of the episode is salvaged with some exhilarating action scenes (particularly the ghost chase) and extraordinarily memorable dialogue. Despite my efforts to not open the showrunner debate once more – given how content and inspired I am by the quality of the current season under the current creative team – it must be mentioned that if “Before the Flood” takes advantage of the brilliant opportunities this episode has gifted it with and Whithouse continues to impress, we may have an extremely strong contender for when Moffat eventually departs.
Finally, the biggest success of the episode has to be attributed to both the CGI/Production Team and director Daniel O’Hara for their haunting creation of the episode. Both the underwater setting and transparent threats are incredibly well realised and serve to establish the atmosphere of the story with great success. As with “The Magicians Apprentice”, it seems a little premature to judge “Under the Lake” alone without next week’s resolution, however what is clear is that Series 9 has continued to have one of the strongest launches of a series to date. It’s most definitely an exciting time to be a Doctor Who fan.
