5 Questions Before the Flood Needs To Answer

Guest contributor Rowan Wood examines what’s left to be answered in the concluding half of the story.

Last week in Under the Lake, we received a cliffhanger that once again faced us with the prospect of the Doctor’s death. But there are still several more burning questions from the episode that we hope to have answered in tonight’s Before the Flood…

Who or What is in the suspended animation chamber?

In Before the Flood, we see the Fisher King, played by Neil Fingleton, menacing the Doctor. He seems like everyone’s best guess as to who is in the suspended animation chamber found on the mysterious spaceship. It would make sense if the Fisher King stored himself in suspended animation, waiting for the right time to release himself and wreak havoc on The Drum.

Another popular theory is that it could be the physical form of Prentis, the first ghost on The Drum, played by Paul Kaye. As revealed in the promotional images for Before the Flood, we will get to see Prentis in his physical form, but if he is truly the pilot of the ship, then it would make sense that it is him in there.

Why was Lunn spared by the ghosts?

Zaqi Ismail’s Lunn was the only one not to be attacked by ghosts in Under the Lake. The only reason I can think that would explain it is that he was the only one that hadn’t seen the writing on the wall of the spaceship, while all the other crew members have. The only detail that possibly wouldn’t fit in with this theory is that the ghost of Pritchard followed Lunn and was prepared to kill him with a wrench while it should have just left him alone.

Who is Prentis?

Paul Kaye’s character was the subject of most fan questions after the broadcast of Under the Lake. It was confirmed by the Doctor in the episode that Prentis is from Tivoli, the same home world as David Walliams’ Gibbis in The God Complex. It was, in fact, Toby Whithouse who wrote both episodes, so it would seem only fitting that the species return.

As mentioned before, we will see Prentis’ original (and hopefully alive) form in Before the Flood. The other questions are:  how did he get turned into a ghost? How did he get displaced from Tivoli? How does he get involved with the Doctor?

Is the Doctor really dead?

If you’ve seen the show before, then you know that the answer is no. So the real question is: how is the Doctor a ghost?

A reasonable explanation is that the ‘ghost’ Doctor seen by Clara in the water is actually a physic projection from the future to let Clara know that the Doctor is alive. But that wouldn’t have been a good idea to illustrate that fact, wouldn’t it?

Another theory is that the Doctor becomes a ghost but then succeeds in rewriting history, stopping the ghosts from being created altogether, stops the flood and the Fisher King, and goes off in his TARDIS with Clara Oswald.

As you can see, I’m trying to be as optimistic as possible.

Who’s next?

Bennett isn’t the only one worrying about who is next to die in this ghoulish story. With all the crew members except Lunn having seen the writing, they are all fair game for conversion into ghost form…

All of our heads are riddled with these questions and more. While we now have only hours to see Before the Flood, we can only guess what will happen to our heroes now…