Doctor Who 9x03 - Under the Lake

[Parallax]

I don't know about anyone else but I rather enjoyed this episode.
It exceeded The Unquiet Dead in terms of spookiness, the base crew were interesting, the mention of UNIT was great ... and the Doctor called Clara out on her bullshit.
The sonic glasses are, let's face it, lame. Are they trying to save on prop and SFX costs?
The cliffhanger is definitely a decent one. To say more would be to spoil it...

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'm giving that a 4, I would give it a 5 but I'll need to see the second part to decide if it matches up, or if this is another two-parter where the second can't deliver on the first's promises.

I was getting interesting vibes of "The Impossible Planet" from this, but in a good way. A similar concept, but implemented in a different and interesting way.

Also, I'm pleased to see a disabled character have a prominent role in an eepisode without being a drag on the team.

[Parallax]

A couple of other points, since I can't seem to edit my original post:
* This really did harken back to the 2nd Doctor "sea/moon/arctic/space base" era, where the TARDIS shows up at a base somewhere and there's adventure.
* Clara was disturbingly like Rose back in that werewolf story, more keen on adventure and having fun than worrying about other people.
* The original ghost really didn't look like an alien. It looked like a dead Victorian gentleman, though the Doctor IDs him as belonging to some other species.
* Two weeks of Peter Andre would, indeed, drive anyone to suicide.

[Iroscato]

Yeah that was really enjoyable - I must admit I had no idea it was another two-parter, so that was a pleasant surprise with the cliffhanger ending.

Although...are they really going to keep doing this with the 'Doctor is dying/dead' bollocks?

Anyway, so far series 9 has been mostly excellent IMO, Magician's Apprentice was much better for me after a second look.

[The Romulan Republic]

Another two-parter. Interesting. Its almost like Moffat's using the old serial format.

It was mostly okay, with some minor surprises, despite some rough spots (though both the Doctor and Clara seem rather callous at times and the evil corporate asshole guy was predictable and heavy-handed).

However, are they really going to pull this "The Doctor is going to die" stunt every story?

Doc got some good one-liners though. Like when the corporate guy talks about losing his bonus, and the Doctor more or less says "Its okay, I understand. You're an idiot." Or when a guy asks him how he travels through time and he replies "Extremely well".

Also nice to see Doc using his UNIT connections.

[Bedlam]

I wonder if they're going to run with Rory's description of the doctor that he want's to make everyone be a hero, the crew would probably be off the base and safe if he hadn't inspired them to all stay to see what happened, they did volunteer but if any of them die isn't that on his head?

My guess, and I think it's fairly obvious, is that the Doctor, and if not him one of the other team members will be in the stasis box and pop out at a dramatically appropriate time.

I don't know if anyone else has a better understanding than me but how far down are they likely to be in a man made lake in Scotland and is it likely anyone could survive attempting to float / swim to the surface? Would they just be crushed by the pressure, die of the bends? I recall that submarines had escape hatches but I don't know how close to the surface they had to be to used.

[The Romulan Republic]

If the Doctor was in the box, wouldn't that potentially mean that this whole situation, and the deaths, were his fault?

[Bedlam]

If the Doctor was in the box, wouldn't that potentially mean that this whole situation, and the deaths, were his fault?

Depends what the box actually does, I don't think it's directly causing the ghosts.

[Grumman]

I don't know if anyone else has a better understanding than me but how far down are they likely to be in a man made lake in Scotland and is it likely anyone could survive attempting to float / swim to the surface? Would they just be crushed by the pressure, die of the bends? I recall that submarines had escape hatches but I don't know how close to the surface they had to be to used.

If they were less than 30 meters deep they should be okay as long as they don't get disoriented. More than 80 meters and I'd expect horrible death.

[Batman]

They have to be deeper than that because no natural sunlight, remember? Totally doesn't mesh with the outside visuals of course but that's par for the course for underwater stuff pretty much everywhere.

[Grumman]

They have to be deeper than that because no natural sunlight, remember?

I haven't watched the show, I was just responding to the question asked. There's no lake in Scotland too deep for photosynthesis but if there was you'd be very, very dead trying to get to the surface without the right equipment.

[Eternal_Freedom]

They have to be deeper than that because no natural sunlight, remember?

I haven't watched the show, I was just responding to the question asked. There's no lake in Scotland too deep for photosynthesis but if there was you'd be very, very dead trying to get to the surface without the right equipment.

Well they did explain that it wasn't a natural lake, hence why there are ruins - a nearby dam burst and flooded the valley.

I think the opening scene said it was near Caithness.

[Broomstick]

If we're going to keep getting two-parters it almost makes more sense to run the poll after the second part since the second part can greatly affect how you see the first part.

[Khaat]

Aw, man!
So I'm dutifully waiting to see part 2, and I catch a Season 9 trailer (BBC America, you suck!)
wherein: the alien is staring down a wall of water with open arms. Hypothesis: Spoiler

This is the other alien from the pod (a prisoner? likely), in the future bottom-of-the-lake as the dam is burst. Said alien looks like a zygon.
Unless the Doctor mis-identified the Victorian-in-a-hat guy as an alien mumblemumble (my usual go-to source hasn't got the transcript up for the episode yet! ) Kinda have to trust the Doctor to know his aliens.
So, yes, the Doctor is in the capsule, the zygon got fast-talked into believing he would be safe in the Doctor's form, and it's really the zygon's "ghost" that looks like the Doctor and lets the other "ghosts" out of the Faraday cage in the part 2 trailer. Blah, blah, blah.

If not, "meh".
And it looks like they are selling the arc for Clara's departure (in the way she's going to be ready to go): remember Kill the Moon? She really, really didn't like being left on her own to make that call, and in this 2-part, she's being left to face not just the hard decisions without the Doctor's insight, but on the presumption that he's actually dead.
She's gotten called out for being an adrenaline junkie (Under the Lake), a control freak (Deep Breath), and has had it recently confirmed that she was put in the Doctor's way on purpose by the Master (Missy) (The Witch's Familiar). She's going to face that everything she's been through has been someone else's idea, for someone else's motives. She's going to get fed-up with being puppeteer-ed. Or is it groomed?
"How's your boyfriend? Still tremendously dead, I expect."
Now I'm wondering if, with all the effect she's had on the Doctor (Name of the Doctor, Listen), if she's the brush and it's the Doctor being groomed.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Being Scotland it's not so much the great depth as it is the amount of peat in the surrounding soil that would block out sunlight (it it's anything like Loch Ness). I do have to wonder what's so power intensive that it needs a nuclear reactor to run!

[Eternal_Freedom]

I think they said it was an oil exploration platform or something, and this is a hundred odd years into the future, so maybe they've got fission reactors scaled reasonably for such long-duration underwater missions. It's not like they can have a diesel generator running in a sealed environment underwater is it?

[Broomstick]

A diesel would require some sort of snorkel to the surface. Not impossible, but awkward if it breaks.

(There used to be diesel submarines. Their underwater time was severely limited.)

[Batman]

There 'still' are diesel submarines but you're right about the problems with operating a diesel generator underwater. A sub has the ability to surface(go to snorkeling depth periodically. Underwater oil something installation-not so much.
And 'Waah! nuclear!!!' panic aside, fission is reasonably safe if done right, so if you have the technology why not use it? Fuel is pretty much a nonconcern, neither is getting rid of waste products (at least not for a very long time), and you don't have to worry about providing the generator with oxygen.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, nuclear reactors have been used in submarines effectively for, what, 50 odd years now? It's hardly surprising that they opted for a similar power plant when designing an underwater base.