Doctor Who, series 9, episode 3 – Under the lake

A town covered by water after a damn broke, an underwater base built near by, on the bottom of the lake, to explore some oil, and than abandoned, an alien spaceship found after mapping the area and then brought inside the base.

Are these reasons good enought to bring in the Doctor? Yes and no. Let’s add a new reason: the dead people are transforming into ghosts and try to kill the living near them. But not before accomplishing some necessary conditions: they had to gather information to send a message.

Now that’s enough to call the Doctor? Or for the TARDIS to get him there for no apparent reason and for no request from the Doctor – a habit you found out about in the episode The Doctor’s Wife: the Time Lord arrive not only where he wants, but also where he needs to be. He and the people depending of his help. And the base from under the lake, 3 days after the alien ship was brought inside, is the exact place and time for Doctor’s and Clara’s presence.

Clara. The impossible girl that is more and more like the Doctor is always prepared for adventures and she take control of the action when she has to. Too much active, she wouldn’t return home for a break (but, wait, after Danny Pink’s death she does not need that) and you should start thinking about that. I am curious to find out how all this action will end for Clara – it is already known that she’s leaving the TARDIS for good sometime this season, and her departure will be memorable.

Returning to the base on the bottom of the lake – the Doctor, Clara and the survivors of the initial team succed in trapping the ghost trying to solve the mystery of the alien spaceship and its user (who’s body is recovered and got back). Suspended between life and dead, he / she / it left behind a message that force the visitors to act even after death. The action take place in the year 2119 and it’s continuation happens a few hundreds of years earlier.

The episode os ok, it has a good atmosphere, it has humor, it’s a classical Doctor’s adventure when he has to solve a crises, but it could be better: some of the characters could be used more, and the case of the ghosts look a lot like the chase from Alien 3. Considering the final (you will have to find it by yourself) it’s easy to guess understand that the inhabitants of the alien spaceship is the Doctor itself, even if the original owner was somebody else.

Written by Toby Whithouse, directed by Daniel O’Hara, produced by Derek Ritchie. Executive producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin. Cast: Peter Capaldi (the Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald), Colin McFarlane (Moran), Sophie Stone (Cass), Zaqi Ismail (Lunn), Morven Christie (O’Donnell), Arsher Ali (Bennet), Steven Robertson (Pritchard), Paul Kaye (Prentis).

The next episode, the second and final part of the story, is Before the flood.