Flatline (TV story)

Flatline was the ninth episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. For scheduling reasons, it was a "Doctor-lite" episode.

Flatline was Jamie Mathieson's first script for the show. Two years before writing it, he had pitched his ideas for a story to Steven Moffat, but was unsuccessful. When he again met with the executive producer, he showed him four ideas for episodes, complete with his own illustrations, aided by his background in art college. Taking an interest in the monster he had created for what would become Flatline, Moffat asked Mathieson to produce a story outline and he got the job to script the episode.

It was only after writing several drafts that he was told the episode would need to lock the Doctor away in a single location, as Peter Capaldi’s scenes for the episode needed to be filmed quickly to bide by the production schedule.

Mathieson decided to write a script where the Doctor was "in the dark". For this to be successful, he had to create a unknown quantity to feature as his alien enemy. Much like his next creation, the Foretold, he elected to have no dialogue for the aggressors, allowing  something about them to remain "unknowable". (DWM 479)

Synopsis
In a council estate, Clara takes charge as beings from another dimension threaten the Earth...

Plot
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Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Rigsy - Joivan Wade
 * Danny - Samuel Anderson
 * Roscoe - John Cummins
 * PC Forrest - Jessica Hayles
 * Fenton - Christopher Fairbank
 * Al - Matt Bardock
 * George - Raj Bajaj
 * Bill - James Quinn
 * Missy - Michelle Gomez

The Doctor's TARDIS

 * The Doctor puts the TARDIS in siege mode.
 * The TARDIS makes itself lighter. When landed on the surface, its true weight would fracture the Earth.
 * The cloister bell tolls when the TARDIS in the path of a train with no shields.

Organisations

 * Clara pretends to be from MI5 and Health and Safety.

Story notes

 * Missy reappears after a two-episode absence. Her episodes of absence were previously Kill the Moon and Mummy on the Orient Express.
 * The Radio Times programme listing was accompanied by a small colour head-and-shoulders shot of Christopher Fairbank as Fenton, with the accompanying caption "Doctor Who / 8.25 p.m. / Will guest star Christopher Fairbank be on hand as Clara is forced to go it alone?"

Ratings
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Filming locations
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Production errors

 * The Doctor's hair is noticeably shorter, starting when the TARDIS falls to the train track.

Continuity

 * The TARDIS exterior has shrunk on previous occasions. In Planet of Giants, it was made smaller, as were its occupants. In Logopolis, the Doctor's TARDIS was reduced in size after interfered with the Logopolitan's Block Transfer Computation.
 * The Doctor again uses "pudding brain" as a mocking description of humans and their intelligence. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * The Doctor uncovers Clara's lies about Danny's stance of her travelling with him. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express)
 * Isolus and the Mona Lisa were able to transfer the two dimensional into the three dimensional, and vice versa. But unlike the Boneless, their victim could be revived when they are returned to three dimensions. (TV: Fear Her, Mona Lisa's Revenge)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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