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; its assumed weight when full-sized is presumably that of its exterior shape, i.e. a police box. When landed on the surface, its true weight would fracture the Earth.
 * The cloister bell tolls when the TARDIS is in the path of a train with no shields.

Characters

 * Clara has become skilled in the use of the sonic screwdriver and is able to take readings and use it in other ways without the Doctor's guidance.

Organisations

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

Story notes

 * 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 in several scenes, starting when the TARDIS falls onto the train track.
 * In the TARDIS when Clara asks the Doctor to come and see the shrunken TARDIS door the scanner is in the right side of the TARDIS while before it was in the left side.
 * When the TARDIS was first small, the Doctor used one door to get out due to a lining in between in the doors. The second time the TARDIS was very small, both doors were open with there being no lining in between the doors.

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. (TV: Fear Her, Mona Lisa's Revenge)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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