{"id":26744,"date":"2014-10-18T23:01:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T03:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=26744"},"modified":"2014-10-18T23:01:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-19T03:01:57","slug":"doctor-who-flatline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/doctor-who-flatline.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: Flatline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The title of this episode may remind one of \u201cflatland,\u201d that famous illustration of dimensions, and so it should. In \u201cFlatline,\u201d the Doctor and Clara encounter beings from a universe of two dimensions, who have been causing the disappearance of people on a particular housing estate in Bristol. The lack of police interest is highlighted, and in the process Doctor Who offers comment on the\u00a0inequalities that exist in Britain as in the rest of the English-speaking world, not to mention further afield.<\/p>\n

But however clever the idea of having 2-dimensional monsters, and however poignant the social commentary, I think most viewers will agree that the premise of the episode allows the show to do something even more interesting.<\/p>\n

\"DoctorIt gives Clara the chance to be the Doctor.<\/p>\n

With the Doctor unable to get out of his TARDIS, because its exterior has shrunk (due to energy drained by the 2D entities), Clara keeps in radio contact with him but has to take the lead \u2013 and decides to\u00a0take on the Doctor\u2019s title and approach.<\/p>\n

This leads her at one point to as \u201cWhat would the Doctor do?\u201d And she realizes that it is not a different question from \u201cWhat will\/should I do?\u201d And the solution she comes up with \u2013 using the enemy\u2019s power against them \u2013 is quite genius, and indeed the sort of solution the Doctor might offer.<\/p>\n

A number of points of morality are addressed. Clara notices the need to take charge, to lie in order to give people hope, and other things that make the Doctor a morally ambiguous character.\u00a0The Doctor says that \u201cIn a universe as big and as bizarre as this one, we can\u2019t be too quick to judge.\u201d But having given the entities a chance to communicate, he treats them as what he feels they have shown themselves to be: monsters.<\/p>\n

The Doctor is impressed with Clara\u2019s performance \u2013 but also doesn\u2019t like what it has shown him of himself. And so in the end he says, \u201cYou were an exceptional Doctor, Clara.\u00a0Goodness had nothing to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The episode ends with Missy, intriguingly calling Clara \u201cmy Clara\u201d and saying that she had chosen well, and then laughing. Presumably we will find that it was Missy who had first given Clara the Doctor\u2019s number. But why? One suggestion is that Missy is collecting witnesses for a trial. If so, then that will offer an interesting echo of \u201cTrial of a Timelord.\u201d<\/a> The writers of the\u00a0Colin Baker era tried to take Doctor Who in a darker direction, too. But the BBC didn\u2019t like it. And so if there are indeed parallels, it will be interesting to see what the reaction to them is this time around.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of this episode may remind one of \u201cflatland,\u201d that famous illustration of dimensions, and so it should. In \u201cFlatline,\u201d the Doctor and Clara encounter beings from a universe of two dimensions, who have been causing the disappearance of people on a particular housing estate in Bristol. The lack of police interest is highlighted, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":26746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[1917,2006,2694,2765,3475,3476,7537,7682,8991,12885],"class_list":["post-26744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doctor-who-science-fiction","tag-clara","tag-colin-baker","tag-dimensions","tag-doctor-who","tag-flatland","tag-flatline","tag-missy","tag-morality","tag-peter-capaldi","tag-trial"],"yoast_head":"\nDoctor Who: Flatline<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The title of this episode may remind one of "flatland," that famous illustration of dimensions, and so it should. 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