 "Flatline" is the ninth story of Season Thirty Four (New Series 8). For scheduling reasons it was a 'Doctor-lite' story.
The guest cast for this story includes: Christopher Fairbank, Joivan Wade, Matt Bardock, James Quinn and John Cummins.
Christopher Fairbank, who plays the part of Fenton, previously appeared in Sapphire and Steel and Alien 3. He also played the part of Albert Moxey in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
The part of Rigsy is played by Joivan Wade whose previous television work includes regular roles in Youngers and Big School.
The part of Al is played by Matt Bardock who has previously been a series regular in Casualty, No Angels, The Bill and The Lakes.
The part of Bill is played by James Quinn whose previous credits include recurring roles on Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Heartbeat.
John Cummins, who plays the part of Roscoe, previously appeared in 24: Live Another Day and The Hour.
This story was written by Jamie Mathieson who also wrote the preceding story, "Mummy on the Orient Express". This is the first time, since the show returned in 2005, that a writer new to Doctor Who has written two stories that were transmitted in a row.
This story was Jamie Mathieson's first script for the show as he wrote this story before "Mummy on the Orient Express". Two years before writing this story 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 stories, 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", Steven Moffat asked Jamie Mathieson to produce a story outline and he got the job to script this story.
It was only after writing several drafts that Jamie Mathieson was told the story would need to lock The Doctor away in a single location, as Peter Capaldi’s scenes for the story needed to be filmed quickly to fit in with the production schedule.
Jamie 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 other creation for this season, The Foretold, he elected to have no dialogue for the aggressors, allowing something about them to remain 'unknowable'.
This is the third story directed by Douglas Mackinnon for Season Thirty Four (New Series 8) - the previous two stories being "Listen" and "Time Heist". Douglas Mackinnon also previously directed the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" and the Eleventh Doctor stories "The Power of Three" in 2012 and "Cold War" in 2013. In addition Douglas MacKinnon's work, on the second series of the crime thriller Line of Duty, has been highly acclaimed.
The read through for this story took place on the 19th May 2014. Recording began nine days later and finished on the 18th June 2014.
Filming took place in a number of locations around Cardiff, Barry and Winchcombe, but the scenes with the TARDIS in the tunnel were filmed in the BBC’s Roath Lock studios. This is not the first time that underground train tunnels have been recreated so effectively. Back in 1968, designer David Myerscough-Jones created replicas of several London Underground tunnels and station for the locations in the classic Second Doctor story "The Web of Fear". These looked so convincing that the London Underground authorities sent the BBC a letter of complaint alleging that filming had taken place on their property without consent!
This is not the first time we have seen the exterior dimensions of the TARDIS shrink. In the 1964 First Doctor story "Planet of Giants", both the TARDIS and its occupants were reduced to ‘roughly to the size of an inch’. Later in 1981, in the Fourth Doctor’s last story "Logopolis", The Master’s villainous interference, with the Logopolitan's Block Transfer Computation, resulted in the TARDIS shrinking. As in "Flatline", The Doctor was in the TARDIS when this occurred and it took help from a companion on the outside to ensure that it got back to its proper size.
"Flatline" is one of the very few stories where we see the TARDIS exterior in a state where it does not resemble an old police box. In the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Attack of the Cybermen" the malfunctioning chameleon circuit made the TARDIS change its external appearance, at one point taking the form of an old organ that The Doctor was able to play! And in the 2013 story "The Name of The Doctor" we see the TARDIS before The Doctor stole it and it took its current, familiar appearance.
The Doctor puts the TARDIS in 'siege mode'. Time Lord writing is clearly visible on the exterior of the TARDIS when it is in this further-miniaturised state and it resembles a miniature version of the Pandorica, the inescapable prison first mentioned in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Eleventh Hour" and shown fully in the 2010 story "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang".
The Cloister Bell tolls when the TARDIS is in the path of a train with no shields.
The first train featured in this story is clearly numbered A113. This is an in-joke used in several other animated movies and television shows as this designation is often featured in films created by former students of California Institute of the Arts, referring to the classroom used by graphic design and character animation students, widely recognised by alumni of the institute. As such, A113 has appeared (with varying degrees of subtlety!) in television shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy as well as various movies including Toy Story, Monsters University and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
A Dead Man’s Handle, referenced in this story, is a fail-safe mechanism that is designed to stop a train so preventing it running out of control if the driver becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated.
This is not the first time The Doctor has encountered sinister artwork that has turned out to be influenced by extra-terrestrial creatures. In the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "Fear Her", the scribbles of Chloe Webber were brought to life by the Isolus and in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "Vincent and The Doctor" the Time Lord spotted a Krafayis in van Gogh’s painting, The Church at Auvers.
Previously the Mona Lisa was able to transfer from the two dimensional into the three dimensional, and vice versa, in The Sarah Jane Adventures story "Mona Lisa's Revenge".
Clara suggests mimicking a hand motion as performed by the disembodied hand character Thing from The Addams Family to enable The Doctor to move the shrunken TARDIS out of the path of an approaching train. In the television series this Thing is a disembodied hand, often appearing out of a small box to complete simple tasks like sorting out envelopes or giving someone directions.
The Addams Family is a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in cartoon strips run in The New Yorker but reached a wider audience through television series and movies.
The Doctor names the device he creates, to defeat The Boneless, 2Dis.
Clara pretends to be from 'MI5' and 'Health and Safety'. She is also seen to be proficient with operating the sonic screwdriver, including being able to repair her earpiece without direction from The Doctor.
Fenton is not tricked by the psychic paper shown to him by Clara. The Doctor suggests this is due to a lack of imagination. He is not the first person naturally immune to the psychic paper (see the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Shakespeare Code").
The Doctor is uncomfortable with how easily Clara assumed his role. Previously, Davros and Rory Williams, in different ways, noted The Doctor's tendency to turn his companions into versions of him (see the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" and the 2011 Eleventh Doctor "The Girl Who Waited").
The question of whether The Doctor is 'a good man' is revisited, as he says of Clara's success in his role, 'goodness had nothing to do with it'. Before the Time War, the Eighth Doctor believed he was (see "Night of The Doctor"). At Demon's Run, the Eleventh Doctor clearly believed otherwise (see "A Good Man Goes to War") and the Twelfth Doctor had been unsure himself in "Into the Dalek".
The Doctor again is heard to say 'pudding brain' as a mocking description of humans and their intelligence (see "Deep Breath").
The Doctor uncovers Clara's lies about Danny Pink's stance of her travelling with him (see "Mummy on the Orient Express").
Missy reappears after a two-story absence. During this season she has so far appeared in "Deep Breath", "Into the Dalek" and "The Caretaker". Her stories of absence so far in this season have been "Robot of Sherwood", "Listen", "Time Heist", "Kill the Moon" and "Mummy on the Orient Express". She appears at the very end of this story seated in a darkened room looking at an image of Clara on a hand-held screen or tablet computer.
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: 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; The hammer, that The Doctor hands Clara from within the shrunken TARDIS, has a head too big to have fit through the smaller TARDIS' door; The Doctor's hair is noticeably shorter in several scenes, starting when the TARDIS falls onto the train track.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Jamie Mathieson.
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(Position = 2 out of 12)
