Doctor Who: Under the Lake

Not bad. this is going to be short one...for all the right reasons.

So I’m not exactly a fan of Toby Whithouse, I often find his who scripts to be too wordy, to the extent that the action put in to the episodes feels out of place. This episode, I’m happy to report, seems to finally having him striking the right balance.

I mean I’m still not 100% onboard with the back to back two-parters, but this one actually does a better job than Moffat did in The Magician’s Apprentice. The set-up is good, the humour is good, the vilains are especially good and the cliffhanger is good.

There’s really not much else to say; I was going to complain about how Clara’s personality had been re-written for the sake of the episode, but then Whithouse addressed that. Totting it up to her using the Doctor as an escape from her thoroughly destroyed life. I did think it was a bit odd how she brushed off Missy still being alive in the previous two episodes, when she was ready to kill her at the end of the previous series. This explanation makes a lot of sense in terms of character development and might work up nicely to the reason Clara leaves at the end of the series.

Capaldi is also in his element for this episode, especially with the comedic parts; the cue cards scene is particularly good. It’s a bit like Sherlock, which I doubt is a coincidence. By contrast he leaps well to self aware humour in the handbrake scene in the TARDIS. I get the impression that a lot of script are written with the idea of testing Capaldi’s range.

There’s not really much else to say, it’s a good episode; I only hope the payoff is as good as the set up.