(NB: I'll be filling in the holes where I did not get previous episode reviews up before starting the blog. Right now I think I'll time them for Saturday Morning/Afternoons, but that may change. This is the original text, not edited for dates.)
Good afternoon Whovians! It’s Sunday and that means Julie has gotten in her second viewing of Under the Lake, the third episode of Doctor Who’s Series 9. By now you know the drill with these...I can be spoileriffic, I’m doing these this year in the immediate reaction/live blog format, and if you haven’t watched this may not make sense but if you have you may have had some of the same reactions. I don’t know, I’m not you.
Having said all of that, here we go...
1) The Drum: Underwater Mining Facility.
2) Caithness, Scotland.
3) 2119. Ahh, so near future story. OK.
4) Ooh, a Stardate type thing! So Star Trek.
5) We have a deaf character! Awesome.
6) Oh god, an executive. Even 100 years from now, we have executives trying to make a buck on the backs of others.
7) Oh shit what was that?
8) Oh fuck what was that?
9) Numbers...please not Lost.
10) I've not seen technology like this...
Please don't say on Earth.
...On Earth before.
11) You think the army would just lose a prototype weapon.
12) Oh shit the captain!
13) Safety protocols initiated.
14) Ghost captain WTF?
15) Ghost other thing!
16) Holy fuck it's a Tivolian!
17) Those hallway sets are getting great use.
18) TARDIS noises!
19) Whoa the place is a mess.
20) TARDIS is not happy.
21) Monsters, things blowing up...Clara is...most of her dignity?
22) Why have you brought us here, TARDIS?
23) Well, he picks up the situation pretty quick as to where and when...so Doctor like.
24) Sticks finger in drink. 7 or 8 hours ago. I love it.
25) Not doing the high five!
26) Crew!
27) Not crew.
28) Shit.
29) Fuck.
30) Shit fuck.
31) I think they're just curious.
32) Define sure. Definitely a Doctor line.
33) I haven't a clue...isn't that exciting!
34) Ahh, the space ship again.
35) That smile :-)
36) TARDIS is not translating. This is ungood.
37) Ghostliest are back!
38) Armed ghostliest.
39) Spear gun!
40) Get in there!
41) You're from UNIT!
42) Fan Girl!
43) They're...they're ghosts.
44) I can speak sign.
45) Actually I can't. Someone get me a selection of flags.
46) Back story for the past 10 minutes.
47) Faraday cage!
48) I need to know who to ignore.
49) I represent Vector Petroleum bla bla bla I'm ignoring you...
50) They only come out at night...
51) Fucking executives.
52) Bonuses.
53) Its OK, I understand. You're an idiot.
54) Nuclear reactor.
55) So we are fighting an unknown homicidal force, which has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. SO DOCTOR.
56) And here comes the investigation.
57) Uh oh.
58) Something is mussing.
59) Power cell? Of course Pritchard is interested.
60) Why is this man still talking to me?
61) And Cass will not let her signer in. She's seeing something.
62) They're ghosts!
63) And he's so excited!
64) OMG.
65) He's gone crackers.
66) The cards?
67) He has a set of cards...with responses on them.
68) To be fair, this Doctor needs them.
69) Friend/family member/pet? Oh dear.
70) Doctor, you are not making this better.
71) You come back...a bit murdered, sure, but...
72) Night phase?
73) This is not good.
74) Oh fuck.
75) Cloister Bell.
76) Roundels!
77) Old style console!
78) SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
79) the TARDIS is very NOT happy.
80) Pritchard...you cockwomble.
81) GHOST!
82) In fairness, he had it coming.
83) That is NOT Pritchard.
84) OH fucking hell, that was...expected. But spooky AF.
85) Oh goddess...the eyes...you can see the back of his skull!!!!
86) Braining by chair!
87) Day mode and he's gone!
88) And the ghosts are learning.
89) I love Cass. She's great. And hardcore.
90) They...haven't sent a message yet.
91) And Doctor takes charge and quarantines the base.
92) Ghosts want that rescue sub crew down here, and not to make a boy band.
93) She's so star struck.
94) We're going to catch a ghost!
95) Eerie music!
96) Run like hell!
97) So tense!
98) Run Clara run!
99) Oh shit they split up!
100) The ghosts are learning.
101) And they walk past...
102) He's at his door.
103) And...
104) It saw him. Fuck
105) Coming through the door.
106) Against the wall...
107) Wrench, oh hell.
108) Cutaway!
109) He's...alive?
110) What's wrong with you? Why didn't it hurt you?
111) Run while you still have the legs!
112) Clara no!
113) ...what?
114) Hologram. Shit.
115) The glass is too thick, Cass can't see them.
116) Doctor, what the hell are you thinking?
117) Ahhhhh....goddess!
118) They're saying the same phrase, mantra like.
119) the dark
120) the sword
121) the forsaken
122) the temple
123) What are you telling me?
124) I need maps!
125) Coordinates...
126) The earth is part of the sword.
128) Forsaken...the town.
129) The dark of space.
130) Wait a minuet! Yes!
131) Surely being around me makes you clever by osmosis.
132) The temple is...the town's church.
133) I would prefer it if you went.
134) none of you have chosen anonymous or selfish lives.
135) At least if I did you know I will really come back and haunt you all.
136) Ooh, manual controls. Literally. I love it.
137) It's like the bottom of Round Valley Reservoir!
138) It's...a suspension chamber.
139) The pilot could be in there.
140) Deadlock seal.
141) Why do I think it isn't the pilot?
142) I'll have to go back to the beginning.
143) The markings aren't just words...they're magnets...localised field.
144) The words rewrite the synapses in the brain.
145) Clockwork squirrel?
146) 2 weeks of Peter Andre? I am so sorry.
147) It's impossible it's evil I hate it it's astonishing I want to kiss it to death.
148) And the base is being flooded...by the ghosts.
149) 30 seconds before the doors close...RUN!
150) And of course they're split up. Of course.
151) He's going back in time to save the future.
152) Another Trek reference.
153) Back...to Before the Flood.
154) Oh bad looks.
155) Another ghost?
156) Oh no. That look.
157) It's the Doctor!
158) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not end credits!
Series 9 so far has been, for me, incredibly dark. Not dark like some of the Matt Smith stories, but really proper dark and horrific. Deaths are mounting up, and they’re not being brought back. People are dying all around the Doctor, and this is something we really have’t seen since the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy years. This is Attack of the Cybermen/Ghost Light/Curse of Fenric darkness here...and I’m loving every minute of it.
We have a wonderful cast of extras, pretty diverse (including a deaf military officer, so that was really cool), and very easy to start caring about (except Pritchard, who is a cockwomble extraordinaire and proof positive that 100 years from now executives in industry will be as huge pricks as they are today. I want them to all come out of this alive, especially now that Pritchard and the Commander are dead (and I miss him, even though he only had like 3 minutes of alive time).
Capaldi IS the Doctor. More than ever, I felt the presence and the power and the intellect of the Doctor shining brightly, and it was wonderful. And Clara? These last three episodes have been a high water mark for her.
Next week, we have a huge special guest in the second part of the story...Corey Taylor from Slipknot is in it...and I’m proper terrified of who or what he might be.
6 days...why you got to be so long?
Loved this.
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