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.

	Twelfth Doctor
	Clara
	Boneless
	Bristol, 21st century
	Jamie Mathieson
	Paul Wilmshurst
	Nikki Wilson
	249
	18 October 2014
	BBC One
	1x45 minute episode
	4.9
	Flatline (DWE)
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	Mummy on the Orient Express
Next →	TBA

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

to be added

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

Crew

Executive Producers   Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin

Written by Jamie Mathieson	Produced by Nikki Wilson	Directed by Douglas Mackinnon	Director of Photography Nic Morris	Production Designer Michael Pickwoad	Visual Effects BBC Wales VFX
Make-up Designer Claire Pritchard-Jones	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Howard Burden	Edited by Phil Hookway	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Line Producer - Tracie Simpson Production Manager - Simon Morris Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Unit Manager - Nick Clark Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfeld Production Secretary - Medyr Llewellyn Production Accountant - Jeff Dunn Script department Script Editors - David P Davis, Richard Cookson Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Jo Lea 2nd Assistant Director - Iain Atkinson 3rd Assistant Director - Gareth Jones Assistant Directors - Kyran Davies, Michael Williams, Rheinallt Rees Script Supervisor - Sandy McKellar Camera Operator - Trevelyan Oliver Focus Pullers - Neil Brown, Mary Kyte Grip - Bob Freeman Camera Assistants - Elliot Hale, John Davis Gaffer - Mark Keeling Best Boy - Francis Sparey Electricians - James Foy, Matt Challenger, Dan McCole, Pat Crawford	Art department Supervising Art Director - Paul Spriggs Art Director - Tristan Peatfield Set Decorator - Adrian Anscombe Props Buyer - May Johnson Concept Artist - Chris Lees Graphic Artist - Christina Tom Standby Props - Liam Collins, Mike Elkins Standby Carpenter - Ben Milton Standby Rigger - Dave Bayliss Props Master - Paul Smith Props Chargehand - Chris Dudley Props Driver - Gareth Fox Props Makers - Alan Hardy, Jamie Thomas Construction Manager - Terry Horle Construction Chargehand - Dean Tucker Graphics - BBC Wales Graphics Costume department Costume Supervisor - Angela Jones Assistant Costume Designer - Carly Griffith Costume Assistants - Thomas-Huw Hopkins, Michelle McGrath	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Steve Williams Make-up Artists - Sarah Astley-Hughes, Emma Cowen, Ann Marie Williams Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Crispin Layfield, Gordon Seed Casting Casting Associate - Alice Purser General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Samantha Price Assistant Editors - Katrina Aust, Urien Deiniol Special and visual effects VFX Editor - Dan Rawlings Colourist - Gareth Spensley Sound Sound Recordist - Bryn Thomas Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Dialogue Editor - Darran Clement Foley Editor - Jamie Talbutt

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

• The Doctor names the device he creates 2Dis.
• 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.

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 in the path of a train with no shields.

Organisations

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

Story notes

• Missy reappears after a two-episode absence. Her episodes of absence were previously Kill the Moon and Mummy on the Orient Express.
• 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, starting when the TARDIS falls to 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 the Tremas Master 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)

Home video releases

DVD releases

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Blu-ray releases

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External links

to be added