Under the Lake (TV story)
Under the Lake was the third episode of the ninth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.
It saw the show reprise the concept of hauntings, which was last explored in Hide. The episode gives this idea a much more thorough explanation than previous stories.
It also continued the previous story's concept of the Doctor apparently facing death, as the ghostly transmitter-version of him is shown at the end of the episode.
Synopsis
Arriving on an underwater base under attack, it's up to the Doctor and Clara to save the frightened crew. But also onboard is an alien spaceship, and the base is being haunted by the most impossible of things.
The Doctor's deepest beliefs are challenged when he encounters something he cannot explain. Can it really be possible? Can ghosts be real?
Plot
In a underwater mining facility based in Scotland, 2119 called The Drum, the captain, Moran, is adding a log to his journal. Moran says that the team has found a small spacecraft mysteriously located on the bank, and he and the crew will investigate.
A crew member named Tim Lunn interprets the sign language from Cass, which says that they simply found the craft buried in the sands of the lake. Another crew member named Pritchard says that they should talk to whoever owns the spaceship, before Moran tells everybody to stop calling it a spaceship, and that they don't know what it is.
The crew talk about this before Moran notices something inside the craft, and asks Lunn to hand him a torch. Lunn does so, but notices a ghostly figure in the glass. He reluctantly hands Moran the torch. Moran investigates strange markings on the wall, before Lunn complains about not being able to go inside to see the markings. They bicker about this, before Pritchard is attacked by the ghost, who accidentally starts the engines. Moran pushes Cass out of the way of the engines' fire, forcing the crew to retreat, leaving Moran behind.
O'Donnell, a crew member, tries to go back for Moran, but is Stopped by the crew. She yells at Pritchard for messing with the controls, before Cass screams as she sees Moran, now a ghost in front of her. The ghostly man appears, and begin to attack the remaining crew members.
To be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
- Clara - Jenna Coleman
- Moran - Colin McFarlane
- Cass - Sophie Stone
- Lunn - Zaqi Ismail
- O'Donnell - Morven Christie
- Bennett - Arsher Ali
- Pritchard - Steven Robertson
- Prentis - Paul Kaye
Crew
| Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin |
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| 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
- A MOD property is mentioned, where the spaceship was found, to be underwater.
- The Army is mentioned.
- The Doctor mentions that once there was no such thing as socks, smartphones or badgers, until suddenly there were.
- A submarine is contacted via Morse code.
- The Orion's sword is mentioned as one of the four things the ghosts says.
- The Orion Nebula, Orion, Rigel and Betelgeuse are mentioned on a constellations map.
Individuals
- The Doctor claims to have once met Shirley Bassey.
- The Doctor claims that Clara once had an argument with Gandhi.
Food and beverages
- A cup of coffee is standing on a table.
- Clara says the Doctor raved about ghosts like a kid who has had too much sherbet.
Languages
- The Doctor can no longer understand British Sign Language. He believes he deleted it from his memories, and replaced it with semaphore.
Popular culture
- The Doctor once had Peter Andre's song "Mysterious Girl" stuck in his head for two weeks, and said that it drove him mad.
- Cass refers to the Doctor doing "the Cabin in the Woods" things.
Story notes
- The sonic sunglasses can connect to Wi-Fi.
- The Doctor uses cue cards to give apologies.
- Vector Petroleum is the company in charge of the Drum. The Drum intercom voice gave messages to when certain areas of the base was under attack.
- Some long-necked people were mentioned by Clara, to have been celebrating New Year for two centuries. The Krillitane once resembled long-necked people. (TV: School Reunion)
- The Doctor can calculate how long a place has been abandoned only by putting his finger in a cup of coffee.
- Clara tries to get the Doctor to high five her, unsuccessfully.
- The base has a Faraday cage which the ghosts can't enter, or if inside, get out from.
- The Doctor mention holograms.
- Drum Control is where the rest of the base is controlled.
- The Doctor mentions that his UNIT security visa is 7-1-0-Apple-0-0.
- The base have a submarine that can be controlled with submarine manipulator rings.
- A suspended animation chamber is found under the water.
- Topside was the name given to the operating force on the surface, which were contacted by the Drum.
- Magnetic coordinates were used by the ghosts.
- The Doctor took his radio apart to make a clockwork squirrel.
Ratings
3.74 million
Filming locations
Production errors
Continuity
- The Doctor uses his sonic sunglasses. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
- One of the ghosts was previously a Tivolian. (TV: The God Complex)
- The Doctor has previously landed in an underwater base, in which he met with a crew that were tackling a threat that would re-animate the dead crew. (GAME: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
- The Doctor uses his psychic paper as proof of ID. (TV: The End of the World et al)
- The psychic paper tells the crew that the Doctor works for UNIT. (TV: Spearhead from Space et al)
- One of the Doctor's apology cue cards says: "It was my fault, I should have known you didn't live in Aberdeen". The Fourth Doctor made an identical mistake, dropping Sarah Jane Smith off there rather than South Croydon. (TV: The Hand of Fear, School Reunion)
- Another of the cue cards says: "No one is going to be eaten / vapourised / exterminated / upgraded / possessed / mortally wounded / turned to jelly. We'll all get out of this unharmed." "Exterminated" is a reference to the Daleks, (TV: The Daleks et.al.) "upgraded" is a reference to the Cybermen, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen et.al.) and "possessed" is a reference to various races and beings. (TV: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit et al)
- When the Doctor goes back on his insistence that the phantoms of the dead aren't ghosts, he notes that they aren't flesh avatars, (TV: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People) Autons, (TV: Spearhead from Space et.al.) or "digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere". (TV: Dark Water/Death in Heaven)
- The Cloister Bell alerts the Doctor to a threat to the TARDIS. (TV: Logopolis, Resurrection of the Daleks et al)
- The Doctor indirectly refers to Danny Pink (TV: Into the Dalek-Death in Heaven) when suggesting a new relationship for Clara.
- This story references the existence of a soul or spirit which survives death, following an idea used in TV: Dark Water and TV: Death in Heaven. The concept of an afterlife has been generally taboo in Doctor Who and in speculative fiction in general.
Home video releases
DVD releases
to be added
Blu-ray releases
to be added
External links
