History Recap / DoctorWhoS34E9Flatline

Written by Jamie Mathieson, this is the annual Doctor-lite episode, although less Doctor-lite than previous examples.

* BoringButPractical: When Rigsy tries to pull an HeroicSacrifice by holding the deadman handle so a train can ram the encroaching Boneless, Clara just slips a hair hairband around it so they can both run away.

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Clara, do you want the good news or the bad news?"\\
'''Clara:''' "We're in the bad news! I'm ''living'' the bad news!"

-->'''The Doctor:''' "And what long story are you going to tell Danny, huh? Or haven't you made it up yet?"

-->'''The Doctor:''' "I tried to talk, I want you to remember that. I tried to reach out, I tried to understand you, but I think that you understand us perfectly. And I think that you just don't care! And I don't know whether you are here to invade, infiltrate or just replace us. I don't suppose it really matters now, you are monsters! That is the role you seem determined to play, so it seems that '''I''' must play '''mine'''! The man that stops the monsters! I'm sending you back to your own dimension. Who knows? Some of you may even survive the trip, and if you do, remember this: ''you'' are not welcome here! This plane is protected! '''I''' am the Doctor! ''[catches his screwdriver]'' And I name you... the Boneless!"

-->'''Missy:''' "Clara... My Clara... I ''have'' chosen well. ''[cue EvilLaugh]''"

->'''Clara:''' "Come on, why can't you say it? I was the Doctor and I was good."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara."\\
'''Clara:''' "Thank you.\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Goodness had nothing to do with it."

Once again, things appear to be back to normal, in a show where "normal" means "an angry Scottish alien and a tiny schoolteacher whiz around space in a wooden box." [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon After coming close to leaving the TARDIS for good]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E8MummyOnTheOrientExpress Clara's decided to stick around after all]], and it seems like she and the Doctor are back into the adventuring groove.

Even better, it seems that Danny's OK with his girlfriend running around and saving the universe, too - although he won't let her leave her stuff on the TARDIS, which seems a bit weird, but frankly their relationship's far too human for the Doctor to be bothered probing into it. So while Clara gathers her bags and calls up Danny, the Doctor gets on with dropping her off home.

Rather, home''ish''. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Once again, he's dropped her a bit far out]] – actually, they’re in Bristol, in what seems like a council estate.

There’s a bigger problem. The TARDIS is now about four feet tall, and the Doctor has to stoop to get out. Something’s sucking on the outer dimensions, forcing the TARDIS smaller and smaller like a worn-down gobstopper in somebody’s cheek.

By the time the Doctor’s figured that out, he’s gone back inside and got stuck. With the TARDIS now about the size of an action figure (leaving Clara with her very own [[Music/TheLonelyIsland Doc in a box]]), [[RuleOfThree one more problem’s shown up]] – people’ve been vanishing, all over the estate. There are creatures in the walls – creatures that live in two dimensions, that can flatten you down and wear your skin. Maybe [[BlueAndOrangeMorality they think they’re being kind]], [[ForTheEvulz or maybe they just feel like it]]. [[InscrutableAliens The Doctor isn't sure yet]].

Either way, with the Time Lord out of the picture the role of [[TheHero "the Doctor"]] needs to be filled, and ''fast''. There's even a nice-but-dim graffiti artist and his curmudgeonly parole officer to serve as her impromptu companions...

* ArmorPiercingResponse: At the end of the episode, Clara claims that she was "good" as the Doctor for the episode. The Doctor responds by agreeing that she was an exceptional Doctor...before adding that "Goodness had nothing to do with it."
* [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Artistic Licence - Biology]]: What the Doctor calls a human nervous system flattened on a wall looks like a mash-up of the nervous and circulatory systems. The central line with branches off to its sides does match the structure of the spinal cord. On the other hand, it has dense networks in the region of liver and kidneys, which fits circulation but not nerves. The central line forks like a superior vena cava rather than extending cranially to the brainstem. And the brain itself is ''much'' too small and simplified to be a neural map.
* BadassBoast:
** When the Doctor gets the TARDIS back in working order, he gets one very similar to the one [[Creator/MattSmith Eleven had]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]". It consists of scolding the Boneless, telling them who he is, that the Earth is under his protection, and then banishing them.
** Clara's first "I'm the Doctor" qualifies until she gets a "hey now!" from the Doctor.

* BiggerOnTheInside: The dimension leaching affects the TARDIS, upping the ante to a truly silly extent. The TARDIS is shrunk to the point that the phone box exterior can be held in one hand, while the interior dimensions remain at the correct size, trapping the Doctor within. It's even lampshaded when this [[PhraseCatcher Phrase Catch]] is mentioned, and the Doctor quips "I don't think that statement's ever been truer."

* BorrowedCatchphrase: Clara tries this from the Doctor by borrowing many of his phrases.
** Saying she's the only chance the work gang has of staying alive.
** She gets to say "I'm the Doctor" at one point.
** "RUN!"
* BrickJoke: Someone asks if they're being chased by killer graffiti, and the Doctor says they can't call them that because the name is "Rubbish". When the Doctor banishes the beings back to their own world, he boasts "I am the Doctor, and I name you THE BONELESS!"

* DisconnectedByDeath: The victim in TheTeaser is on the phone to the police when he is taken by the Boneless.

* EarthShatteringKaboom: According to the Doctor, this would be the result if the TARDIS were to ever put its ''actual weight'' on the Earth's surface.

%%* ExactWords: Clara gets a couple moments like this, including one lampshaded by the Doctor.

* GlamourFailure: The overseer is such a unimaginative {{Jerkass}} that psychic paper doesn't work on him. The Doctor is mildly impressed.
* GoodNewsBadNews: Clara et al are fleeing the aliens when the Doctor gives this trope.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Clara, do you want the good news or the bad news?\\
'''Clara:''' We're in the bad news! I'm ''living'' the bad news!
* IKnowYourTrueName: Played with when the Doctor names the aliens "The Boneless" before banishing them; naming them such didn't give him power over them, but knowing enough to give them such a fitting name did.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Clara produces a literal sledgehammer in one scene from the shrunken TARDIS in her purse.
* HateSink: The community service supervisor is an unmitigated jerkass with no redeeming qualities, thinking the worst of the people working under him and the aliens, attacking Clara and causing her to drop the TARDIS down a shaft, and saying the estate people who died were scum no one will miss just because they live on a council estate.

* HeroicSacrifice: Gleefully deconstructed by Clara. She stops Rigsy the graffiti artist from driving a train into the Boneless by just strapping the dead man's handle stuck with an elastic headband, preventing him from making a StupidSacrifice.

-->'''The Doctor:''' And what long story are you going to tell Danny, huh? Or haven't you made it up yet?
* {{Jerkass}}: The community service supervisor, who finishes the episode by claiming that everyone who died ''deserved it'' because they were "community payback scumbags". Here's hoping the Cybermen got him.
* JerkassHasAPoint: While the Doctor and Clara are trying to communicate with the Boneless, the aliens start announcing numbers from the jackets of the workers -- first the one they had recently killed, and then another one who's still alive. While Clara and the Doctor would rather suppose the aliens are just trying to communicate, the heartless {{jerkass}} overseer cynically recognises that the aliens are taunting and threatening them -- which turns out to be correct when they kill the worker with the second number.
* JustTrainWrong: The story is set in the present day, but because it was filmed on a heritage railway it uses a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_117 class 117]] train, the last examples of which ran in 2000 (and this one has been restored to its original 1960s condition). It is explained and thus justified, however, as the train is explicitly marked as Out of Service.
* KarmaHoudini: The (possibly racist?) curmudgeon of an overseer of the community service workers survives, and he says the other people weren't really worth much because they were scum. The Doctor muses perhaps the wrong people survived.

-->'''The Doctor:''' I tried to talk, I want you to remember that. I tried to reach out, I tried to understand you, but I think that you understand us perfectly. And I think that you just don't care! And I don't know whether you are here to invade, infiltrate or just replace us. I don't suppose it really matters now, you are monsters! That is the role you seem determined to play, so it seems that '''I''' must play '''mine'''! The man that stops the monsters! I'm sending you back to your own dimension. Who knows? Some of you may even survive the trip, and if you do, remember this: ''you'' are not welcome here! This plane is protected! '''I''' am the Doctor! ''[catches his screwdriver]'' And I name you: the Boneless!

* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: Clara has no difficulty finding spray paint and other supplies for her plan in the office where everyone is hiding from the Boneless. It's also fair to assume that Rigsy happened to have cans of spray paint in his bag, as he is a graffiti artist.

* LoveTriangle: Less obvious than the previous episode, however, Clara is still lying to Danny about giving up the Doctor.
* MagicalSecurityCam: Missy somehow gets a real-time image of Clara at the same angle as the camera had previously been pointed.
* MeaningfulEcho: The Doctor says "This plane is protected" while banishing a hostile alien, as per Ten's "This planet is protected".

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: The TARDIS siege mode has never been seen before, not even when bad guys were trying to break in. Seeing that using this mode puts the TARDIS occupants in life-threatening peril, it makes sense why the Doctor [[MortonsFork would only use it if not doing so would be outright fatal]].
* NonMaliciousMonster: Subverted. The Doctor's hopeful speculations that the aliens don't realize they're hurting people is shown to be mistaken.
* NoSell: It turns out that the psychic paper needs imagination to work on someone, which the {{Jerkass}} supervisor lacks.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The leader of the work gang despises the youngsters he's supervising, doesn't mourn their deaths, and is sufficiently unimaginative that the psychic paper doesn't work on him.

* PowerLimiter: The TARDIS has a voluntary one in that the Doctor can willfully manipulate its relative gravity to adjust its weight. According to the Doctor, the TARDIS never puts its actual weight on whatever surface it is currently resting on, as its mass alone would [[EarthShatteringKaboom otherwise destroy the planet]].
* PunnyName: The Doctor creates a dimensional shifter (to turn things from the 2D plane 3D and vice versa) and dubs it the ''2''Dis.

** When Clara drops the TARDIS in a scuffle, the Doctor has to move the TARDIS out of the way of an oncoming train but he has no power. Clara suggests he moves it like ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', referring to Thing, the hand without a body, and his mode of locomotion by crawling around on his fingers. (This is also an internal shout-out, given that throughout Series 8 the Doctor and Clara are continually referring to their adventures as "a thing.") The Doctor then does a brief imitation of Uncle Fester's shuffle.
** Rigsy the graffiti artist, has a similar name to Creator/{{Banksy}}.

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: The Doctor and Doctor Oswald engage in a bickering contest while dealing with the 2-D antagonists.

-->'''Missy:''' Clara. My Clara. I ''have'' chosen well. ''[cue EvilLaugh]''
* WrittenInAbsence: The season's "Doctor-lite" episode. Apart from the opening and closing scenes, all of Peter Capaldi's appearances are him alone in the console room talking to the camera.

->'''Clara:''' Come on, why can't you say it? I was the Doctor and I was good.\\
'''The Doctor:''' You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara.\\
'''Clara:''' Thank you.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Goodness had nothing to do with it.

* DaylightHorror: Until they escape into the tunnel, the Boneless are walking about in daylight. Afterwards, DarknessEqualsDeath comes into play.

Written by Jamie Mathieson, this is the annual Doctor-lite episode, although less Doctor-lite than the previous examples.

** It's confirmed that it was Missy who gave Clara the Doctor's phone number all the way back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn The Bells of Saint John]]".

By the time the Doctor’s figured that out, he’s gone back inside and got stuck. With the TARDIS now about the size of an action figure (leaving Clara with her very own [[Music/TheLonelyIsland Doc in a box]]), [[RuleOfThree one more problem’s shown up]] – people’ve been vanishing, all over the estate. There are creatures in the walls – creatures that live in two dimensions, that can flatten you down and wear your skin. Maybe [[BlueAndOrangeMorality they think they’re being kind,]] [[ForTheEvulz or maybe they just feel like it.]] The Doctor isn't sure yet.

The one where the Doctor joins Franchise/TheAddamsFamily.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The 2Dis. [[HypocriticalHumour This after the Doctor has already derided Clara's suggestion of calling it the Deflattener.]]

* DepthDeception: The Boneless frequently use these, from small items like a door handle, to larger stuff such as people or a train. Roscoe ends up becoming one of these in the wallpaper of the room he was in, and poor George suffers the same fate later.