‘Doctor Who’ season 8, episode 9 review: Was ‘Flatline’ a showcase for Jenna Coleman’s Clara?

Even though we are in the middle portion of “Doctor Who” season 8, that does not mean in the slightest that we have to be watching a series of garbage episodes. This is something that we’ve seen with many other shows as of late, but not this one!

“Flatline” actually may be up there with “Listen” as one of the best episodes of the season, and beyond Steven Moffat and the writers, we really have to start handing out the credit to Jenna Coleman. Having Clara anchor the first two thirds of the story, about creatures mysteriously hiding within walls and manipulating space, could have turned this into a disaster. We know that the internet was complaining before even watching it.

Still, she brought a lot of humor to the part as we saw her having to navigate the Doctor and his tiny Tardis around, and to go along with that, she showed us the moral conflict of lying to Danny all about her continued work with the Doctor.

From here on out, the episode started to get deeper, more action-packed, and just fantastic all around. Some of Peter Capaldi’s speeches near the end, especially about him becoming “the monster,” were some of his own finest work on the series to date, and reminded us that this is not just the happy-go-lucky Doctor we’ve seen in the past. There is something further here.

Still, there is a cliffhanger of sorts here in that Clara does still have key decisions to make about her future and her life, and they may be a recurring theme over the next few installments. Grade: A-.

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