Doctor Who Review: Before The Flood – 6 Ways The Water Rises And Falls

By Mary Ogle /

4. The Monster Suit

The Fisher King is a well-known figure from Arthurian legend. There are many variations to the story but essentially he is one of the last kings in charge of guarding the holy grail. Drawing on this well established folklore would do so much to alleviate the problems with this character. There is no depth or richness to his villainy as he merely serves as an artificial construct to tie the plot together. There was, however, one intriguing part to his interaction with the Doctor and that is the fact he knew about Time Lords and their part in the Time War. We even hear them derided as €œcowardly vain curators€ in a nice callback to the fiftieth anniversary special. Was this a bit of foreshadowing? Will we be exploring how the Time Lords moved from stagnant bureaucracy to active war? Perhaps we might find out that it was not the fascism of the Daleks that started the trouble but the arrogance of the Time Lords.