Doctor Who Review: Under The Lake – 7 Ways To Sink Or Swim
4. The Nature Of Death
The Doctor is fascinated with death. This is not surprising as it’s something he cannot experience in the same way most other people do. One has to wonder if he throws himself into dangerous situations as a way to walk a little closer to the grim reaper. He’s dying of curiosity. He takes the suggestion of ghosts as a personal affront – there is nothing beyond death so nothing may return. Yet in this case there is an anomaly that the TARDIS senses and does not like. She refuses to go near it. Are the “ghosts” perhaps caught in a sort of limbo? Has something created a pocket of time between life and death that holds the bodies in stasis and uses what’s left of their consciousness as a means to communicate? It’s a singularly creepy idea.
The first three episodes of series nine are particularly reminiscent of the Philip Hinchcliffe era of Doctor Who. Hinchcliffe was a producer in the mid-seventies who oversaw many of the most favored Tom Baker / fourth Doctor episodes. The tone of the series under his reign was darker and more adult and filled with elements of gothic horror.