When discussing the brilliant ‘Flatline’, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat promised “one of our best ever sight gags”, and the man wasn’t hyperbolising.
In fact if anything he nicely undersold just how visually entertaining the whole 45 minutes was.
Like a demented episode of Penny Crayon, Jamie Mathieson’s second episode of Season 8 played with dimensions, spacial-awareness, and the audience’s visual perception to tremendous effect. And as scary as some of the sights were, there were also some laughs to be had from the optical illusions.
So here, being beamed from this 2D page into your 3D head, are the five funniest sight gags in ‘Flatline’…
Squeeze
So often The Doctor swaggers out of his TARDIS, but here he is, unceremoniously unpacking himself from his infinite ship like a bear trapped in a wendy house. Or, perhaps more appropriately, a big grey stick insect escaping a matchbox.
‘That’s adorable!’
Clara returns to the TARDIS to find it more fun-sized than when she left. Of course the dimensions are Relative In Space, so The Doctor is still big, so it’s like staring at a man through a cat-flap. A very angry Scottish man. Through a transdimensional cat-flap.
A toy TARDIS with the Twelfth Doctor’s face printed on the inside will surely be on the shelves before Christmas.
Hammered
It’s very easy to upgrade your ordinary handbag into something more Mary Poppins-y when you’ve got a TARDIS Mini and a Time Lord with a sledgehammer within it. Every fake MI5 agent should have one. And it takes up less space than the new iPhone. Fact.
Ah, Thing!
The tiny TARDIS is about to be turned to cosmic matchwood under the wheels of a train. The systems are drained. Power can’t be rerouted. There’s no escape. ‘Dum-Dum-Duuuum!’
The Doctor could really use a hand. So that’s exactly what he uses. Not since River jumped into the swimming pool has there been such a cheeky use of TARDIS physics.
The Doctor dances
Believing he’s just saved himself from a locomotive-themed death (two weeks in a row now – Jamie Mathieson must hate trains), The Twelfth Doctor allows himself a rare moment of levity by doing a very jittery granddad dance.
This is the first time we’ve seen Twelve enjoying himself so much. It had probably already been .GIF-ed around Tumblr a dozen times before the end titles had finished airing.
> Order Season 8 on DVD on Amazon.
> Order Season 8 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
What was your favourite sight gag in ‘Flatline’? Let us know below…