Inspirations: Flatline

As mentioned last time, this was the first story to be written by Jamie Mathieson, although screened second of his back-to-back episodes. It was because Flatline was developing so nicely that he was then offered the chance to write a story involving a Mummy on the Orient Express - in space.

Going right back to the earliest days of Doctor Who, it had been intended that there would be three types of story - historical, futuristic / alien, and alternate states - of being, of matter or of dimension.

Flatline could be said to be a descendent of the latter type - a story form which was never properly explored. Only The Edge of Destruction, Planet of Giants and The Space Museum could really be said to have gone there, with The Celestial Toymaker and The Mind Robber following along later.

Mathieson had come to meet Steven Moffat prepared with a number of ideas, after a previous approach had not led to anything. He had run these ideas past Toby Hadoke to confirm that they hadn't featured in the series before. Moffat selected the 2-D monster notion as this fitted with his liking of making the safe and mundane feel dangerous for children - the monster might be in your bedroom wall.

It was initially intended that the Boneless would gain 3-Dimensionality by enveloping their victims.

A number of inspirations were cited by Mathieson, including a well known painting, a TV programme, a children's book and a Victorian satire.

The painting was the 1533 double portrait known as The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, which hangs in the National Gallery in London. This features what at first appears to be a long grey / white streak across the bottom - but when viewed from a particular angle proves to be the image of a skull. This is a process known as anamorphosis, and it is believed that rather than view from the side, a reflective glass tube was originally employed.

The TV programme is Sapphire & Steel - specifically "Adventure 4", the one with the being who appears in every photograph ever taken and who has the power to turn people 2-D.

The children's book is Flat Stanley, written by Jeff Brown and published in 1964. Stanley gets squashed flat by a falling board but is otherwise unharmed, and decides to exploit his new 2-D existence. He can slide under doors, be used as a kite, and go on holiday by posting himself. He gets fed up eventually and a bicycle pump returns him to normal, though a further series of books followed several years later.

The Victorian satire is the 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, written by Edwin A Abbott. The book was intended to satirise class and gender distinctions in Victorian society.

One further inspiration was the Looney Tunes Roadrunner cartoons. In these, the Roadrunner and / or Wile E. Coyote could paint 2-D images which then took on substance, or vice versa - the most famous example being the tunnel painted on a rockface which the Roadrunner can run through, whereas Wile slams into it, or a truck or train emerges and runs him over.

Visually, the Boneless were said to resemble portraits by artist Francis Bacon after taking on 3-D form - as in having nightmarish, misshapen features.

The inclusion of a graffiti artist was due to the growing fame of Banksy, the anonymous street artist whose works command huge prices - so much so that people have actually damaged people's homes to remove pieces from their walls. 

He is a native of Bristol, where this episode is set, and the city was where his work first began appearing.

Rigsy fulfils the Companion role in the episode, as the Doctor is stranded in the TARDIS, forcing Clara to take on his role.

The image of the Doctor's hand emerging from the shrunken TARDIS to move it out of danger was a deliberate nod to "Thing", the disembodied hand in The Addams Family.

The Doctor's iconic speech about being "the man who stops the monsters" was inspired by Babylon 5. Captain Sheridan ends the Shadow War by basically kicking both they and the Vorlons out of this universe in the episode "Into The Fire".

The Doctor was trapped inside a shrinking TARDIS on one other occasion in the past - after the Master's meddling on the planet Logopolis.

2-D images coming to life had previously been seen in 2006's Fear Her.

In terms of this year's story arc, Clara is lying to the Doctor about Danny being happy with her continuing to travel with him, and the inclusion of a cameo by Missy was a late addition, with her commenting that with Clara she had chosen well...

Next time: Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright...