In an underwater mining facility known as The Drum, (oil drum?) in Scotland, the crew has taken on board a spacecraft or some sort of ship which looks alien. They see a man with a hat in period attire who also has hollow eyes. Just before they can find out what it is, Captain Moran (Colin McFarlane) is killed. He then later appears to them as some sort of an apparition with his eyes hollowed out which they call a 'ghost.'
The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) arrive but he tells her the TARDIS isn't happy being here, though he can't yet work out why. She wants adventure and asks if they can go back to the place where the creatures with the long necks celebrate new year for two centuries. So if we did that here, that'd mean no more work! A holiday everyday. Ha. She wants him to high five her, but he leaves her hanging even when she asks him, "don't leave me hanging!" They encounter the ghosts in the corridor and must seek shelter. However the Doctor remarks upon how cool they are and how they're not hurting them, until much later. Apparently these ghost can handle metal objects and use them as weapons. Remarking, "hello, did you want to show us this." Inside the ship he notices markings which he can't work out and the TARDIS can't translate them.
Once again Steven Moffat delves into the subject of ghosts and the afterlife to an extent as he did in 8.4 Listen last series. The Doctor talks of how when they die they return in some form and maybe even having killing tendencies than when they were alive. He'd want to ask questions like what it's like on the other side. That there is no end after death. Also similar to Danny when he died and he allowed that boy to come back. Clara is over Danny as the Doctor tells her she needs a new relationship and that's what humans do. They're always writing about it in songs, or getting tattoos. The TARDIS wants to leave this place and he says it's cos of the ghosts and that's why she didn't want to be here. So he applies the handbrake to stop her from leaving. Also Clara is ready to go back out there. The Doctor says he's seen all this before and Clara remarks how he just "poo-pooed the ghost theory."
The crew opens up the cage for them, which we later learn is a Faraday Cage for radiation leaks, incase there's one on the base. He shows them his card, and Pritchard (Steven Robertson) notices he's with UNIT. He then hands the Doctor his own card, he's with Vector Petroleum. Which the Doctor takes and comically throws down on the floor. He's just into money and later when they examine the craft the Doctor finds a power cell missing. None of them took it, but Pritchard thinks it could be worth something.
One of the crew is deaf, Cass (Sophie Stone) and needs a translator/signer, Lunn (Zaqi Ismail) Though not being horrible, but half the time she doesn't even look at him when he's signing for her, too busy looking at the Doctor or the screen. But she's in charge and why don't any of the other crew tell the Doctor what's happened. They see them as ghosts as they have no other explanation for it and they only come out at night. So when the computer tells them it's day, they can all come out of the cage. They have to simulate day and night modes as they're so far below the surface. The Doctor tells them he's sorry for their loss after Clara prompts him with the cards. Seems he needs those to express his emotions.
The computer manages to turn day mode back into night before it's time which sends them into a tizzy and they must gather what they need and return to the age. With O'Donnell (Morven Christie) trying to fix the mode back to day. Pritchard returns from outside after looking for the missing powercell and is drowned in the locked chamber. His ghost then returns and Bennett (Arsher Ail) thinks it's really him when Clara sees him floating outside. If there was a man overboard, wouldn't it be too late to rescue him anyway, clearly he had no signs of life. Pritchard picks up the chair by its metal legs and is about to throw it when day is re-activated. The frozen statis chamber emerges which they surmize contains the pilot and when he was inide the ship, he's written those symbols They're co ordinates and they're like magnets sending out magnetic pulses so the message is imprinted in their minds.
The Doctor comes up with the plan of getting the ghosts into the chamber whereby he uses Lunn, Clara and Bennett as bait. They have to follow his directions and hide in the airlocks before the ghosts see which direction they head in. Which backfires since they split into two groups and Pritchard follows Lunn into the chamber. He picks up the wrench and appears to whisper something to him, before leaving him alive. Why did O'Donnell just open the door back to let him out. They manage to catch them in the cage after they see Clara inside to lure them in, but it's obvious she's a hologram. The Doctor using his shades again tries to see what they're saying from outside but he can't.
Cass manages to work out, the dark, the sword, the forsaken and temple, by lip reading them." He enters the cage but they can't hurt him as they don't have any weapons. He then realizes the words are actually co ordinates to Orion's belt and earth is the fourth planet thus they need another victim so they can enhance their signal. The Doctor works out the ghosts were manipulated by someone else. So the village was flooded by water and they find the missing church, the temple. There's a breach and the base is being flooded. The Doctor thinks they can escape in the TARDIS. However he and Clara get separated. But he promises to come back for her after taking the others to safety. He's going back in time to see what happened and to prevent the flood.
Clara is stuck with Lunn who asks if he'll return. Of course he wouldn't leave her behind. Clara sees someone walking towards them outside and sees it's the Doctor, who is now dead and a walking ghost. Suppose that was inevitable with all this talk of the Doctor dying.
Clara actually high-fiving the Doctor this time round through the glass, as they're separated. Probably best quote: "surely just being around me makes you clever by osmosis." As for Pritchard not harming Lunn was it cos he didn't enter the ship and why Cass told him to stay out. O'Donnell is another fan of the Doctor's. The Doctor asks the TARDIS, "what's wrong, you're not happy, why aren't you happy. Why have you brought us here?" If she was afraid of the ghosts and didn't like being here as he says when they're inside the TARDIS, then why did she bring them here?
Back to one of those eps where the foe is kind of cryptic and they don't know what's going on or why, but seem to find the answers, comically or otherwise. The real cliffhanger of this ep is what happens to the Doctor, unless he's not really the Doctor but a hologram, as Clara was...we had the Waters of Mars (timely for back then, seeing as water is discovered on Mars) and now we get the lake and what's under it.
Actually liked some of his other index cards, written by Clara of course, including: "I completely understand why it was difficult to not get captured." "No one ins going to get eaten, vapourized, exterminated, upgraded, possessed, mortally wounded, turned to jelly. We'll all get out of this unharmed." [unless you're the Doctor, added by me.] "After two weeks of Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl [clearly not a reference to Clara] I was begging for the brush of death's merciful hand." Ironically he may just get exactly that. Other references included Shirley Bassy and his behaviour after seeing her and also someone turning up with a peanut allergy he needs to know about right now.
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