Watching "Under the Lake", I was really impressed with the creepiness of the episode. I mean the ghosts are really creepy with their eye all blacked out. You know this is 2 episodes in a row now that I have been creeped out over eyeballs. You had the the hand mines with their eyeballs on their hands and now these ghosts with no eyes. With that being said, this first episode is a great mixture of what makes Dr Who great. You have a fantastic mystery, paranormal activity, science fiction and it's all mixed under a lake.
The one scene that everyone is talking about is when Clara shows the Doctor the cards with what he should say in different situations. Probably the best scene in the whole episode. I loved the fact that they are playing off that the Doctor is an alien. The Doctor is not human and it's refreshing to be reminded that after the most recent Doctors. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the recent Doctors, but we haven't seen a Doctor act alien since probably Colin Baker. I hope they add more elements of not acting like a human into the series going forth.
Then for part 2, the Doctor goes back "Before the Flood" and tries to figure out why everyone is turning into ghosts. Here is where the story kind of loses it's edge. The ghosts are pretty much taken out of "Before the Flood" and they were the main antagonists of the first part. I wanted more and bigger ghosts, not the Doctor arguing with people about who he chooses to save and altering the future. Didn't we just have a whole season about that?
Was it me or did the Fisher King look like a Predator? His mouth was very much like a Predator and he falls for the old "I erased your phrase on the ship" trick. He should have saw that coming. Then the whole explanation really kind of confused me. Maybe I was tired when I was watching it or I didn't have a pencil and a piece of paper to try and figure out what the heck happened.
So overall, I give "Under the Lake" and "Before the Flood" a 3 Tardis's out of 5. Great start, but then fell flat on it's face.