Doctor Who: Face the Raven

That was awesome.

So this episode came from the mind of Sarah Dollard, most well known (in the BBC that is) for her contributions to Merlin and Being Human. It’s more the Being Human experience that’s used here, with supernatural elements, explained with “science.”

Dollard also has a talent for making the audience want to see the darker side of the characters. Where most writers would play it safe and shoehorn in the “we must  be better than them” message, Dollard has us begging for the Doctor to unleash The Valyard.

To give a brief overview, Maisie Williams returns as Lady Me (now Lady Mayor) who is preciding over a hidden street of alien refugees in London. Trouble arises when Rigsy (another returning character) falls foul of the residents of the street and calls the Doctor for help.

Spoilers to follow.

So it turns out that everything that happens is all part of some elaborate plan by Lady Mayor, operating under threat from some unknown enemy, to teleport the Doctor away for punishment. Oh and the big twist; Clara’s essentially caught in the crossfire of their maneuvering and dies. This is apparently Jenna Coleman’s exit to the series and comes as full on shock. Usually, the Doctor would pull out a way to save a companion in these circumstances, but no; she’s dead. I mean I hope she’s dead; I like Clara as a character, but after the whole Osgood thing, I cannot get behind some characters being invincible.

Clara’s exit is marked perfectly by Capaldi. The Twelfth Doctor does not cry (like the 10^th and 11^th) or make empty threats (like the 9^th). He tells Lady Mayor that he is going to destroy everything she has built and ruin the lives of everyone she has saved. I get the impression that his promise to Clara (that he wouldn’t seek revenge) is the only lie he told throughout the whole monologue. As soon as Clara’s gone, he essentially tells Lady Mayor that the next time they meet he’s going to kill her. None of the other Doctors (of the revived era) could have delivered that message the way Capaldi does. that performance does take focus slightly from Coleman, as she acts out Clara's final moments.

The episode’s not perfect; Clara’s adrenaline junky phase is just annoying and laid on far too thick.

But those are minor quibbles in terms of a fine episode.

Doctor Who: The Woman who Lived

Refreshingly dark.

This episode is an adventure comedy rolled up in a dark parody…and it’s awesome.

The Doctor stumbled across a thief who turns out to be Maisie William’s Ashildr (though she doesn’t even remember that name) from the previous episode; now immortal. This is where it really comes into its own; in the Davies days, she would be an amazing saint like figure, courtesy of the Doctor and if the Moff was penning the script she’d be some sort of impossible mystery courtesy of some time travel stuff. But with one of the big men long gone and writing about fruit and vegetables for Channel 4 and the other on proof reading duty, Catherine Tregenna gets to explore the darker side of immortality.

Ashildr (now renamed as “Lady Me”) is now so old that she requires several journals in order to remember her life; though it’s hinted that, much like the 11^th Doctor, she simply can’t bear to remember all the nasty events that have befallen her. It’s especially brave of Tregenna to explore the fact that Ashildr has now outlived her own children. This whole concept was kind of explored before with Captain Jack Harkness (who gets a shout out), but this was in the days of the Tenth Doctor, where saying he’s done anything bad or irresponsible was strictly forbidden in the writing room.

Capaldi and Williams have good chemistry and do a pretty good job of building a mentor to learner relationship.

The episode is not without fault; we’re supposed to like Rufus Hound’s Sam Swift, for some reason and his gallows humour stand up show seems a bit contrived. The main villain is so irrelevant that I can’t remember his name and the fact that someone as assertive and clever as Ashildr/Lady Me would be taken in by his lies doesn’t fly for me.

The selfie at the end (with what must be a competition winner?) also feels shoehorned, but I suppose there are only a few ways that you get across that Lady Me is still about.

On that point, I doubt it’s the last of character; she doesn’t say who told her all about the Doctor, but she uses more than one of Missy’s nicknames for him, so I expect they’ll both be in the finale.

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Died

Meh.

So apparently this is a very important episode in terms of the series as a whole. But yeah, as exciting as it was, it was still riding off the back of a guest star. Maisie Williams stars as Aryra  - I mean Ashildr – a Viking, who, though being a girl in a time period where all females were baby incubators, is a respected and rebellious tomboy. No idea where they got that idea.

The episode is another collaborative effort from Steven Moffat and Jamie Mathieson and the quality of structure shows as well as the witty banter. The Doctor coming up with nicknames for the Vikings is a high point, but the whole subplot with a baby figuring out (or helping to figure out) a defensive strategy is juts stupid.

The bad guys are practically filler; some Odin impersonators trying to get high of testosterone…another idea cribbed from a different show. But I can give them a pass for that, as that show was Torchwood, the particular episode of which guest starred Peter Capaldi.

The defeat of the villains comes across as a bit stupid, but then again their essential purpose was to set up the whole Maisie Williams as a semi-regular character thing.

Overall, I really don’t have that much to say about this episode. Its not bad (though a tad derivative with it’s titular character), but it just about gets by.

I’m hoping that it mirrors the series opener and improves by association to it’s sequel.