'Immortality isn’t living forever, that’s not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying.'
Now we're getting to the good stuff: this third two parter, 'The Girl Who Died' and 'The Woman Who Lived' are two great episodes centered around the Doctor's need to create happy endings backfiring massively. Are they flawless? No, but they have a lot of interesting things to say about immortality and actually puts the two part format to good use this time around by having conversations and characters that actually mean something.
After an in medias res opening hightailing off of an unseen adventure the Doctor and Clara exit the TARDIS for a supremely boring reason (the Doctor wants to scrub some evil alien bug that was after Clara off his shoes) and immediately run into Vikings, who surprisingly haven't been featured in NuWho's decade long tenure yet. They are then taken to their village and are about to be executed before the Doctor tries out his best Odin impression to save their skin. Only problem is, a supposedly real version of Odin suddenly appears in the sky demanding they pay tribute, then a Bioshock-y looking armored race called The Mire suddenly appear and all of the Viking warriors are zapped up to their nearby spaceship along Clara and a supposedly random Viking girl called Ashildr. Aboard the spaceship the Viking warriors are quickly killed and turned into testosterone juice, and yes that really is the The Mire's motivation, they really like Viking juice, but before Clara can properly talk her way into a cease fire Ashildr decides to declare war on them. This means the Doctor has now twenty four hours to prepare the warriorless Viking village for battle with The Mire before the inevitable massacre commences.
'The Girl Who Died' starts out as a very enjoyable romp akin to last years 'Robot In Sherwood' (complete with a depiction of the past that's not even remotely historically accurate), but goes a bit further by including a pretty engaging dilemma throughout. The actual plot for this episode is fairly goofy in a fun way but there is a surprising amount of Doctor and Clara alone time where they debate on the best course of action. Saving the village from The Mire is doable, the Doctor just needs to find a solution first, but what about the consequences? If the Doctor helps the Vikings defeat The Mire then this would create the equivalent of a tidal wave throughout time, as suddenly Earth would be perceived as a threat by other warrior like races. Cue more war, death etc... so he has to defeat the Mire in a way that would stop them from returning in the future to finish the job. It's a great point that fits a show about a hero who has to win without the use of a gun.
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| Just your average bargain basement Who villains, nothing to see here. |
Ashildr's love of storytelling, the distant cries of a baby (nothing like a baby to increase the stakes), some electric eels and a sudden realization about his identity ends up getting the Doctor out of this mess. Defeating The Mire ends up being rather poetic and silly, but that is perfect for Doctor Who. Special credit should also go to Capaldi, who somehow makes baby speech, an extremely silly sounding concept, sound like Shakespeare: 'Mother, I hear thunder. Mother, I hear shouting. You’re my world but I hear other worlds now. Beyond the unfolding of your smile, is there other kindness? I’m afraid. Will they be kind? The sky is crying now, the fire in the water.'
If 'The Girl Who Dies' had ended at the defeat of The Mire I would have been very happy, but things take a turn for the worse in the last quarter. Ashildr somehow dies from putting on one of The Mire's helmets in order to save the village, which leaves the Doctor wracked with guilt. The realization that he 'chose' his latest face to remind him that he saves people even in the most earth shatteringly time destroying circumstances where he should absolutely not meddle in people's fates, but does so anyway, was a great way of addressing that Capaldi has been in Doctor Who twice and makes a good case as to why he would make an exception for Ashildr this time around. Also, DAVID TENNANT CAMEO, YAY. His savior complex goes too far this time though as he manages to not only bring Ashildr back to life, but make her immortal as well. Oops.
If you look back at this episode it's kind of incredible how much returning Series 8 writer Jamie Matheson (with Moffat getting a co-writing credit) managed to fit into 45 minutes without any of it feeling rushed. This was probably the most I've seen the Doctor and Clara talk to one another since Series 8, the Mire were very silly villains sure (I've yet to see a credible threat so far this series) but they were decently featured. Even the villagers, the baby and Ashildr got just enough screen time for you to care for them. And we also have the twist ending, which shook things up considerably. I've always advocated two parters in Doctor Who but so far I don't think they've used the new format very well, and maybe because this isn't really a two parter but two individual episodes with Ashildr as connective tissue forced them to be a lot more economical with storytelling this time around. So yes, 'The Girl Who Died' was a really good episode!
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| Too cool for school. |
The plot of 'The Woman Who Lived' is even more loose than last time. Instead of saving a Viking village the Doctor is simply on the hunt for a missing alien artifact in Edwardian England and just so happens to bump into Ashildr along the way. The rest of the episode is mostly a one on one conversation about morals between the Doctor and Ashildr, now calling herself 'Me', as they discuss how badly the Doctor f*cked her up in the previous episode. It's mostly dialogue heavy scenes, so it might not be to everyone's taste, but I commend it for being 100% character focused. Sure it has a phoned in subplot with the amulet but in the end this was a very sound and ballsy idea that was executed a lot better than Davros and the Doctor's talks in 'The Witch's Familiar' because this time they actually go somewhere interesting with it.
In 'Died' Ashildr wasn't a million miles away from Maisie Williams excellent performance in 'Game Of Thrones': the only scene pre-'Me' scene Ashildr got with the Doctor was where she confessed her love for her village: 'I’ve always been different. All my life, I’ve known that. The girls all thought I was a boy, the boys all said I was just a girl. My head is always full of stories, I know I’m strange. Everyone knows I’m strange. But here I’m loved. You tell me to run, to save my life. I tell you that leaving this place would be death itself'. It was such a sweet scene that made us care for her in an efficient manner but after watching 'Lived' it's clearly set-up to contrast Viking Ashildr with Highwayman Ashildr. The notion that over 800 years she's evolved into a bored, emotionally detached teenager who can't remember most of her unnaturally long lifespan (and changes her name to 'Me' to emphasis her detachment from everyone else even more) is an original angle to immortality that leads to some really dark stuff. Becoming a medieval queen, winning battles single highhandedly and mastering anything you want simply because you've got A LOT of time on your hands over the many centuries are some of the perks to immortality, but having all of your mortal kids die to the black plague and being unable to kill yourself over the resulting grief is not family friendly in the slightest, plus the countless husbands and loved ones you have to say goodbye too.
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| I think this scene included the first proper dick joke in Doctor Who. 'Well hung', indeed. |
These surprisingly mature themes about the actual ramifications of immortality on a mortal soul are intertwined with a lot of goofy humor and comedy skits which don't always work to the episode's advantage: 'Me' and the Doctor having a discussion about Clara's inevitable fate while escaping up a chimney set to Murray Gold's whimsical soundtrack doesn't quite feel right, along with the subplot involving a naff looking Lion alien from the planet Lionus called Leandro (no joke). These elements don't coalescence and mix together well, with the exception being Rufus Hound as Sam Swift, a merry highwayman/stand-up comedian who gives the episode levity AND contributes to the plot in a meaningful way. Lenny the Lion feels like a last minute inclusion just so the episode can have some sci-fi trappings (NOTE: DW, it's okay if there is an episode without any aliens!) but Sam Swift is supposed to represent living life to the fullest, so he serves a real purpose. And he came across as a fun and memorable character with the time he was given, so I kind of hope he shows up again! Providing he wasn't turned into another souless immortal like Ashildr by living through countless tragedies at least...
While a lot of the dialogue and characterization given to Ashildr and the Doctor in 'The Woman Who Lived' was pretty well done for the most part ('I call myself, Me. All the other names I chose died with whoever knew me, Me is who I am now. No one's mother, daughter, wife. My own companion. Singular. Unattached. Alone') some of it did come off as a tad cringe worthy ('I CARE! I REALLY DO CARE!') that even the best actresses in the world couldn't pull off convincingly. It's a bit uneven but overall I'd say writer Catherine Tregenna has wrote some interesting stuff for Torchwood in the past and continues to deliver here. I like her idea's a lot, she really seems to go for those mature themes and sinks her teeth into them, it's just a shame the crappy Lion from 'The Wizard Of Oz' stops this episode from becoming the stone cold classic it could have been. Here are a few other beautiful exchanges I loved:
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| Fun fact: 'Me' also lived through the Westeros era. It had Dragons. And lot's of stabbing. |
- The Doctor: I read your journals. Why are there pages missing?
Me: When things get really bad I tear the memories out.
The Doctor: What could be worse than losing your children?
Me: I keep that entry to remind me not to have anymore.
- Me: Do you ever think or care what happens after you’ve flown away? I live in the world you leave behind. Because you abandoned me to it.
The Doctor: Why should I be responsible for you?
Me: You made me immortal.
The Doctor: I saved your life. I didn’t know that your heart would rust because I kept it beating. I didn’t think that your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry. I just wanted to save a terrified young woman’s life.
Me: You didn’t save my life, Doctor. You trapped me inside it.
- The Doctor: People like us, we go on too long. We forget what matters. The last thing we need is each other. We need the mayflies. You see the mayflies, they know more than we do. They know how beautiful and precious life is because it’s fleeting. I looked into your eyes and I saw my worst fears. Weariness. Emptiness.
Me: That’s why you can’t travel with me. Our perspectives are too vast, too far away.
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| 'Damn, that's really messed up. Isn't this a family show?' |
I like that the Doctor sort of loses the argument with 'Me', even if he manages to sway her back into the realm of 'not evil...I think?' by the end of the story. Hero stories get very compelling when writers start to realistically portray the aftermath of their 'happy ending', putting into question whether their heroic deeds can even be considered heroic at all. Echoing one my favorite Who stories 'The Waters Of Mars' the Doctor admits at the end of 'The Girl Who Died' that he got he way too emotional that day and broke the rules just because he was particularly tired of losing people that day, it's therefore juicy to see him face the tragedy that befell Ashildr here, who has literally gone through hell and in the 800 years between episodes simply because the Doctor forgot to check up on her. To make matters worse refuses to take her someplace else in the universe despite her pleas at being bored with life on Earth. If all 'Me' wants is a quick taxi to another planet then why did he refuse her? It's fundamentally cruel, he has the whole universe as his backyard yet she is doomed to stay on earth for eternity, as 'Me' accurately points out. You can also draw a lot of parallels between 'Me' and Captain Jack, another immortal the Doctor has ignorantly abandoned without a second's thought. So I guess what we can take away from all of this is the Doctor continues to be a dick to immortals.
The biggest compliment I can give Series 9 at the moment is that it's not afraid to shake up established storytelling patterns. 'The Woman Who Lived' is a significantly different episode to 'Died' in both tone and setting but still feels vital to understanding this episode. 'Died' might have the edge over 'Lived' as it handled it's goofiness better but as a whole these were two strong character focused episodes that managed to explore some interesting and mature themes successfully. This is what we need more of in Series 9, so let's hope the next two parter (Zygons!) continues this trend of mature storytelling.
Positives:
+ Lot's of great talky scenes
+ Interesting, mature themes
+ Capaldi's performance (again)
+ Ashildr became a fascinating character
+ Shakes up conventional storytelling
+ Sam Swift was fun
+ Some good humor
Negatives:
- Both villains were goofy
- Mix of humor and heavy themes in 'The Woman Who Lived' didn't quite gel
- Some cheesy dialogue
