Review: Doctor Who - The Girl Who Died

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What an odd episode.



Jamie Mathieson with his difficult second album, after delivering arguably the two best stories of the last season, teams up with showrunner Steven Moffat, whose most recent outing was the superlative "The Magician's Apprentice" - both parts. On a high with both, it many ways it's difficult to see how they were going to deliver, and in some ways they sort of haven't. There's something a little flimsy about "The Girl Who Died", which is a great title for the episode though it does sort of signpost exactly what's going to happen to Ashildr. There is something annoying about a title that gives the game away, not because the episode delivers a twist that we didn't see coming, but more because you sit there waiting for it to happen. Any "...of the Daleks" story was a matter of waiting for the tin pepperpots to show up, which made it more annoying if the end of Episode One was the reveal. Similarly here, we wait patiently for Ashildr (and, let's face it, who else was it going to be? Surely not Clara this time...) to bite the big one. When she does it seems perfunctory at best. In fact, despite the "To Be Continued..." it feels a little like there were two stories that, a little late in the day, Moffat decided to put together to make two. Good idea? Well, it's hard to tell until we see the next episode, but it has diminished the ending of the first half, to be honest.



There's something a little flimsy about "The Girl Who Died"...it's worth repeating, not least because of the sidetrack to the title discussion, but because there genuinely feels like a wafer thin plot has been stretched out. The Doctor and Clara are captured by Vikings, then Odin comes along and challenges them to a fight. The Doctor wins because he's brilliant, of course. Maybe flimsy is the wrong word; maybe generic would be more appropriate. Mathieson's difficult second album comes from the fact that his first was so original and inventive. "Mummy On The Orient Express" is a clever twist on a familiar theme, whereas "Flatline" was the creation of a brilliant new form of enemy. "The Girl Who Died" is the familiar theme, but without the clever twist. Moffat seems to have come in to add a few bits to tie Ashildr into the two stories, and probably did the bit about the Doctor interpreting the baby - this is Moffat, after all, and virtually ever episode he writes has to have some relevence to children. I suspect he also wrote the bit about the Doctor realising why he chose his thirteenth face, which was really good. As was the baby bit, to be honest - almost poetry. But an episode shouldn't be about window dressing, and in this one, the window dressing is superb, but the actual framework is...well, boring.



As if to balance this, Mathieson (or Moffat) deliver bucketloads of comedy, and the time certainly flies past quickly enough. Ed Bazalgette's direction is excellent, and the performances are brilliant, with Ian Conningham and Maisie Williams arguably being the stand out performances. I'm not entirely certain why everyone was raving about Williams, who is excellent, but not really Michael Gambon. Perhaps it's just Game of Thrones fever. Maybe I should watch it some day. The rest of the cast serve their purpose, which was possibly the motto of the entire production: it served its purpose. The comedy meets new heights when the Doctor trains the village, and the next scene shows it on fire. Hilarious, we all laughed. Then, possibly, we realised that it was mostly filler. Nothing really happens in this episode, and when it finally does, it's quick and efficient. Even the two days it should take the Doctor and Clara to get back to the TARDIS feels like they simply strolled through the woods. Bazalgette seems to have given up in the last few minutes. In many ways it feels a little like "Robot Of Sherwood", except that that story was deliberately played for laughs from the outset. This feels like it was played for laughs after the first read through fell a little flat.



It's not that I'm complaining as such, because I didn't hate the episode. It was fun and frothy, but after the last two stories, the bar was set high for the season, and perhaps it was inevitable that a story wouldn't be able to hit it. And, of course, I'm judging a story based on it's first episode, which is a little unfair. That said, the last two first parters were really good. This one...this one just coasts through.



PS - Apologies for the lack of review last week - life got in the way!
© 2015 - 2024 DoctorRy
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DoctorWhoGuides's avatar
The Mire looked terrifying. The keyword is looked. After that scene in which they got electrocuted by eels, ripped apart by magnetic anvils and chased away by a hologram of a Sea Serpent, any threat or credibility they once had ceased to exist. If they were just robots, then I would be fine, but such a cool and creepy monster design was wasted on such a poor enemy. I loved that scene though, it isn't too often that the Doctor humiliates his enemies like that.