C+Q - The Girl Who Died (2015)

Well then. THIS is more like it. The Girl Who Died marks the third script that Jamie Mathieson has worked on for Doctor Who and all three of them so far have been incredible. This episode is quite possibly the highlight of the series so far, second only to The Witch's Familiar for me. Not only is it funny and full of Doctor Who's signature whimsy, but unlike Robot of Sherwood which did the same thing last year and was just inconsequential filler, The Girl Who Died knows when to slow things down to learn more about the characters and their reactions to the situation. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman are once again fantastic and are quickly solidifying themselves as my favourite TARDIS team ever. Maisie Williams is brilliant as Ashildr and unlike a lot of other young actors to come through Doctor Who who are constantly making me cringe, she's a very confident and assuring presence on screen. After seeing her in Game of Thrones and now Doctor Who, she's quite clearly a professional who absolutely knows what she's doing with the material she's given. The jokes all hit their mark, the serious moments all hit theirs, and the whole episode is dripping in subtext that hint at deeper tensions in the Doctor and Clara's relationship that we might see play out over future episodes. All in all, I really couldn't have asked for anything better. Mathieson just knows how to do Doctor Who, and given that he's now proved his worth with an episode set in the past, one in the present (Flatline), and one in the future (Mummy on the Orient Express), I'm confident that he'd make a great replacement for Moffat when he leaves. That being said, Moffat did co-write this one so he does deserve credit.

It's easy to compare this episode to last year's Robot of Sherwood due to its similar setting and tone, and one thing that comparison highlights is how radically the Twelfth Doctor has changed in just a year. I'm really hoping with Series 8 Capaldi's amoral fury and Series 9 Capaldi's whimsical aging rockstar vibe that we've seen the two extremes of the character. It just seems like too big of a jump from last year and I'd like future scripts to try to reconcile these two disparate portrayals into something resembling the same Time Lord. Peter Capaldi himself is absolutely killing it in the role, but we're still in this uncomfortable period where he's figuring out how he wants to play it, and the writers are figuring out how to write him. Even his costume has radically changed. The Twelfth Doctor has always experimented with different looks from episode to episode, but we're six episodes in to Series 9 and so far none of the outfits he wore in Series 8 have reappeared, not even his white shirt and black waistcoat look that was originally marketed as being his default. It's part of the tradition of the show that the Doctor should have an iconic look with a few variations, but so far the Twelfth Doctor's wardrobe has been entirely comprised of variations. Hopefully Series 9 will see the end of this weird experimental era and Series 10 onwards will give us a much more consistent Doctor, both in terms of look and in terms of personality.

I think part of the problem is something I mentioned in my Under the Lake review: the fact that Clara, as good as she is and as much as I adore her, still feels more like Matt Smith's companion than Peter Capaldi's due to her constant rebelling against his new meaner personality. Part of what makes their Doctor/Companion dynamic so good is that Clara is actively trying to improve the Doctor while the Doctor is actively trying to improve Clara, meaning neither of them are able to stay still for long. While this development has worked wonders for Clara, whose arc has been slow and gradual, for the Doctor it's seemed a lot more erratic. They've clearly tried to give the Twelfth Doctor a complex arc where he becomes nicer but to have an arc you need a clear starting point. With Capaldi, and with all Doctors when they first start out, the starting point hasn't been very well defined as everyone behind the scenes is still running around directionless trying to figure out how this new incarnation should behave. The end result is a version of the Doctor who so far seems inconsistent instead of complex and nuanced. Again, I hope these problems will be resolved by Christmas and we can move forward into 2016 with a fully formed Doctor.

On the subject of things I'd quite like to see in Doctor Who's future, I'd be open to seeing more of the Mire. They start off as being big generic Sontaran-like warriors but added touches like melting warriors down into liquids so they can steal their power gives them such a unique twist that I'd love to see expanded upon. That, and because if the Capaldi era is going to distinguish itself from the Smith era, it needs its own recurring villains. Clara continues to be a walking talking advert for a female Doctor in the scene where she faces down David Schofield as Odin, complete with her own companion in the form of Ashildr. As I mentioned further up the page with regards to character arcs, Clara has certainly come a long way since being left alone with the Half-Faced Man in Deep Breath or Skaldak the Ice Warrior in Cold War. The constant reminders that Clara is on the way out works in this two parter because it's all about the nature of immortality and loss, but in any other context it would be a little too heavy-handed. I like the fact that we have the same Doctor and companion for a two full series in a row and I'd like to be able to enjoy this status quo before being constantly pushed in the direction of the new one.

I suppose I can't exactly talk about this episode without talking about Maisie Williams as Ashildr, although there's not much I have to say about her here except that she plays the part very well. That being said, she's basically playing Arya Stark here. It's not until The Woman Who Lived that she becomes a far, FAR more interesting character and as such William's performance goes from being good to incredible. Ashildr circa The Woman Who Lived is amazing but I'll get into that in my next review. What I do have a lot of opinions about is the moment the Doctor makes her immortal, motivated by the revelation of where he got his new face from. The reveal moment itself is incredibly well handled and although I personally wanted to see it tie in to the quest for Gallifrey (which so far hasn't progressed since The Day of the Doctor), I am quite satisfied with the explanation given. Or rather, I WILL be satisfied if his choice of face actually does have an impact on the way the Doctor acts beyond this two parter. This is one of those reveals that will only become interesting retrospectively after we see how much it impacts the future. If Ashildr has a big enough presence in the show, perhaps she alone counts as a big enough impact to justify it. With this one, only time will tell.

This was a great episode of Doctor Who. It had a good Doctor, a good companion, good villains, a good supporting cast, a fantastic setting, costume design that really brought the period to life (anyone complaining about the horns on the Vikings' helmets clearly has no sense of fun), and a good tight script that, like Flatline, made full use of its premise while also having enough time to slow things down and let the characters talk about their emotions and relationships with one another. With the exception of Before the Flood, Series 9 has been terrific so far but one problem I'm having is the seeming lack of any real overarching plot beyond the word 'hybrid'. I'm guessing that Ashildr's character will somehow be the centrepiece of the series finale but at this point the series could be about anything, and given that we're now at the halfway point and we still can't tell is just a bit worrying. I don't want to know how the series will end before we get there but I'd at least like to know what direction we're heading in. So far, I'm about as excited for the finale as I am for any other episode, and that just doesn't feel right. I'm actually far more excited about Christmas when we get to see River Song return after her two year absence. Series 9 is great but it feels like a disconnected string of individual adventures in the style of a Classic run rather than a coherent arc with a big mystery like Series 5 or 6 or 8. Regardless, The Girl Who Died is a very enjoyable episode and possibly the best episode of the series so far. That is, until next week...