This week we're taking a look at The Woman Who Lived, the second part but not really to last week's The Girl Who Died. This week's episode was written by Catharine Tregenna, bringing a return to Doctor Who of a female writer for the first time in way entirely too long. I'll have some things to mention about this later, but they're certainly not bad!
As usual, some guidelines apply. This is by necessity filled with spoilers. If you haven't watched, you should probably stay away until you have watched. These are, of course, one person's opinions, and while I may come at things from a unique angle, my opinions are by far not the only ones.
That said, let's begin.
The Doctor, for the first time in quite some time, is traveling alone whilst Clara is doing her teacherly duties. He's using another of his weird mocked up locating devices, though apparently this one doesn't go ding when there's stuff. In any event, he follows it to...a coach robbery, being masterminded by the one and only Knightmare, scourge of the rich. He's well pissed that the Doctor interrupted his heist, the Doctor is well upset that he's found what he's looking for and has to have an argument with a highwayman, and the coach drives off, leaving both of them miffed.
This is when we find out that the Knightmare is, in fact, Ashildr...or as she is calling herself now Me. She has taken this name because she has seen so much die, lost so much, and only she remains. Thus, Me. The Doctor is none too thrilled with this, as one could imagine...he wanted to save a girl, and created an emotionless being instead. Despite this, they head back to her manor, where she explains her robbery (adventure), and takes him to her great room, where wall after wall is filled with bookshelves and journals. As she walks off for a bit, the Doctor begins to read through the journals, discovering the depth of her heartbreak page after page after page.
Meanwhile, Me is talking with a strange creature out in the shrubbery surrounding her manor before returning to the Doctor. He confronts her about the journals, and she admits that she had a hard time remembering, and so she writes her life so she does not forget. When pressed on the missing pages, she says some memories are too difficult to hold on to.
They finally discuss what they are doing in the same place. Me is searching for a gem held by the young lady she was trying to rob, said to be the rarest gem in all the land. The Doctor admits he's looking for a piece of alien tech...which happens to be the same thing Me wants. She begs him to take her with them when they are done, but he refuses without a reason why.
One house break in nearly gone awry later, they are in possession of the gem, and the Doctor discovers the depth of her plan...she's allied herself with leonine alien Leandro, who needed the gem to open a portal to his world, and has promised to take her with him. The gem requires a death to activate, and the Doctor watches in horror as she calls for her aged servant, but when two soldiers come in to announce the capture of Sam Swift, the notorious brigand, she grants mercy to her servant, and Leandro and she head to the gallows.
A small amount of hijinks later, the Doctor is on horseback, rushing to the gallows to stop Ashildr from this act. He gets there in time to see the end of Sam's standup act, and tries to extend it as much as possible until he can get to the gallows and stop the hanging via a psychic paper pardon from Oliver Cromwell. The people still want a hanging, and are happy to consider the Doctor, but Ashildr jams the gem onto the chest of Sam Swift, leeching his life force and opening the rift between universes. Leandro reveals a double cross...he wasn't going back, he was bringing his brothers through to pillage this world, and had no intent to take her anywhere.
As she watches, laser blasts begin to pummel the city, and her compassion is finally unbottled. She begs the Doctor to do something, then quickly says 'They need us.' She runs up to the gallows and sticks the other med kit on Sam's head, where it is absorbed and begins to counter the effects of the death rift gem. Leandro is disintegrated, and all's well that ends well.
We end the episode with Sam, Ashildr and the Doctor drinking beers in the local tavern, where the Doctor explains finally his reasoning for not taking her: as someone functionally immortal, he needs someone mortal to keep him grounded, to remind him how important life is, to not give in to entropy and malaise and to always keep fighting. Having two immortals traveling together would not be good. He even mentions Captain Jack Harkness, and tells Ashildr she'll meet him sooner or later.
Reenergised, Ashildr says if he is going to save the world, then she will save those the doctor leaves behind...the patron saint for them. The Doctor snarks that it sounds like he's made an enemy, yet Ashildr says 'It's your friends you have to keep an eye out for...and I'll have my eye on you.'
End episode.
First off...wow. What an episode. Perhaps not the biggest in terms of plot, but oh the things it revealed. We finally see what happens to the people whose lives have been touched by the Doctor, and we find that it is not always pretty. This is the kind of story I'd write if I were writing for the show, and hews pretty close to the kind of fic I write, so it was wonderful to see it realised on the screen. Smaller story, smaller cast, but every person important, every line of dialogue terse and necessary.
Catharine Tregenna...female author! It's about time, Moffat! She's given us a great script, and I find it interesting that much like Rona Munro's Survival, it deals with so many aspects of female identity...even down to the cat aliens. I wonder if the leonine aliens are somehow related to the ones from Survival...that might become head canon for me. The script was wonderfully written and executed, and we have hints that Ashildr will be back again this series, which is a huge yay for me!
Maisie Williams showed so much depth this week...from the emotionless almost Arya Stark-esque manipulator to the emotional, 'true' Ashildr. The flashback scenes were chilling and extremely sad. And no matter where she was placed, she did a great job. Still can't see where people would complain about her acting.
The Doctor was...the Doctor. Capaldi has fitted the role around him, and with each passing episode this year, the line between actor and role has blurred to almost nothing. I hope beyond hope rumours are not true, that we're seeing the last full series with him, followed by an interregnum year of specials before a regen. Here's where I'll insert my obligatory 'Moffat must go' because while this series has blown last years out of the water, Capaldi deserves at least 3...no, 4...no, 7...years of episodes.
Fun episode, a nice balance of light and very very dark, and a nice lead in for 90 minutes of Zygons!
No comments:
Post a Comment