Doctor Who The Girl Who Died Review

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Arya Stark, Ashildr, Clara Oswald, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Sereis 9, Doctor Who The Girl Who Died, Ed Bazalgette, Game of Thrones, Jamie Mathieson, Jenna Coleman, Maisie Williams, Odin, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor, The Mire, Vikings

The Girl Who Died

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Doctor and Clara have been captured by Vikings and taken to their remote village, but the Mire, the most ruthless mercenaries in the galaxy are coming, and young Ashildr has just declared war on them! With the best Viking warriors taken by the Mire, the Doctor and Clara must train the villagers so they can fight these alien warriors. The Doctor is also preoccupied with a mystery concerning Ashildr, but it is more than a premonition, because this is day where the Time Lord remembers where he has seen his own face before…

The Girl Who Died is the fifth episode from Doctor Who’s ninth series, written by Jamie Mathieson (The Becoming Human & Being Human writer also penned two popular Series 8 episodes of Doctor Who: Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline in 2014), and co-written with show runner Steven Moffat. This intriguingly titled episode is directed by Ed Bazalgette, sends the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) back in time for the Time Lords first major meeting with the Vikings (The Vikings were also a major part of the First Doctor’s adventure The Time Meddler from Season 2 in 1965), and this series’ eagerly anticipated appearance of Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams as the Viking tomboy Ashildr.

Following a deep space adventure involving battle fleets and something nasty from a Spider Mine, the TARDIS brings the Doctor and the space-suited Clara to a backwater of history, where the sonic shades soon bite the dust – well sort of – and they find themselves captured by Odin-worshiping Vikings and taken to their village. The Doctor attempt to convince them he’s Odin by escaping from his chains and using a yo-yo goes awry when Odin’s face suddenly appears in the clouds overhead! The Mire teleport into the village, scanning their victims, before spiriting away the mightiest warriors to feast with “Odin” in the Halls of Valhalla, but because Ashildr has one half of the sonic shades, its advanced technology and the presence of Clara’s space-suit, ensures she is teleported along with Clara and the Viking warriors to the Mire‘s spaceship.

The warriors meet a terrible fate, Clara attempts to confront “Odin” and convince the Mire to leave, but the enraged Ashildr declares war on the invaders, a challenge they eagerly accept before transporting Clara and Ashildr back to the village. When the villagers refuse to heed the Doctor’s advice and flee, the Doctor and Clara must train this band of farmers, fishermen and blacksmiths to defend their village from the Mire, but with only hours to prepare for the battle, the Vikings are outgunned and outnumbered, and the outcome seems unavoidable.

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman continue to shine as the Doctor and Clara, their recent adventures have made the Time Lord and his companion seem even closer than ever, and the banter between them is great fun – especially when they are training the Vikings how to protect their village from the threat of the Mire. The opening scene with a space-suited Clara floating in space is another standout moment. The Girl Who Died also features a very special guest star, Maisie Williams, the actress who plays Arya Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Her role as the Viking girl Ashildr in this episode is central to the plot, and her character has a profound effect on the Doctor. Maisie Williams scenes with Peter Capaldi are absolutely brilliant, especially when she talks about always knowing she was different in some way. Likewise, the Doctor also returns to his “duty of care” to Calra in this episode, and it provides another brilliant moment for Capaldi and Coleman as Clara urges the Doctor to figure out a plan that will save them all.

Jamie Mathieson has crafted a beautifully structured adventure with The Girl Who Died (co-written with Steven Moffat), its like a mash-up of The Magnificent Seven and Vikings, and it possesses many of the qualities that made Mathieson’s previous episodes so popular. The story is markedly lighter in tone from the early episodes of Series 9, at least initially, but the mood darkens significantly towards the end, and it leaves us with plenty to dwell over. Two key scenes from the Series 9 trailer take on a whole new context when we see them in this story as well. This unpredictable adventure is full of action, boasting strong performances from Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Maisie Williams, the comedy skilfully melds with the darker undercurrents of the story, and the episode is superbly directed Ed Bazalgete (who also filmed some of Poldark this year).

The Mire are huge lumbering creatures, their true features are hidden beneath their armoured helmets, these intergalactic warriors absorb the strengths of other war-like species, and they are one of the deadliest warrior races in the galaxy. They are led by the Odin-like figure, played by David Schofield, who gives a brilliant scenery chewing performance as the leader of The Mire, who uses his holographic face of Odin to address the village from the sky, as well as in person, to play on the Vikings belief in Odin. Using the Mire to select only the strongest Viking warriors, “Odin” actually kidnaps them to extract their adrenalin and testosterone, whish he uses to invigorate himself and the Mire warriors. The Mire costumes are very imposing and impressive, their real faces when revealed are quite gruesome, and they make fearsome adversaries.

The Doctor has to become something of a false Odin if he is to get this group of villagers ready to face the armoured might of the Mire, and he’s only got one day to shape them into an effective fighting force. This leads to some of the episodes funniest scenes, as the Time Lord attempts to get the villages, Nollar (Simon Lipkin), Chuckles (Ian Conningham), Lofty (Tom Sourton), Limpy (Alistair Parker), Hasten (Murray McArthur), and Heidi (Barnaby Kay) ready to face the Mire. Fortunately, thanks to some timely baby speak, a few water barrels filled with electric eels, silvery fibres taken from Clara’s space suit, and Ashildr’s skill with puppets and storytelling, the Time Lord soon has everything he needs to turn the tables on Odin and The Mire when they arrive to do battle the next day.

The Girl Who Died is full of fun references, the Doctor reverses the polarity of the neutron flow (a familiar phrase often used by the 3^rd Doctor), the Time Lord now carries a 2000 Year Diary (very reminiscent of the Second Doctor’s 500 Year Diary from Power of the Daleks in 1966) he also poignantly speaks “baby” at several key moment in The Girl Who Died, a skill he used in A Good Man Goes To War and Closing Time (2011), and the line: “Time will tell, it always does…” echoes the 7^th Doctor’s words when he was in a similar reflective mood in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). But after defeating the Mire – with their inept failure to defeat the Vikings on her phone recorded on Clara’s phone and set to the theme of The Benny Hill Show – the Doctor’s threat to upload the clip to the Galactic Hub and ruin the Mire’s reputation, quickly sends “Odin” and his lackeys packing. However, the price is high, and Ashildr dies of heart failure shortly after using the captured Mire warrior’s helmet the Doctor modified to enable her to tell the Mire a story they would never forget – projecting the image of a dragon when in reality they were only facing one of her puppet creations.

This leads to the fantastic surprise ending that makes The Girl Who Died so special. Although he plays the 12^th Doctor now, Peter Capaldi actually made his Doctor Who debut as the character Caecilius in the 10^th Doctor story from Series 4, The Fires of Pompeii (2008). Ever since Deep Breath (2015) the 12^th Doctor has long wondered why his regeneration gave him this face, now in The Girl Who Died the explanation is revealed at last! Following Ashildr’s death, when the Doctor sees his face in one of the water barrels, we briefly flashback to the events of The Fires of Pompeii, and the Doctor finally realises his face is actually there as a very special reminder for him… This is a truly magical moment, one that fans of the 10^th Doctor, and perhaps more significantly Donna Nobel, are sure to enjoy; as we discover why the 12^th Doctor looks like Caecilius from The Fires of Pompeii.

Ashildr’s death really affects the Doctor, he’s sick of losing people, so much so he intervenes here to put things right, no who “happens to be listening” (The Time Lords maybe? If indeed they are somehow “listening” in, the Doctor certainly seems intent on making as many ripples as possible to get their attention this season!). The Doctor uses a reprogrammed Battlefield Medical Kit from the Mire’s helmet to heal Ashildr, she recovers, and the Doctor leaves a second chip for her before he departs… When the Doctor and Clara eventually return to the TARDIS and continue their travels, the Time Lord begins to ponder over what he has done. He’s effectively made Ashildr a hybrid (perhaps making the Doctor recall the prophecy Davros spoke of in The Magician’s Apprentice / The Witch’s Familiar), an immortal, and as the episode closes with Ashildr gazing at the sky as the years swirl past around her – she never ages because the repair kit / chip keeps fixing her; but her smile gradually beings fading from happiness to an ever darkening expression. Few words can truly sum up the power and emotion of these final moments, it may leave many questions unanswered for now, but it certainly provides one of the most powerful and moving cliff-hangers in the shows history…

The Girl Who Died is an excellent story by Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat, the intricate plot is peppered with humour, seamlessly blended with themes of immortality and its consequences, and the though-provoking conclusion ingeniously blurs the edges of time itself with a brilliant cliff-hanger to round off the first part of this most unconventional two-part story. With its great setting, impressive cast, powerful alien menace, and high-production values, The Girl Who Died is another worthy addition to Series 9 and Peter Capaldi’s era as the Doctor.

Image Belong: BBC

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Doctor Who Classic Series Review The Curse of Fenric

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7th Doctor, Ace, Andrew Cartmel, chess, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Classic Series, Fenric, Haemovores, Ian Briggs, John Nathen Turner, Nicholas Parsons, Season Twenty Six, Spohie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, The Curse of Fenric, Vikings

The Curse of Fenric

Review by Paul Bowler

When the TARDIS lands in a top secret naval base by the Northumberland coast towards the end of the Second World War, the Doctor and Ace meet Dr Judson – a crippled scientist who has built a new computer to crack German codes. However, the base’s Commander Millington intends to allow a Russian commando unit steal Judson’s Ultima Machine, which has been booby trapped with a deadly nerve agent that has been developed.

Dr Judson is also researching some ancient runes in the crypt of the St Judes church, using the Ultima Machine to translate the symbols on the walls. This unleashes an ancient evil called Fenric, a being who the Doctor met in third-century Constantinople, where the Time Lord defeated him at chess and imprisoned him in a shadow dimension – sealing his essence inside a flask that was eventually brought to England by the Vikings in the ninth century. One survivor of this doomed voyage settled here, spawning generations of ‘wolves’ that bore the genetic code of Fenric Now the Curse of Fenric is about to be unleashed, having manipulated these descendants to engineer one last game of chess with the Doctor, where Ace will discover she is also a pawn in Fenric’s grand design.

As the Russian commando team, led by Captain Sorin, arrive at the beach some of his troops go missing, and strange things begin to happen as night falls. One of them is found on the beach the next morning, his body drained of blood; soon the Haemovores rise up from the sea, undead humans who have been transformed into horrifying vampires by the Ancient Haemovore. This creature is the last survivor from a future Earth, where the world has been destroyed by pollution, has also been brought back in time by Fenric.

With all the pieces in place on the board the Haemovores turn two young evacuees, Jean and Phyllis, into vampires, and together they lead the attack on St Judes. While Ace fights the Haemovoers on the roof, Rev Wainwright and the Doctor are attacked inside the church. Captain Sorin leads his men in helping them, while the Doctor uses his faith to repel the Haemovores, giving them time to escape back through the secret tunnel to the base. Rev Wainwright tries to buy them more time, but his faith falters, and he is killed by the Haemovores. They are too late to stop Fenric possessing Dr Judson, but when Fenric faces the Doctor to complete the chess game, Judson’s fail body begins to deteriorate.

Ace inadvertently tells Fenric the solution to the chess game, unaware that Fenric has now possessed Captain Sorin, and it uses the younger man’s strength to complete the game. The Doctor and Ace are trapped by Fenric and the Ancient Haemovore. Fenric taunts them as Sorin, revealing how Judson, Millington, Wainright, Sorin, and even Ace have all been used as pawns in his conflict with the Doctor, and how he plans to unleash the deadly toxin stored at the base – which was discovered seeping from the stones beneath St Judes Church – to destroy the world.

In order to defeat Fenric the Doctor must break Ace’s faith in him; he succeeds and manages to turn the Ancient Haemovore against Fenric, who drags Sorin into the chamber to destroy Fenric’s host body and sacrifices itself in the process. The Doctor and Ace go to the beach as they prepare to leave, with Ace finally coming to terms her relationship with her mother, after learning that the woman she saved from the Haemovores – Kathleen and her baby daughter Audrey – was actually her grandmother. Ace dives into the water, no longer afraid, and ready to embrace the future.

The Curse of Fenric (1989) is the penultimate episode of Season Twenty Six, and this story in particular is one of the highlights of Sylvester McCoy’s third year. In a season full of exceptionally good stories, writer Ian Briggs’ tale is rich with Norse mythology and vampire legends that fully embrace script editor Andrew Cartmel’s new ethos for the programme. Nicholas Mallett’s superb direction also makes this a thoroughly atmospheric adventure, with the discovery of a lost artefact, an ancient evil rises from the mist shrouded waters of Madien’s Point, and the Haemovores assault of St Judes church all recall similar elements from John Carpernter’s 1979 horror film: The Fog. This is not the first time Doctor Who has drawn on themes from horror films, some of its best stories have been rooted in the genre, and The Curse of Fenric is all the more enjoyable for it.

Sylvester McCoy gives one of his finest performances as the Doctor in The Curse of Fenric. He breezes into the story with an air of authority, walking straight into the naval base, and there is a great moment where he types his letter of authorisation – showing he is ambidextrous as he forges the signature of the Head of the Secret Services and the Prime Minister simultaneously with two pens. It seems that the Doctor has been aware of Fenric’s plan, even before he met Ace, and it is here that the 7th Doctor’s darker, more manipulative side is played to great effect by McCoy as events force him into shattering the faith of his loyal companion Ace to defeat Fenric.

The development of Ace is one of the major factors that make Season Twenty Six so entertaining to watch. Sophie Aldred brings such depth and sensitivity to Ace’s performance in The Curse of Fenric, her characters story arc reaches a defining moment in this story, as Ace not only faces up to the inner demons that have haunted her for so long, but she also shows just how much she has grown as an individual in her own right. Ace is now more mature, enjoying the thrill of adventures, but wise enough to heed the Doctor’s warning about Maidens’ Point, when she refuses to join Jean and Phyllis for a swim. Her flirtation with the sergeant during the third episode, to give the Doctor the chance to free Captain Sorin, shows Ace as a confident young woman, one far removed from the troubled tomboy who we first encountered in Dragonfire (1987). Ian Briggs was the writer who created Ace and he does a great job of developing her character in The Curse of Fenric. Ace is bold enough to stand up for herself now, even challenging the way the Doctor manipulates people, and the closing scene at the beach where she confidently dives into the water perfectly concludes this excellent story.

The Curse of Fenric has a terrific guest cast: with Alfred Lynch as the base’s Commander Millington, along with Dinsadle Landen as the crippled Dr Judson who gives a great performance as the cantankerous scientist, before becoming cold and sinister after he is possessed by Fenric. The Russian troops are led by Commander Sorin, played by Tomek Bork, and he also gets to show both aspects of his character as well after he is also possessed by Fenric.

One of the pivotal moments in The Curse of Fenric comes as the church is attacked by the Haemovores, led by the newly transformed vampires, Jean and Phyllis, who spearhead the assault on the building. These scenes are brilliantly staged by director Nicholas Mallett, with Ace and the Russian soldiers fighting back the Haemovores on the roof, while the Doctor and Rev Wainwright are trapped inside. When they are overwhelmed and the Haemovores break in, the Doctor uses his faith in his companions to repel them, reciting the names of his companions to drive the creatures away. Captain Sorin uses a similar method to escape as well, using his belief in the revolution to make a path through the bloodthirsty ranks of the Haemovores.

Joann Bell and Joann Kenny are wonderfully creepy as the evacuees, Jean and Phyllis, who are transformed into vampires after swimming in the waters. They entice another of Sorin’s men to his doom, luring him into the water, before the Haemovores arise to claim him. Jean and Phyllis also take their revenge on Miss Hardaker (Janet Henfrey), before attempting to claim Rev Wainwright. There are some really striking underwater scenes in The Curse of Fenric, which all help to build up the suspense, leading up to the moment where the Haemovores rise form the sea to attack in force.

Nicholas Parsons is superb as the Vicar of St Judes. He has some great scenes with the Doctor and Ace, and plays a pivotal role in the story. The moment where he is confronted by Jean and Phyllis in the graveyard is chillingly surreal. His faith isn’t enough to repel them and the Doctor and Ace save him, and when the Haemovores attack the church he is powerless to stop them. His doubts about the war have given Wainwright cause to question his faith, and when he bravely decides to stand his ground against the Haemovores his belief crumbles and ultimately proves to be his undoing.

The Curse of Fenric is a highly evocative story, offsetting the morality of warfare against some stark ecological issues, whilst skilfully juxtaposing it with the faith of all the characters involved in this adventure. Even though the Doctor’s actions seem deceptively enigmatic, events quickly begin to escalate according to his design, until the time is right for the Time Lord to face Fenric again and play one last game of chess. Fenric is another example of a disembodied force, or ideal, against which this 7th incarnation seems perfectly tailored to counteract.

The Curse of Fenric deals with plot thread that stretch right back to Ace’s debut story, Dragonfire, as Fenric delights in revealing how it was the one who was responsible for the Time Storm that brought her to Iceworld. From the moment the Doctor saw the chess set in Lady Peinforte’s house in Silver Nemesis (1988), the Time Lord was aware of Fenric’s involvement. There might also be some connection with the Gods of Ragnarok, who the Doctor encountered in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1987), although they appeared to exist in another dimension. The Curse of Fenric was released on DVD in 2003 in a special two-disk set that featured the original episodes, along with a number of extra features and commentaries, as well a re-edited Special Edition with extra footage and added special effects.

The Curse of Fenric is one of the best stories from the 7th Doctor’s era. It illustrates the full potential that McCoy’s darker incarnation of the Doctor had to offer, and Sophie Aldred’s journey as Ace is unique in the shows original run. Few companions ever enjoyed as much character development as this. The McCoy years were over before we realised what we had, its only now, with the power of hindsight that we understand just what could have been. The Curse of Fenric is my favourite 7th Doctor story, it’s a thrilling adventure, and a great example of this era of Doctor Who.

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