Holistic Review: Examining the effect that the Doctor has on the people around him isn't the most original idea, but this quiet, contemplative two-parter approaches the material from an interesting angle, and the first half has a particularly good blend of character, humor and action.

First off, can I just say how grateful I am that this story did turn out to be a two-parter? I'd been terribly worried that The Girl Who Died might not end on an official "To Be Continued" cliffhanger, and I'd have to fret about whether or not to split up my review. So, yay! Both of these episodes aired while I was still travelling nonstop around Sri Lanka, you see, and the day after I returned — by a very happy whim of fate — my cousin Gray arrived for one of his biannual two-week work visits. To my great surprise and relief, Gray hadn't been able to watch these episodes yet either, so that worked out really well! Visiting with him in the evenings, of course, meant that I had less time to devote to finishing my review of the last two-parter, so we didn't even get a chance to watch these two episodes until Halloween. (This story is a long way from typical Halloween fare, but if it's a choice between a haunted-house film or new Doctor Who, I know which one I'm picking, and so does Gray. Anyway, we squeezed in a haunted-house film the day after.) One longer review is definitely quicker to write than two shorter reviews, so treating this story as a two-parter really helps my chances of getting caught up before Gray leaves.

I can only assume that these stories were originally announced as separate episodes in order to preserve the surprise of Ashildr's storyline continuing in the second half. To which I can only say: if you wanted that to work, then part two should have been given a different title. I was always suspicious that these two parts had to be linked somehow, although I admit that the presence of two different authors did throw me off. Outside of the Trial, have we ever had a story in which the episodes were divided among more than one author? (The Mind Robber maybe? but that was unofficially.) Now I'm also wondering, are we going to have an entire season of two-parters? I rather like that idea! The only individual episodes remaining are Sleep No More and Face the Raven, which appear to have separate cast lists, but after this little trick, I'm not ruling anything out...

These two episodes are indeed quite linked, both by characters (mainly Ashildr) and themes. They're quite different in setting and, to some extent, tone, but they do feel like a single storyline. Between the two, I found myself — to no surprise — favoring Jamie Mathieson's opening episode, even though I'm not one of those people who finds Vikings automatically fascinating. (My reaction is much more like the Doctor's: "No, no, not Vikings. I'm not in the mood for Vikings.") There's a sweetness that permeates the entire episode, mainly I think due to the fact that all of the aggressive warriors are vaporized, leaving only the kindhearted common people behind to band together and defend their beloved village as best they can. The Girl Who Died strikes a pleasant balance: it's mostly a lighthearted, tender story, with dialogue full of genuinely funny jokes, but there are some tense scenes as well. Everything that takes place onboard the Mire ship is gripping, from the first Viking death (in a creative way that reminded me of Cube and a bit of The Darkest Hour, which Gray and I had just watched a few days before) to the moving wall forcing everyone into the killing chute. It's a surprisingly effective way to structure an episode, because after spending so much time with the villagers, witnessing their genuine warmth and love for one another, the Mire threat looming in the background heightens our awareness of what will be lost if they succeed in wiping the village out.

The main plot problem in Mathieson's episode, of course, is the inclusion of electric eels, which power the villagers' anti-Mire weapons and the magnets that disable and disarm the Mire soldiers. It's not that it's a bad plot point, exactly. It's a little cheesy, and it stretches credulity that the eels could pack that much wallop and produce it on demand, but it's a clever use of local resources... or, at least, it would be, if electric eels were native to Scandinavia, which they are not. Unfortunately, this is not a minor detail, but rather a crucial plot point on which the Doctor's entire plan hinges. I find I can just about suspend my disbelief, especially if I accept the theory that somehow this village received a mating pair of electric eels through a Viking trade agreement with the New World, but it does require a whole lot of disbelief-suspension. I'd be willing to bet good money that the eels were one of Moffat's contributions to the plot, because on the evidence of Jamie Mathieson's tightly-plotted previous episodes, I find it difficult to believe that he would have proposed such a historically-inaccurate solution. (And now I must apologize to Steven Moffat, because it turns out this idea was in fact Mathieson's!) That said, I thought the rest of the plan — feeding false images into the Mire helmets, so that they flee in terror from what's essentially a pantomime horse, while the whole débacle is recorded for later blackmailing — was absolutely brilliant. As the Doctor says, "Even I believed the stories, but after today, no-one will again. An army like yours, it lives or dies on its reputation." The clip of the fearsome Mire retreating from a harmless wooden longboat prow, set to Benny Hill music, is so utterly hilarious that I wish it had been slightly longer, but then the brief glimpse is probably partly what makes it so funny.

Catherine Tregenna's second half suffers a bit from uneven tone. At times, The Woman Who Lived feels like a comedy, but outside of the gallows scene, it's not very comedic. Instead it's a rather light, breezy story about how Ashildr's emotions have deadened over the years — hence the jarring tone — crossed with a bit of buddy-comedy caper film. It would help a lot, I think, if there were more of an emotional hook, but while we pity Ashildr for all she's suffered, we never really feel for her. Still, I'm thrilled that the series has finally welcomed another female writer into the fold, especially one who wrote two of my favorite Torchwood episodes. It's been far too long since Helen Raynor's episodes, and it's so important to have female voices represented on the show, particularly since female regulars are a staple of the series.

Both episodes are quickly-paced, snappily written, and fun. Their common downside, although I'm not sure I really want to call it that, is that they're also fairly light on plot. In The Girl Who Died, the majority of the episode is devoted to the Doctor treading water while he tries to figure out how they'll eventually defeat the Mire, whereas The Woman Who Lived spends ages with the Doctor and Ashildr simply trying to track down and abscond with an alien amulet. But what this means is that there's more time to explore the characters, and both episodes take advantage of the opportunity to examine, in particular, Ashildr and the Doctor. Woven through this pair of episodes is a handful of prominent themes, which are admittedly variable in their successfulness.

Theme 1: "We're time travellers. We tread softly. It's okay to make ripples, but not tidal waves."
This is an echo of a prominent theme from The Waters of Mars — going back as far as The Aztecs, and seen as recently as Before the Flood — that the timeline is malleable enough to incorporate small changes, but massive changes are either impossible or highly inadvisable. Here, as in Before the Flood, the Doctor finds a way to cheat time in order to achieve a desired outcome; however, in Before the Flood, the Doctor was able to maintain the integrity of the timeline, whereas here, by allowing Ashildr to live beyond her normal lifespan, his interference might actually have dramatic consequences which yet remain to be seen. Much as in Waters, the Doctor's guilt over being unable to save Ashildr leads him to make questionable choices for the very best of reasons, although in the former episode, he was partly motivated by a sudden burst of power-mania, and his actions had rather different repercussions. There's a broader theme here, too, which is the degree to which the Doctor is able to render assistance in any given situation. At the episode's beginning, he saves the Velosians by luring their attackers away and disarming them, but he's perfectly okay with the knowledge that he's only saved them for the moment. He's postponed their fate, but — because the Doctor isn't willing to take 'drastic measures' with 'extreme prejudice' — it's entirely possible that the enemy will try again. The Doctor understands his limitations, and he knows that he can't permanently solve every problem. Sometimes a temporary solution has to be enough. Initially, he feels the same way about the village ("I told you to run. That's all the help you need, and that's all the help you get.") — fearing that if he helps them defeat the Mire, it'll draw more attention to the planet — until Clara encourages him to, yet again, figure out a way to avoid certain doom.

Theme 2: "Immortality isn't living forever, that's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying."
As a character who, like Ashildr, is 'functionally immortal', the Doctor's life is always reflected whenever the show muses on the nature of immortality. As such, this theme itself isn't new — numerous previous episodes, notably School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace, have considered what it would be like to cope with a long lifespan in a universe of shorter-lived species. What is new is the Doctor's hint that he, too, has met people with whom he wishes he could have shared his whole life. ("She might meet someone she can't bear to lose. That happens... I believe.") Who might that have been, I wonder? Ashildr asks him point-blank about Clara, but he dodges the question by simply retorting "Well, look how you turned out." Ashildr has lived so long that she's stopped being able to feel sorrow, or remember even some of the most pivotal events of her life. Where the Doctor mourns the people he's lost throughout his long life, Ashildr forgets them. A sub-theme pops up toward the story's end — not entirely dissimilar to Donna's observations at the end of The Runaway Bride — that people like the Doctor and Ashildr shouldn't cut themselves off from society, because they need ordinary mortal human beings around to remind them of what's important, and how precious life is because it's fleeting.

Theme 3: "You did, Doctor. You happened."
While Ashildr initially claims to be pleased to see the Doctor, it soon transpires that she holds him personally responsible for the tragedy that her extended lifespan has forced her to endure. Is the Doctor responsible? Well, yes and no. The Doctor doesn't really take full responsibility for his actions — he neither visits her, even though he claims he's going to, nor whisks her away from it all — and as a result, Ashildr understandably feels abandoned and forced to take the slow path. (Likewise, the Doctor doesn't actually bother to find out whether Swift is or is not immortal, or even alert him to the possibility — he just leaves Swift, as he left Ashildr, to discover this minor little detail for himself.) He certainly takes the blame for making the decision to save and prolong her life, but what Ashildr did with that life is squarely on her shoulders. Even the Doctor has gone through periods of ennui and feeling as if nothing matters, but I can't think of any other immortals who dealt with the loneliness by murdering people. Not that Ashildr has turned into a mass murderer — she only kills Swift, who was fated to die anyway, and even then only so that she can escape — but no matter what the justification, it's still a murder. Unfortunately, the episode doesn't dig very deeply into the proportioning of blame; the Doctor cautiously defends his decision, and Ashildr regrets and atones for hers, and that's the end of it. A related sub-theme is the idea that the Doctor turns his companions into fighters, which frankly is a bit of a crock. Yes, he's empowered Clara to be able to defend herself and others, but it's not like she's going around stabbing and janis-thorning people at the slightest provocation. Even Leela and Ace, who were fighters before they met the Doctor, only used weaponry when it was absolutely necessary. (Or maybe somewhat necessary, in Leela's case.) Anway, why does the Doctor seem to think that Clara is the first person that he's turned into a fighter? This was a major plot point of Journey's End, after all.

Theme 4: "One day, the memory of that will hurt so much that I won't be able to breathe, and I'll do what I always do: I'll get in my box, and I'll run and I'll run, in case the pain ever catches up."
I think we've always known that the Doctor tends to vamoose the moment he ethically can. As soon as a life-threatening danger is averted, whoosh, he's off to the next adventure. ("I like a nice view as much as anyone. Can't wait for the next one.") This was pretty much clear throughout the duration of the classic series, but was made very explicit in The Power of Three. It's impressive that Ashildr recognizes this tendency in the Doctor after only one meeting, unless she was informed by her mysterious source(s). What has never quite been made explicit before is that the Doctor rushes from place to place not just out of wanderlust, but also because he needs to outrun his emotions. Evidently he bustles himself away in order to avoid attachments and, when that resolve crumbles and he allows someone to get close, he does so knowing full well that he's opening himself up to future heartbreak and painfully bittersweet memories. Another downside of immortality.

Theme 5: "She'll die on you, you know! She'll blow away like smoke!"
Hints are being dropped like anvils that Clara is about to depart the show — possibly in a tragic way — from Clara declaring "I'm not going anywhere." (always a bad sign when companions start saying things like that), to that worrying look that the Doctor gives her at the story's end, to the Doctor bringing up his "duty of care" with respect to Clara for the second episode in a row (might this be laying groundwork for the circumstances of her departure?). We all know it's coming, but we don't know how, and as usual, the show is trying to psych us out for the worst.

With all of these themes whirling around the same plotline, it feels as if the story is trying to say something profound about the Doctor. It doesn't really succeed, mainly because the majority of these points have been raised in previous episodes, not to mention practically the entirety of Torchwood, but I don't think it's bad to have them reiterated, because there aren't very many TV shows where these themes can be raised. And there are interesting questions to be asked regarding what happens when the Doctor, with all the best intentions, does irreversibly alter the course of time, and whether the Doctor regrets not having an equally long-lived companion with which to share his travels. Maybe that's why he and River bonded so tightly, although on the flipside, he wasn't exactly clamoring to keep Jack on board. But perhaps it's time to try out another Time Lady in the TARDIS?

As the episode's main, and indeed pivotal, guest star, Maisie Williams as Ashildr is the story's backbone; in fact, the second episode is practically a two-hander between her and Capaldi. In part 1, her character is somewhat peripheral to events prior to the climactic battle scene, but this is where we learn pretty much everything about her personality. She comes across as more innocent and childlike, somewhat of a hothead, apparently a bit of a tomboy with a storyteller's imagination, and deeply fond of her village ("They're kind and brave and strong, and I love them.") to the point that "leaving this place would be death itself." Very little of this characterization carries over into the following episode, although her involvement in the plot and her dialogue, and thus Williams' performance, are all more interesting in part 2. Now that Ashildr's been around long enough to have some adventures, and enough life experience to harden her heart, the character is much more worldly and witty and tragic, and Williams' performance delineates the distinct versions of Ashildr very well. Immortal Ashildr — calling herself simply "Me" — has lived so long, and suffered so much, that she's nearly forgotten her village and her former loved ones entirely, and her humanity has been worn down. (As the Doctor puts it, "I didn't think that your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry.") She seems to have lost the ability to be empathetic, and joyful, although she doesn't seem unhappy. As is often the case with terminally-bored immortal characters, she's even taken to a spot of petty theft to liven things up (and I sure am glad that Gray and I didn't watch the trailer for part 2, so we remained unspoiled on that particular plot point; it certainly took me by surprise!) The season 9 promo, featuring her line "What took you so long, old man?", had fans in a tizzy and throwing out all kinds of guesses as to the character's identity, but she turns out to be neither the Rani nor Susan, which I think is for the best. As promised, she is indeed a character who challenges the Doctor in ways he's rarely been challenged before, but that's mainly due to the direct effect the Doctor's had on her life, rather than any inherent character trait. Because we only see Ashildr so briefly, and in two very different life stages, it's a bit difficult to form an opinion of her character, so her personality change doesn't necessarily feel like a logical outgrowth of who she once was. There's a hint that Ashildr's altered personality might also have something to do with the tiny bit of Mire DNA in her system, but The Woman Who Lived never addresses this point, so it's difficult to say for sure. I actually prefer to think that her entire personality change, from childlike to jaded to caring again, is purely a result of the life she's led as an immortal human woman, because then at least it's her own choice rather than an alien influence, especially since she wasn't given a choice about her immortality. It's probably for that very reason that Ashildr never finds anyone — even her husband(s?) — with whom she wants to share her spare immortality charge, although it was sweet of the Doctor to provide one for her. Given that she doesn't want to inflict immortality on anyone else, but she wants to avoid the pain of any more loss, distancing herself from people and enduring her lifespan alone probably seemed like the only viable option. I'm curious now to see whether Ashildr (with or without Swift? although I'm hoping for "with") reappears later in the season. After all, now that she's rediscovered her humanity, I really really like her stated mission "to look out for the people you abandon." The idea's not an entirely new one — we've seen, for example, Earthbound companion reunions in the Doctor Who fictional universe — but there's never been a canonical figure (other than perhaps UNIT) who went around mopping up some of the mess the Doctor leaves behind. It's a nice way for Ashildr to channel her own feelings of abandonment, and all that free time, into something positive. My favorite of Williams' deliveries all come during the second episode: "Course! You don't forget the man who saved your life. It's good to see you.", "If you say so.", and "I don't think I want anyone to be." And I like her fancy red dress.

There are, however, some hints dropped about her character that are never answered. I'm not sure whether this makes her seem intentionally or frustratingly mysterious, or if they're leaving these plot threads dangling to be picked up at a later stage...

• What exactly makes Ashildr so different or strange that she might not be loved outside her village? Her explanation ("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.") vaguely hints that she might have a non-normative sexuality, but if that is actually the case, it's a very vague hint and it's never again mentioned (much less supported), so I don't think that can possibly be what she means. Is it just because she's a tomboy with a vivid imagination, or is there a deeper reason?
  
• Where does Ashildr's knowledge about the Doctor come from? She knows he has a space-time ship, that he's not one for long goodbyes, and that he often leaves people in his wake. There's a strong implication that Ashildr has met at least one of the Doctor's (former?) friends, but will we ever find out which one(s)?
  
• Ashildr rereads her journals periodically, and left intact her entry about her children dying, to remind her never to have more, but she's torn out many other painful memories. Is the Doctor's supposition correct that, for Ashildr, the memories she excised were even more painful? If so, what happened?

This story is a really great example of how the Doctor's character can still be developed, even after 52 years. I find it interesting that the Doctor feels he has the power to do anything he likes, but prevents himself from doing so because he understands what the negative consequences would be. It makes him seem that much more ethical — how many people would be able to resist the lure of absolute power? — and loveable for it. And, apparently with Clara's prompting (although I think he'd do this anyway), he's beginning to think laterally to find ways around what appear to be immutable events. Is this a good thing? I'm not entirely sure — it could run the risk of diminishing the impact of those events, and make the Doctor too powerful — but the way it's being done so far, it emphasizes the Doctor's wits over his might, and it does provide some unexpected plot twists. It also helps, I think, that the Doctor has his priorities straight, and isn't tempted by the lure of power. At first I was dubious that the Doctor really meant it when he said "I don't mean the war. I'll lose any war you like." — after all, he's just spent an entire episode trying to win against the Mire — but then I realized, he's right, he doesn't care about winning battles, he cares about saving lives. Winning a battle is only a means to the specific end of banishing evil and defeating murderers and conquerors. This ties in really well to the Doctor's realization of why he subconsciously chose this face for his twelfth incarnation. I absolutely adore this revelation, and not just because it gives us a brief clip of Catherine Tate being awesome. (Speaking of, how cool is it that Big Finish is going to start doing some tenth Doctor and Donna audio plays??? I am so there, as is my money.) I actually started to tear up when we learned that the Doctor subconsciously chose this face as a reminder of Donna's plea for him to save people. Even though there's no apparent reason why the twelfth Doctor in particular should need such a reminder, it's just such a lovely significance for this incarnation to have. It also connects to the heart of what makes the Doctor the man he is, and I always love to see a series reiterate its primary tenets. It can be risky for a show to veer too far away from what makes it successful, and at times, the Doctor's characterization as an avenging angel has approached that line. I find that, even with his bristly personality, Capaldi's Doctor is hewing much more closely than his more cuddly predecessors to the kind of character that I like the Doctor to be. (It's also interesting to learn that the Doctor can subconsciously choose his appearance — and yet there's precedent for it, when Romana decided she liked Princess Astra's face. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, why the sixth Doctor subconsciously patterned himself on Maxil the shooty guard?) Great delivery of "Uhh?" as he wipes sprite-guts off his shoe, his Kroagnon-esque enunciation of "I have taken human form to walk among you.", his reaction when the Doctor sees Clara raising her hand, "No." when Chuckles asks if the Doctor is going to mock his crying, "Don't thank me yet, Ashildr. Not yet.", and "Sorry, were you talking to me there? Try again, I promise that I'll listen this time."

Clara is all but absent from The Woman Who Lived, to make room for Ashildr's character development, but that's fine; The Girl Who Died includes some really great moments for her. She's fairly sidelined toward the end of the episode, but she carries the plot while she's separated from the Doctor, which is apparently enough to keep me happy! I'm coming to the conclusion that Jamie Mathieson writes some of the best material for Clara out of all the writers. He not only nails her character, he also finds ways to make her proactive and intelligent without being precocious or magically intuitive. It's a really fine line, but he always manages to hit just the right side of it. Her scene facing down Odin, and very nearly talking him out of attacking the Viking village, surely must be one of her finest moments. In a completely unrelated issue, Clara's rumored bisexuality has been a topic of some fan discussion lately, and will surely not be quelled by lines like "She's nice! Fight you for her." although since we have no actual evidence (aside from Oswin's 'phase' with Nina), I'm not sure whether or not to take her seriously. Nice delivery of "Oh, hello!", "The universe is full of testosterone. Trust me, it's unbearable.", "No you don't! Because I never asked for that.", "See, that was really funny!", "You didn't lose. You saved the town.", the sweet hug that she and the Doctor share, and the cute look she gives the Doctor before pulling the dematerialization lever.

As a warrior race, the Mire have definite potential, even if their appearance here is fairly brief. We get a general sense of their goals — they want to conquer, and they want to devour the best of the opposing group's warriors, which is both gruesome and a sound strategic move — but we don't quite yet get a sense of what separates them from all the other warlike races of the galaxy. Unless their medical technology does indeed make them functionally immortal as well, which sounds bad, and like the sort of thing that the Time Lords would have nipped in the bud if they were still around. There are hints that they puff up their fearsome reputation through stories and technological tricks — like their projection of Odin, and the reveal that their spaceship is actually kind of small — which makes the Doctor's plan to defeat them that much more fitting. Their name might also be a clue to some kind of unique ability or nature, although I'm not sure I understand the significance — what's the link between mucky quicksand and lamprey-mouthed aliens? Speaking of which, I'm really glad that they do turn out to be aliens in armour, rather than robots (as I first assumed). Aliens, for whatever reason, are nearly always more interesting in my book. So even though they're not the most developed monsters, we learn enough about the Mire and their culture to make them an interesting one-off menace.

What a shame that Brian Blessed wasn't able to accept the role of Odin! He would've been an absolutely perfect fit, although I probably would've been waiting for the Doctor to rush up to him and demand an update on Peri's well-being. David Schofield certainly fills his shoes well, especially during the scene with Clara, and I loved his dramatic delivery of "Your mightiest warriors will feast with me tonight in the halls of Valhalla!"

I adore the Doctor's decision to give all the Vikings nicknames, which is perfectly in keeping both with his lack of interpersonal skills, and Mathieson's flair for comedic dialogue. Of the lot, my favorite names are Daphne and the very appropriate Heidi, but in terms of characters, Lofty (Tom Stourton) and Heidi (Barnaby Kay) stand out the most. Lofty seems like a sweetheart, a doting dad who's devoted to his baby daughter, and is willing if nervous to fight to defend her. Heidi gets the most amusing personality traits, his fear of heights and his tendency to faint at the sight (and eventually the mere mention) of blood. Clara's weary description of the resulting chaos after one such blackout is a really funny moment. Ian Conningham is good too as Chuckles, particularly during his tender scenes with Maisie Williams. One of my favorite characters is the late-blooming Sam Swift (Rufus Hound), who comes across as little more than a bully in his first scene, but becomes a really likeable, humanized character when threatened with execution. Despite the fact that some of his jokes are old and tired today (and probably were then too!), his gallows humor is absolutely hilarious, and I love that the Doctor joins right in. His zeal for life shines through his melancholy musings from the gallows, and when the Doctor manages to pardon him, the shock and relief on his face is quite moving. Hound has so many delightful line deliveries, my favorites being "Ooooooh!", "You what?", and his reaction when Ashildr kicks the gun out of his hand. I also really liked the two comedy pikemen, Gruffudd Glyn as Lloyd Llywelyn and Reuben Johnson as the slightly clumsy William Stout.

In the grand tradition of Aliens Who Look Like Earth Animals, now we add the leonine race of Delta Leonians, who have glowing eyes and breathe fire, which does make a dramatic change from Earth lions. Leandro makes for an interesting if underdeveloped monster, and Ariyon Bakare delivers a good snarly performance. I also liked the echoey quality of Leandro's scream as his people disintegrate him from afar.

Leandro's facial prosthetic looks very convincing, particularly the feline nose and mouth, and I was even more fond of the effective facial prosthetics for the Mire, with many rows of horrid teeth. (When Odin first started to remove his mask, I caught a glimpse of what looked like Jagaroth skin, and had to calm myself down!) The Mire are well-designed in general, too, as their technology all looks like it originated from the same source. (I'm thinking particularly of Odin's eyepatch and the soldiers' helmets.) The effects work is of a high calibre: the lovely shot of Clara floating in space, surrounded by stars and nebulae; the gorgeous time-lapse scene of the years passing around Ashildr; the amulet draining the lifeforce out of Swift; and the portal opening up in the sky. The only slightly disappointing effect is the spaceship weapons fire, which from a distance looks like the blasts will be enormous, but results in comparatively tiny explosions on impact.

Murray Gold contributes some lovely music to this two-parter, notably as the Viking raiding party returns to the village, and the haunting score over the time-lapse shot. However, there's also some really corny comedy music as the Doctor and Ashildr tiptoe through the Fanshaw residence, and to my annoyance, the score announces "joke ahead!" before the punchline about Lady Me's fortune.

While I enjoyed Ed Bazalgette's direction of both episodes, I can't say that it really jumped out at me. The best shots come in part two: moonlight streaming through the tree branches, and the reveal of Leandro with his eyes blazing. However, in the same episode, he also includes one really bizarre, jarring moment of multiple unnecessary cuts as the Doctor says "see if we can't go round the back." What really makes the episodes visually memorable are the gorgeous filming locations. Cosmeston Medieval Village in the Vale of Glamorgan is a totally convincing stand-in for a Viking village, and Tredegar House in Newport is a beautiful, imposing, echoey place for Ashildr to live. I especially love the interior library set — if it is a set — with its shelves full of handwritten journals.

But I have to end on a downer, because I think this issue is important enough to warrant highlighting. I cannot even put into words how deeply disappointed I am that the electric guitar has disappeared from the theme music. How could they tease us with a massive upgrade to the theme tune, and then take it away again? Seriously, people. The electric guitar needs to be reinstated right now.

Minor points:

• I was all freaked out when I thought there was a mine-spider crawling up the inside of Clara's spacesuit. But then it turned out just to be a love sprite, and those don't sound so scary. I might like one in my spacesuit to cuddle with, too!

• Between the two episodes, I find Mathieson's to be much more quotable, and the funny lines begin early on, as the Doctor prompts Clara for clues that will confirm her whereabouts:

  Doctor: "Great! I've seen it too. I wonder where it was."

• Some people must've been so thrilled when the Doctor's sonic sunglasses got snapped in half, but despite spending the first episode on their last legs, by part two they have reappeared, mysteriously whole and good as new. (Personally, my thrill came from watching the Doctor play the electric guitar again. I can't get enough of it!)

• Great delivery by Capaldi:

  Doctor: "Clara?"
  Clara: "Yeah?"
  Doctor: "We're going with the Vikings."

• I really like this quote, partly because it's a cool idea phrased eloquently, and partly because it makes me giggle. I guess a lot of companions 'remember' a lot of doors opening and things appearing on scanners then.

  Doctor: "People talk about premonition as if it's something strange. It's not. It's just remembering in the wrong direction."

• Nice! This made me LOL. It's so true, this is exactly what the Doctor does, albeit in an entirely voluntary and nonviolent way! See what I'm saying about Mathieson and dialogue?

  Doctor: "Okay, plan. We meet the boss man, and we do the usual."
  Clara: "Which is?"
  Doctor: "Replace him."

• A cute line, with another great delivery by Capaldi:

  Clara: "How did you do that?!"
  Doctor: "Magic."

• How utterly brilliant that, as the Doctor attempts to impersonate Odin, a more impressive impostor shows up and almost literally steals the Doctor's thunder! Which leads to this absolutely hilarious scene, as the Doctor's 'magic' begins to look pitiful by comparison:

  Doctor: "Do not believe this foolish trickery!"
  He deploys his yo-yo, which flops anticlimactically.
  Doctor: "It's supposed to do that!"

• When the Mire scan the villagers, it's a bit confusing that "the weak and the young" are tinted green, and the warriors they abduct are tinted red. I was expecting green to mean "yes, let's take this one!" Perhaps this is an indication of their different cultural norms...?

• Given that the now-powdered Viking was able to pry open one door using his axe blade, why doesn't Clara snatch it up on her way past? It might have been a little more effective than just using their hands. Otherwise I'm not sure I'd risk running through that hallway and activating the killer beams, in the hopes that I was strong enough to pull the doors open!

• A brilliant performance by Clara, very well-written by Mathieson, which really shows off her deductive skills.

  Clara: "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you afraid."
  Odin: "I have no reason to fear you."
  Clara: "Except you've already analyzed that, and you know it's a technology from a civilization vastly more powerful than your own, and you will have also noticed that, erm, I'm wearing a spacesuit, so I'm not from around here, and it's highly unlikely that I would've come alone. You see, you haven't killed us because killing us would start a fight you didn't come here to have, and you're not sure you could win."

• Would swallowing adrenaline and testosterone really help to juice Odin up? I feel sure that it would not, unless taken intravenously. Then again, maybe it's just a symbolic devouring of his enemies.

• Well, that's a chilling way to look at it. (And I love Clara's riposte: "You're not a farmer. You're a thief, caught in the act.")

  Odin: "What is God but the cattle's name for farmer?"

• Another restrained total, and another justifiable context. See, this is much much better.

  SHUT-UP COUNTER: 1 1.   (13:27)   Ashildr: "We will crush you." Clara: "Oh please, shut up!"

• The Doctor's well-thumbed 2000 Year Diary kicks off this week's blasts from the past, soon to be joined by a charming discussion of the Terileptils causing the London Fire (I notice that the Doctor neatly sidesteps all responsibility) and a rather sweet mention of Jack Harkness.

• After the Doctor asks whether any of them have ever held a sword in battle, does he really say "Yeah, baby!"? If so, I never want him to do that again.

• LOL line #2:

  Doctor: "What are you gonna do, raise crops at them?"
  Limpy: (defensively) "If necessary!"
  Heidi: "I think he was being sarcastic."

• A useful sentiment:

  Doctor: "I applaud your courage, but I deplore your stupidity."

• I wasn't so sure about the Doctor translating baby cries at first. I find it to be a character detail of questionable believability, and it skates a little too close to parody for me. But in this story, even though his translation is mawkishly poetic, it does wind up playing a critical plot function, so I find I can tolerate it (even though I do tune out this scene when I rewatch). And I did really like this line:

  Clara: "You just decided to stay. The baby stopped crying."

• How come the Doctor doesn't train any of the women to fight? Harrumph.

• LOL line #3:

  Doctor: "When I say 'jump', you say 'how high'! Unless there's of course a gap of some kind, which of course means you jump horizontally."

• I mean, the good dialogue is just flowing in part one. How is it that people are still able to script iconic Doctor Who lines after all these years?

  Clara: "He hasn't got a plan yet, but he will have, and it will be spectacular."

• And another!

  Clara: "Start winning, Doctor! It's what you're good at."

• LOL line #4:

  Ashildr: "You think they're all idiots, don't you?"
  Doctor: "What, you mean the rest of the universe? Erm, basically, yes, I do."

• I could've sworn that Ashildr said that the baby "likes to fish".

• Cute!

  Doctor: "Lofty! Oh! I had no idea that that was your baby. Hello baby! I had no idea this was your junior parent."

• If it's critically important that they film this interaction in order to blackmail the Mire into retreating, then I do question the wisdom of handing the only cellphone to a Viking who has never before seen one, and could very easily fail to record anything at all.

• Excellent!

  Clara: "How's it coming?"
  Doctor: "Reversing the polarity of the neutron flow. Bet that means something, it sounds great."

• This metal helmet looks awfully heavy on Ashildr's petite frame. How can she possibly support the weight of it?

• Ashildr doesn't appear to be physically "wired" into the helmet at all, so I wonder how it drains her? And why doesn't the Doctor realize that this is a possible outcome?

• I'm really glad that we finally have an answer to why the twelfth Doctor so strongly resembles Caecilius from Pompeii, but we still don't know why he also looks like John Frobisher from Torchwood: Children of Earth. I'm pretty sure that Russell T Davies' theory (which I'd thought Steven Moffat might adopt) accounted for both, so can we assume that the explanation offered in this episode is not RTD's?

• "She'll see me often enough once she understands," promises the Doctor. Only she doesn't, does she? He periodically checks in on her, sure, but he never lets her know that he's there, or gives her a chance to ask him questions.

• Under what circumstances could Ashildr die? It's evidently possible, since the Doctor qualifies his 'functionally immortal' diagnosis with "barring accidents". This would be useful to know because it would solve the question of exactly how immortal the Mire are, too!

• Ooooohhh, what's that sound the Doctor's curio scanner makes??? It reminds me really strongly of a previous Doctor Who sound effect, but I can't quite place it. Might it be the sound the buried robot makes in Greatest Show? (Well, that might be what I'm thinking of. The robot's remote emits a sound that's slightly higher-pitched and slightly slower, but otherwise very similar.)

• "You know what I want!" says the Knightmare, and Lucie glances nervously toward her décolletage. This exchange reminds me, in more than one way, of a story I was just telling some colleagues about a college friend of mine who was a year ahead of me, and so now I will tell it to you. This friend of mine, you see, came from a wealthy family, and occasionally expressed to me that one of her deepest wishes, post-graduation, was to get a boob job. Fast-forward a couple of years to my own graduation, when this friend very sweetly flew back into town to attend the event. I met her at the airport, and one of the first things she said to me, after we hugged, was "Do you notice anything new?" I stammered and probably turned very bright red and tried not to scrutinize, and finally she said excitedly: "I got contacts!"

• Okay, so The Woman Who Lived has some pretty awesome lines too!

  Doctor: "Oh, just ignore me, I'm just passing through, like fish in the night."

• I'm glad that we get some flashbacks on Ashildr's life-so-far. They're quick and entertaining little vignettes, and it's worth spending the time to fill in some of the gaps in her timeline, and learn what her life as a lonely immortal has been like.

• How exactly did Ashildr cure a village of scarlet fever? She isn't a doctor.

• Interesting. I initially assumed that the first journal from which the Doctor reads — given that it's an older edition, and the next one he reads is written in Latin — was written in Old Norse or Old English. However, on closer examination, it appears to have been written in late Early Modern English, or even Modern English: practically the entire page that we see is perfectly comprehensible, aside from minor spelling variants like 'syncerity', and the letter V is clearly applied with regularity to the [v] phoneme (in violent, privy and very) rather than alternating with U, as you'd expect from a text in EModE. (Incidentally, that Latin text repeats after every ninth line. Couldn't they have come up with just a tiny bit more translated journal entry? Two more lines and I'd never have noticed!)

• Maisie Williams is 18, but the implication is that Ashildr is somewhat younger — perhaps around 14 — when she's killed and revived by the Mire technology. In which case, it would appear that she's been stuck in the body of a young teenager for her entire life, which would surely play havoc with her dating life (although perhaps not so much in the 1500s as it will once she reaches the twenty-first century...)

• Yeah Ashildr, covering that candle flame with your hand is reeeeeally effective. Nobody would ever know you were there. Then again, perhaps I criticize too much, given that the maid indeed fails to spot them on the staircase. Though it's also possible that her vision and hearing aren't as sharp as they used to be: later, when the Doctor and Ashildr are trying to escape the Fanshaw house, she yet again fails to notice them closing the heavy wooden doors. (If I'm wrong about her perceptive abilities, then the only explanation I can think of is that she assumed it was Mr Fanshaw, who was sleeping in that room?)

• Nice one, Doctor.

  Doctor: "What, says Sam Swift the Quick? That's trying a little bit too hard, isn't it? Or are you a little bit slow?"

• Ashildr ponders whether to shoot Swift in the head: "He'll be dead in a minute. What difference does it make?" Um... dead of what, exactly? He looks quite healthy and un-pursued by hangmen / ravenous wolves / Delta Leonians to me.

• Yes, this would be a deal-breaker for me too (and, I'm quite sure, for the Doctor as well).

  Doctor: "You have this whole wonderful planet to play on!"
  Ashildr: "It takes a day to get to Kent."

• Why exactly does the Doctor refuse to take Ashildr with him? "Because it wouldn't be good" is no kind of answer, although it seems to mean something to her. Later, Ashildr thinks she's figured it out — "That's why you can't travel with me. Our perspectives are too vast, too far away." — but I'm not sure I buy this answer.

• Finally! This is the only convincing explanation I've ever heard for why anyone would egg on a would-be murderer.

  Doctor: "Kill me."
  Leandro: "Why?"
  Doctor: "If you intend any harm to this planet or its people, then killing me is by far your best move."
  Leandro: "You invite your own death?"
  Doctor: "No. I just want you to attack first, then my conscience is clear."

• Very shrewd, Doctor! I was wondering the same thing...

  Doctor: "Well, go on, escape as much as you like. Why would I not approve?"

• LOL line #5:

  Llywelyn: "There's a bounty on your head for twenty pounds!"
  Doctor: "Twenty pounds? Is that all?"
  Stout: "'Tis a small fortune to us."
  Doctor: "Well, in that case, I know where Lady Me keeps all of her money. Almost thirty pounds."

• LOL line #6. I can't believe they got away with this one!

  Swift: "When I'm gone, they'll all say 'That Sam Swift, he was well hung!' "

• Nice comeback, Doctor!

  Doctor: "And his nose is so big that..."
  Swift: "They'll have to widen the noose!"
  Doctor: "Or, or bury him in a pyramid!"

• Can't quite believe they got away with this one either!

  Swift: "You know what they say! Big nose..."
  Doctor: "Big handkerchief!"

• How, I wonder, did Ashildr think that she and Leandro would escape through the portal? Jump really high? Or does he have a shuttle nearby?

• Great delivery by Maisie Williams, as Ashildr begins to feel her humanity again.

  Doctor: "He doesn't care!"
  Ashildr: "But I do! Oh God, I do."

• Ashildr honey, you know it's not a good idea to confront the baddie and say things like "Oh yes, we can [reverse death]" while dangling in his face your only means of stopping his evil plans... right? That's like people in movies who figure out that the person in their apartment is a murderer, and instead of trying to surreptitiously sneak away, they announce "I'm going to call the police!" (For that matter, the Doctor does pretty much the same thing when he taunts Odin with the cellphone recording! How difficult would it be for Odin to shoot the cellphone to pieces, "accidentally" dealing fatal wounds to the Doctor and Clara in the process as collateral damage, and then razing the village to eliminate any witnesses? Answer: not difficult at all!)

• How does Leandro recognize "the light of immortality"? Would he have had occasion to see it before?

• "I think I'm very glad I saved you," the Doctor muses — which is slightly peculiar, given that Ashildr has possibly just threatened him, but whatever — to which she replies, "Oh, I think everyone will be." Foreshadowing much? And what could she possibly have in mind?

• The TARDIS appears to have excellent acoustics for the electric guitar.

• Hee hee, silly Doctor:

  Clara: "Did you miss me?"
  Doctor: "Be more specific. Who are you?"

• I really liked this line too, even if it does sound a bit more Buffy than Doctor Who. That's never bad, to be honest.

  Doctor: "Are you never gonna travel with me again because I said a thing?"

Although the plot of these episodes is sometimes slow, and it's not the most original story, it's entertaining and well-told, with some really enjoyable character moments. So far it feels like this entire season is laying down really subtle groundwork for some future storyline, but I just can't predict where it's going, so my curiosity is definitely piqued...