This episode was all set to be one of the greats. It was written by Jamie Mathieson who wrote last year's The Mummy On The Orient Express and Flatline, though Steven Moffat was sharing credit this time (which could simply mean there is a chunk of the story that relates to ongoing matters, but could mean a major rewrite or simply collaborative work). It was also to feature Vikings and guest star Maisie Williams of Game Of Thrones fame... something of a coo and potentially a stroke of genius since that show is consistently in tight competition with Doctor Who at awards and usually takes the win. But as I have said before, on first viewing The Girl Who Died did little more than disappoint. Perhaps all the hype and expectation were a big part in it, but that was not what I was thinking as I watched. My recent second viewing cast it in a better light, but that's the benefit of knowing what to expect and with such low expectations the second time, there was greater scope to be pleasantly surprised... but ultimately The Girl Who Died is like a cross between The Romans and The Time Meddler...
The Time Meddler provides an obvious comparison since it too features Vikings and gave us the Doctor's humorous retort about the horned helmet found on the beach "What do you think it is? A space helmet for a cow?!". However, I also mention it because of the mixed reaction it received thanks to the ridiculous juxtaposition of a medieval monk and a gramophone - for it was the first venture into historical stories that were not purely history lessons. The parallel with The Romans comes from excessive use of comedy - a deliberate experiment on that occasion but I'm not so sure of the intentions on this.
Getting back to the Vikings, they happen to be hot property at the moment, whether their helmets ever had horns or not (you just have to accept that in the Whoniverse they do, otherwise the space helmet joke doesn't work). At the time of The Girl Who Died, the BBC drama The Last Kingdom was about to kick off with it's Viking and Saxon protagonists and the third series of Vikings was being promoted due to the DVD/Blu-ray release being imminent. I couldn't help thinking of the vampire story in Doctor Who that got shelved because of a grander drama series about to air and how different times are now (That vampire story evolved into State Of Decay several years later and was replaced at short notice by the wonderful Horror Of Fang Rock). But I digress, much as the opening sequence did on this story...
Ah yes, the Vikings are coming... Quite a shock then, as the episode opens, to see Clara floating in deep space frantically advising the Doctor that there is something inside her space suit. The Doctor decides it is a 'Love Sprite' because she spent too long in the spider mines, and by the way he currently under attack by four-and-a-bit battle fleets! This is Moffat doing what Moffat wants. Leading us into a story with the tail end of an unseen adventure that looks far more exciting than it has a right to without us being there to enjoy it and saying to the viewers "You know the time between episodes? The Doctor's world doesn't stop and stand pause while you're not looking." Moffat doesn't like to leave a cliff hanger one week and pick it up at the exact same moment the following week because his younger self couldn't accept that the Doctor would just be hanging there for seven days waiting for us to catch up. Yet all the other time travel shenanigans are perfectly acceptable?! Any way, as with The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, don't let yourself get sucked into this fast paced, high energy, high threat, space bound adventure because it'll be over in a flash and you'll never hear of it again. Mores the pity, considering what you are about to sit through...
I'm actually in two minds about the this kind of opening. I don't like the Doctor having unseen adventures and I don't like being teased by how good they potentially might have been. They do very little for the story that follows and they can leave you disappointed at the contrast. On this occasion the point is very much the danger that Clara puts herself in, maybe unnecessarily, and the lengths to which the Doctor will go to save her. I don't want to have to think about that when I should be settling into a completely unrelated story. On the other hand, these openings are a good strategy when it comes to taking fans elsewhere with the franchise. The first seven Doctors have adventures in audio production and books which can only be perceived in parallel to most of their televised adventures because so many episodes flow straight on from the last story. I was never interested in the books when I was younger because, apart from not being a fan of reading, they just didn't fit in with the real world of Doctor Who - ie, the TV series. I would later have the vocabulary to describe them as not being canon because there simple wasn't a place to slot them into. As one adventure ends, so the next one begins. So these unseen adventure endings provide an access point for any non-television story and stop you from worrying about where a book fits into the Doctor's timeline. You can still wonder and theorise, but its no longer tainted by the lack of possibilities. It frees up the imagination. The second useful side of these openings is that they stop the classic adventures from feeling so closed off to new viewers. The trouble with the classic series now is not knowing where to jump in and try them out because there is the sense of continuity between adventures. Should I go back and watch that previous story first before I continue to watch this one? Well, no, you don't normally need to, but the tail end being reprised and references being made to it often feel like you should. Well, if you are a modern viewer used to seeing stories start with the end of one you haven't seen, then jumping into a classic story that does the same feels perfectly normal, only you can go back and see the previous adventure! Bonus!
But I digress. Forget everything that's just happened and you'll be ready for the start of the actual story in hand. The TARDIS lands in the woods and the Doctor exits. Get ready to gasp as Clara is seen through the TARDIS doors as far back as the console while the Doctor is stood to one side wiping his boot on the grass. The impossible world inside the Police Box has never seemed so real and impossible as Clara trots out and onto location in what appears to be a single shot. The Doctor has just being showing off in front of Clara in the way he saved her and now this is the producers' turn to show off to the audience and it looks so good, so seamless, so natural, so impossible! But before you know it, we're surrounded by Vikings demanding that the Doctor and Clara come with them. The Doctor again goes into show-off mode, boasting about it sonic sunglasses and how advanced they are... until the lead Viking snatches them from his hand and snaps them in half! "Clara, we're going with the Vikings"
On arriving at the Vikings village two days later, they are greeted by the wives and farmers and a young girl who the Doctor seems to recognise, or will recognise in the future... "People talk about premonition as if it's something strange," he says, "but it's not. It's just remembering in the wrong direction." There is clearly something important about this girl. Indeed, it is this girl who is played by Maisie Williams, so that much is certain. The Doctor tries to bluff his way with his captors, claiming to be the Norse god Odin and is starting to get away with it when a Monty Python like head appears large and dominant in the clouds and makes the same claim. Perhaps "Monty Python" is a little harsh, since there must have been other shows and films that portrayed the face of God in the clouds like this, but there is already an air of humour creeping into the episode so it is a natural point of reference. Odin honours the brave and strong amongst the villagers by taking them to dine with him at Valhalla... or as the Doctor sees it, correctly, he his harvesting them and weakening the ground defences. Clara and the girl Ashildr are also taken as they are handling the remains of the sonic glasses.
All is going well so far for the story. It's perhaps a little light and playful but it is still playing with drama and separating the Doctor and his companion is a classic move. Of course, Odin is not really the Norse god he claims to be but instead devours the warriors he has taken. Only Clara and Ashildr manage to avoid being consumed, and it's not entirely clear how. Clara does a grand Doctor-like job of getting the overlord's plan of action from him and very nearly talks him out of it when Ashildr steps forward and proudly declares war! The Doctor, meanwhile, has pulled out his 2000 year diary (it's been a long long time since that last saw the light of day!) and decided that this particular foe are the Mire, the deadliest warrior race in the galaxy. As Clara and Ashildr are returned to the village, he explains that they are actually a practical race as well and usually get what they want and leave. A shame then that Ashildr's provocation lead to the offer of "Ten of my warriors against he best of your village" and the best of the village is now a bunch of hapless farmers.
The first fifteen minutes or so of The Girl Who Died to this point are fine but it gets increasingly silly and played for laughs. The Doctor wants to leave the villagers because, well, just because they can't win, but he is convinced to stay and train them up... in just a day! OK, so his training isn't entirely successful, but that just adds to the pantomime that unfolds. He doesn't have time to get to know everyone's names so he uses nicknames that come to mind: Lofty, Daphne, Noggin The Nog, ZZ-Top, Heidi, Limpy and Chuckles. Seven Dwarfs influence there? Murry Gold's music is very evocative, but the Doctor is far too chipper and chirpy given the impending doom. Writer Jamie Mathieson has revealed that there was a time when he had the Doctor being more dogmatic about the villagers' fate and helping them to a good death, but it was deemed unsuitable. We do still have the line that "A good death is all anyone can hope for. Unless you happen to be immortal", but generally the Doctor is inappropriately bouncy.
I daren't say anything more of the plot because there isn't much to it. The solution is a little ridiculous but works (and makes use of Clara being in her space suit when hey arrived) but the way it is played falls short. Ashildr's imagination is used to scare off the Mire and Clara's use of the Benny Hill theme (otherwise known as "Yakety Sax") is simply weak and painful. I understand why it's there, but it just doesn't work. I must mention that in all the action, Ashildr ends up dead and the Doctor feels remorseful. From remorseful to resourceful, however, as he reprograms a battlefield medical kit from one of the Mire warriors so it works on humans and applies it to her forehead... and it'll never stop healing her. Knowing that it has essentially made her immortal, he hands her a second dose to take with her for the companion she can not bare to lose because "Immortality isn't living forever, it's everyone else dying"
There are some flowery moments where the Doctor talks about what he can and cannot do on his adventures, referring to ripples and tidal waves and sometimes he's just not supposed to do anything. There is also a supposedly delicate moment with Clara were he talks about his duty of care towards her which she dismisses because she never asked for it... it is this brief moment that echoes a much longer conversation in Under The Lake that feels even more like a transplanted and expanded scene because this one is still here. There is a clever, though contrived explanation for Peter Capaldi playing the Doctor having been in Fires Of Pompeii... The Doctor somehow chose this face to remind himself of that day and the fact that he is the Doctor and he saves people, even when he shouldn't. However, there is also far too much rubbish about understanding what a crying baby is saying! It was bad enough when Matt Smith's Doctor talked to Owen's baby in Closing Time or Amy's bay in A Good Man Goes To War but at least they were burbling. On this occasion the baby really is just screaming and crying yet the Doctor translates it as such poetic, portentous thoughts, one of which turns out to hold the solution... how on Earth did that survive in the script?
Final mention has to go to the Doctor describing Ashildr as a kind of hybrid now she has this Mire technology induced immortality... Hybrid being a growing theme rippling through the series.
If only it hadn't had so much silliness, this could have been the great episode anticipated. It's just too unbalanced.
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