Episode #267: The Woman Who Lived

"People like us, we go on too long. We forget what matters. The last thing we need is each other."

Episode #267:      The Woman Who Lived.

Companions:        The 12th Doctor.

Air Date:             24th October 2015.

Adventuring on his own for a while, the Doctor seeks out an artefact of great power that could spell disaster in the wrong hands: the Eyes of Hades. However, he soon comes face to face with consequences of one of his past acts of compassion, when he meets an immortal he created, who has now lost all hope with a heart filled with centuries of pain.

The Woman Who Lived is a follow up to the previous adventure, The Girl Who Died. The Doctor while travelling without Clara ends up in 1651 and encounters Ashildr again. The general plot of the episode isn't all that great and doesn't really go anywhere worthwhile. However, you aren't watching for the obvious plot story. Instead, The Woman Who Lived is about the darker side of being immortal. Ashildr has grown from an imaginative young girl into a woman who has seen loved ones grow old and die, and has fallen into the grey where she has lived too many lifetimes and has lost some of her humanity. This is what makes the episode in my opinion.

For such a darker episode there is slightly too much humour involved in the attempt to lighten in somewhat. Modern jokes, puns, and gallows humour (literally) cause a loss of immersion for me. I know I keep saying it through these episode reviews but it's a problem with modern Doctor Who. Coming from the Doctor, such quips are fitting and appropriate. It's one of the personality quirks that we like from the character. But when you have characters from the 17th century making such jokes it pulls the immersion out of it's historical placement. 

The Woman Who lived isn't a great episode by any means but it isn't a bad one either. It has it's flaws but generally it works compared to many of the current episode formats. It continues the set up of where the character of Ashildr goes and I like the change to her character and the idea that she has always been there in the background of the Doctor's adventures on Earth and maybe elsewhere. That itself gets a thumbs up from me if the story isn't totally engaging.

Episode #223: The Curse of the Black Spot

"Okay, groovy. So you're just not pirates today — we've managed to bag us a ship with a demon popping in. Very efficient. I mean, if something's going to kill you, it's nice that it drops you a note to remind you."

Episode #223:      The Curse of the Black Spot.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              7th May 2011.

The TARDIS is marooned on board a 17th century pirate ship whose crew is being attacked by a mysterious and beautiful sea creature. Becalmed and beset by cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the Siren’s appearance. The Eleventh Doctor has other ideas, but as his theories are disproved and every plan of escape is thwarted, he must work to win the trust of the implacable Captain Henry Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates’ supernatural fears — and he must work quickly, for some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren's spell.

This adventure returns us to the old style historical story with a science fiction twist. It is quite cool to have a story set on an old sailing vessel rather than some historical manor house or the like, and the idea of the siren fits nicely. Unfortunately it is one of those stories where the first half, set on the ship, works really well but the second half falls a bit flat. The reveal isn't great though. I think that the final twist to the plot could have had more impact.

The main real historical character is captain Henry Avery, a captain who vanished mysteriously in 1696. He is also referenced in the 1st Doctor adventure The Smugglers. The writer of this episode didn't know of that reference and only used Avery because of his historical disappearance.

We have another appearance of the mysterious eye patch lady who seems to be watching Amy Pond. There is also a mystery that Amy is and isn't pregnant at the same time.

I am giving this episode an average 3 rating because while I don't find it the most interesting adventure, it is another example of what I expect from the modern show.

Episode #119 : The Visitation

"I have appeared before some of the most hostile audiences in the world. Today I met death in a cellar. But I have never been so afraid until I met the man with the scythe."

Episode 119: Visitation.
Companions: 5th Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric.
Air Date:       15th to 23rd February 1982.

The Doctor attempts to take Tegan back to Heathrow Airport but the TARDIS arrives in the 17th Century instead of the 20th. The time travellers discover that a space capsule has crash-landed nearby and that its alien occupants, three Terileptil prison escapees, intend to wipe out all indigenous life on Earth by releasing rats infected with an enhanced strain of the great plague. The creatures are also using a sophisticated android to strike terror into the local villagers. Aided by itinerant thespian Richard Mace, the Doctor tracks the Terileptils to their base in Pudding Lane, London. The creatures are ultimately destroyed when a fire breaks out and the Terileptil leader's weapon explodes - also setting off the Great Fire of London.

The Visitation is a welcoming and refreshing story that leaps up in both terms of story and production value over the prior 5th Doctor stories. It's quite a masterpiece to watch and is so well done that you don't notice the dodgy reptile man suits. We haven't had a proper historical story for a while and this one gives us alien's, a robot dressed as Death, the Great Fire of London, and some excellent acting all round.

There are some great moments in this story such as the interaction between Tegan and the Doctor about whether he can get her home or not, the thespian come highwayman Richard Mace in pretty much every scene, and the Terileptil leader explaining his plot to destroy humanity with an engineered "black death" plague. The 5th Doctor starts to show a grumpy stubborn side to his nature in this story which both seems to fit and feels out of place at the same time.

We lose another important companion in this story too. The Terileptil leader destroys the sonic screwdriver! It doesn't reappear until the 8th Doctor movie. The sonic was removed because then producer John Natan Turner felt that the writers were relying on it too much to get the Doctor out of scrapes. This way they had to write his escapes not just rely on a gimmick.

Of the Peter Davison storie, The Visitation is definitely one of the best and well worth a watch.

Episode #28 : The Smugglars

"How dare you follow me into the TARDIS!"

 

 

Episode 28:   The Smugglars.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Polly Wright and Ben Jackson.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 10th September to 1st October 1966.

 

The TARDIS arrives on the coast of seventeenth century Cornwall - much to the astonishment of Polly and Ben. Pirates led by Captain Samuel Pike and his henchman Cherub are searching for a hidden treasure, while a smuggling ring masterminded by the local squire is trying to off-load contraband.

 

I believe this is another story that has been all but lost. I think a handful of scenes, stills and the audio recording survive. It is another that I have never seen though this time I wonder whether it would be an early historical tale worth watching.

 

I'm not going to go through the synopsis this time as there isn't much to the story doing so but I will make mention of a reference that comes back to us in the show under Matt Smith's run as the Doctor. The characters in the story reference Henry Avery of the sailing ship Fancy, who reappears in the story The Curse of the Black Spot.