This was an episode I was definitely interested in. Granted, the biggest reason for that was seeing Maisie Williams on the show. And how did this episode fare? It exceeded by expectations ten-fold!
The dynamic between the Doctor and Clara has been absolutely outstanding this season! Their one-on-one moments with each other have been some of the best moments in the episodes thus far. I especially like how the Doctor reflects on how much he has affected Clara. It feels very much like a subtle callback to Davros explaining to the Tenth Doctor about how his turns his friends into soldiers. And speaking of the Tenth Doctor, holy crap that flashback! I honestly did not see that coming at all! This was a surprisingly satisfying way to wrap up the arc involving the Doctor's face with it confirming that the 12th Doctor did in fact get his face from Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii. I can now say that, technically, there's an episode featuring my two all-time favorite TARDIS teams: 10 with Donna and 12 with Clara! But, beyond the fanservice, it still fit in surprisingly well with the story. Even now, the 12th Doctor is still struggling with who he is in some areas. This was a nice moment with him realizing that he subconsciously chose the face of Caecilius in order to always remind himself that he's the Doctor and he always finds a way to save people.
Now on to Maisie Williams. I think she did a really good job and I took a liking to her character. It's hard for me not to see some small similarities between her character of Ashildr and her Game of Thrones role as Arya Stark. Ashildr acted a lot like Season 1 Arya. I liked her moments with Clara and the Doctor and her temporary death actually was quite a surprise at first. Though, obviously, it's a bit hard to hide a plot point that's literally the title of the episode. Still, I did like how the Doctor went about saving Ashildr and I also like how the Doctor delved a bit into explaining what immortality can be like for a mortal. It looks like the next episode will delve a bit more into that as the Ashildr we're going to see next time, from what I saw in the trailer, appears to be much angrier and darker than the one we saw here. That probably makes sense given how, by the next episode, she'll have been alive for a few centuries at least. I also took note of the Doctor calling her a hybrid, which seems to be a reference back to the The Witch's Familiar with the talk of a Time Lord/Dalek hybrid. Obviously, Ashildr is only a human/alien hybrid but it does bring up some interesting questions about this season's arc. If Ashildr survives the next episode, there's a chance that we could see her again. Maybe she might appear in the finale? If the next episode ends with her still feeling angry with the Doctor, could she appear in the finale as Missy's companion? How crazy would that be?! But, of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, let's just focus on her in this episode. As I already said, I liked her and I look forward to seeing her in the next episode. I also really liked the ending shot with her slowly going from happy to sad while everything moved past her. It was a good representation of her staying the same whilst the world she knew aged around her.
The rest of the side characters were entertaining but nowhere near as good as the supporting cast from the previous two episodes. Though I did take a liking to Ashildr's father. The Mire were an interesting threat for the episode but they did disappoint in some areas. We didn't get to see them do much aside from stomp around a bit, fire some attacks, and get scared off. The main Mire villain, "Odin", did have an interesting design (along with the rest of the Mire) and there was some interesting set-up for a future appearance by him. Whether this will be in the next episode with Ashildr, later in Series 9, or in a later episode altogether is currently unknown. But the promise for a future appearance is nice and, hopefully, they'll get more of a chance to shine later on. I did really enjoy how the Doctor and the others went about defeating the Mire. Tricking them into running off and then blackmailing them into retreating with threats of spreading a humiliating video of them across the intergalactic internet. The Doctor has become a troll. Anyway, the method of tricking them was also very well-executed by using electric eels, Ashildr's puppet skills, and the Mire's own technology against them. This was a classic Doctor plan. No TARDIS. No sonic. Just the Doctor, some friends, and a plan. This felt like a very subtle callback to how the 11th Doctor saved the world in The Eleventh Hour.
Overall, I really liked The Girl Who Died. It had some great character moments, some interesting and unexpected callbacks, and some intriguing set-ups for future episodes. And I know that the episode ended with "to be continued" but I still consider this episode and the following episode as one-shots. They, as of now, appear to be two separate stories that are only connected by one character and one particular plot element.
The dynamic between the Doctor and Clara has been absolutely outstanding this season! Their one-on-one moments with each other have been some of the best moments in the episodes thus far. I especially like how the Doctor reflects on how much he has affected Clara. It feels very much like a subtle callback to Davros explaining to the Tenth Doctor about how his turns his friends into soldiers. And speaking of the Tenth Doctor, holy crap that flashback! I honestly did not see that coming at all! This was a surprisingly satisfying way to wrap up the arc involving the Doctor's face with it confirming that the 12th Doctor did in fact get his face from Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii. I can now say that, technically, there's an episode featuring my two all-time favorite TARDIS teams: 10 with Donna and 12 with Clara! But, beyond the fanservice, it still fit in surprisingly well with the story. Even now, the 12th Doctor is still struggling with who he is in some areas. This was a nice moment with him realizing that he subconsciously chose the face of Caecilius in order to always remind himself that he's the Doctor and he always finds a way to save people.
Now on to Maisie Williams. I think she did a really good job and I took a liking to her character. It's hard for me not to see some small similarities between her character of Ashildr and her Game of Thrones role as Arya Stark. Ashildr acted a lot like Season 1 Arya. I liked her moments with Clara and the Doctor and her temporary death actually was quite a surprise at first. Though, obviously, it's a bit hard to hide a plot point that's literally the title of the episode. Still, I did like how the Doctor went about saving Ashildr and I also like how the Doctor delved a bit into explaining what immortality can be like for a mortal. It looks like the next episode will delve a bit more into that as the Ashildr we're going to see next time, from what I saw in the trailer, appears to be much angrier and darker than the one we saw here. That probably makes sense given how, by the next episode, she'll have been alive for a few centuries at least. I also took note of the Doctor calling her a hybrid, which seems to be a reference back to the The Witch's Familiar with the talk of a Time Lord/Dalek hybrid. Obviously, Ashildr is only a human/alien hybrid but it does bring up some interesting questions about this season's arc. If Ashildr survives the next episode, there's a chance that we could see her again. Maybe she might appear in the finale? If the next episode ends with her still feeling angry with the Doctor, could she appear in the finale as Missy's companion? How crazy would that be?! But, of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, let's just focus on her in this episode. As I already said, I liked her and I look forward to seeing her in the next episode. I also really liked the ending shot with her slowly going from happy to sad while everything moved past her. It was a good representation of her staying the same whilst the world she knew aged around her.
The rest of the side characters were entertaining but nowhere near as good as the supporting cast from the previous two episodes. Though I did take a liking to Ashildr's father. The Mire were an interesting threat for the episode but they did disappoint in some areas. We didn't get to see them do much aside from stomp around a bit, fire some attacks, and get scared off. The main Mire villain, "Odin", did have an interesting design (along with the rest of the Mire) and there was some interesting set-up for a future appearance by him. Whether this will be in the next episode with Ashildr, later in Series 9, or in a later episode altogether is currently unknown. But the promise for a future appearance is nice and, hopefully, they'll get more of a chance to shine later on. I did really enjoy how the Doctor and the others went about defeating the Mire. Tricking them into running off and then blackmailing them into retreating with threats of spreading a humiliating video of them across the intergalactic internet. The Doctor has become a troll. Anyway, the method of tricking them was also very well-executed by using electric eels, Ashildr's puppet skills, and the Mire's own technology against them. This was a classic Doctor plan. No TARDIS. No sonic. Just the Doctor, some friends, and a plan. This felt like a very subtle callback to how the 11th Doctor saved the world in The Eleventh Hour.
Overall, I really liked The Girl Who Died. It had some great character moments, some interesting and unexpected callbacks, and some intriguing set-ups for future episodes. And I know that the episode ended with "to be continued" but I still consider this episode and the following episode as one-shots. They, as of now, appear to be two separate stories that are only connected by one character and one particular plot element.