When a man dies at the Sweetville mill his brother is highly suspicious; the dead man his bright red! He employs Madame Vastra to investigate what is going on. She along with Jenny and Strax head North; here Jenny goes to the mill and starts to look around
she makes some startling discoveries! The mill is run by the elderly Winifred Gillyflower and her silent, and unseen, partner Mr Sweet; also there is Winifred's blind daughter Ada who is feeding something she refers to as her 'monster'. Jenny's explorations bring her to The Doctor who was already there. A series of flashbacks show how he and Clara were investigating the mill but managed to get caught. He and Jenny set about looking for Clara before learning of Winifred's dastardly plan; they then set off to stop her before her actions cause the end of humanity!
This Mark Gatiss scripted episode is an enjoyable mix of melodrama and humour; the 'Crimson Horror' of the title is unpleasant enough without being too scary for younger fans of the series and the jokes, while silly, are funny I particularly laughed at Strax's over the top belief that violence is the solution to everything. The central story will be familiar to anybody who has watched the James Bond film 'Moonraker'; we have a villain who is planning to eliminate the vast majority of humanity to leave an Eden for the select few 'perfect people' to repopulate. We get a nice twist part way through, which I've struggled not to spoil although I'm sure some viewers will guess it before the reveal although I confess I didn't! The regular cast are supplemented with top quality guest stars in the form of real life mother and daughter Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling who play Winifred and Ada. The action is solid but not without flaws; surely everybody knows you can't stand next to a launching rocket without being burnt to a crisp but here they weren't even slightly singed! The fact that Jenny had met a different Clara was dealt with by The Doctor stating that it was 'complicated'; perhaps a bit cliché but it served to avoid the problem.
After the main story there is a short epilogue where Clara returns to the children she is looking after and learns that they have found pictures of her in different eras and rather than thinking they have found pictures of people that look like her immediately realise she has been time travelling this was clearly designed to set things up for the next episode but just seemed a little too far-fetched even for a series as far-fetched as Doctor Who!
This Mark Gatiss scripted episode is an enjoyable mix of melodrama and humour; the 'Crimson Horror' of the title is unpleasant enough without being too scary for younger fans of the series and the jokes, while silly, are funny I particularly laughed at Strax's over the top belief that violence is the solution to everything. The central story will be familiar to anybody who has watched the James Bond film 'Moonraker'; we have a villain who is planning to eliminate the vast majority of humanity to leave an Eden for the select few 'perfect people' to repopulate. We get a nice twist part way through, which I've struggled not to spoil although I'm sure some viewers will guess it before the reveal although I confess I didn't! The regular cast are supplemented with top quality guest stars in the form of real life mother and daughter Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling who play Winifred and Ada. The action is solid but not without flaws; surely everybody knows you can't stand next to a launching rocket without being burnt to a crisp but here they weren't even slightly singed! The fact that Jenny had met a different Clara was dealt with by The Doctor stating that it was 'complicated'; perhaps a bit cliché but it served to avoid the problem.
After the main story there is a short epilogue where Clara returns to the children she is looking after and learns that they have found pictures of her in different eras and rather than thinking they have found pictures of people that look like her immediately realise she has been time travelling this was clearly designed to set things up for the next episode but just seemed a little too far-fetched even for a series as far-fetched as Doctor Who!