Rate and Discuss: The Girl Who Died

[SiHart]

Captured by Vikings, the Doctor and Clara must help protect their village from Space Warriors from the future: the Mire. Outnumbered and outgunned, their fate seems inevitable.
Also starting that girl from Game of Thrones.

What did you think?

[Dino]

Feels weird to be at this time of the night and not watched or are watching tonight's Doctor Who episode by now!

[Philipnet]

It feels weird that - at this time of night - Doctor Who has only just finished!

[Dino]

Full 10. Straight up!
Easily my favorite (And since when did that type of spelling not get the red line under it?) episode since the series came back.
I'm sure in a few years time when I think about what was the best Capaldi episode, I'll be thinking of this one.
And here's hoping the show's going to reach an unbreakable chain of great episodes!
This episode was everything the last series did, but corrected and improved on.
Better first episode than the other two stories, but I can understand why they didn't have it as the series opener.
I'm not even going to let the idea of next week letting it down get to me tonight, it's what the Vikings would have wanted!
So yeah! Doctor Who is back at it's best!

[Nyder]

For the first time this season, I really really don't know what to make of this episode. Did I like it, did I loathe it? I just don't know. I am very tired though - I'll watch it again tmw....


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[davethesailor]

Really enjoyed this one!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Even with the cliffhanger it was a fairly solid episode in its own right. I'm definitely enjoying this series so far.

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[Nyder]

After a re-watch ..... I like it Never watch Doctor Who when you're tired and have toothache. It just doesn't work! The Moff is a tad obsessed with death and immortality isn't he? I loved The Doctor's definition of premonition as "remembering in the wrong direction". The Mire looked great under their masks - pity we didn't see more of them like this as opposed to the stomp-stomp Warriors that are getting a bit tiresome now.

Now then - Lofty The Blacksmith. His hair looked a bit too coiffured (with a bit of hair product?) to be a Viking!

This would have been a cracking story on its own if Ashildr had died at the end. Hope part 2 doesn't let the first part down!

8/10 from moi


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[Andrew Curnow]

It was a bit different, but I can't quite put my finger on quite why. We both enjoyed it, although Zel isn't keen on having a run of two-parters. I though Capaldi was very good indeed, and especially so in those moments when he was speaking baby - in a bizarre way, it suddenly took what had previously just been a throwaway 'joke' and made it very moving.

I'm not sure whether the sudden flashback to Pompeii's events, etc would have been all that clear to anybody other than a fan, but I may be underestimating the power of satellite repeats there!!

[egdcltd]

Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!

[Rob McCow]

I loved that one. I thought it had a pretty good story, but the direction, effects and acting were all first rate. Seeing Capaldi's face half in shadow and translating the baby's cries was such a great moment.

Gush!

[Si Hunt]

This was better than I was expecting. There was a fun, non-complicated story at the heart of things which was a relief after a month of pretty hard going/in your face two-part again. This one still alone despite its link to next weeks so again, we needed that.

Si.

[Alex]

Hmmm, still not quite sure to make of this. Some elements worked well for me and it was nice to see a slower paced episode where the fate of the entire universe wasn't at risk, and a lot of the humour was enjoyable. Some of it didn't quite work for me though (I don't know why but the Benny Hill theme tune bit seemed a bit lazy) and the baby talking bit felt a tad ridiculous. Still, enjoyed it as a whole, but I can only give it a 7/10 this week.

[Stuart Wallis]

The ending was quite good, and Capaldi was excellent, but the episode as a whole was a tired rehash of a very familiar plot. 5/10

[Dirk Gently]

I really enjoyed this one. It's two part ending was a bit of a surprise as it felt like a good stand-alone episode.
If the link to next weeks is just the immortal girl then that's fine by me. It's obvious who the 'highwayman' is next week is...isn't it?

8/10 easily.

[Perry Vale]

I don't know what to say or how to vote. I'm just not enjoying the Capaldi era. I'm genuinely thinking of stopping watching, not in an angry fan sort of way - just plain apathy.

[Stuart Wallis]

I've sort-of felt like this since Moffat took over. Sad, really...

It's obvious who the 'highwayman' is next week is...isn't it?

Ah yes, the family business...

[Perry Vale]

It's not even a Moffat thing for me. Series 5 is probably my favourite ever from anyone, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of S6. I felt the rot set in slowly after that, and has taken a nosedive since Capaldi joined.

Similarly I thought RTD's S1 was his best, and went downhill after that. It's like with a lot of music, a band's first album is most often their best.

I'd like to see some fresh blood come in and go in a different direction.

[Martin Curnow]

Various critics seem to be raving about how good this one was and there are fans here but the episode just left me pondering:

(1) Pete Tyler wasn't allowed to live; the Doctor couldn't go back & save Adric but here he brings the girl back to life.

(2) The Doctor comments why he can't help the village defeat the Mire and then just exactly that (I know he threatened them with Benny Hill to stop them coming back but all the same)

(3) He took that face to remind him? So why didn't he take that face when he regenerated from the 10th to 11th?

(3) The Mire - one of the deadliest warrior races? they go after small villages, not entire planets?

(4) And what was that bit with Clara and the half sonic glasses - think "open"?

And this is the first time I've ended an episode like that. I don't usually spot these things.

[Antony Cox]

A good fun episode but I don't agree with the repetitive 'bringing people back to life' thing.

[Si Hunt]

Martin, surely most of your comments are explained by the main point of the episode - that the Doctor suddenly realised he'd had enough and needed to save someone. And he realised/thought that his current face was a reminder to do just that.

True, there is a question mark over why Capaldi didn't follow Matt Smith but who knows why that was. Perhaps after the Pompeii adventure, the Doctor subconsciously associated the face of Copernicus (or whatever he was called) with the moral obligation to save someone, so maybe when in "The Time of the Doctor" he had spent 1000 years saving the planet of Christmas, he died with retribution on his mind and conjured this face up next. Another solution is this - the Time Lords re-booted his life cycle for him, so perhaps they chose the face? Looking back at his recent past they saw he'd become somewhat reckless (The Time Lord Victorious) so, like in the War Games, picked his next face for him - the face of a man he'd saved as a reminder that occasionally he needs to be merciful.

This fits except it's not a very compassionate and "Time Lord" thing to do. So maybe it was the work of Susan or Head of CIA Leela or someone.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

Or President Romana - you never know!

[Darren]

4 out of 10

That was bland and boring. More largely forgettable supporting characters and nonsense. Why would an advanced warrior race decieve the Vikings into thinking they were being chosen for Valhalla with an impersonation of Odin? Just go down there, scan the likely candidates and take them up? And beaming enemies up to be instantly disintergrated isn't exactly warrior like, is it?
Then we had the Doctor lamenting for twenty minutes before suddenly realising they had electric eels??
Here, he's tired of losing people, but last year he allowed victims to be picked off one by one on the Orient Express.
The whole hoo- ha over Maisie Williams character was a damp squib. She's just a Viking girl who the Doctor made immortal with a bit of alien tech he convieniently had. Why not just summon a little bit of regeneration energy to bring her back?
The baby stuff was tiresome aswell.

[Paul Clement]

I've enjoyed this series so far, but was left completely underwhelmed by this episode. It wasn't bad as such, just plain dull.

[Stuart Wallis]

Why not just summon a little bit of regeneration energy to bring her back?

Because if he did it every week he'd soon run out of regenerations again? Actually, as an aside, when he did it to River Song (as 'twere) in The Angels Take Manhatten, I wonder where he got the regenerative energy from, given he'd used up all his available regens at that time. Hmm...