Doctor Who: "The Girl Who Died" Recap/Review (Series 9, Episode 5)

Well, dang. That was one fine episode.

This week we were finally introduced to Maisie Williams' character, whom I was initially convinced would turn out to be a returning character. She would be either Susan (The Doctor's granddaughter and first companion), Jenny (The Doctor's "daughter"), or Romana (A Time-Lord companion from Tom Baker's era). But nope. I was wrong, and I'm not the least bit disappointed because the character we got was better than anyone else I could have imagined.

The Recap

Having just wrapped up one adventure, the Doctor and Clara stumble into another when they are captured by a band of Vikings and brought to their village. Not long after their arrival, a face in the sky claiming to be Odin appears and a band of iron-suited beings teleport the village's warriors along with Clara and Ashildr (Maisie Williams) aboard a spaceship. 

After killing the warriors, the false Odin confronts Clara and Ashildr. Clara almost convines them to leave without any bloodshed, but an angry Ashildr declares war on him, which Odin gleefully accepts and returns the two to the village. The Doctor remembers that these beings are known as the Mire, and they are one of the most feared warrior races in the galaxy. He advises the townsfolk to flee their village since all their warriors have perished. Clara helps in convincing him to stay and help the villagers prepare for battle. 

Antics ensue.

As the day ends, Clara and the Doctor discuss Clara's growing recklessness. He's worried that she may die centuries before she's born, but Clara tells him he needs to find a way to win the war. After seeing Ashildr using a puppet to act out a confrontation between her and the false Odin, and learning that village owns electric eels, the Doctor proudly announces that he knows how to win.

When the Mire return in the morning, they find the Doctor, Clara, and the villagers partying. Odin demands a fight and threatens to ill everyone, even if they are unarmed. One of the villagers gets a Mire warrior to touch some copper wiring and the electric eels are fired up. Some of the Mire are down for the count while others' weapons and helmets are forced away by anvils-turned-electromagnets. Ashildr uses a helmet to make Odin and the warriors perceive an ordinary wooden longboat as a large dragon, spurring the remaining warriors to flee and leaving Odin trapped. 

The Doctor threatens to upload a recording of the Mire's defeat to the Galactic Hub (which I can only assume is Space Facebook) to humiliate them unless Odin leaves Earth, which he does angrily. The villagers' celebration is cut short when they discover Ashildr dead. The helmet fried her heart.

The Doctor expresses  to Clara his frustration over losing people close to him, and that he can't do anything about it because of the "rules." But, at just that moment, he begins to realize where he got this face from. A question he  last pondered way back in "Deep Breath."

The Doctor finally recognizes his face as the face of Lobus Caecilius from "The Fires of Pompeii", whom Donna convinced the Tenth Doctor to save from the crumbling town along with his family. He chose this face to remind him to always save someone even if saving everyone is impossible.

The Doctor is able to reprogram a Mire repair kit to work with humans and gives it Ashildr. She awakens and the Doctor gives her father a second dose for another person of her choosing. On the way back to the TARDIS, he explains to Clara that the kit will never stop fixing Ashildr, now making her immortal. The second dose was for anyone she ever met who she couldn't bear to lose. Upon further contemplation, the Doctor discovers that Ashildr, a human, now has a bit of alien inside of her, technically making her...a hybrid.

The Review

• For an overall dramatic episode, the slapstick and wit doesn't feel out of place for some reason. There's a nice balance between the heavy stuff and the funny stuff.
• Like last week, the framework story here (Experienced stranger helps defenseless village in preparing for attack) has been done before, though (to my knowledge) not on Doctor Who. However, it still works very well. The writers morph the story flawlessly to fit the character of the Doctor. It doesn't feel wrong that the Doctor would tell them to run and that the enemies aren't defeated with violence but by wit. 
• Doctor Who rarely references a past episode in the fashion here and in such an integral way (though the last time this was the case was just a few episodes ago in "The Magician's Apprentice"), which made the callback all the more rewarding to long-time viewers. 
• Maisie Williams makes a lasting impression as Ashildr. She shows confidence, yet insecurity and a bit of charm. I'm really looking forward to seeing how she deals with her new immortality and whether it will be a "tidal wave" in time.
• Jenna Coleman continues to excel as Clara. My favourite scene of her's in this episode is her conversation with the false Odin, where she displays how much of the Doctor's intelligence and mannerisms she's picked up. While a lot of her scenes so far in her pairing with Peter Capaldi have revolved around banter, it was really nice to see that their scenes here were a lot quieter.and showed the genuine affection between the two and the concern the Doctor has for Clara.
• Peter Capaldi is great, once again, but you knew that already.
• The sonic sunglasses get snapped in half! Buuut they pop up in the trailer for next week. MOFFAT!!

Rating: 9.6/10 yo-yos

I honestly can't think of anything negative to say about this episode. It's definitely Sereis 9's best offering so far.

Next week, the Doctor seemingly goes Clara-less for an adventure in the 1600's with the immortal Ashildr.

Noah