Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 5 - The Girl Who Died - Review

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Maisie Williams & David Schofield
Written By: Jamie Mathieson & Steven Moffat
Directed By: Ed Bazalgette
 
The Girl Who Died is an episode that I'll fully admit I was looking forward to, mainly because the fantastic Jamie Mathieson is back to write the episode alongside Steven Moffat. However, it seems most of the Internet was hyped for a different reason – a guest appearance from Game Of Thrones' Maisie Williams. This crossing over of fandoms seemed to send people into meltdown... but I have to admit, at the time of writing this I have not watched more than about five minutes of Game Of Thrones. So, while everyone grabs their pitchforks and burning torches to come and find me, let's take a look at The Girl Who Died.
 
The Doctor and Clara land on Earth, back to the time of the Dark Ages. They soon find themselves captured by a group of Vikings, and taken as prisoners to their village. However, it isn't long until the village comes under attack from the Mire, a merciless species with a love of war and led by a being who claims to be the god, Odin. The Mire capture and kill the village's warriors, but when a young girl, Ashildr, declares war on the Mire, the Doctor finds himself with only twenty-four hours to prepare the rest of the village to defend themselves.
 
The Girl Who Died gets off to a nice start with a simple, enjoyable premise that puts the Doctor and Clara into a village full of Vikings. While I do like this approach, the plot is strangely unoriginal, and almost identical to one from an episode of another BBC series, Merlin, specifically an episode called The Moment Of Truth. In that episode of Merlin, Arthur had to train and shape a rural village into a fighting force, in a short space of time, and so they could defend themselves against a warlord and his gang. Very similar to The Girl Who Died, isn't it? But let's overlook that for now as the episode does give us the chance to put the Doctor amongst Vikings, who haven't really featured on the show since The Meddling Monk in 1965. The Vikings in this episode are pretty great, particularly the warriors we see at the start of the episode. The actors portraying them are clearly having a lot of fun in the roles, and they definitely do a good job at portraying the testosterone-fuelled and bloke-y air that surrounds them. Though as many fans have pointed out, they may be great but the horned helmets they wear are NOT historically accurate. While this is of course an absolute travesty, the Viking village looks amazing. It's incredibly well-made and new director Ed Bazalgette does it tremendous justice with some great direction, particularly when we first get to look down at it through a wide, overhead panning shot.
 
The Vikings also bring with them an immense sense of fun that runs throughout the episode. Jamie Mathieson, who wrote easily the strongest two episodes of last year's series, returns to write this episode with Steven Moffat, and the dialogue shines once again. It's razor-sharp, charming and really funny and surprisingly few jokes fall flat. Peter Capaldi absolutely owns the comedy right from the start, and possibly his funniest moment is his attempts to convince the villagers that he's Odin … using a Yo-Yo. By the way, the image in the sky of David Schofield's Odin was a great reference to Monty Python & The Holy Grail. In fact, David Schofield completely hams it up as Odin, and once again, you can tell that he's having a lot of fun in the role. He's such a great, and not too serious bad guy, particularly with things such as the way he'll drink something, before giving a long drawn-out pronunciation of “Nectar!”.
 
It's therefore a shame that The Girl Who Died suffers one of the exact same problems as last week's episode. Just like Before The Flood was in need of devoting more screen time to the Fisher King, The Girl Who Died was in need of giving more screen time to the Mire. I'm not referring so much to seeing their unmasked form, as creepy as it was, but getting to see the Mire actually being “one of the deadliest warrior races in the galaxy”. The heavy-duty armour design looks marvellously sturdy and tough, and the episode could have benefited from a couple of scenes that show the Mire preparing for war, or an extended look at them rounding up the Viking warriors.
 
But inevitably, it wasn't really any of this that caught the Internet's attention, but rather the guest appearance from Game Of Thrones' Maisie Williams. Obviously I can't comment on any similarities or her performance in Game Of Thrones, but her appearance did provide a much-needed ratings boost, and Maisie Williams does get the chance to make a decent first impression as Ashildr. The character was thoroughly likeable and engaging, and it's not hard to see why the Doctor got on with her so well. That being said, other than being nice and friendly, Ashildr didn't get much else to do. Obviously she'll be back next week and it's rumoured she'll become a recurring character, but when you've gone to the trouble of attracting Game Of Thrones fans by casting Maisie Williams, it might have made more sense to write her in a way that would leave a greater impression. I have little doubt that we'll get this in weeks to come, but by then we may have already lost the Game Of Thrones fans who've tuned in to watch.
 
However, something I absolutely loved was this episode's conclusion and the way the Mire were defeated. With no sonic and no TARDIS to aid him, the way the Mire were defeated felt very Doctor-y and fun to watch. It was also pretty clever and I like the way it required teamwork from the Doctor, Clara and the villagers. The last act also sees Ashildr's death, but one that the Doctor is able to reverse (not a spoiler, just look as this week and next week's episode titles). When I first watched this, I admittedly just didn't understand what made Ashildr so special in the Doctor's eyes for him to suddenly start breaking the laws of time and death, and it did feel like Doctor Who blatantly disregarding death once again. HOWEVER, when re-watching, it started to make more sense. The Doctor acted in a moment of anger, and Ashildr's death is the straw that broke the camel's back. He regrets his actions almost instantly after resurrecting her, and realizes that Ashildr may no longer be able to die at all. Now that I get this, I'm looking forward to seeing where next week's The Woman Who Lived will go with this, especially after that stunning final shot of the episode, where you can almost see the exact moment Ashildr's face turns from that of an innocent girl into a hardened woman.
 
Another memorable moment from this episode was the explanation for why the 12th Doctor has the face of someone he's seen before. This is a point that had been briefly mentioned in Deep Breath, and referenced Peter Capaldi's previous appearance in the show before he was cast as the Doctor. To be honest, I'm not sure if I really needed an answer for this, but to be fair, the answer should be satisfying for anyone who was looking for one. (Spoiler Warning!) The scene in question where this was explained also made nice use of a flashback to The Fires Of Pompeii.
 
Overall The Girl Who Died did a good job at providing a fun historical adventure, while also tying up loose ends and laying the groundwork for future episodes. With a simple, enjoyable premise, hammed up performances and strong production values, this was a very entertaining forty-five minutes. It wasn't perfect and it's not quite as strong as Jamie Mathieson's previous episodes, but when your weaker episodes can still be called good and are this much fun, then you won't have many complaints from me.
 

The Girl Who Died

7/10