"I'm no one's sidekick!"

[locker_monster]

Just an aside before I talk about the episode. I went out today to buy some new glasses and, god help me, I ended up with a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers as my sunglasses. Oh yeah, I'm not obsessed at all. Nope...

(They do look pretty awesome, though)

Sort of part two of two. We continue on with one character, but the tone of this episode is very different.

Obviously, new setting, new time period, but now Ashildr is tired and worn from her experiences and she doesn't care anymore. She has an interesting line about how she has this extra long life but a normal memory and she can't remember all she's done without re-reading her journals. It never dawned on me how hard it must be for the Doctor to remember practically every moment of his life. I'm sure some thing blur together, which is why he needs to consult a diary every so often, but the weight of who he is, he feels every ounce of it.

Now, I don't watch Game of Thrones, but I assume they hired Maisie Williams because of this episode. Ashildr needs to have this weariness to her and I think Maisie did a good job. Her scenes with the Doctor when they're talking about her immortality were really good. We don't often have the Doctor talking about how he loses people, but this seems to be a theme for this season. People die all the time, but how do you cope with that loss? We see Ashildr just giving up on humanity. The Doctor has more faith in people, but he also runs away. He ran away from Jack, but he made an effort to stick around to help Ashildr. I guess the Doctor took away some lessons from that experience.

And they mentioned Jack! I like to think that Jack and Ashildr eventually meet somewhere down the line. But when the Doctor said that he had travelled with an immortal before, my first thought was Romana. I mean, she's a Time Lord, too. She would just age and regenerate and see the universe go by. And speaking of Romana, I had hoped that the lion faced guy was a Tharil from "Warrior's Gate", but nope.

As for that bit of the episode, with the amulet, it felt secondary to the Doctor and Ashildr trying to come to terms with their long lives. Yes, it was funny watching the pair of them breaking into the house and Ashildr laying the smack down on Sam Swift, but to me it felt like, "Here's some action! Look, it's not all talky bits!" Not that I didn't enjoy the action-y bits, but there was a lot of standing around. Though, I am glad that Ashildr suddenly didn't find a guy she could spend the rest of her life with. On a lesser show, that's how the episode would have ended, with a happy romance.

Also quite weird not having Clara around. I guess Jenna was off filming another episode? Oh man, that means we're going to have a Doctor-lite episode later in the season. The episode would have been quite different had Clara been in the episode. Probably less personal, since the Doctor wouldn't want to talk about Clara's morality. But he is so cute when he sees her at the end of the episode. And another hug! The Doctor has mellowed enough that he doesn't complain about hugging anymore.

Gah, I'm all over the place on this episode. I liked it, but my brain can't put my thoughts in order. So, random stuff: Whoo, female writer! We haven't had one since, what? 2008? The Doctor trying to come up with responses for Sam's joke was fun. You can see his brain really struggling. "Ah, bantering! I don't do bantering!" I guess the Doctor has a night vision mode on his sonic glasses; he navigated that dark house pretty well. Couldn't have been fun for Peter Capaldi, though. How could he see with those dark lenses? And why didn't Ashildr and the Doctor escape the house through one of the windows? Were there people patrolling the grounds? So there's set up for Ashildr to come back. If she's been looking after Earth, what does that mean exactly? Has she had run-ins with UNIT and Torchwood and Sarah Jane? I wanted more guitar playing. I just want a scene where he's casually playing in the control room before he and Clara go off on an adventure.

Oh, so next week. Zygons. Blargh, it was totally Zygon Osgood who died in "Death in Heaven" wasn't it? My god, Doctor Who is taking cues from Stargate Atlantis. Yes, it will be nice to have Osgood back, but damn it, Moffat. You made your own bed and now you have to lie in it. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. Sorry, too many metaphors.

I'm starting to obsess over the Doctor's outfits. So he has the plaid trousers, but paired with the the holey jumper and a red t-shirt underneath. The hoodie was also a weird darkish green. I guess it gives him a bit more colour without being too over the top.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think people who were complaining that Maisie was wasted on the previous episode, but she kind of had to be mild and sweet to contrast so sharply in this ep. I liked it on the whole, though a few off notes and I thought some of it was driven by meta concerns (like, obviously Ashildr couldn't travel with the Doctor because GoT, so he was irrationally adamant about not taking her to explore the universe, which I couldn't understand.. or offering at least jumping her ahead or to one other world where she could have a more interesting life... none of his excuses why he shouldn't really rang true).

I kind of like how she was so disappointed when he hadn't come for her, and it was like you could, in retrospect, see that she was relieved she wouldn't have to go through the "kill someone to open the gate" plan, since the Doctor was there and surely he'd take her somewhere in his blue box... only he didn't.

It's also interesting that some of the specific things she's heard about the Doctor are the kind you'd maybe hear from somebody non-human that knew his broader history. Has she perhaps met Missy at some point? Or maybe the Meddling Monk? A lot of interesting play could be made of her past experiences learning about him.

As for the future, yeah, Jack's an obvious choice, and it would be interesting to see them interact. Incidentally, if you wanted to, with her new self-appointed mission, you could theoretically also write a sequel to your Older-Jamie-fic with Ashildr meeting him. I like to think she met up with Jamie at some point, anyway (Ashildr also kind of resembles Zoe in some ways, which even if he didn't consciously remember her, might draw him to her), in addition to Jack.

Btw, thought you might be interested in this contest on Tor: http://www.tor.com/sweepstakes/doctor-who-impossible-worlds-sweepstakes/

It's a book that looks into sets, gadgets, costumes, etc of the show. The contest is open to Canadians, and there are 3 to giveaway which means, at least as things stand now, 1 in 25 chance of winning (though of course, it's liable to get worse).

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I kind of like how she was so disappointed when he hadn't come for her, and it was like you could, in retrospect, see that she was relieved she wouldn't have to go through the "kill someone to open the gate" plan, since the Doctor was there and surely he'd take her somewhere in his blue box... only he didn't.

I didn't even see it that way. It certainly would have shown that Ashildr wasn't as jaded as she thought she was.

It's also interesting that some of the specific things she's heard about the Doctor are the kind you'd maybe hear from somebody non-human that knew his broader history. Has she perhaps met Missy at some point? Or maybe the Meddling Monk? A lot of interesting play could be made of her past experiences learning about him.

Yeah, they sort of played it up, but they didn't really elaborate. I could understand if Ashildr heard the odd story about the Doctor here and there, but it would be from people who only had one encounter with him. So, very interesting if indeed someone like Missy reached out to her.

I wish we could say that Ashildr learned more about the Doctor from other Companions, but there's no one, that we know of, who would be from the right eras. Maybe from this point on, Ashildr forms a group or network with former Companions and that's why she's spying on Clara at the end of the episode. She's just waiting for Clara to leave the TARDIS and the Doctor.

Oh, and I wish the episode had been set a little later, like closer to 1666. Then they could have had references to Richard Mace, the highwayman that Five encountered in "The Visitation".

Thanks for the heads up about the content. I left a comment, but I doubt I'll win. Hopefully my library will decide to carry it and I can check it out that way.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I know this always risks tempting your curiosity too much, but there are some big spoilers for later in the season floating about today, so... you might want to avoid various news sites more than you otherwise might.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

If it's about a certain Viking character we just met I might have seen a vague headline about it. I didn't click it, though I wouldn't be surprised if they had filmed more footage for a later episode.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

It's actually a lot more widespread than that, in discussing some minor viking spoilers apparently somewhere officialish also revealed some fairly significant spoilers for some of the plots in the rest of the season, descriptions of episodes that give away some things that would better have been surprises.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Ah, got you. I will avoid clicking on anything or reading comments. That's what gets you sometimes. You're reading about something else in the fandom and there's a random spoiler right there.

[jpgr.livejournal.com]

Just to comment on the glasses, I have a pair of Wayfarers I bought in high school over 30 years ago!

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

So you had sonic sunglasses well before they became a thing. :-)

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

Both Missy and Ashildr address the issue of "enemies" and "friends".

Is this going to be related to how Clara leaves?.

Next week: I don't mind Osgood. She was a fangirl of the Doctor. What I do mind is the Zygons. They are the most unflattering shape-shifters I have ever seen portrayed in a sci-fi show. I know they are alien but why do all aliens (besides the doctor) have to look so "freaky"?. I keep thinking about how one of them snogged the Tenth Doctor.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Ashildr will be there to look after Clara when she leaves. Like, something will happen that the Doctor won't be able to see Clara again, but Ashildr will ensure him that no harm will come to Clara.

I think with the Zygons, they look so freaky so it's a contrast to when they are in human form. It's definitely more jarring when you see a regular human being transform into a red creature covered in suckers.

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Moffat is trying to do reverse psychology on the viewers, but Ashildr look quite sinister in the background of that photo. Or does the actress likes to smirk. Who knows?. I hope it's something on the lines of what you said.

It the Zygons transformation that grosses me out. They remind me of suction soap holders if they were red. But if I had to say which alien/creature/monster was the scariest to me, it would be the Water Zombie monster in "Waters of Mars". My older brother saw a snippet of that episode and it freaked him out. He can't watch the show.