Doctor Who Series 7.11: The Crimson Horror (SPOILERS)

[TimeLord]

A pretty solid episode episode that is not solved with emotions again, so that's always good. Felt a little rushed but I guess that was bound to happen with the episode basically starting halfway through, despite not properly explaining how the Doctor and Clara recovered from the poisoning (unless I missed that). Might have worked better as a two parter.

Still not enough Strax. Really need a proper epsisode centered around him. He gets the best dialogue.
"Horse! You have failed in your mission!"

Next week. Neil Gaiman's Cybermen episode!

 

[Josh123914]

Was not expecting Eada to be as big as she was, I mean I was half expecting the blind girl to just be Diana Rigg's henchwoman. Seeing her play a crazy bitter old woman was fun though, I was hoping to see more witty dialogue from her a la the Queen of Thornes from GoT but what are you gonna do.

Also seeing that bug thing get crushed was suprising to me, just the bits of green blood spewing out, I mean it seemed pretty brutal for an afternoon family show.

And nice to see the Victorian 3 return for another episode, it's still not explained though how Strax survived Demon's Run though.

 

[jez29]

My favourite episode of the series so far. I think Vastra, Jenny and Strax might be the best running characters, companions aside, that new Who has introduced. And Strax actually got to shoot stuff in this episode!

One for fans of old Who: was that a 'Time-Flight was rubbish' joke I heard? The bit about an Australian at Heathrow, and the Doctor having no idea what it was about?

 

[Albino Boo]

Was not expecting Eada to be as big as she was, I mean I was half expecting the blind girl to just be Diana Rigg's henchwoman. Seeing her play a crazy bitter old woman was fun though, I was hoping to see more witty dialogue from her a la the Queen of Thornes from GoT but what are you gonna do.

Also seeing that bug thing get crushed was suprising to me, just the bits of green blood spewing out, I mean it seemed pretty brutal for an afternoon family show.

And nice to see the Victorian 3 return for another episode, it's still not explained though how Strax survived Demon's Run though.

The actress playing the daughter is Diana Rigg's real life daughter an established actress in her own right. The script was written for the both of them to work together for the first time.

My favourite episode of the series so far. I think Vastra, Jenny and Strax might be the best running characters that the new series has introduced. And Strax actually got to shoot stuff in this episode!

One for fans of old Who: was that a 'Time-Flight was rubbish' joke I heard? The bit about an Australian at Heathrow, and the Doctor having no idea what it was about?

Tegan Jovanka was an airline stewardess and companion to the 4th and 5th Doctor.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Pretty good episode, had to laugh at the Doctor's Yorkshire accent. Baht tarm they put t' episode set in Yorkshire.

Tried to watch this episode with my niece but she fled the room scared when the doctor was in his cell and poisoned. I don't understand how they miraculously got cured but hey, plot device. I thought Mr Sweet was cute too...

 

[Tom_green_day]

I love to complain about Doctor Who, but one thing's sticking out- why are all recent episodes in Earth or an Earth lookalike? In the old days loads of episodes were in crazy planets, and still there are an odd few, but I'm getting really bored of places that I can see by taking a 5 minute car drive!

 

[Albino Boo]

I love to complain about Doctor Who, but one thing's sticking out- why are all recent episodes in Earth or an Earth lookalike? In the old days loads of episodes were in crazy planets, and still there are an odd few, but I'm getting really bored of places that I can see by taking a 5 minute car drive!

Don't watch old who then, 500th appearance of the same gravel pit just outside Reading would put you off.

 

[Quaxar]

Nice episode, well-rounded, funny, not too weird and unexplained. I do wonder how they suddenly get to invent rockets and all that other stuff in the 1800s since there's clearly not any alien technology or knowledge involved this time but I can go with it.
And Thomas Thomas? Completely unnecessary and silly, so it totally cracked me up and I loved it.

And nice to see the Victorian 3 return for another episode, it's still not explained though how Strax survived Demon's Run though.

That was explained on a <url=http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Battle_of_Demon%27s_Run:_Two_Days_Later>webcast following the actual episode.

Strax is woken up by Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint, and is told that he had not died since they had used alien technology to heal his wounds. Jenny said that he had never truly passed away thanks to the resurrection technology and he had been in a state of unconsciousness for two days while the resurrection device healed him. He's angry about not having died. Vastra and Jenny then announce that the station is being evacuated, and they offer to take Strax with them back to London. Strax is hesitant and at first rudely refuses but then changes his mind and agrees to accompany them.

I love to complain about Doctor Who, but one thing's sticking out- why are all recent episodes in Earth or an Earth lookalike? In the old days loads of episodes were in crazy planets, and still there are an odd few, but I'm getting really bored of places that I can see by taking a 5 minute car drive!

Don't watch old who then, 500th appearance of the same gravel pit just outside Reading would put you off.

This gravel pit was basically the unsolved Clara mystery of its time, appearing throughout time and space in the same exact form.

 

[Ldude893]

And Thomas Thomas? Completely unnecessary and silly, so it totally cracked me up and I loved it.

After watching that bit, I had a mental image of carriages going about 19th century England with human GPS systems.

The villain was a joy to watch, and along with "Cold War" it's one of the best paced episodes in this season so far. A great episode overall.

 

[Stryc9]

despite not properly explaining how the Doctor and Clara recovered from the poisoning (unless I missed that).

Still not enough Strax. Really need a proper epsisode centered around him. He gets the best dialogue.
"Horse! You have failed in your mission!"

Next week. Neil Gaiman's Cybermen episode!

Those locker looking closet things that they went into gives off some sort of gas that reverses the effect of the poison. Never really explained explicitly but the green smoke that comes out of the air hole on the door makes it kind of obvious.

Of course you're right, needed more Strax, Strax should travel with the Doctor at some point for a couple of episodes that would be great. Can't wait for next week.

 

[Robot Number V]

Man, why is no one else complaining about that rushed-as-hell bit at the end with the kids magically figuring out the Clara is a time traveler? I mean, do you have any idea how much information they would have to sort through to find those pictures? And just because he happened to see ONE old picture with a woman who looks like Clara? Come on, now.

I actually like the idea, but the execution was just out-of-nowhere. I wished they'd foreshadowed it a bit. Something like the thing they did in season 3 where Martha kept calling her family. I don't know, there should have been SOMETHING other then a chance encounter with an old photo to make the kids suspicious.

Still though, this was a really good episode. The Victorian 3 (as I guess we're calling them) were great, nothing was solved with the power of love (quite the opposite, really) and no real glaring plot holes as far as I can see. Yeah, I liked it. Not my favorite of the season, but still very good.

 

[Soulrender95]

I think we're all ignoring the really important thing about the episode here, Galvatron made an appearance at the end. Yes THE Galvatron of transformers fame.

Doctor Who - Transformers crossover, Daleks and Decepticons team up then Galvatron betrays the daleks and then Starscream betrays everyone! Optimus Prime and the Doctor just sit back and watch the fun eating cyber-popcorn. hey I can dream can't I? the Doctor Who- Star Trek crossover happened.


That said yeah the kids figuring it out feels like Neil Gaiman had an idea and they needed to get the story into a place where that could happen and someone was stuck with the job of making that happen in the last few minutes without interrupting the episode flow too much, and it was nice to see someone else aside from Moffat writing his characters, now he just needs to let it happen with River Song (assuming the alternative Title to the final episode isn't accurate) so she's not a creators pet.

 

[Albino Boo]

Don't watch old who then, the 500th appearance of the same gravel pit just outside Reading would put you off.

This gravel pit was basically the unsolved Clara mystery of its time, appearing throughout time and space in the same exact form.

You may be onto something here, could Clara be the gravel pit? The pit may have taken on human form after the Doctor reserved the polarity on the neutron flow too many times.

Man, why is no one else complaining about that rushed-as-hell bit at the end with the kids magically figuring out the Clara is a time traveler? I mean, do you have any idea how much information they would have to sort through to find those pictures? And just because he happened to see ONE old picture with a woman who looks like Clara? Come on, now.

I actually like the idea, but the execution was just out-of-nowhere. I wished they'd foreshadowed it a bit. Something like the thing they did in season 3 where Martha kept calling her family. I don't know, there should have been SOMETHING other then a chance encounter with an old photo to make the kids suspicious.

This my personal theory unbacked by any kind of evidence what so ever. I suspect that its a reference to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency by Douglas Adams. Adams was scriptwriter and editor for Dr Who in the 70s. In the book the main character couldn't work out how something was done and he asks a random kid on the street about the solution to the problem and the kid replies without hesitation "He must of have had bleeding Time machine" which of course was the right answer. Thats my 2 penneth worth anyway, an elaborate reference to another work by a former Dr Who writer. The reason why I think that is because the whole episode was full of references and jokes from Sat Navs to Monty Python sketches.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Pretty woeful, I thought. Strax is painfully unfunny (bits about "We're going north" aside, but that only works if he's saying something out of character).

Some guy fainting at everything, also not funny. The Doctor forcing a kiss on his rescuer, really not funny.

The bit where the woman reveals shes a leet ninja or whatever was bad, because we knew that already, it's been done over and over and over again before, and they did it really half-arsed here. Music desperately wanted us to be impressed, but no.

They also seemed to be doing a half-arsed "no killing" thing. When Strax runs up to save people, he manages to miss everyone he is shooting at, then he gets sent outside so he doesn't kill the people trying to destroy the world. He shoots at the old woman later, and she falls, rather than being shot. Then the Doctor was going to let the alien leech thingy go until someone else kills it.

Dumping the bodies outside your secret compound is stupid. Looking at old photos and assuming the person in them had to be Clara is stupid. For that matter, assuming that the Clara the Doctor is talking about is the dead one, not some random other person with a common name is stupid.

 

[Doclector]

Best episode this series. Best episode for a while, in my opinion, anyway. The asthetic was awesome, the villain was great, Strax is always hilarious, and it was just a really enjoyable episode.

Sometimes it did try a little hard for humour, like the "thomas thomas" joke which was kinda funny, but really didn't make sense in context, but mostly it worked.

 

[Dryk]

Looking at old photos and assuming the person in them had to be Clara is stupid.

Clara's mysterious new friend who shows up out of the blue, whisks her away and promptly disappears again was also in those photos.

For that matter, assuming that the Clara the Doctor is talking about is the dead one, not some random other person with a common name is stupid.

Their previous conversation did end with "Stay here I'm going to find Clara" though

 

[Zantos]

[sulking]That's not how we sound. We sound nothing like that.[/sulking]

I love to complain about Doctor Who, but one thing's sticking out- why are all recent episodes in Earth or an Earth lookalike? In the old days loads of episodes were in crazy planets, and still there are an odd few, but I'm getting really bored of places that I can see by taking a 5 minute car drive!

Don't watch old who then, 500th appearance of the same gravel pit just outside Reading would put you off.

This gravel pit was basically the unsolved Clara mystery of its time, appearing throughout time and space in the same exact form.

David Tennant guest hosting Buzzcocks - "I've been to many alien worlds in my time as the Doctor, and they all look like a quarry outside of Cardiff"

This is how I imagine people from Los Angeles feel about Vasquez Rocks.

I really enjoyed the episode, aaaaand now I'm in love with Jenny. Not Catrin Stewart, just Jenny.

 

[Albino Boo]

The bit where the woman reveals shes a leet ninja or whatever was bad, because we knew that already, it's been done over and over and over again before, and they did it really half-arsed here. Music desperately wanted us to be impressed, but no.

Its a reference to the character that Diana Rigg played in the avengers (the 60s tv show not the movie).

 

[JoJo]

Man, why is no one else complaining about that rushed-as-hell bit at the end with the kids magically figuring out the Clara is a time traveler? I mean, do you have any idea how much information they would have to sort through to find those pictures? And just because he happened to see ONE old picture with a woman who looks like Clara? Come on, now.

I actually like the idea, but the execution was just out-of-nowhere. I wished they'd foreshadowed it a bit. Something like the thing they did in season 3 where Martha kept calling her family. I don't know, there should have been SOMETHING other then a chance encounter with an old photo to make the kids suspicious.

This caught me by surprise too, the chances of them coming across pictures from the past with Clara in seems minute. I like the idea of having the kids come along next episode but a more believable way of them finding out (such as them noticing her going into a disappearing police box just outside their house regularly?) wouldn't have gone amiss.

As for the episode in question, again I'm pleased this wasn't a "power of love" episode and it was pretty visual for a Who episode with the deaths, pink skin, blinded woman etc, so not bad.

 

[Lilani]

The whole episode did feel a bit rushed, I would have loved a two parter out of this one (which seems to be the case with just about every episode this season so far, lol), if just to see more Strax and to get to know the setting a bit more. It sort of had that creepy feeling Columbia gives off in Bioshock Infinite, and it would have been fun to explore and really enjoy that for a while. But I LOVED the reveal at the very end with those kids Clara was babysitting. Totally wasn't expecting that, and I'm totally excited. It looks like their role in the Cybermen episode might just be to get captured and rescued, so I'm really hoping they don't fall into that trap.

Oh, and I loved the Thomas Thomas joke. Totally out of left field, but a totally perfect Strax moment.