I’ve made no secret of the fact that I found it very difficult to warm to Capaldi’s Doctor in his first series.  It wasn’t until Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline that I began to adjust to his version.  Fortunately, Series 9 seemed to have toned down some of the more unlikeable characteristics of the 12th Doctor and upped some of the more Doctorish qualities we know and love.  He is far closer now to a Tom/BF Colin version of the Doctor than his more Hartnell/Pertwee style of last season.

The first few episodes of these series have been great, and the move back to two parters has definitely given the series a different vibe. I love how Doctor Who can stay as essentially the same show but change so much from one series to the next.  After the ‘movie in 45 minutes’ style; the intricate story arc style; and the different time, different place styles; it’s fun to have stories which take longer and explore a wider remit.  The opening story dealing with Davros and the Doctor’s relationship was great and I absolutely loved the ‘classic’ base under siege-ness of Under the Lake gloriously followed up by classic Moffaty timey-wimey stylings in Before the Flood.

The Girl Who Died adds a different ingredient into this two-parter world; the ‘not quite a two parter’.  Ostensibly, The Girl Who Died’s plot is finished by the end of the episode with only the character of Ashildr linking us into the next episode.  However, I have a feeling there may be a little more to it than that, although that is something about which we will just have to wait and see.

And what a fun story it is.  The Doctor, Clara and a bunch of Viking farmers battle a mad alien and his armour-clad allies.  A baby gives the Doctor his plan and the Benny Hill theme tune gets an airing!  I’ve always loved the diversity of Doctor Who.  How you can have stories as downright scary as Under the Lake; or as head-scratching as Before the Flood; followed by something as delightfully bonkers as The Girl Who Died.

One thing I did notice was how unrushed this story felt.  A lot of the time with the 45 minute format, I feel episodes spend time setting things up and then are forced to rush to a conclusion.  Maybe it’s because the two parters have changed my mindset, but I really felt this episode spent time on scenes and, as a whole, it felt far more satisfying.

The early part of the episode was great fun with the Doctor and Clara up to high jinks in space, only to arrive at a random location and get taken captive by Vikings.  Back at the village, we quickly get some glorious bluffing from the Doctor.  I’ve seen it described as a bit too Matt Smithy, and whilst I can see the similarity, I think Capaldi makes this his own.  For a start, I think the 11th Doctor would be far more confident that it was going to work, whereas I think the 12th Doctor does this kind of schtick without his heart really being in it, making it funny in a different way to Smith’s version.  The sudden arrival and culling of the village’s warriors leads us quickly into Clara’s confrontation with Odin which is a great scene.  I love how Ashidlr undermines Clara’s success leading to the declared destruction of the village in one day’s time.  This then leads into a brilliant sequence where the Doctor has to train up a bunch of farmers in combat.  There’s some great stuff in this part of the episode; I particularly enjoyed the Doctor naming the Vikings.

The defeat of the Mire is a lot of fun too and perfect for Doctor Who.  Those stories where he has to improvise, MacGyver style, are always good value.  Of course, the presence of electric eels in what we presume is Scandinavia raises some awkward questions, but I’ll come to that later.  The use of the baby language to prompt the Doctor into this idea, harking back to Closing Time and the reveal that the Doctor speaks baby, is probably going to send some fans into apoplexies of horror at the frivolity of it all; but I love it when Doctor Who does silly.  The point is, it doesn’t do it all the time and so, when it does, it’s easy to go with it and enjoy the silly.  Were the Doctor getting his plans by talking to babies, horses and bacteria every week, it would grow old and boring very quickly.  Popped into the lighter-hearted episodes every now and again, I like it.

With the ‘plot’ over, the episode focuses in on the death of Ashildr and the Doctor’s guilt at causing it, setting up events and their ramifications for the next episode.  Capaldi is great in these scenes and I look forward to how this all plays out in the next episode.

Is the episode perfect?  No.  If I have some criticisms then a slightly confusing explanation of what Ashildr is doing during the climax, would be the first one.  We aren’t really told how Ashildr wearing the helmet is going to defeat the Mire.  Yes, the Doctor has a conversation with her about stories and her apparent abilities of premonition, but her ability to transmit a hallucinatory snake monster into the Mire’s minds is a little fudged.  That said, during that scene between the Doctor and Ashildr I have to admit my mind wandered ever so slightly so I may have missed a salient point of dialogue.

Another criticism would be some iffy decisions on historical accuracy.  Before watching the episode, I read the preview in DWM which has the writer, Jamie Mathieson, commenting on why the Vikings, in this episode, have horns on their helmets.  He gives a bit of guff about that being what the audience would expect and it’s Doctor Who so of course they have to have horns.  Now, I’m usually one to defend the new series production teams from the baying mobs of the internet sitting behind their keyboards and griping about every last detail they don’t like, constantly implying that they are better writers, actors, producers, directors etc than any of the professionals, blind to the inconsistencies and prejudices of their arguments.  But I have to admit here that I mentally tutted when I read that quote.  I think Mathieson (and by proxy, the production team in general) is completely mistaken on that front.  The modern audience, with programmes like QI and Horrible Histories, is very aware of various myths and misunderstandings about history being debunked.  There is no reason for the Vikings in this story to have horned helmets so it seems an odd design decision.

The other sticking point is the aforementioned eels.  Chris Packham of the Really Wild Show went on record as being disappointed that Doctor Who has made such a glaring zoological error.  Electric eels only live in South America, principally the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.  How in Odin’s name did they get to Scandinavia?  Now, there may be a get out clause in the fact that the Vikings sailed to the Americas in their exploration of the world and there is a slim, very slim, outside chance that maybe they got down to the south and found exotic creatures such as electric eels and brought them back.  But it’s all very tenuous.  I’ve seen a theory that the script originally had Vikings lost in South America, which would reverse the issue, but overall I think this is a rather large fudge to allow the Mire to be defeated.  It seems a bit sloppy from the same writer as Flatline and Mummy on the Orient Express (and this is where people start wondering how much influence Moffat’s co-writing credit had on the story).
It is very difficult to place this story chronologically although A History goes with a, sitting on the fence, circa middle of the 9th Century dating.  There are next to no clues in the story as to a specific placing and the anachronistic details such as horned helmets and electric eels only compounds the problem.

The cast are all great value, particularly Maisie Williams as Ashildr.  It’s fairly common knowledge that Odin was originally to have been played by Brian Blessed.  He would have been awesome in the role and you can see how his particular brand of bombast would have suited the role.  In fact, David Schofield, whilst good in the part, seems to struggle a bit.  Maybe it’s because I knew the behind the scenes story, but I did feel that a lot of his dialogue/performance was Brian Blessed-lite and this felt I found him, ultimately, to be a slightly less effective baddie than I think he could have been in the hands of King Yrcarnos.  Even the various Viking farmers are well-acted and I particularly liked Ian Connigham as Chuckles and Tom Stourton as Lofty (the father to the plan-giving baby) who had a Rory-like air about him.

Historical inaccuracies aside, this was a fun episode which provides an intriguing springboard for the next episode.  Capaldi grew ever more likeable as the Doctor (for me) and Jenna Coleman continued to give good value as Clara (although there was an inevitable sense of treading water with her character, now that we knew she was leaving).  A good ‘pseudo-historical’ (although I think the title is a bit naff).