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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Written by

Mark Gatiss

Directed by

Saul Metzstein

Runtime

45 minutes

Story Type

Companion-Lite

Time Travel

Past

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Bleak Resort, LGBTQA+

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, Yorkshire

UK Viewers

6.47 million

Appreciation Index

85

Synopsis

In 1893, the Eleventh Doctor's old friends, Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax find an optogram of the Doctor on a victim of the mysterious "crimson horror". They head for Yorkshire, where Jenny infiltrates Mrs Winifred Gillyflower's community of Sweetville to find what has happened to him.

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Reviews

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6 reviews

So much fun when there isn’t someone telling you that it’s bad.


Sp1derandthefly

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This review contains spoilers!

A woefully underrated story and easily one of Mark Gatiss’ very best episodes, my favourite since The Unquiet Dead. He is playing to his strengths with the Victorian era setting, summoning a really beautiful story in a season which has lacked stories with this level of clarity of thought.

Diana Rigg and daughter provide the story excellent antagonists, giving it a unique flavour. When you add to this another outing for the fabulous Paternoster Gang and the horrific surprise that is Mr Sweet, you get an incredibly unique production.

The look of the story is stunning. Some victims in bell jars, others who are blood red. Empty factories with giant gramophones engineering fake noises. Blood sucking parasites. It’s a truly wild story. And a brilliant showcase of how to do a Doctor and companion lite story - by giving over the first 14 minutes to Strax, Jenny and Vastra. It makes Matt and Jenna’s reveal all the sweeter.

How could it be better? The villainous plan could be slightly tighter - it doesn’t share the same vision as the rest of the story. Also - the season arc truly gets in the way, with Artie and Angie randomly popping up at the end ahead of Nightmare in Silver. They are wielding unlikely photos of Clara throughout time that have come from… somewhere? An unwelcome distraction.


15thDoctor

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Not a massive fan of this, it was a little too silly for my tastes and I wasn't a massive fan of the plot. Thought the pacing was a bit all over the place too. Probably my least favourite episode of Series 7 overall.


AndyUK

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This review contains spoilers!

The Red Scare

Prerequisites: A few scenes only make sense given the context of The Snowmen and The Bells of Saint John, but they aren't strictly necessary.

Spoilers!
The Crimson Horror is yet another pretty mediocre story in a season full of mediocrity already. To be fair, I do like some elements on display here. I always enjoy the Paternoster Gang, and the flashback with the Doctor and Clara is a pretty fun exposition dump. However... that's about it. Not only is the plot unremarkable, but I find the villain's motivations to be nearly completely nonsensical and incomprehensible. How did she find out what Mr. Sweet could do? How did they build a rocket in Victorian times? Is there any motivation at all beyond 'she's crazy'? These are all questions I had, and none of them received satisfactory answers. Plus, 11 behaves weirdly sexually here (kissing Jenny without warning, getting a sonic 'boner'), and I really don't like that. That all being said, this isn't an actively painful watch. It's just not good.


Callandor

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Re watching this episode made me realise how much I slept on matt Smith as a doctor . I always loved Clara 😍 🥰 


Jenny

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Statistics

AVG. Rating740 members
2.88 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,343 votes
3.82 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1581

Favourited

64

Reviewed

6

Saved

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Skipped

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Quotes

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STRAX: And how will she locate the Doctor?

VASTRA: To find him, she needs only ignore all keep-out signs, go through every locked door, and run towards any form of danger that presents itself.

STRAX: Business as usual, then.

VASTRA: Business as usual.

Transcript Needs checking

[Factory corridor]

(Yorkshire 1893. In a small town perched on the side of a hill, with factories belching smoke down by the river.)

EDMUND: If I have not returned in an hour, you must fetch the police.
EFFIE: Edmund!

(She kisses her husband.)

EDMUND: Don't fret, Effie, my dear. All will be well, but we must get to the bottom of this dark and queer business no matter what the cost.


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