This will be a spoiler-free review, but I will have a ‘reveal box’ full of spoiler information and speculation.
Series 7 Part 2, #6 of 8:
Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax travel to Northern England to investigate the appearance of bright red and waxy bodies washing up on the riverbanks of Sweetville. Will they figure out what’s going on and how the Doctor and Clara are involved before they all are lost to the Crimson Horror! FIRST BROADCAST: 4th MAY 2013
“I strongly advise the issuing of scissor grenades, limbo vapor, and triple blast brain splitters. Remember, we are going…to the North!”
This is more like it! After last weeks underwhelming installment, Doctor Who hits it stride again with a murder mystery tale set in the North of England during the 19th Century. Would you expect any less with a setting like that? Time and time again (excuse the pun), Doctor Who has nailed representing the Victorian era thanks to the resources of the BBC costume department.
We open with our recurring trio of Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her assistant/wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and Sontaran butler Strax (Dan Starkey) still living in London in 1893. They are hired by a man to investigate his brothers death, taking the case because a piece of technology shows the last thing the man saw before his murder was the Doctor. The case takes them to a Yorkshire village where dead bodies keep appearing, washed up on the river with their skin turned to a waxy crimson, something the locals have begun referring to as the “Crimson Horror.”
A strange cult has popped up in town lead by one Mrs. Gillyflower (played magnificently by Dame Diana Rigg (The Avengers [TV], Game of Thrones, Julius Caesar) preaching about the End of Days and proposing people turn their back on corrupt society and join her in the haven that is Sweetville. Essentially a gated community where only the pure can go and be kept from moral corruption. Vastra and co. throw themselves into the village and this Sweetville cult to uncover the mysteries behind the Crimson Horror and how the Doctor is involved.
“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.”
The story from writer Mark Gatiss (who wrote the recent episode Cold War also) is familiar: a safe, idyllic place with something nefarious going on behind the scenes. But it is conceived and delivered in such a great way that the familiarity doesn’t matter. The action is think and fast, the humor is peppered liberally throughout, and the cast all excel in their roles. The whole production, including costume, sets, and even filter choices just nail the period and add to the whole aesthetic of the episode. Indeed once we find the Doctor we get a fantastic flashback using a sepia/old film stock effect to show how he ended up in his predicament. It could have been a mishandled exposition scene but instead was handled surprisingly well and just oozed with playfulness.
Cast wise, Matt Smith delivers as usual when he does finally appear in the episode — he even gets to adopt a Yorkshire accent! (Think Ned Stark/Sean Bean in Game of Thrones). Clara continues to develop and shows some great savvy and detective skills to complement the Doctor well. But it is the supporting cast that not only rise to the occasion here but are the real gems of this episode. The Victorian detective trio of Vastra, Jenn and Strax was first brought together in last seasons A Good Man Goes to War and more recently appeared in the 2012 Christmas special, The Snowmen. That special was also the first appearance of Clara so expect some confusion on their part when they find her seemingly alive and well. Together they utterly steal this episode. There is a great rapport and immensely quotable one liners (Strax is comedy gold), so it’s easy to see why there are whispers of a potential spinoff show. Dame Diana Rigg also features as mentioned earlier and is excellent in her sinister role as Mrs. Gillyflower. A British institution, she is perhaps best known for her role as Emma Peel in The Avengers TV series (and we get a lovely homage to that with a costume choice for Jenny) and also being the woman who finally tamed and married James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Right now she is portraying one of the greatest characters in Game of Thrones, that being the Queen of Thorns herself, Lady Oleanna of House Tyrell. She conveys her devotion to the cause as well as her insanity very admirably and soars in scenes where she interacts with her blind daughter Ada (Rachael Stirling), who is a corrupted accomplice to her schemes. Sterling is actually Riggs’s real life daughter and this is their first time working together, so that may be why the screen electrifies when the two of them are onscreen together.
The overall plot is a bit silly, there are some what-the-fuck and “really?!?” moments if you analyze things too deeply, but I found myself just sitting back and really enjoying the whole episode. There were high points: a representation of a dark culty version of the Women’s Institute leading a rendition of the beloved English hymn “Jerusalem” being one. The whole episode was peppered with fun nods such as Madame Vastra’s front door being painted TARDIS blue, a shoutout to a Forth Doctor companion, or a boy called Thomas Thomas giving Strax directions (like a Victorian GPS). This bit of silliness played against the creepy horror of the episode beautifully but really, who can’t help but be won over by any script that can work in a Monty Python reference.
“Strax! You’re over excited! Have you been eating those jelly sherbet fancies again? “
SPOILERS AND SPECULATION HO! CLICK HERE TO VIEW
The episode essentially plays to the Noah’s Ark/Moonraker plot of destroying the Earth except for a few ‘pure’ chosen ones. In this case, the morally uncorrupted. Mrs Gillyflower’s selections lead to them being preserved in a paralytic venom and then sealed in bell jars, a pretty unsettling visual when shown on screen. The venom being the product of a parasitic/symbiotic creature, a prehistoric red leech, know as ‘Mr Sweet’. It was a rather cheesy visual but tempering that with the reveal of Mrs Gillyflower experimenting on her own daughter with the venom, effectively causing her blindness, makes the scene work.
The only real spoiler of not and event of future consequence is that at the end of the episode, upon her return to her present, Clara is confronted by the children she takes care of with evidence of her traveling through time. Images from a Russian sub and Victorian times specifically. One of these pictures is not one of her, but of her previous incarnation in The Snowmen. The next episode will be interesting in how they handle her discovering this…but I am also wary of whether throwing ‘cute kids’ onto the TARDIS will actually happen. Their discovery prompting a request to join her on a journey through time.
Essentially this episode was a rehash of the villains plot from Moonraker… but it doesn’t matter, as it was imbued with richness and fun and was a perfect example of a period-setting Who episode done right. It was fun and flew along at a great pace while liberally peppered with darker moments. A real showcase for the writing, production, casting and acting talents of the show all round.