The Girl Who Died

"The Girl Who Died" is the fifth episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 17 October 2015. It is written by Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat and directed by Ed Bazalgette.

The episode is set in a "little Viking village where all the warriors have just been slaughtered". The Doctor and Clara have 12 hours to train some farmers into warriors when Ashildr (Maisie Williams) declares war upon the Mire.^[1]

Plot

Under attack from a battle fleet, the Doctor rescues Clara from asphyxiation in space by materialising the TARDIS around her. He lands the TARDIS on Earth, and they are captured by Vikings. The Doctor tries to frighten them by brandishing his sonic sunglasses, but an unimpressed Viking simply breaks them. The Doctor attempts to use his "magic" to impress the Vikings into letting them go. He claims to be Odin, but they dismiss him as an impostor. Suddenly, an image of Odin appears in the sky, commending the Viking warriors' bravery and inviting them to Valhalla. A squad of armoured suits arrive, using weapons that appear to disintegrate the warriors. The Doctor deduces they are using advanced imaging to target the warriors and teleport them away; Clara tells Ashildr, a young woman from the village, to use part of the sonic sunglasses to remove her chains, the two women are struck by the weapons after the sonic technology was scanned. The armoured suits disappear, leaving the Doctor alone with the non-warriors of the village.

Clara, Ashildr, and the Vikings Warriors find themselves aboard a spacecraft. The male Vikings are killed and drained of their adrenaline and testosterone, but Clara and Ashildr are spared. They meet "Odin", who is actually the leader of the Mire, a species that prides itself on its merciless reputation. Clara attempts to negotiate peace, but Ashildr, enraged by what she has seen, declares war for her people. "Odin" states he will launch an attack in 24 hours and returns Clara and Ashildr to the surface, to the relief of the Doctor. Clara brings the Doctor up to date, and the Doctor encourages the remaining villagers to abandon the village until the Mire have left. They refuse, willing to make a stand despite their lack of battle skills. The Doctor attempts to train them to fight, but they are far too weak and incompetent to stand up to the Mire. The Doctor tries to devise another plan. He discovers that Ashildr is a storyteller who uses homemade articulated puppets. Able to understand "Baby", he translates for the blacksmith's baby, who is crying about the "fire in the water". The Doctor realises that this refers to the electric eels that the fishermen have caught, and this becomes the basis of his plan to save the villagers.

When the Mire arrive the next day, they find the villagers having a party. Confused by this reaction, they hesitate to attack. The villagers use the electricity generated by the eels to overload the Mire's battle suits, and to power a makeshift electromagnet that removes a Mire helmet. The Doctor quickly modifies the helmet and gives it to Ashildr to wear. Mental images from her stories are relayed through the helmets to the other Mire, and the invaders "see" a dragon attacking them. The soldiers flee, leaving "Odin" behind. The Doctor reveals that the dragon was just one of Ashildr's puppets augmented by her imagination, and that Clara has recorded the Mire's terrified rout. He threatens to broadcast the recording throughout the galaxy unless the Mire leave the planet in peace. "Odin" fears loss of reputation more than an actual loss in combat, and the Mire ship departs.

The villagers are in a celebratory mood, but the Doctor discovers that Ashildr is dead; the strain of using the helmet caused heart failure. The Doctor is upset, and Clara tries to console him, to no avail. While angrily ranting about the fact that he can never save everyone, the Doctor sees his reflection and realises why he chose his face, that of Caecilius (whom he had previously saved in "The Fires of Pompeii"): to remind himself to always save someone, no matter what. This inspires him to break the "rules" again to save Ashildr. He modifies a computer chip from the Mire helmet and implants it in Ashildr's body; he gives her father a second modified chip to be given to her later. The chip regenerates her and she revives. The villagers are celebratory again. The Doctor confides to Clara that what he has done may be worse than death; the implanted chip will never stop working, making Ashildr effectively immortal. As the Doctor and Clara depart, the Doctor explains that immortality is not simply the inability of a person to die, but the agony of watching everyone they care about die; the second chip is for Ashildr to give away when she finds someone she cannot stand to live without. The final scene is a time lapse shot of Ashildr watching the world age around her, her expression changing from elation and wonder, to sorrow and misery, and finally hostility.

Continuity

After meeting the Vikings, the Doctor produces a yo-yo in an attempt to impress them with "magic". A former companion, Leela, believes a yo-yo is magical when the Fourth Doctor provides her one to play with (Robots of Death). The Twelfth Doctor previously used one simply to test the gravity in 2014's "Kill the Moon",^[2] as did the Fourth Doctor in "The Ark in Space".^[3]

The Doctor is seen leafing through a book entitled "2000 Year Diary", an upgraded version of the 500 Year Diary belonging to the Second Doctor (Power of the Daleks)^[3][4] and the 900 Year Diary of the Seventh Doctor (Survival).^[4]

The Doctor's ability to "speak baby" is demonstrated again in this episode. It appeared previously in the Eleventh Doctor stories "A Good Man Goes to War" and "Closing Time".^[4]

As he is adapting a Mire helmet, the Doctor claims he is "reversing the polarity of the neutron flow", a phrase said many times in various ways during Doctor Who, beginning with the Third Doctor.^[2]

David Tennant and Catherine Tate appear in flashbacks as the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble, respectively, in scenes from "The Fires of Pompeii" in which Peter Capaldi also starred. A flashback from "Deep Breath", the eighth series' opening episode, also appears as the Doctor finally understands why he chose his current face.

The Doctor says Ashildr is now a "hybrid," echoing a prophecy related by Davros in "The Magician's Apprentice" / "The Witch's Familiar" – two great warrior races, the Time Lords and the Daleks, would merge to become a "hybrid". It now appears that, instead, it is a merger between Vikings and the Mire.^[5]

At the end of the episode, the Doctor reflects on the potential consequences of his decision to save Ashildr, and possibly making her immortal, by saying "time will tell, it always does". This is a statement the Seventh Doctor uses at the end of Remembrance of the Daleks, referring to his decision to destroy Davros and Skaro, and whether it was a 'good' decision.^[2]

Outside references

Odin's face appearing in the sky to talk to his disciples directly references a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which God does the same thing.^[3]

Clara suggests, and the Doctor agrees, that the The Benny Hill Show's theme song be used as the soundtrack for the video of Odin and the other Mire retreating from the dragon puppet. She even plays a few seconds' clip with the tune Yakety Sax's opening notes added.^[3]

Production

Casting

Odin was originally to have been played by Brian Blessed, who had previously played King Yrcanos in 1986's Mindwarp, and had been offered the role of the Second Doctor in 1966.^[6] Blessed, however, was forced to pull out, and was replaced by David Schofield.^[7]

Broadcast and reception

Doctor Who came second for the day with 4.63 million viewers in overnight ratings, an increase from the previous episode. Overall the episode had 6.56 million viewers, the highest figure of the series thus far, with a 28.1% share. It received an Appreciation Index score of 82.^[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer)	94%[9]
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score)	8.1[9]
The A.V Club	A[10]
Paste Magazine	9.6[11]
SFX Magazine	[12]
TV Fanatic	[13]
IndieWire	A++[14]
IGN	8.8[15]
New York Magazine	[16]
Daily Telegraph	[17]
Radio Times	[18]

The episode received very positive reviews from critics, with many praising the episode's humour, the resolution with regards to the Doctor's face, and the performances of Capaldi, Coleman and Williams.^[19][20][21] The episode also achieved a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 8.1. The site's consensus reads "With a stellar guest-star performance by Maisie Williams, "The Girl Who Died" sets thrillingly high stakes, while still maintaining the playful tone we've come to expect from Peter Capaldi's incarnation of Doctor Who".^[22]

Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded the episode a perfect five star rating, claiming that "Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat invest a traditional formula with a twist of unpredictability and immortality". He further went on to say that the episode "taps into a very traditional vein but again slyly transcends it, and achieves that holy grail of TV drama – unpredictability", also claiming that "everything that is meant to be funny is funny and the sad moments are sad", while praising the episode's direction as "impeccable".^[23] Scott Collura of IGN also lavished praise onto the episode, awarding it a score of 8.8/10, deemed by the site as "great". He especially praised Capaldi's performance, labelling it "big and touching", while also enjoying "the introduction of Maisie Williams' character" and the episodes "big thematic touches". He summarised his review by stating "Doctor Who continues its strong season with the much-anticipated arrival of Maisie Williams as “The Girl Who Died.” While the revelation of who her character actually is may come as something of a letdown for longtime fans, the episode itself and its bigger thematic touches more than make up for that".^[19] Catherine Gee of The Daily Telegraph also enjoyed the episode, calling it "fast paced" and claiming that it "set up all the right ingredients for something big next week". She also said "The attack and battle sequence zipped through at speed. If it felt a little rushed it didn't hugely matter, as it was clearly setting up for a bigger second half".^[24]

Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club highly acclaimed the episode, awarding it a perfect "A" grade – the first of this series – and stated that "the writing, the acting, the directing combine to create what is quite possibly the best episode yet of this Doctor’s tenure". He called the episode "fantastically funny whenever it wants to be", but also heavily praised the subplot of the Doctor's face, calling the reveal "wonderfully simple". He closed his review by labeling the episode "a damn triumph. More than that, it’s a triumph because it feels so resolutely like a Doctor Who episode", and stated that the episode "remembers that what motivates the Doctor’s decisions are fundamentally the same emotions that we all feel, and that’s what makes this such a brilliant hour of television".^[20] Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy also praised the episode, calling it "unlike anything you've seen before". He called the episode "fast-paced, with sharp, funny dialogue and some great clowning from Peter Capaldi" and further praising Williams' as "nicely ethereal in the part, without ever overplaying the character's enigmatic nature". He closed his review by saying "while Doctor Who shouldn't be like this every week, the show's boundless variety has always been its biggest selling point, and it's refreshing to see 'The Girl Who Died' break the mould and dare to be entirely unpredictable and different".^[21]

Kaite Welsh of IndieWire also acclaimed the episode, awarding it an A++ grade, the highest score available. She stated that the episode marked the "fifth stellar episode in a row", and stated that it represented "the show doing historical episodes as they're meant to be done. It's like "Fires of Pompeii," "Robot of Sherwood" and classic Third Doctor adventure "The Time Warrior" all mixed into one—literally—electrifying episode".^[25] Mark Rozeman of Paste Magazine also responded highly positive to the episode, awarding it a score of 9.6 and saying that it "stands up remarkably as its own story". They closed their review by stating "As with the best Who adventures, it explores more complexities of time travel, whilst never losing a sense of whimsy and fun. It’s another homerun in a season that, so far, has a pretty great batting average".^[26]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Twelfth Doctor

• "The Girl Who Died" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "The Girl Who Died" on TARDIS Data Core, an external wiki
• "The Girl Who Died" at Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• "The Girl Who Died" at the Internet Movie Database