Who Review: The Crimson Horror
The Victorian detective team of Madame Vastra (Silurian), Jenny (Human), and Strax (Sontaran) return to try to solve the mystery of the Crimson Horror. They become embroiled when a Mr. Thursday asks them to look into the death of his brother. He was one of a number of red corpses turning up in the river. An old Romani myth says that a dead person’s eyes retain an image of the last thing they saw. With Thursday’s brother, the myth holds true. So why is the last thing he saw the Doctor? And what is the real horror behind Mrs. Gillyflower and her safe haven from the Apocalypse, Sweetville?
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
“The Crimson Horror,” is Mark Gatiss’ second offering for this season. This episode is also the 100th episode of the new series. It seems Steven Moffat wanted to tell a story from Vastra, Jenny, and Strax’s viewpoint, which is why the Doctor isn’t in it for the first third of the story, and Mark Gatiss wanted to write something for Diana Rigg and her daughter, Rachael Sterling. But as with “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS,” the story is not merely a pretext. It’s a strong, well-developed story, with an excellent script. The idea of using a prehistoric poison to wipe out humanity, but using a diluted form to preserve “the very best” for Mrs. Gillyflower’s Utopia, is a novel twist on a popular “Noah’s Ark” theme (already seen twice in Doctor Who: “The Ark” from 1966, and “The Ark in Space” from 1974).
I’m in two minds about the Vastra-Jenny-Strax team. On the one hand, they seem to be an awkward fit in Doctor Who, perhaps because at least Vastra and Strax are out-of-character for their species. Silurians may be at peace with humans, but for Vastra to have a human companion, and try to assist humans in this capacity, perhaps goes a bit too far. And Strax is pure comic relief, though I understand he’s serving a sentence for dishonoring his gene batch by doing something shameful: helping the weak. But he seems to be enjoying it a little too much! Nevertheless, they work as characters, and I actually enjoyed them.
I laughed at the reference to the problems the Doctor had trying to get a “gobby Australian” back to London–clearly referring to the Fifth Doctor’s attempts to take Tegan Jovanka back to Heathrow after she became stranded on board the TARDIS in 1981 and ended up staying for about three years. And then he turns to Clara and says, “Brave heart, Clara.” “Brave heart” was something the Fifth Doctor used to say to Tegan. (BTW, I thought the use of turn-of-the-century-looking film for when the Doctor’s recounting what happened to him was a creative way to do a flashback.)
It appears the Doctor and Clara ended up in Victorian Yorkshire by accident–he was trying to get to Victorian London. When they meet up with the trio, Jenny reminds the Doctor more than once that Clara’s dead. Of course, the Clara they knew was the Clara from “The Snowmen.” This story, then, was set not long after “The Snowmen.” Why was the Doctor trying to take Clara to London at the time Victorian Clara died?
At the end, Clara’s back home in the present day (interestingly, she doesn’t live 24/7 on the TARDIS as previous companions did), but she’s been busted. Her young charges have come upon pictures of Clara from 1983 and 1974… and also one from Victorian London. But Clara knows that can’t be her. Rather than advancing what we know about Clara, this episode seems to alert Clara to the fact that something strange is going on. What do you think?
Update: My wife picked up on something I missed. The boy who gives Strax directions is called Thomas Thomas. TomTom is a Dutch developer of GPS systems. That explains why Thomas speaks to Strax like a GPS system! Click here to watch the scene.
If you saw this episode, please share your thoughts: the comments are open for as-spoilery-as-you-want discussion (though I encourage you to restrict your comments to this particular episode)! My review of the next episode, “The Silver Nightmare” is coming up later today…
I was very amused by The Doctor’s attempt at a Yorkshire accent. ^^
I don’t mind this Detective team but I do find that they can be very over the top at times. To be honest I found most of the actors, apart from Clara and the Doctor to be OTT, especially Diana Rigg’s character.
I don’t know, I think I’m still a bit undecided about this episode.
Like I said, I’m not sure exactly how I feel about the detective team. There’s something unbelievable about them, and yet I like the way they interact. I’m not sure if they’re like watching an accident, or like watching an episode of a Disney kid’s show that you hate to admit is actually quite funny.
I thought the story was good (even if some of the acting was a bit theatrical), though I’m still not sure why the Doctor wanted to take Clara to Victorian London at the time Victorian Clara died. That, perhaps, is a bigger mystery than the Crimson Horror! 🙂
The best bit of this episode for me was the way Strax listed all the weapons they needed to take with them, because they were going ‘up north’. I’m sure it’s not necessary to carry *all* of them up to the north, we’re not that bad! I also liked the SatNav directions the boy gave, but I didn’t pick up on his name being TomTom.
I thought this episode was half-decent, but I agree with the theatricality of the acting. I also didn’t realise for a while why Jenny was saying Clara was dead, until I remembered when they had last seen her. I liked the opening scenes, where the Doctor’s face was the last thing the dead man saw, and I wondered how his face had ended up imprinted on the eyes – surely he hadn’t killed the man.
That was a good way to start the episode. And, like I’ve said before, I’m in two minds about Strax/Jenny/Vastra. Good comic relief (especially Strax), and they make me smile, but it can border on being too much, and sometimes out of place. Maybe that lends to a sense of the “theatrical.” I’m not sure. I think I can see what you mean by some “theatrical” acting, but it didn’t bother me too much. There again, I grew up on classic Who, which was made back when all BBC dramas were performed as if it was theatre! 🙂