Amy splits off to her own time stream where she becomes a samurai hacker and turns Rory into the helpless robot she always wanted. It's great!
The Twelfth Doctor, Clara and a Viking girl he reverse-remembers meeting at a later date set up Home Alone traps for a Monty Python God
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Fresh from buying a planet one extra day of terror, Doc crushes a Love Sprite that had a crush on Clara, then makes an emergency landing on the nearest patch of grass to wipe it from his boot. But there are silent warriors lurking in this particular forest of the night – Vikings!
The Valhalla-pining Valkyrie-fanciers bind them in chains and march them to their village. But halfway through Twelve’s tried-and-tested hypnosis by yo-yo, the great god Odin appears in the clouds and promises the butch half of the populace a VIP pass to paradise.
Capaldi Voord-hides his way out of immediate peril, but pocket tinderbox Ashildr Chucklesdottir manages to piss off the manjuice-chugging general of the Mire, giving the exasperated Doctor 24 hours to train his raw rejects into a badass brigade of bearded bug-beaters.
One of the weirdest Doctor Who 2-parters ever. When I originally saw this season I somehow missed this episode but had seen the next one. As a result, I got a rather rare treat for me: an old episode of NuWho I had not seen before. Fun times.
Sontarans:
—Introduction of a new immortal. I can see the Big Finish Ashildr/Jack/Clara adventures from here.
—What a great actress to get to play Ashildr.
—Is Sky Odin making a Monty Python reference?
—The Rube Goldberg machine for scaring the mire was a little weird but I liked it and it seemed to fit well with Doctor Who.
—I liked the cloud looking ship.
—It was great we got the face of the MOW (monster of the week) even though it wasn’t required.
—I like Doc’s talk about ripples and tidal waves.
Pigslaves:
—Why can these medkits make you immortal and why hasn’t anyone else thought of this?
—How long has this kidnap the warrior routine been going on? It seems like this isn’t the first time but then Sky Odin seems to take all of the warriors.
—Why can’t Sky Odin extract the chemicals from animals or synthesise them himself?
—Why are the Mire called the most powerful? This seems like a tradition of Doctor Who. Whatever the MOW is, it has to be the most dangerous deadly warrior. This has been done with the Dalek, Cybermen, Skovox Blitzer, Raston Warriors, Mire, Sontarans, and even the Romans. The Mire don’t even seem particularly scary.
—They are the worst henchmen since the robots from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.
RATING: 4.1 Sky Odins
Time to Rock another mini, Viking style. After the complicated sci-fi of last time, this is a wonderfully silly and fun “historical” with lots of laughs and its share of smart, deep moments. Clara shows off how capable she is, while at the same time reinforcing how dangerously reckless she has become when she flat-out ignores The Doctor and gets them captured. He once again points out to her what she’s becoming and she brushes it off.
The heartfelt moments later with The Doctor and Ashildr are fantastic and the big reveal behind the meaning of his face is uncovered after a season and a half. I absolutely love their reasoning behind it. The day saving plan was fun and exactly something you’d expect The Doctor to come up with. I felt this episode is a perfect display of everything the show is best at. Whether it’s comedy, intelligence, mystery or emotional resonance. As well as a unique and formidable villain.
The emotional journey with Ashildr is great. She goes from charming youngster, to obnoxious Viking, to heart warming dreamer who saves the day. In that last shot alone, her face conveys everything from the wonders of immortality to pitying her loneliness and maybe even a sense of danger from her (hybrid?). Without a single word being spoken. Very impressive stuff.
I give this episode a well deserved 4.5 out of 5 god-like yoyos. Till next time, Rock on
Likes:
Beefs:
Trivia: We’ve had Vikings at least twice before in Classic ‘Who: in Carry on Time Meddling: and the Seventh Doctor’s AMAZING The Curse of Fenric.
Summary: Doctor Who does Seven Samurai has its moments – and is better than the Mandalorian’s effort (which probably had $1.5 billion more budget).
Rating: 2.7/5 of the finest Viking warriors pulped into liquid testosterone for a tasty Mire treat. Yuk.
Bing bong. It the second doctor had a 500 year diary, not 200 year. http://www.doodlecraftblog.com/2014/11/patrick-troughton-500-year-diary-mini.html