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The Doctor joins a Viking Highlander on a heist plotted by The Lion King

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The Twelfth Doctor has been led by his aptly named curioscanner on a solo mission to England in 1651, to track down an exoplanetary artefact of deadliest purple. But there’s a brigand lurking in this particular forest of the night – a former Viking!

Ashildr, now hundreds of years old, amnesiac and disillusioned, has teamed up with mysterious leonine fire-belching Voord-hider extraordinaire, Leandro, and is about to pull off one last, big score before she can finally blast off this boring rock.

Seemingly serendipitously stumbling upon each other, mid-penultimate-heist, Doc and Ashildr, now rebranded as “Me!” team up, though Doc hopes to evoke in his won’t-be companion a sense of decency and nostalgia. Also, the world is at stake.

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Here's what we think of N123 The Woman Who Lived

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

3.5

Drew | @drewbackwhen

4.3

Marie | @hammashandjelly

4.2

Featuring
The Twelfth Doctor
Clara Oswald
Ashildr aka Me
Leonians
Here's what we think of N123 The Woman Who Lived

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

3.5

Drew | @drewbackwhen

4.3

Marie | @hammashandjelly

4.2

Here's what you think 2 Responses to “N123 The Woman Who Lived”
  1. Eddie Rock | @TheEddieRock

    As a big fan of the previous episode, I’m sad to say this follow-up left me very disappointed. I loved Ashildr but for the majority of the episode I strongly disliked Lady Me. I yelled “I hate Me” so much at the TV that my roommate brought me a Zoloft. Her disinterest in humanity should have been more subtle and not something she said in almost every sentence she spoke. I think they tried to capture the feeling of the last episode’s “quirky yet deep” feeling again here and just missed the mark.

    The secondary antagonist was corny and cheap. A fire-breathing lion man from Leonis? That’s just lazy. The plot was thin and clearly only there to flimsily connect to Me’s journey to enlightenment.

    It wasn’t all bad though. Unlike The Doctor, I love banter and puns! They made Sam Swift the most enjoyable part of this episode. Especially their stand up routine on the gallows. How could you “knot” like that?

    One thing that confused me though. I thought the tech he gave Ashildr was supposed to continue to heal her. And yet, they made a point of saying she could be killed as easily as anyone else. With everything she did in her life and how long she ultimately ends up living for, it’s inconceivable she would not be killed in some completely human way.

    In conclusion, this was a subpar episode in my opinion and I give it a 1.7 out of 5 half blind and deaf man servants. Until next time, Rock on

    October 11, 2020 at 5:42 pm
    Reply
  2. Michael Ridgway | @bad_movie_club

    Beefs:

    • I wanted a bad-ass evil Ashildr, as per goddamn teased at the end of Girl Who Died. I wanted her robbing people, killing them anyway, making musical instruments out of their innards – Hannibal Lector on Ketamine. There’s the odd powerful moment – the scene with the baby cribs is heartbreaking. But most of her backstory is too cartoony and Ashildr is too arrogant and whiny.
    • How can she forget everything? Is this really how memory works? I get the need to keep diaries but it’s not like she has Alzheimers. Highlander never had this problem.
    • “It’s a lion man!” – you only just friggin’ noticed!? He’s been wandering around in broad daylight for 10 minutes. Plus, another total throwaway baddie. (Were the producers going for a Beauty and the Beast thing, but with the Beast as a baddie? It feels like Forrest of the Shite where they had half a good idea with Red Riding Hood but couldn’t be bothered to see it through).
    • “You can’t come with me because blah blah (cough, bullshit)”. What the hell, Doctor! You’re totally discriminating over the immortality thing – you could get sued! And producers, it feels like you just can’t afford Maisie Williams. Maisie Williams as a companion would be awesome!

    Like:

    • The photo at the end was creepy. Perhaps she’ll be bad-ass next time, right? Right? But fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you again! So in anticipation of being let down again, I’m counting this as another beef for raising expectations.

    Summary: The Emperor has given you thumbs down.

    Rating: 0.8/5 lionmen doing basically nothing. Yawn.

    October 11, 2020 at 5:43 pm
    Reply

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