"The Girl Who Died" Grading and Discussion Thread

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Well, he did have co-writing credit...

I know. But anyway, I just felt it was forced and didn't connect with the story at all.

That reminds me: Moffat said he consulted with RTD about the face thing. Is that what they talked about, I wonder?

"Robot of Sherwood" was indeed terrible but it wasn't nearly as bad as "In the Forest of the Night." In either case, this episode was better simply because of Maisie Williams.

Man, why did you have to remind me of In the Forest of the Night? Damn, that was terrible indeed.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Oh, I forgot to mention before: I'm sure plenty of people we were thrilled when the Viking snapped the sonic sunglasses into two.

Spoilers: They'll be back next episode.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Also, there's the hyrbid talk again... Are we seriously to believe that we're going to learn the one thing we should never learn about the Doctor - the reason he left Gallifrey?

Oh, no...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

My concern is that, instead of making a verbal reference, or some kind of allusion, they just jumped straight in and replayed the 4 second clip without any kind of context or explanation. I can understand when they do stock footage flashbacks to earlier episodes in the same series (or even one before, if there are still plot arcs and character arcs ongoing), but the reference here was to an episode ninety months, two incarnations and a show-runner ago. If you hadn't seen The Fires of Pompei you might wonder what the hell you just saw.

Hmm. I'll have to see it in context, but that sounds like the kind of thing that really should be done in a pre-teaser "Previously on Doctor Who" segment.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

But the episode was too damn cheesy. Yeah, yeah, so were parts of the classic series, but stuff like the Python-esque head of Odin and the damn horned helmets are easily avoidable.

I thought it was a bit of a deliberate throwback as the story was kind of a classic-type story so the Captain was somewhat reminiscent of The Pirate Planet. Really, with A Town Called Mercy, The Skovox Blitzer and others nuWho has shown a tendency toward cheesy FX design.

EDIT: It's been a while since I've seen Holy Grail, seeing the God scene again I see what people mean

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Some things are becoming like Bad Wolf: snakes or snake-like creatures and hybrids. Is this foreshadowing of events in the latter half of the series?

 

[Saga]

it was a fun episode. certainly not the best, but not the worst either. i was happy to see the sonic shades so casually destroyed. next weeks episode looks more appealing to me.

 

[Mr Soak]

The Doctor talked about immortality being losing other people. Foreshadowing the departure of Clara?

 

[Vyse]

Mixed feelings. Really liked the bit on how they tricked the villains, especially with the "Benny Hill" bit, that was great. I like the story idea of Ashildr, it just felt lazy how she got immortality (though, I think the same of Captain Jack).

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I will be disappointed if Jack Harkness is not even mentioned next episode when dealing with the immortality issue.

Actually I want a scene with him, Ashildir and Rory the Roman hanging in a pub together exchanging stories about what they've been up to those last couple of centuries...

I loved the final shot of Ashildr watching the world turn around her going from happy, to sad to angry/bitter.

Curious to find out if she has used the immortality thingy by the time she meets the Doctor again, or not.

 

[Count Zero]

I really liked the episode and I felt generous enough to vote excellent. I appreciated that it was pretty straight forward and not a fast, overly complicated actiony thing.
Also, the face thing was finally resolved but in a reserved way and not as part of some ultimately nonsensical epic. Who would have thought Moffat capable of that?
The explanation was very Doctor-y, I felt. It was something the 10th Doctor would have done. A reference to Waters of Mars would have been nice when the Doctor went on about rules and what he shouldn't do. Maybe next week.

The Doctor talked about immortality being losing other people. Foreshadowing the departure of Clara?

A lot of his dialogue felt like foreshadowing of her leaving but on the other hand, there was also a device introduced to basically make her immortal. So, everything's possible. Maybe she leaves the show without actually dying.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Great. Being able to die without regenerating is the only thing keeping Clara from being the Doctor at this point.

Oh, and not having her own TARDIS or the know-how to use it. The Sonic Whatever she's already figured out.

 

[Count Zero]

Well, there is that future spin-off set at her school. So, maybe she'll follow in the footsteps of Sarah Jane, gets her own sonic device and fights monsters on Earth.

 

[Gov Kodos]

There's still that marriage proposal, too. Empress of the Universe.

 

[Jax]

I watch this show to be six again for an hour a week.

I don't and neither do most of the fan base who aren't children. Children make up a fraction of the audience base.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The explanation for the Doctor's face is nonsensical.

We're supposed to believe that the Doctor chose the face of someone he met briefly two regenerations and 1,200 years previous. Seriously?

 

[Count Zero]

It seems to have happened subconsciously. Otherwise he would have known right away after regeneration.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

The Doctor talked about immortality being losing other people. Foreshadowing the departure of Clara?

Yeah, I'm getting that feeling. They're foreshadowing the hell out of Clara dying.

 

[Mr Light]

Well, I didn't hate the episode as much as the rest of you, but I didn't think it was that great either. I was basically waiting the whole episode to find out why Maisie Williams was important. And THAT'S the big explanation for Capaldi's face?! Talk about anti-climactic! If that was the only reason you could have easily covered it in his very first appearance!

I'm looking forward to seeing where part two goes though.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

It seems to have happened subconsciously. Otherwise he would have known right away after regeneration.

Oh, I get that. But it's still random. I just don't see Caecilius making THAT much of an impression on the Doctor that he'd even, subconsciously, model his face on him.