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Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror - Spoiler-free review



There’s something very odd about Mrs Gillyflower’s Sweetville mill, with its perfectly clean streets and beautiful people. There’s something even stranger about the bodies washing up in the river, all bright red and waxy. When the Doctor and Clara go missing, it’s up to Vastra, Jenny and Strax to rescue them before they too fall victim to the Crimson Horror!

Every series has its low points, and I feel that The Crimson Horror is one of the lower points of Series 7. It had its very good moments, but the silly moments were so silly that they ruined the scary and dramatic ones.

Strax finally gets out of the tux.
One of my major gripes was that the first half felt more like a Paternoster Gang pilot than a Doctor Who episode. Maybe to others this is a plus, but I've never liked these characters in their three previous appearances and now was no different, especially Strax, who is still making ridiculous grenade jokes. 

Ada, played by Rachael Stirling.
Still, while I didn't much like the Gang’s part in the story, it certainly started out good, and the bodies looked pretty horrifying. Rachael Stirling’s was incredible as Ada, and you almost feel her pain.  As annoying as Strax was, he did have a few badass scenes near the end which almost made me like him. The scene with the Doctor and Clara was well done, short as it was, and had a lovely reference to the Fifth Doctor’s era. The prosthetics for Ada and the bodies looked very convincing, though there was another prosthetic which the same can't be said of.

The Doctor investigates.
Overall, this was an episode with an interesting idea that was let down in the execution. The  villain’s motivation is never totally  explained, and Ada is just about the only character who is well developed. However, it’s not a truly bad episode, with some truly creepy moments and great chemistry between the Doctor and Clara. I've settled on a 7/10.

10 comments:

TheCrimsonDevil said...

Sounds interesting... :-O

I like the Partnernoster Gang, so I'll probably enjoy this more than you :-P

Cult_Of_The_Mechonoid said...

As I said, may be a plus for many. :P

Matthew Bagnall said...

The only appeal this episode had in the mindset of many of the fans is that this would be the 'Doctor lite' episode which would focus more on Vastra, Jenny and Strax. Most especially
Vastra and Jenny who many fans have wanted a spin-off show about - mostly due to the fact they are lesbians more than their actual worth as characters.

Strax once again returns - which is a major downside for me. I enjoyed his character in Demons run however the continuing jokes based around himself or his misunderstanding of human culture are no longer funny and just remove all liking i have for his character.

Meanwhile i still dislike the fact you stated great 'chemistry between the Doctor and Clara' which brings up another one of my issues with the last episode. Seeing as the Doctor essentially messed with the time stream and thus noone should remember the last episode other than maybe some residual memories... thus the Doctor should still be trying to figure out who Clara is rather than start accepting her more as it seems you are stating.

Anyway, i go into this episode with very little hope for a good episode and just hoping it doesnt drag on too long so that we can get to the finale and be done with this season which so far has just been disappointment after disappointment with the only good episode so far being 'cold war' solely due to it not ruining the Ice Warriors completely - though the creature inside the suit looked stupid.

Verroak Barkfeather said...

If you guys say this is bad compared to the rest of the series, it's probably gonna be atrocious. Oh my.

Tom Shearsmith MYP said...

George feels it's bad, I feel it's the best of the series. Quite a difference... :P

Cult_Of_The_Mechonoid said...

The Doctor can generally remember wiped timelines.

Matthew Bagnall said...

Maybe the Doctor can... yet every members of the salvage ship remembers it in fractions (Despite the statement on the ship being that it was not actually happening and was an alternate future created by the TARDIS) and have their lives altered by remembering

No matter how you look at it, solving a time travel series episode with time travel is way too simple and by mere definition over-used. So far Moffat has done it multiple times (At least once per series) including;

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon/The Wedding of River Song
The Angels take Manhattan
Journey To the Centre of the TARDIS

Matthew Bagnall said...

It can actually be both... No offence but its obvious at this stage the writing has gone downhill so if its 'the best of the series' it could still be bad - especially when we consider it might only be good for some people because its the more 'laid back doctor lite' episode.

Cult_Of_The_Mechonoid said...

See, that wasn't your original argument...

Seeing as the Doctor essentially messed with the time stream and thus noone should remember the last episode other than maybe some residual memories... thus the Doctor should still be trying to figure out who Clara is rather than start accepting her more as it seems you are stating.

thesnappysneezer said...

I like the looks of it, I hope it is good and think I will love it. I think last week was the worse of this series, I hated the story and the guest characters/actors though I liked some moments in it like the library. Even at worse it was ok.