The Woman Who Lived (3506 / 906)

[GateWorld]

DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 35 (9) THE WOMAN WHO LIVED EPISODE NUMBER - 3506 (906) When the Doctor arrives in seventeenth-century England he finds a familiar immortal playing the role of a highway thief. Though he agrees to help her steal an alien treasure, the Doctor has no idea that "the Knightmare" is secretly in league with a threat from another world. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >>

[Teddybrown]

Really not sure on this episode, definately need to rewatch it before I have a real opinion...

[Sealurk]

Ditto, I think I enjoyed it but I'll need to take it in again to go over it. I did, however, enjoy having a very nearly Clara-free episode.

[Blencathra]

I enjoyed that one very much. I really liked Sam Swift & I hope we get to see him again. Count me as another who liked having an episode nearly without Clara.

Edit - Forgot to say I loved the little reference to Jack Harkness.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

So... it took a long time to get going.. and then it was over.. But no Clara No shrill, annoying, "Look at me!! Look at me! I'm a Doctor-wanna-be" Clara Until the end

Other than that.. Did the writer of this two parter forget there had to be a second part? Seemed like a lot of nothing followed by five minutes of action.

[Blencathra]

Did the writer of this two parter forget there had to be a second part? Seemed like a lot of nothing followed by five minutes of action.

They were written by two different people. Jamie Mathieson wrote The Girl Who Died and Catherine Tregenna wrote this one.

I do see your point though. Still, I enjoyed this one more than the one last week.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Well, there were no horned Viking helmets, but there wasn't a lot to connect this one with last week's. Maybe if the writers had worked together to make one complete story? It wasn't solving the problems from the last one. Or doing much of anything really. There was a lot of "woe is me, immortality is hard" stuff. But not much else. Then open a portal, put the little square thing on the guy's head and the portal closed again.

Was that it? All that build up from the excited announcement of actor from Game of Thrones playing mysterious new character! Who will she be? *mysterious hand gestures* Then all the "The Doctor recognises mysterious Viking woman! Who is she? More mysterious!! ...Last week's episode was good-ish. The Viking helmets were annoying. The eels, a convenient plot device that worked as long as you didn't think too hard about it. This week, I guess they were going for deep and moving character development. But it moved too quickly through 800 years of her story for any of it to be deep or particularly moving. The fire-breathing lionman.. Shouted a couple of lines and then disintegrated.. Somehow less of a threat than the Fisher King.

Their whole evil plan lasted only a couple of minutes. And only added on so the whole episode wasn't just immortals complaining about how hard it is to be alive.

[P-90_177]

Loved it. Me definitely looks like she'll appear again, and while I love Clara this episode did work without her. As PH said there wasn't much to the plot, but there wasn't meant to be. This was purely a character piece. I would however argue that this should have been given some distance from The girl who died.

[GodAtum]

I really hope Maisie Williams appears again as I enjoy her in Doctor Who. I'd love to see for fighting from her though, maybe a sword battle! It's a shame she was not in earlier series, i think she would have joined River or Jenny, River would have made an excellent teacher.

if I was the Doctor i would have dropped her off on a friendly planet.

[Teddybrown]

Yeah, Im hoping to see Me again. I also have to admit it was nice to have an almost Clara free episode...

Something I just picked up on though while rewatching The Witches Familiar, but I may be remembering incorrectly from this episode, but Missy said the exact same thing about the Doctor as Me when she left the Doctor, "You always run away". We didnt find out how Me knew about the Doctor did we? Maybe she found out from the Master?

[Coco Pops]

OMG a part 2 that was actually good.

Love Ashildr....She needs to be the Doctor's companion please BBC kill Clara she's so boring.

OK 7/10

Didn't like the B plot with the alien. That was the downside to an otherwise good episode.

[Sealurk]

Ashildr/Me learning to change her voice so drastically just through practice... eh, no.

I do love Twelve's obliviousness - not realising he's in the middle of a robbery, not understanding what's wrong with leaving somebody in a leper colony (does he even have a card for that one?), not immediately realising how his curio-scanner got its name and so on.

I particularly liked the idea that a human memory becomes a problem for an immortal, something I've wondered about myself sometimes. At what point does it hit capacity or start overwriting?

As an examination of how it feels to be immortal and the problems and opportunities this would bring, I loved this episode and it was clearly the point. The B-plot was pretty weak though. I also can't help feeling that this entire story would have been far more effective dispersed throughout the season rather than two episodes back to back.

"No, not the puns. Line in the sand, no puns."

Some curious anachronisms in this episode, and I don't know if they're deliberate or not. "Cocktail", for example, was a late 18th, early 19th century term that originated in the States... not mid-17th century England.

There were a few lines that felt particularly ominous and portentive, lines that I suspect will be foreshadowing future episodes:

• "Oh you remember Clara?" "Of course, I take particular note of everyone's weaknesses."
• "Purple. The colour of death."
• "Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for."
• "I think I'm very glad I saved you." "Oh I think everyone will be."

Who did tell Ashildr/Me about the Doctor? Although she implies at the end that she knows so much of him because of his impact on the world, I got the strong feeling this is her hiding something. I also suspect that in the eight centuries since the Doctor saved her, she may in fact have done a little time travelling going by some of her comments.

[GodAtum]

Ashildr/Me learning to change her voice so drastically just through practice... eh, no.

I do love Twelve's obliviousness - not realising he's in the middle of a robbery, not understanding what's wrong with leaving somebody in a leper colony (does he even have a card for that one?), not immediately realising how his curio-scanner got its name and so on.

I particularly liked the idea that a human memory becomes a problem for an immortal, something I've wondered about myself sometimes. At what point does it hit capacity or start overwriting?

As an examination of how it feels to be immortal and the problems and opportunities this would bring, I loved this episode and it was clearly the point. The B-plot was pretty weak though. I also can't help feeling that this entire story would have been far more effective dispersed throughout the season rather than two episodes back to back.

"No, not the puns. Line in the sand, no puns."

Some curious anachronisms in this episode, and I don't know if they're deliberate or not. "Cocktail", for example, was a late 18th, early 19th century term that originated in the States... not mid-17th century England.

There were a few lines that felt particularly ominous and portentive, lines that I suspect will be foreshadowing future episodes:

• "Oh you remember Clara?" "Of course, I take particular note of everyone's weaknesses."
• "Purple. The colour of death."
• "Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for."
• "I think I'm very glad I saved you." "Oh I think everyone will be."

Who did tell Ashildr/Me about the Doctor? Although she implies at the end that she knows so much of him because of his impact on the world, I got the strong feeling this is her hiding something. I also suspect that in the eight centuries since the Doctor saved her, she may in fact have done a little time travelling going by some of her comments.

Well the Doctor did play a guitar and ride a tank in some medieval time at the start of the season, maybe she was there?

I would suggest reading the Red Mars trilogy, it delves deep into the issues of humans living for longer.

[knowles2]

A fairly good episode. Missed that Clara wasn't in it. Such a shame.

[Annoyed]

Spoiler:

Conjecture: Well, I guess we have a good idea who the next Companion will be.

Aside from that, I really can't say much about this episode except that I dozed off watching it.

And I wasn't particularly tired.