Villordsutch reviews Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 6 – “The Woman Who Lived”…
Doctor – I know their lives are short, I understand, but those lives do matter.
Me – Shut up! You’re not my dad!
In this week’s Doctor Who we get to see the repercussions of the Doctor’s “God Like” decision of bringing Ashildr back from the dead in The Girl Who Died [see our review here]. Last week I wasn’t overly impressed with the weekly Who serving due to the injected humour and the pantomime “bad guys”. I’m hoping this week manages to wash away that memory of that poor humourous episode, with its occasional good moments.
It 1651 and the Doctor’s just interrupted a Highway Man – called the Nightmare – from robbing the Fanshawe family. Mid-threat of blowing the Doctor’s brains out, the carriage makes a break for it, taking the Highway Man’s spoils and the object the Doctor was intent on finding. A frustrated Doctor is left speechless when the thief removes her mask to reveal herself to be Ashildr from the Viking village centuries back, and asks the Doctor, “What took you so long old man?”
Ashildr takes the Doctor back to her very large home, where she lives with her aging servant, and we discover the Doctor has in the past paid visits to her without her knowledge, and she no longer wishes to uses her birthname, due to the people she has lost and now wishes to be called Me. Going through the many journals of her life we see that Me once had children and lost them due to the plague, and we discover pages torn from the book, which she tells the Doctor are memories she does not wish to remember. As the Doctor reads these journals she leaves the home to visit a lion-like creature hiding within the woods, informing him that the Doctor is unaware of the creature and only has knowledge of the artefact; even then he has no idea of what they intend on doing with it. Pushing the Doctor into conversation about the object, Me summarises that he is also after the same thing that she wants to pilfer from Lucie Fanshawe and they make a plan to rob it that night from the Fanshawes’ home.
They both enter the Fanshawes and we see the return of the Sonic Shades as they both creep around until they come across the gem, which were told by the Doctor is called “The Eyes of Hades”. As they make their way out of the home, the only farcical moment of this rather melancholy episode occurs, as we watch both the Doctor and Me crawl around a sleeping Mr Fanshawe, who is awoken due to a squeaky floorboard and then disturbed further due to a clumsy Doctor; both master thieves make for the chimney to escape. Our conversation falls dark once again as Me questions the Doctor’s age, and brutally tells the Doctor Clara will die on him, going further deeper with the knife by asking him how many he has lost.
Whilst walking through the forest at dawn they are surrounded by Sam Swift the Quick and his men, who seek revenge due to the Nightmare taking over their thieving patch. Under the belief that the Doctor is his father, the Time Lord takes it upon himself to confuse Sam leading the Nightmare to overpower him, eventually pointing the gun directly at his face ready to end his life; however she doesn’t kill him. As they return home Me asks the Doctor to take her with him but he refuses. Angered by being rebuffed and feeling abandoned she reveals her alternative plan to leave the planet. Leandro appears, proclaiming that his planet was overthrown, his wife killed as he escaped and he crashed upon Earth; the only thing that can get him off this planet is the Eyes of Hades and Me is going with him. The Doctor however knows something else is going here and forces Me to reveal what else is happening. It appears that to open the portal to leave the planet somebody has to die and she’s going to kill her ageing servant.
With the Doctor protesting he’s tied to a chair, however Me is interrupted by two guards who burst in as Sam Swift has informed them that the Nightmare was last seen coming towards Lady Me’s dwelling. Me realises that she can use the life-force of the common criminal instead and informs the guards that the Doctor is in league with Sam Swift, but he’s not to be hanged; with that she and Leandro ride off in a carriage towards the public hanging. Once they’re gone the Doctor bribes the guards with Me’s wealth for a horse, following quickly behind. Arriving at the gallows Sam is telling as many jokes as possible to extend his life for a few minutes more, but with Leandro and Me getting impatient shes bribe the hangman to begin the execution. Just as the noose is about the be placed around his neck, the Doctor and Sam begin to swap jokes between each other to slow down the hangman, until the Doctor shows the Psychic Paper declaring it to be a pardon from Cromwell, which is accepted and is Sam released. However, Me jams the Eyes of Hades into Sam’s chest causing him to die and a portal to rip open the sky.
We discover Leandro was lying as there are ships waiting to attack the planet on the other side of the portal. Me realises the mistake she has made and instantly wishes to stop the people from being hurt. With Leandro ripping into the crowd along with the bombardment coming from above, the Doctor informs Me that they need to close the gateway, and for this they need to reverse the death of Sam Swift. So using the spare Mire Battle-Field Medical kit Sam is resurrected, the gateway closes and Leandro is executed by his people for failing. Later in the local Ale house Me discusses her new role, which is to help those people the Doctor has abandoned. Later as Clara enters the TARDIS she shows the Doctor a selfie of a child he helped with her homework; he takes a look and zooming in he notices – behind Clara – waiting near the railings is Me.
This week’s episode was much stronger than The Girl Who Died – far smarter, much more interesting and on occasion heart-breaking; not only this it barely relied on silliness to push the story along. There was a problem however, as this story would have had more weight behind it a few episodes on. To follow instantly as a two-parter barely gives you the feeling that Ashildr/Me has existed at all through the past few centuries; still, it was a very enjoyable closing episode to what was a disappointing opener.
There is mystery in this episode as someone has been clearly talking about the Doctor to our lonely immortal, she’s picked up more than enough information to see that hearts and lives are being broken by this man. Along with this we had a fair amount of ominous moments that are again pointing towards a uphappy ending for Clara, including another hug between both Time Lord and Companion. Not only this we had a fantastic call back to the Fifth Doctor story, The Visitation.
A much better episode than last week, and next week not only do we see a return of the Zygons, but we’re seeing a return of Osgood too!
SEE ALSO: Check out the Series 9 episode title and descriptions here
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=W04aXcyQ0NQ
Originally published October 25, 2015. Updated February 24, 2020.
