“The Crimson Horror” S07E11 Doctor Who Review
I’ve never been a massive fan of Mark Gatiss’ contributions to Doctor Who. He’s never written a travesty, but then he’s never written one that I’ve gotten giddy about. One thing I do know is that he’s at his best when comedy meets creepy, which is no surprise considering he is part of the trio that created the League of Gentlemen, that yardstick of the perverse. In Doctor Who’s latest offering The Crimson Horror, it’s evident he’s been allowed to run wild, inserting all manner of oddities and smirks, whether they fit within the context or not. What we are left with is a mish-mash of humour, quirkiness and just plain weird, but you know what, it works. Because every bit is done with full commitment and aplomb. So what if there is a sat nav joke in 1893, it’s funny (though the 2nd punchline was a little obvious and unnecessary). Who cares that everyone’s accent, even the Doncaster born Diana Rigg, sounds like it’s been learnt from the BBC Dialect library circa 1963? It’s frivolous and affectionate. This whole episode is silly and more importantly fun, something this series has been missing since it lost the Ponds.
This weeks episode focuses on the Victorian London investigative trio made up of Silurian Madame Vastra, her human wife Jenny Flint (note to Russell T Davis – this is how you include gay characters: with subtlety) and the brilliant Sontaran Strax, who is responsible for most of the laughs. They begin to explore the mystery of Sweetville, a sort of gated community in Yorkshire for the less glamorous, where many people enter, but no one comes out. When corpses who look like they’ve had a bad encounter with a sunbed start cropping up in the local canal, why does the latest one have the imprint of The Doctor’s face on his eyeballs as the last thing he saw before he died?
In drawing the focus away from The Doctor and his increasingly curious relationship with the twice dead Clara, Gatiss does more for the overall story arc than any of the previous writers, because he lets it breathe. Gone are the desperate attempts to force a chemistry, or the continual questioning of each other’s psychological makeup. They are just there, together, communicating like normal people, or as normal as this show gets. Yet I feel things are moving along much more than from any of the other episodes. I’m sure there have been hints and clues to what’s really going on along the way, but that’s just to cover themselves when the truth is revealed. We’re not supposed to spot those, so how can we get excited or discuss it?
The guest actors do a great job this week, playing it completely for laughs. Diana Rigg excels as the looney tunes baddie Mrs Gillyflower, going hell for leather and not even batting an eyelid at some of the things she had to do (there’s a lot of chest baring). Her real life daughter Rachael Stirling plays her offspring Ada, and manages to balance the flip flop of her character very well. There is a real chemistry between the two, especially as this is the first time they have acted together. But it’s Neve McIntosh (Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny – despite the cor blimey guv’nor voice) and particularly Dan Starkey (Strax) that shine here. I’m not going to justify it, just read the below lines from Strax:
‘I suggest a massive frontal assault on the factory Madame. Casualties can be kept as perhaps as little as 80%.’
‘Dig trenches and fill them with acid!’
grumbling after being sent outside: ‘I’m going to go play with my grenades.’
The other two also provide some laughs, Madame Vastra bothering with the veil, which you can see through anyway, but continually lifting it up and showing off her face to anyone. Jenny stripping off Matrix style. I hope we are going to see this lot again, since River Song disappeared (though I don’t think for long) we’ve been missing those recurring characters that bring a little familiarity and comfort to the show. Mickey, Captain Jack, Wilfred, we’ve always had them and they are usually a welcome sight as well as relief.
There’s some good lines from our main cast as well, notably the ‘she’s a lizard’ and the great exchange ‘hang on, I’ve got a sonic screwdriver’, ‘yeah? I’ve got a chair’. The Doctor seems to have adopted a strange custom of holding heads in his hands and kissing them. Did he always do that? Last week I thought it was something he was just doing with Clara, but apparently he’ll do it with anyone, going so far as an actual snog at one point (can’t complain about that one though, the result was well deserved).
There are also some nice touches to the look and style of this episode. The giant gramophones in the factory, the old-timey cinematic editing on The Doctor’s back story, the creaking and crackling sound effects of the affected skin. Victorian era is certainly a backdrop the show always delivers on, but at least the set design team haven’t rested on their laurels.
Overall it’s a jolly, weird and wonderful episode, which although is never going to be one of those you always remember, it will be one that brings a smile to the face when you discover it again. The use of both Neil Cross (bad choice) and Mark Gatiss for 2 episodes each in this series alone is a bit disconcerting: is Steven Moffat looking for his replacement? If he is, I think he needs to cast his net a bit wider. But then, Steven Moffat was the star of the show a few years ago, and now that he’s relegated to writing plot heavy openers and finales, we’re missing that writer that sparks something in you, who’s invention and dialogue is glorious, fantastic and just plain exciting. Maybe we need a new head writer who isn’t that great at writing episodes, but gets what the show is about. With Sherlock probably having only a few more years left, maybe Gatiss is the man for the job. Anything that gets Moffat writing sterling mid season two-parters, I’m all for.
Next week looks like an interesting episode, but I’m not sure it’s going to deliver as well as this story did. The accidental slip up from Clara at the end of this week was natural and well written, unfortunately it now means that the next episode at least will feature children being stupid and getting themselves into bother. Which just sounds tedious to me.
7/10
