This episode had a lot of fantastic things going for it. It had a few missteps here and there, but it was basically just a good, solid, normal episode of Doctor Who, in that it didn't try to do anything too extraordinary, and it delivered an interesting story with a lot of clever moments. I found myself engaged in the story and the characters, and curious as to how it would all work out.
That being said, I'll start with the weakest elements for me. The twist at the end is basically that there's a weird parasite thing living on Mrs.Gillyflower's chest, and it's been controlling/influencing her this whole time. It sort of came out of nowhere and felt rather unnecessary. I would have been much happier had Gillyflower been working by herself. She was a menacing enough villain on her own, and I loved the idea that the enemy in this episode wasn't alien, but rather prehistoric. The physical manifestation in the form of the worm thing was really strange.
Another weak point was Strax. It makes me really sad to say that, because I think he's hilarious every other time I've seen him. But in this episode, he was entirely relegated to a comic relief role, and he got this weird sidekick in the form of a kid named Thomas Thomas, and I didn't really get it. It almost felt like they were trying to set up a spinoff, which by the way I'm totally fine with, but it came off as very strange here.
One other joke that I disliked, and then I promise that I'll talk about all the stuff that I did like, and there's a lot of it. There's this rule in comedy called the rule of three, and it's when you repeat something twice and then subvert the audience's expectations the third time you do it, thereby making them laugh. There was a guy who kept fainting throughout the episode, each time he saw something unexpected. The first time was when he saw Madame Vastra, the second was Strax, and then, at the end, he appeared just in time to see the TARDIS disappear, and then he fainted again. It was a cheap joke, added nothing to his nonexistent character traits or to the plot in general, and did not fit the rule of three.
Well, then. What did I like? Everything else! I liked Jenny. She was bad-ass. She seriously killed it in this episode. She investigated like no other, and she actually saved the Doctor! How cool is that? I think my favorite Jenny moments were when she was having the conversation with the girl in the line and she made her cause a distraction so she could go snooping, and then of course there was the moment when she dropped her dress and was in bad-ass warrior clothing. She fought those guys awesomely! It was of course great to see the Doctor go all wide-eyed and there was a slightly cheap yet still hilarious joke when he got a sonic-screwdriver-erection.
I love the fact that Vastra wants to find the Doctor, and so she basically just says that Jenny needs to take crazy risks and he'll just turn up. Like he's just attuned to danger. It's sort of true, it just turns out that he beat Jenny to it, and was already in danger by the time she reached him.
Speaking of the Doctor, Matt Smith was great as always this week. He managed to portray pure terror with his eyes and his frozen mouth, even when he couldn't say a word. His motion work was great too, as it was clear that it was causing him pain every step he took. I also love how grateful he was to see Jenny, and how he dipped and kissed her. That's one of the first times that the doctor has initiated a kiss. Usually other people are always grabbing him. It was a priceless moment!
Okay, so we have to talk about the villain. Mrs. Gillyflower was played by the incredible Diana Rigg, and she killed it with this role. The minute she appeared on screen you knew she was bad news, and it was so creepy to see the way her character developed. Her death at the end was gripping and painful and just so intense to watch. She played off of the Doctor very well. I think my favorite moment of her had to be when the Doctor told her that "in the wrong hands, that venom could wipe out all life on this planet," and she replied: "do you know what these are? The wrong hands!"
When she decides to use her daughter Ada as leverage, the pure evil of her character was just radiating off of her. The Doctor's reaction to her behavior was also great, as he warns Clara that Gillyflower will shoot Ada on the spot. Clara says "she wouldn't!" And the Doctor replies: "she would," with such pain in his eyes.
And then there's Ada. She is so captivating for a guest actress. This show is so hit-and-miss with their guest characters, but she was fantastic. Her connection with the Doctor was so real, and her dependent relationship with her mother was so hard to watch. When she realizes that her mother has been experimenting on her, she goes off on her, attacking her and calling her names. But then when her mother offers her affection, she falls right into her arms and gets herself trapped. This is an excellent portrayal of someone who has been abused. Her reaction to the Doctor's kiss on the cheek at the end was so genuine. She looked like she had never been touched with kindness before, and it shone through her performance.
The makeup. Not normally something I would spend time commenting on, but everyone just looked so amazing in this episode. Vastra's makeup is amazing. Strax' costuming is great. The patients affected by the "Crimson Horror," including the Doctor, looked really creepy. And Ada looked so sad and broken. Her blindness and the markings on her face were excellently designed.
This is just a quick note, but I gotta say I'm really loving the title sequence lately. I know it's all spiffed up and sort of a departure from the previous more simple versions, but it just looks so cool!
Okay, sorry. Back to more important things. Clara. Jenna Louise-Coleman has been such a pleasant surprise for me. Honestly I think her character hasn't been written as much more than an interesting puzzle for the Doctor, but this actress takes every small moment she has and makes it her own. She is breathing life into this character in a way that I don't think many others could. When she is rescued by the Doctor, the pure look of love and relief in her eyes is hard to ignore. The Doctor looks similarly smitten with her (I haven't shipped a Doctor with his companion like this since Rose). She figures out a few things without the Doctor's help, which I like, especially when she points out the chimney with no smoke and the Doctor just gives her this look of pure joy. "Miss me?" she says. He kisses her on the forehead and replies: "Yeah, lots."
Later, she destroys part of Mrs. Gillyflower's plan with a chair, while the Doctor looks on uselessly holding his sonic screwdriver. She also gets a great joke at the end, when she tells the Doctor she's done with Victorian values for a bit, the Doctor carelessly replies: "you're the boss!" Clara's answer: "Am I?" The Doctor suddenly seems to realize what he's said: "No. No! Get in."
The ending to this episode was also great. Clara's kids (she nannies for them) have discovered pictures of Clara and the Doctor at different time periods, and they deduce that this must mean time travel. They are now threatening to tell their father unless Clara lets them go on a trip. I thought these two kids were adorable in "The Bells of Saint John," and I'm more than excited to see them again. I also really love the fact that the Doctor drops Clara off at home to continue her life in the normal world. This reminds me a lot of how he was with the Ponds towards the end of their time as companions. It's so different from with Rose, Martha, or Donna, where they were just completely ripped out of their old lives and into new ones. I think the overlap makes for some very interesting development.
I feel like there are a thousand other things I could praise about this episode. I enjoyed how the Doctor advertised the name of the episode within the script, by saying "Ooh! Good name! 'The Crimson Horror!'" I loved the Doctor and Clara pretending to be a couple, and Smith's hilarious accent. I love how the Doctor doesn't really bother to give Jenny, Vastra, and Strax an explanation about Clara, because he hasn't figured her out yet either.
In all, I loved this episode, and I'm very excited to see what comes next.
8.5/10
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