After a few weeks of sub-par ‘Doctor Who’ stories in a poorer series than we’d usually expect, we finally get a great story, written by Mark Gatiss.
Set in Victorian Yorkshire, it tells of a factory called Sweetville where something strange is going own, referred to by the mortician as the catchily titled ‘Crimson Horror’ of the episode name. Mrs Gillyflower (Diana Rigg) is the elderly lady in charge, with her blind daughter by her side and the mysterious Mr Sweet mentioned but hidden from proceedings. As the returning investigative trio of Jenny, Strax and Vastra look into the mystery, just where is the Doctor?
‘The Crimson Horror’ is certainly one of the strongest episodes of this run. I am, perhaps, a little biased as it’s great to see Yorkshire represented on screen in all its stonework and mill glory, with even a mention of my adopted home town of Bradford. The recreation of the county and the era was done with a keen eye and the Yorkshire accent, though perhaps a little stereotypical, was great to hear and Matt Smith did a cracking hilarious version of it. With an eye to steampunk in the episode – the rocket was well done – it felt at times like a live action version of a ‘Wallace and Gromit’ episode; all that was needed was for Smith to shave off his hair and add a pullover to his bow tie and the journey would be complete.
This episode was one that certainly stood out from a filmography point of view and writer Gatiss and director Saul Metzstein need to be acknowledged in creating a refreshingly different episode, full of wide panoramas, tight shots, eerie corridors and a great steampunk feel to many elements. The old-meets-contemporary feel, further emphasising the ‘Wallace and Gromit’ vibe, really added to the episode with the gramophone speaker system and rocket being particularly stand out. The montage sequence one third in which tells the story of the Doctor and Clara arriving in Yorkshire was a stroke of genius, told like an old-time film, and really made the opening. Even the absence of the Doctor for the first fifteen minutes didn’t bother me as the engaging trio of detectives carried the episode perfectly.
There was so much to enjoy in this episode it’s hard to include them. The recurring joke of the fainting man, Strax’s insistence on weaponry (familiar and done before, but still fun here) and the brilliant moment with young urchin Thomas Thomas all great inclusions, and they made Vastra and Jenny all the better for emphasising them as two great detectives not afraid of a bit of action without having to resort to crude camp lesbian jokes that they’ve been lumbered with in the past.
The episode did have a few moments that didn’t quite work as well, such as the slightly confused reason as to why Mrs Gillyflower wanted to manufacture an apocalypse and the sleight reason for – as next week’s trailer shows – getting Clara’s charges in contemporary times along for the next mission (would they really stumble across photos of her on the internet in past adventures and would their father actually believe their blackmail if they said Clara was a time traveller?) but these small points can be forgiven because elsewhere it was such a strong episode.
Compared to previous ones, the plot felt like it fitted well into forty-five minutes, the Sonic Screwdriver finally felt as if it wasn’t the solution to the plot device and the ending was rounded up nicely and made sense, and wasn’t rushed. Plus the Doctor felt more fallible in this episode, the trio of Vastra, Strax and Jenny were a great team, and the adventure, humour and plot were all fed to the viewer in good, equal amounts, whilst also being wrapped up in some beautiful scenery.
Cast-wise, credit should definitely go to Rachael Stirling for her role as Ada, carrying the emotional context of the episode very well and Diana Rigg made a strong lead baddie.
The best episode since Christmas? Actually, I think it was.
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