The Woman Who Lived

Sunday 25 October 2015

It's the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, I've had an extra hour's sleep and a very nice lunch.

So, having had time to reflect,  what did I think of The Woman Who Lived? I liked it. It felt like a traditional Doctor Who story - there was something comfortably familiar about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on at the time.  I don't think that it was entirely that it reminded me of the 1980s Dick Turpin TV series starring Richard O'Sullivan.

There was also a moving reflection on what it would mean to be 'functionally immortal' - writing everything down in order to remember, and cutting out pages to forget the pain of loss (except for children  - those pages must be kept as a reminder against having more and repeating the tragedy.)

Once again, the alien threat was not central to the story (but this week's alien was frankly not worth more screen time). 

I liked the comedy highwayman - rather in the tradition of Glitz.  I  wouldn't mind seeing him again, but I'm not sure he has enough substance to be a regular character.  Talking of regular characters it was nice to hear a reference to Captain Jack. 

And the Doctor even remembers the Terreleptils, even if his recollection of the cause of the Great Fire of London is perhaps not entirely accurate...