Doctor Who - 'The Woman Who Lived'

“Enemies are never a problem; it's your friends you have to watch out for.”

The Doctor interrupts a highwayman at work, but the Knightmare is actually the woman formerly known as Ashildr, and she and her mysterious partner are searching for the same alien artefact as the Doctor. After eight hundred years of life, the lively girl has become a hardened woman who embraces the transitory highs of adventure over the crippling loss that any meaningful relationship with a mortal must become. going by the name Me, she is seeking a way out, and if the Doctor won't provide one, what lengths might she go to?

The Good

• The scene with Lady Me's diaries was good, and honestly I could have stood the series taking a little more time over her evolution.
• Once again, Maisie Williams is excellent, and she makes a fab team with Capaldi. She plays Me's strength and fragility with probably far more gravitas than the script deserves, even through the lighter aspects of the story.
• The reasoning behind the Doctor's rejection of Me as a companion is harsh, but at least somewhat thought out.
• While it was never really explored, I liked the idea that she'd never found anyone 'good enough' to share eternity, which I presumed not to be because she was always better than anyone else, but because eternity is a long time with anyone and there are no do-overs.
• While overall a pretty generic rogue, and desperately underdeveloped for such a pivotal role, Rufus Hound played Sam Swift's desperate gallows fooling to the hilt.

The Bad

• Is a possibly-immortal roguish manchild really what Me needs to complete her life?
• It's always weird when Doctor Who is being down on the idea of a life of adventure, and even if he doesn't want to travel with an immortal, you'd think that the Doctor could stand to drop Me off somewhere she could hitch a ride on a space freighter or snag a vortex manipulator to open up her horizons, instead of insisting she wallow through 15,000 years of human history on foot.

The Ugly

• I don't care if they're really both hundreds of years old, the idea of Jack Harkness hitting on Ashildr is squicky. The idea of him 'getting around to her' is downright offensive (although some people have read this merely as expressing the likelihood that they will meet one day.)
• "Purple, the colour of death," and "The light of immortality!" Is this a thing? Is this some sort of space metaphysical constant that immortality is shiny and yellow, while death is purple?

Theorising

Are we going to see more of Ashildr (in principle I support her right to be called 'Me', but it's just confusing)? I hope so, but then again... I want them to get it right if they do, which is an increasingly desperate hope in nuWho.

Top Quotes

• "All the other names I chose died with whoever knew me, Me is who I am now. No one's mother, daughter, wife. My own companion. Singular. Unattached. Alone."
• "How many have you lost? How many Claras?"

The Verdict

Like The Girl Who Died, The Woman Who Lived suffers from its reconfiguring of the new two-parter format. It really could have done with being two parts on its own, and the rushed resolution detracts from the potential impact of the character work. It's saved from disaster by some good moments and bravura acting, but overall is suffocated by its constraints.

Score - 5/10