Last updated on 30 August 2017

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Welcome back to the sixth Doctor Who Review, where I recap the week’s episode and give some thoughts and opinions on it. Please do not read if you have not seen this week’s episode. There are major spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

Title:  The Woman Who Lived

Written by: Jamie Mathieson & Steven Moffat

With a Robin Hood-like beginning to this episode, it begins with a robbery. A nice coach on it’s way somewhere, sometime in the 17th century, on earth, and the highwayman and the Doctor (no Clara this week – she’s off taking her class on a trip) suddenly cross paths. The robber is, well robbing the coach, and the Doctor is using a gizmo to track something. As it turns out, the robber is none other than Ashildr, from last week’s episode (of course it is, that much was obviously from the beginning), and while the Doctor barely left her in her Viking village, it’s been 800 years for her, and while she looks young and the same as before, she is definitely a woman now, making her mark on the world.

While Ashildr doesn’t go by that name anymore (rather, she goes by ‘Me’), the Doctor is determined to find something of that young girl from the Viking village. Me is happy to see the Doctor, because all she wants to hitch a ride off earth and into the stars. While she has done some amazing things in her 800 years – being a medieval Queen, and curing a village of Scarlet fever to name a few – life has been hard, and the Doctor learns this by reading her thousands of journals. After the greetings and information is shared, they get down to the real reason they were both after that same coach – there’s alien technology disguised as an amulet, and they both want it. They break into a house, and find the amulet, and when Me realises she doesn’t have a shot at leaving earth with the Doctor, she turns to a cat-like man called Leandro who has promised to use the amulet to open a portal and get them both off the planet.

All they need to open the portal is a death, and Me heads off to the gallows, where Sam Swift the Quick (and Me’s highway rival) is about to be hung, to make the most of it. But guys, cats lie. Never trust a cat – they’re always thinking of themselves. When the amulet is lodged into the man’s chest, a portal opens and suddenly they’re all under attack from Leandro’s people.With all that power it took to open the portal, it drained Swift’s life force, and Me suddenly realises she actually cares for these people, and her old self starts to come through. She’s made a huge mistake, trusting Leandro, and she needs to make it right. Taking the second chip that the Doctor gave her to use on someone else when he put the Mire chip in her in the previous episode, should she choose to (she never used it), they put it into Swift’s forehead, restoring him to life and making him like Ashildr, basically immortal. The portal closes, Leandro is shot down by his people who think that he failed them, and all is well again.

Ashildr/Me tells the Doctor that she is going to keep an eye on him, and declares herself to be the Patron Saint of the Doctor’s Leftovers, looking after those he leaves behind. This episode was a little bit strange. The Doctor created this essentially immortal girl, and yet doesn’t even try to take responsibility for her. It was an interesting side to him, and while I’m not sure I enjoyed it, it was a great episode. This was a second episode in a double that I really liked, though perhaps it was because it was less of a double, it taking up a completely new story line. These two episodes are my favourite so far, and I think Maisie Williams did an incredible job at portraying not only a young girl in The Girl Who Died, but also a grown up woman who has lived a long time in The Woman Who Lived. I hope she pops up again in this season.

Is it sad to say I also enjoyed this episode because Clara wasn’t in it until right at the end? I liked Clara when she was new, but to be completely honest with you, I’m sick of her. I feel like last season should have been her last, and while I really like Jenna Coleman, Clara is getting annoying. Having said that, next week’s is looking interesting! Looking forward to it!