Doctor Who - Season 9, Episode 5 The Girl Who Died
Trailer
The ninth series of the British science fiction extends to an adventure of Vikings, Ghosts and the Daleks. Meanwhile the Doctor is faced with Missy who is ready to plague him again.
What makes the episode interesting isn't that the Doctor figures out a way to snatch a young girl from death's icy hands. Rather it is the larger, unseen consequence of him doing so and, possibly more intriguing, the reason behind the Doctor's action.
The attack and battle sequence zipped through at speed. If it felt a little rushed it didn't hugely matter, as it was clearly setting up for a bigger second half.
The Viking girl's story plays nicely into the bigger thematic arc of this season as well, as the Doctor and Clara contemplate the constraints of being a Time Lord... of, as he puts it, being able to do anything but not being allowed to.
New director Ed Bazalgette proves adept at both keeping the light-hearted antics bubbling along, and provides space for Capaldi and Coleman to nail the serious moments.
Maisie Williams is, of course, terrific. If her character hadn't worked, the episode would have fallen apart, but Ashildr is hugely likeable. She's fierce, but not one-dimensionally angry, brave but not unafraid.
Tonight's much-anticipated "Doctor Who," perhaps my favorite episode so far this season, gives us our first glimpse of Arya Stark, well "Game of Thrones" actress Maisie Williams anyway, in the Whoniverse.
"The Girl Who Died" is the show doing historical episodes as they're meant to be done. It's like "Fires of Pompeii," "Robin of Sherwood" and classic Third Doctor adventure "The Time Warrior" all mixed into one -- literally -- electrifying episode.
