Doctor Who 7.11: The Crimson Horror
Posted By Arturo Garcia on May 5, 2013
The Doctor (Matt Smith) is caught red-handed. And faced. And just about everything else in “The Crimson Horror.”
Well, that’s a little more like it.
After last week’s ambitious but off-putting misfire, “The Crimson Horror” brings back some liveliness to Doctor Who while (mostly) sidestepping the mystery around Clara, but still can’t escape the increasingly sexist undertones to our alleged protagonist.
In a pleasant change, both Clara and The Doctor are on the sidelines for the first act, which gives us a present people have been asking for since last Christmas: the chance for Madame Vastra and Jenny — and, of course, Strax — to have their own on-screen adventures.
As it turns out, the victorian trio is recruited by the brother of the man who enlisted Eleven and Clara’s help in finding the secret behind Winifred Gillyflower and her promise of salvation for those chosen to go to “Sweetville.” Besides making for an easy joke (“We are going to the North,” Strax warns), setting the story in Yorkshire allows for Matt Smith and Jenna Louise-Coleman to get some accent work in while the duo poses as “Doctor and Mrs. Smith.” Unlike Donna, though, Clara seems to not mind the false coupling. But it is interesting to note, even if the Doctor doesn’t, that Clara retains her past incarnation’s gift for mimicry.
Smith also gets to stretch out, somewhat more literally, as the Doc is rendered into a red-faced “stiff” by Mrs. Gillyflower’s titular treatment, saved only from the “reject pile” by her daughter Ada. While writer Mark Gatiss has been praised in this space before (like, three weeks ago), it’s a particularly good touch on his part to give Ada (and Rachael Stirling) enough space for her transition from being her mother’s accomplice to her victim to standing up for herself.
This is also remarkable because Stirling is given the room to square off against no less than Dame Diana Rigg herself, adding another game villain to her current run on Game of Thrones, even if this one’s plan is … less than comprehensive. Sure, it makes sense for the elder Gillyflower and her parasitic “silent partner” to want to poison the world at large. But did she really think none of her precious pretty recruits would eventually wonder what was going on — or, for that matter, that “Mr. Sweet” wouldn’t deign to go for a younger host?
That issue, however, isn’t as bad as another example of Eleven’s jerkyness surfacing again, under the ever-flimsier guise of whimsy. First he insults a past companion, Tegan, calling her a “gobby Australian.” Then, not only does he refuse to tell Jenny why he’s running around with a spitting image of a woman the whole “gang” saw die, but he accosts her — a married queer woman — with an unwanted kiss. Jenny does slap him for it, thank goodness, but there’s no apology. Nor is there any sign that Vastra is clued in; she’d be likely to put his hearts on a kebab for it, and justifiably, at that. It’s still possible that the Doctor’s increasingly questionable behavior is tied in to something bigger. But forget being able to (presumably) save the universe together; will his predecessor even like this guy come November?
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My big issue with the Doctor’s jerkiness is that, even if it’s somehow tied to something bigger to be explained later, most of the public watching it won’t even recognize it as bad behavior while it’s going on. Like the time when Amy force-kissed the Doctor. Bad enough that the show explained she did it because of the cracks messing with her mind (somehow?), instead of an extremely common sexual assault that humans do all the time because they feel entitled to it… The general reaction I saw from the fans was to find the scene hilarious and talk about how mch they wanted to be in her place. So I think if the show is going to have jerkiness in it, it should be unambiguous and reprimanded on screen.
Huh. I never got the vibe that the crack in the wall was behind it – from what I remember it was basically Amy wanting the Doctor. I do see your point, though.
Maybe I’m wrong. I just remember that it was the excuse they gave to get Rory into the story, that the kiss was evidence that something was wrong with Amy. And then the Doctor got Rory involved to fix it. (something else that made me livid – echoes of “your kid misbehaved on school today.”)
The kiss was weird. “Gobby” was weird. Last week’s sexist smirk was weird and weird looking. I hope it’s leading up to something and that it gets quickly resolved.
I hope Ten and Eleven have some trouble getting along. I truly loved the snippy interactions between Two and Three. It’s hard to see Ten and Eleven quite pulling that off because they’re not all that different, at least not compared to the difference between Two and Three.
I loved the fact that he mentioned Tegan even as I scowled at the insulting adjective. The remark itself would have been fairly amusing if not for that. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that this is foreshadowing and that she’ll be one of the friends abducted from throughout space and time for “The Name of the Doctor.”
There was also the use of the phrase, “Brave heart, Clara,” another callback to Five.
The thing about this being his “married” demeanor doesn’t quite hold up, given that he treats Clara almost like a surrogate daughter (or is, at least, fairly creeped out by the prospect of her flirtations) yet felt entitled to accost Jenny like that. Weirder still when Jenny was a third of his support system after losing Amy and Rory.
Maybe this is how a married Doctor acts. We have no idea what his relationship with Susan’s grandmother was like.