Doctor Who - The Crimson Horror (2013)

As previously mentioned, I didn't really have high hopes for this episode, so I was pleasantly surprised by it overall. To be honest, I probably should have expected that the return of Vastra, Jenny and Strax would make it at least watchable, with Strax in particular often being the best thing in weaker episodes. This episode could be seen as being written for all those that would like to see the trio on their own adventures, as the Doctor does not even feature in the first third of it.

This provided an interesting angle to the episode, as Jenny takes the lead in investigating the deaths of people in a town in Yorkshire, her being the only one of the team able to blend in easily. They know of the Doctor's involvement from the beginning though, as through some Victorian pseudo-science they discover that his face was the last thing one of the the victims saw. I wasn't entirely sure whether the trio would have taken the case if not for this fact and despite making for a good opening I wonder if it might have added to the mystery if they hadn't known about him at first.

It turns out that the Doctor has fallen prey to the same fate as all of the other victims, his alien DNA being the only thing saving him from death. Red skinned and almost immobile, he's been locked up by the daughter of Sweetville's leader Mrs. Gillyflower, who dotes on him as her 'Monster'. It seems obvious with hindsight but at the time I didn't see this coming, as whatever was locked up did seem malevolent while you couldn't see it. A quick sonic-shower or something is enough to reverse the process though, and we then get a quick flashback of how the Doctor got involved in the situation - I found Matt Smith's attempt at a Yorkshire accent surprisingly amusing. Jenny is naturally confused when the Doctor immediately wants to find Clara, thinking he's referring to the person who died in 'The Snowmen'. I liked how this almost made it appear he was a mad man chasing a ghost in his grief if you didn't know the rest of the story.

Meanwhile, Vastra discovers that whatever is causing the deaths and red skin is not alien in origin but instead another of the Earth's first inhabitants, a red leech that was a problem at the height of the Silurian empire. In low enough doses it merely paralyses and preserves those treated with it, which is the first part of Mrs. Gillyflowers plan to protect those she deems worthy of populating her new world. Essentially a Victorian take on Noah's Ark, she plans to use the pure form of the leech venom to decimate the rest of the Earths population. Her obsession with perfection seemed quite reflective of the Victorian age in general, in a similar manner to 'The Snowmen's villain being the personification of the coldness in their relationships.

It came as no surprise then that Mrs. Gillyflower's own daughter Ada (played by Diana Rigg's real life daughter Rachael Stirling), had no place in her future utopia, her blindness and scarring making her imperfect. This is first said to have been the result of her drunken father beating her but it's eventually revealed to be the result of her mother's initial experiments with the leech venom. This disturbing, twisted mother/daughter relationship was probably the most memorable part of the episode, with their last words to each other being pure spite. I particularly liked how Ada managed to foil the Doctor's peaceful plans for dealing with the red leech once the danger had been averted, a scene that felt quite like something from The League of Gentlemen.

This relationship should perhaps not have worked alongside some of the other comedy elements in the episode but it didn't seem to bother me. Humour is always a very personal preference but some jokes that fell flat for others were still funny to me - the constantly fainting gentleman (who I thought was an attempt to reverse the stereotype of  Victorian ladies fainting - even if tight fitting corsets were usually the cause) and 'Thomas Thomas' giving Strax directions. Strax threatening to shoot his horse for treason before this was pretty hilarious too.

Clara's return to modern day had an unexpected confrontation with the children she looks after, as they've found pictures of her from various times on the internet. The fact that it included her incarnation from 'The Snowmen' throws her and causes her to pretty much confirm the kid's suspicions. They then proceed to  blackmail her into taking them on a trip with her, which I wouldn't perhaps normally have jumped for but with Neil Gaiman on writing duties next episode, I feel pretty confident that he can handle younger characters well.