Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are becoming semi-regulars
lately; that’s fine with me because they are always entertaining and The
Crimson Horror is a fun 45 minutes. It is curious that the Doctor and Clara
would travel to 1893 and not visit the trio; and it is extremely coincidental
that the brother of one of Mrs. Gillyflower’s victims would first think to take
a photograph of his dead brother’s eye, next have it capture the image of the
Doctor, and finally take this optogram to Vastra. But then we wouldn’t have a
story without the happenstance.
The first third of the tale is taken up by our
out-of-this-world detectives, with Vastra taking firm command, Strax providing
comic relief, and Jenny assuming the bulk of the action as she infiltrates Mrs.
Gillyflower’s utopian community of Sweetville. It is a quaint little Victorian
mystery in the making. When Jenny finds a red-encrusted Doctor chained up
behind a locked door in the match factory things take an interesting turn.
The flashback sequence detailing how the Doctor and Clara
came to be at Sweetville is inventive and amusing. (“Brave heart”—gotta love it!) The process of
returning the Doctor to flesh and blood is glossed over but forgivable, and it
is always
welcome to have Matt Smith back and unencumbered. Keeping the back half from
devolving into trite sci fi fare are Diana Rigg and more especially her
daughter Rachael Stirling as fictional mother and daughter Mrs. Gillyflower and
Ada. These two lend depth and humanity to the narrative.
Mrs. Gillyflower would be a typical shrieking, cackling villainess
if it were not for Ada. The cold-hearted calculation of a mother willing to
sacrifice her only child for her own glory and ambition is chilling, and the
wrath of Ada when she discovers her mother’s duplicity is gripping. Even the
Doctor is taken aback at Ada’s ferocity.
As usual, it is the acting that sells the story and the humor
that saves it. Stripped bare of these it is a humdrum mash up of genres and clichés.
Bodies found floating in the canal; fire and brimstone preachers; mysterious
walled compounds where people enter and never leave; alien creatures
masterminding humanity’s downfall; rockets ready to rain down destruction upon
all.
And as usual, Gary, it is the acting and humor I have to hold
on to; skimming the surface rather than diving too deep. Because when I start
thinking . . .
“Oh great. Great.
Attack of the super models.” Your standard issue generic minions of your comic
book super villain. Your shorthand short cut that I suppose given time
constraints is understandable, but I start to wonder why these non-people are
serving Mrs. Gillyflower and whatever becomes of them in the end. They’re not
important; they’re backdrop. But oh what at least one good Packer quality
sidekick could do for this story.
These nonentities only start me thinking about the more
important background characters who are overlooked—the victims. The red bodies
in the canal and Effie and Edmund to start us out are one thing, but what of
all of those preserved under glass? I see that the Doctor goes to great lengths
to restore Clara, but what about the guy she was sharing a jar with? He’s
unimportant, nameless, and above all unknown to the Doctor. Why bother saving
him? Much less the countless others pickled and preserved by Mrs. Gillyflower.
Lately the Doctor doesn’t have much interest in rescuing anyone unless they are
near and dear to him.
This now leads me to Clara. Clara under glass. Pickled and
preserved Clara. Picture perfect Clara. She is a bit of a super model herself.
A generic companion. Jenna-Louise Coleman has done wonders in breathing life
into the character, but when you start mining below the acting and the humor
there isn’t much there. I still have no real handle on Clara. Why is she traveling
with the Doctor?
The Tegan reference from earlier really starts me thinking.
Tegan wandered on board the TARDIS and this “gobby Australian” spent much of
her time haranguing the Doctor to get her back to Heathrow. It was only after
long journeys that she finally decided she wouldn’t mind tagging along with the
Doctor after all; and in the end it became too much for her to stomach and she
left. Many other companions were either hijacked or stranded and had no choice
but to travel with the Doctor. Some, like Jo, spent much of their time with him
on Earth and only went along on space adventures with some reluctance. Then
there is Peri who demanded a guided tour of the universe and complained of
boredom the entire time.
Next we get into the modern era and a string of giddy females
with overactive libidos, Donna being the exception. Clara has a hint of the
puppy dog eyes but not overly so; not enough to warrant her trailing after the
Doctor. She is brave and spunky and craves adventure, yet she doesn’t particularly
strike me as a daredevil; at least not of the gritty, hard core nature required
to participate in some of the Doctor’s exploits; and not on the casual, ‘see
you next Wednesday’ level.
Clara is a character under glass. She is let out each episode
to deliver her lines, some of which are quite good, and to come up with ideas,
some of which are quite good, and to interact with the Doctor, but then she is
bottled up again in wait for the next adventure. She has no true independent
identity. The production team really lucked out in the actress they chose to
portray this probable girl.
My final thoughts are saved for Ada and the Doctor. Ada is played
for sympathy. Poor blind Ada, experimented on and lied to by her mother. Lonely
Ada who befriends her ‘Monster,’ the Doctor. Righteously indignant Ada who
shows no mercy to her mother and takes vengeance on Mr. Sweet. The Doctor takes
a fond farewell of the newly freed Ada as she declares, “It’s time I stepped
out of the darkness and into the light.”
The thing is, she was in the darkness. She was complicit in
her mother’s schemes. She aided and abetted in the kidnappings and poisonings.
She dumped the dead and rejected bodies into the canal. She only took pity on
the ‘monster’ Doctor and chained him in a room and kept him as her pet. It was
only after her mother told her there was no room for her in Paradise and after
she learned it was her mother and not her father who disfigured her that she
turned her back on the Gillyflower plan.
But the Doctor has taken a shine to her, and true to this
disturbing new trend of the Doctor’s, anyone he likes is absolved of all manner
of atrocities (Liz Ten anyone?).
Finally we have the tacked on ending in which Clara's two charges have discovered historical photos of her and the Doctor. Now I have to wonder how it is that the Daleks and Cybermen and the like continue to remark that the Doctor is erased from history when two Earthling school kids can find photos of him on the internet. I don't want to get too much more into this . . . please don't get me started.
I really do like this episode, Gary, as long as I stick to
the superficial. After all, that does seem to be the way of New Who . . .
I wonder, Gary, if you would have remained a fan; and I
wonder if you would even take any note of these latest entries of mine . . .
But I trudge on, ever in hope as that long ago Doctor we both
fell in love with would . . .
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