Doctor Who - The Crimson Horror Review (Mild Spoilers)

Review by Ken Parker

There does appear to be an attempt to create Doctor Who episodes this season that have a classic taste to them. Every episode this half season has been pretty basic without tons of layered gimmicks of hidden Easter eggs and over the top complexity. “The Crimson Horror” was going to be the story to break up the five in a row of pretty good stories, at least based on the trailer. Can I say that it did not and we are now working on six in a row of quality stories – well done writers of Doctor Who.

My main concern was going to be the inclusion of Vastra, Jenny and Strax in this story. The strongest points of the past five stories has been that the Doctor and Clara have been the center of attention and Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman's chemistry has developed at a good pace and in a realistic manner. I really didn't want to see this chemistry broken up and it really doesn't in this story for different reasons.

I can't believe I am saying this but I liked the guest appearances by our Victorian misfits, especially Jenny. She basically has the majority of the screen time. The story is told from their perspective and surprisingly they come to the Doctor's rescue. Of course the misfits are there to cause some Victorian to faint and they do so several times. Strax is there as a laugh and his one tone joke, while hilarious at first, is getting old.

The story is not the best but it is very simple – almost too simple. The conclusion is pedestrian but with some good acting by Rachel Stirling and Diana Rigg, the episode redeems itself. Matt Smith has some great moments with Stirling as well as Catrin Stewart (Jenny). Speaking of which, Smith and Coleman are almost second fiddle to our Victorian friends but that is not why their chemistry suffers. It seems in this story the Doctor and Clara are less 'realistic' and more like the standard current series Doctor and companion – just sort of smiling and playing off one another. It is as if Clara was pretending to be the Doctor. In the scene when they are confronting Mrs. Gillyflower (Rigg) Clara is almost giddy with excitement and confident that the woman who basically captured and poisoned them, almost killing them, was harmless to them now. The reason I bring this up is that you already have three over confident characters with Vastra, Jenny and Strax and now Clara is just like them.

I think the story will be liked by most fans and while it is not my favorite of the season, it was much better than I thought it was going to be and my confidence in the series continues to rise.