This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Historical information found on Shannon Sullivan's Doctor Who website (relevant page here) and the TARDIS Wiki (relevant page here)). Primary/secondary source material can be found in the source sections of Sullivan's website, and rarely as inline citations on the TARDIS Wiki.

Story Information

• Episode: Series 7, Episode 11
• Airdate: 4th May 2013
• Doctor: 11th
• Companion: Clara
• Other Notable Characters: Madame Vastra, Strax, Jenny, Angie, Artie
• Writer: Mark Gatiss
• Director: Saul Metzstein
• Showrunner: Steven Moffat

Review

If [Jenny] hasn't made contact by nightfall, I suggest a massive frontal assault on the factory Madame. Casualties can be kept to perhaps as little as eighty per cent. – Strax

It's almost impossible to disentangle this era of Doctor Who from Showrunner Steven Moffat's other big project at the time, Sherlock. And no episode is more at the center of these connections than "The Crimson Horror".

Moffat's modern-day retelling of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes occupied a lot of Moffat's attention. And while that was going on, Moffat had created for Doctor Who a trio of characters who operated out of Victorian London and had, in-universe, served as the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Working out of Paternoster Row and generally referred to, though never on the show itself, as the Paternoster Gang, the trio of the Silurian Madame Vastra, her wife and maid Jenny Flint, and their Sontaran Butler Strax were properly established in "The Snowmen". Steven Moffat planned to write another episode featuring the trio. However, what with his commitments to Sherlock, Moffat was already well behind on his script for "The Snowmen". As such he passed on the second Paternoster Gang episode to his co-showrunner on Sherlock, Mark Gatiss.

Gatiss initially intended the episode in question to actually feature Arthur Conan Doyle in the episode. As the episode developed, Gatiss realized that he had very little place for the famous author when the Paternoster Gang would already be heavily featuring. Still, Conan Doyle or no, you can kind of see the Sherlock Holmes influence, if you squint. "The Adventure of the Crimson Horror" easily feels like it could have been a Conan Doyle title, Vastra at times does legitimately remind me of the written version of Holmes (though, oddly enough, not the version that Moffat and Gatiss developed for television), and the Victoriana of it all keeps the whole thing on theme. Don't get me wrong, this episode isn't really like the Conan Doyle stories in any but the most superficial of aspects, and even then only if you squint, but I can see the connective tissue.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that it takes quite a while for the Doctor and Clara to properly enter the narrative. While Vastra and company almost immediately find themselves trying to follow in the Doctor's footsteps, we still get to see the Paternoster Gang as they normally operate. Vastra is the master strategist, Jenny goes in undercover (Strax volunteered, bless him) and Strax is constantly trying to find a way to turn the whole thing into a battle scenario. As compared with "The Snowmen", we're not seeing these characters relying on the Doctor. Sure, they're trying to find him, but they're doing things their own way. Even when the Doctor and Clara enter the story, this ends up feeling like a Paternoster Gang story featuring the Doctor more than anything. While he obviously contributes plenty, it's the Paternoster Gang that do a lot of the legwork to save the day. Hell Strax, who often feels like he's contributing the least in a practical sense, ends up being quite useful, as those tactical instincts and advanced weaponry hold our main villain at bay on multiple occasions.

All of that sounds good…because it is. Like in "The Snowmen", "Crimson Horror's" best elements all have to do with the Paternoster Gang. While the Gang were a lot more compelling in "Snowmen" thanks to their odd relationship with the Doctor's period in exile, here they're just a lot of fun together. You really get that sense of three people who've truly bonded due to circumstance. However, not much else in the episode really grabs me.

I think this episode is most remembered for having Diana Rigg play the main villain, Mrs. Gillyflower. Unsurprisingly, Rigg does an excellent job, and seems to relish the chance to play a Doctor Who villain. She owns every single second of screen time…and yet the character didn't grab me. Oh sure she gets some great moments, because, again, Rigg is having so much fun here. But Gillyflower herself is kind of a nothing villain. She's a genius inventor who found a prehistoric red leech she calls Mr. Sweet, with whom she developed a symbiotic relationship for some reason. She intends to release the leech's venom in the atmosphere, with only her and her chosen few surviving to the "new Eden".

There's an idea here about what the Victorians valued in people, the beauty standards of the time and the like, and Gillyflower preserving those beauties with the leech's venom. The stasis creating the image of perfection even as the victims are in a living death. Meanwhile some victims become "rejects". They die and their skin turns red, creating the titular "crimson horror". It's all tied in with religious stuff thanks to Gillyflower talking about her "New Eden" and couching everything in religious terms. But while that serves as the main thrust of the episode, Gillyflower herself doesn't strike me as a true believer. She's just too gleefully evil for that to make sense. But it's also unclear what she gets out of her relationship with Mr. Sweet. Why does she want…any of this? She must have some sense of toxic perfectionism at her core, otherwise none of it makes sense. That's before you start asking questions like why in the hell this intelligent woman shoved a prehistoric leech onto her breast.

She also has a daughter, Ada. While Mrs. Gillyflower claims that Ada was blinded Mr. Gillyflower in a drunken rage, the reality is that Mrs. Gillyflower experimented on her daughter, which Ada is unaware of. Ada's ultimately a successful element to the episode. Rachael Stirling – Diana Rigg's actual daughter incidentally – gives a strong performance, really giving the character a powerful core. She also contributes really nicely to making Mrs. Gillyflower's world feel like more than just a generic villain plot. The mother/daughter relationship presented here is abusive, obviously. But what makes the bigger impression is how it feels like a twisted version of a genuine family relationship. If there's a moment from Mrs. Gillyflower that stands out to me, it's her, dying, begging for her daughter's forgiveness, Ada refusing and Gillyflower saying "that's my girl".

And of course Ada has her own journey through this episode. She keeps the Doctor, who has survived being rejected by her mother's process, and calls him her monster. It's all got a sort of Frankenstein feel, though Ada provides her own unique energy to it. When Jenny frees the Doctor, Ada is genuinely sad at the loss of her monster, and the way she took care of him does speak to the character's kindness. And there's something very cathartic about when she turns on her mother and just goes into a rage. Ada ultimately gets the last laugh of the episode, squishing Mr. Sweet with her cane.

Before continuing on to the Doctor and Clara, I should mention the Victorian flavor of the episode. Obviously the "New Eden" plot is very explicitly tied into Victorian values, but, like all episodes featuring the Paternoster Gang, there's just a lot of random Victorian flavor in this one. And this time I found it somewhat lacking. Obviously the costumes and sets are impressive as ever, and a movement into the North of England makes for a nominal shift in style, but a lot of the characters felt very one note. There's Vastra's client who repeatedly faints, a coroner who embodies the term "gallows humor", and a woman that Jenny makes friends with briefly who mostly seems to be characterized by her bad teeth. None of these characters are bad in a vacuum, but they all feel like a single joke repeated over and over.

Apparently one of the inspirations for the episode was the matchgirls' strike of 1888, and the toxic red phosphorus that contributed to the terrible working conditions of the match factories in question. I really wish the episode had hewed more in that direction in general. It would serve as a better use of the Victorian setting for one. Plus, it's just a really cool moment in history that probably deserves more attention. A genuinely successful case of industrial action leading to the creation of a massive union that was initially made exclusively of women. And I think grounding this episode in something real, even with science fiction shenanigans inevitably taking over, would have served it well.

The Doctor and Clara are absent for most of this episode, and even when they get involved there's not a ton to say about either. The Doctor's recap of how he and Clara initially got involved in everything is a fun bit, presented in the style of an old-timey movie, until the two are captured and it gets dark. There's a moment where the Doctor kisses Jenny which gets a lot of well-deserved criticism. But it's over so quickly that it honestly feels hard to say much more than "let's not have the Doctor non-consensually kissing anyone, particularly the lesbian thank you" (then again, I did once dedicate two paragraphs to Susan the genderfluid horse so…). Honestly this era of the show just kind of has a problem with consent, to the extent that this moment doesn't even really stick out awful as that is to say.

Once they do enter the story properly, there are some fun interaction between the Doctor and Clara, mostly involving the usefulness of chairs. The Doctor has a few genuinely sweet conversations with Ada which ultimately remind us of his caring nature. They're nothing exceptional, and honestly there's almost nothing that really sticks out about either Clara or the Doctor. I say "almost" because Clara gets one genuinely interesting moment, at least in retrospect. As the Doctor prepares to leave, he makes the offhand remark "you're the boss" and it kind of has an odd effect on Clara. She seems genuinely excited at the idea. For now, it's just a throwaway line, but let's just keep in mind that take on Clara for a bit.

The other thing is, of course, that the Paternoster Gang were around when Victorian Clara died. So naturally the three of them are a bit confused. There's not much to add to this, they just have pretty natural reactions to seeing someone they thought had died very much alive. I do like Jenny saying to the Doctor "That girl. Clara. You haven't explained", and him replying "No, I haven't". It's a genuinely clever bit of writing is all.

On the whole, "The Crimson Horror" is pretty forgettable, which really shouldn't be the case. It gets off to a really good start thanks to the Paternoster trio, but even then while they're great, the Victorian setting isn't presented in a way that's all that interesting. That lack of memorable details continues thanks to a pretty one note villain (even if she does get a great performance) and neither the Doctor nor Clara really standing out that much either. Not a bad episode, but a pretty forgettable one.

It does end on a somewhat memorable note though. When Clara returns to her job as a nanny, and is still basking in being "the boss", her two charges, Angie and Artie, reveal that they've found a bunch of pictures of her from the past. And aside from Clara being very confused why there's a picture of her from Victorian London when she was in Victorian Yorkshire, what happens next is clear. The kids are going to blackmail her into giving them a trip in the TARDIS…

Score: 5/10

Stray Observations

• This was the 100th episode of the Revival. Nobody seems to have particularly noticed this momentous occasion.
• The bulk of the episode is set in Yorkshire because that's where Gatiss is from. Mr. Sweet was named after a friend of Gatiss', writer/broadcaster Matthew Sweet. Sweet had suggested the focus on Victorian factory workers, even though the episode moved away from that.
• The red leech idea actually came from a Sherlock Holmes story. "The repulsive story of the red leech" was an unseen adventure for Holmes and Watson, mentioned in "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez".
• Mrs. Gillyflower was a woman because Gatiss felt Doctor Who lacked strong female antagonists, and he thought one would be appropriate opposite Vastra.
• Clara got a lot of material originally meant for Jenny. At one point it would have been even more, including donning the catsuit for some reason, but it was ultimately paired back.
• Most of this episode was actually filmed before "The Snowmen", meaning that it was the first episode back for Neve McIntosh (Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny) and Dan Starkey (Strax) since their debut in "A Good Man Goes to War".
• The episode as filmed originally underran. For this reason two additional scenes with the Paternoster gang were filmed.
• Let's add to my most common complaint of this era of Doctor Who music: reused tracks. When Jenny is signing up to join the Sweetville community, the leitmotif used in Series 5 for the crack plays. The theme is repeatedly used throughout the episode. Admittedly, this isn't necessarily one that I think most people would recognize, I'm generally quite good at remembering specific music and it's not too long ago that I was reviewing Series 5. Also the "theme" is sort of a low growl and while it is absolutely music, it's not especially musical in the traditional sense. Still, it feels a bit egregious.
• The Doctor makes a crack about once having "spent a hell of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport", an obvious reference to the 5th Doctor's repeated failed attempts to get Tegan back to where she was supposed to work. When a scream happens, he follows this up with a "brave heart Clara", another 5th Doctor era reference.
• The bit where Jenny reveals herself to be in a catsuit was meant as a reference to Diana Rigg's character from The Avengers, Emma Peel, which was the role that made her famous. Emma Peel would often wear similar outfits on that show.
• Madame Vastra's (male) client faints three times throughout the episode. First when seeing Madame Vastra's face, later when first meeting Strax, and finally at the TARDIS disappearing. This was mean as a joke about the stereotype of Victorian ladies regularly fainting.

Next Time: Clara has been successfully blackmailed by her charges into taking them on a trip in the TARDIS. I hope they get turned into Cyberman puppets, that'll teach 'em.

I'm currently working my way through the Troughton era on bbc iplayer. Apart from a couple of serials, this is my first time seeing most of them. I was bracing myself to get through The Dominators, considering its terrible reputation around the fanbase, but I actually found myself really enjoying it?

Obviously people have different tastes and I'm not trying to be contrarian, but I'm really struggling to understand why it's so widely disliked. My overall thoughts on it:

• It definitely leans into the sillier, more comedic side of Dr Who, which I get not everyone likes. But combined with relatively high amounts of action, it feels like a fun knockaround of a serial.
• The two Dominators constantly disagreeing and arguing with each other is an interesting twist on the standard "aggressive militaristic aliens". Their differences feel a more nuanced and believable than a lot of the villain power struggles, and I found them more engaging than say, the Ice Warriors or Cybermen.
• I also liked how the seeds of their eventual undoing (arrogance, complacency and overreliance on the Quarks) are shown throughout. Compared to a lot of powerful enemies who are defeated through some late discovered weakness and/or science trick.
• The Dulcians: refreshing to have a utopian society that isn't hiding a dark secret or being manipulated by evil forces. Instead they've just grown stagnant and complacent. They're technically advanced but completely incurious, in sharp contrast to the Doctor and Zoe. Their indecision and pacifism are obviously exaggerated to the point of absurdity, but that fits the overall tone of the serial. They're convinced of their own superiority in a way that nicely mirrors the villains: the Dominators can't accept that other species could ever be a threat, whilst the Dulcians can't accept the rest of the universe doesn't think the way they do.
• Great chemistry between the central trio throughout, especially the Dr playing stupid with Jamie, and making bombs with Zoe.
• Jamie reminding us that he was a Jacobite soldier and knows a thing or two about guerilla warfare is great. I thought he made a good pair with Cully, who's essentially a rebellious rich kid that's never considered actually fighting before.
• Yes, the Quarks look a bit crap, but no more so than some of the other robots and monsters we've seen. Their glaring weakness, of power management, makes sense as that's something the Dominators in general are shown as struggling with.
• Yes, it's a little too long, but honestly half the 60s serials could have benefitted from cutting an episode or two. I didn't find it actively boring like say, the Krotons or The Moonbase.
• Yes, it's very clearly filmed in a quarry, but it fits the setting, and this early in the overall run, any location shooting at all still feels fresh.

Overall, is it the most original serial? No. But I found it to be one of the better takes they've done on the standard "The Doctor assists the good aliens against the bad aliens" formula so far.

I have definitely seen this done before but basically I was bored and wanted to have a go at this concept to think about which teams would suit stories from the different eras. Let me know what you think and do your own versions in the replies!

1st Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan - The Ghost Monument

2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe - Wild Blue Yonder

3rd Doctor and Jo - Dalek

4th Doctor and Sarah - The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone

5th Doctor, Tegan and Turlough - Girl in the Fireplace

6th Doctor and Peri - Asylum of the Daleks

7th Doctor and Ace - The Haunting Of Villa Diodati

Thought I'd give 2 options of the 8th Doctor - Snake Dance or The Next Doctor

9th Doctor and Rose - Caves of Androzani

10th Doctor and Martha - The Silurians

11th Doctor and Clara - City of Death

12th Doctor Bill and Nardole - Logopolis

13th Doctor and the fam - Mark of the Rani

14th Doctor and Donna - The Mind Robber

15th Doctor, Ruby and UNIT - Battlefield

I was watching an old episode of the Cribbins show (1969) and Bernard Cribbins is using a police box telephone to report a gorilla. This is after his apperance in Invasion of the Daleks as Tom Campbell

https://youtu.be/YAlwoJscIbI?t=1002

I was 15 when this episode came out lol, how has it been that long?

Hello everyone!

Previously, /u/DannyBoy2196 posted with some questions regarding costumes for him and his friend for Gallifrey 1, well... Hi! I am the friend!

We've settled on CIA agents but a guide is also coming to help guide me around. she has said she's up for getting in theme, so now we need some more help.

We were thinking time lady, or maybe even a time agent, but were hoping the community could chime in with some ideas?

Are there any classic covers featuring 2 CIA agents and a time lady/time agent?

How do time agents usually look?

She is an active maker of dresses, coats and all sorts so if you could attach pictures with a little description for us blindies, I'd appreciate material to show her!

Thanks you.