I wanted to write some more about
“The Girl who Died”. Two reasons for this: one, it was a wonderful piece of television,
and for me, easily the best episode of series nine so far. I’ve got a lot more
to say about it than my 600 word review said. Two, a friend of mine thinks it
was a fairly standard episode and that “Before the Flood” was “obviously”
better. That’s fair enough, different opinions exist (Why? Why do they exist?),
but it makes me want to explain in more detail why I think the episode was
utterly marvellous.
The first thing I wanted to
address was a criticism he had regarding the resolution of the Mire invasion
plot. Apparently, one of the fiercest warrior races in the galaxy shouldn’t
have been defeated because they were scared of a dragon. Apparently, it’s not
convincing that this would scare them.
Which, obviously I don’t agree
with. I highlighted that moment as one of my favourite parts of the episode.
And I think it would be useful to break down why I think that’s the case.
First off, it’s a wonderfully
pure version of Craig Ferguson’s statement that Doctor Who is about intellect
and romance beating brute force and cynicism. And yeah, that’s a large part of what
this episode’s about. In fact, it’s one of the most beautifully literal
realisations of that statement: the cynical, brutal forces of the Mire are
beaten by the joy, optimism and hope of a young girl’s story. Sure, Doctor Who
doesn’t have to give us that exact resolution every week, but I’m never sorry
to see it delivering that kind of message, particularly when that message is
delivered as well as it is here.
Next, let’s get into logistics. So,
the argument against the Mire being tricked into running away by the Ashildr’s
fake Dragon is that they’re supposedly built up as a fierce warrior race that
shouldn’t be frightened of a dragon. But the thing is, they’re not built up as
a fierce warrior race. That’s just what they claim to be. But they’re not the
Daleks, or the Cybermen, or the Sontarons. They’re just generic one off Doctor
Who villains #432. Not in a bad way. There are a couple of genuinely brilliant
moments that set them apart from most one off Doctor who villains: I’m thinking
in particular of the utterly gruesome moment where Odin drinks the testosterone-induced
remains of the Viking warriors, and the moment where the Doctor asks if Odin
would attack unarmed civilians, and Odin replies that “it wouldn’t be the first
time”. I’m all for complex villains, but sometimes Doctor Who needs a genuinely
horrible villain, and moments like that mark out Odin and the Mire as particularly
loathesome. But while they are beautifully loathesome, the point is that there’s
nothing to mark them out as especially fierce beyond their own reputations. Reputations
based on their hyper-masculine posturing and the macho rubbish that they spout.
While they clearly outmatch this unarmed village of Vikings, the viewer won’t
look at them as among the most fearsome foes the Doctor, and that’s the point,
one that the episode backs up and uses to set up the resolution.
How does it back this point up?
Well, there are a couple of key quotes from the episode, that simply cannot be
ignored when reading into the resolution, as they further build the argument
that the Mire really aren’t all that in the hierarchy of terrifying Doctor Who
Villains. The First quote comes from Clara’s encounter with the Mire (bolding
mine):
“ODIN: I have no reason to fear you.
CLARA: Except you've already analysed that and you know it's a technology from a civilisation vastly more powerful
than your own. And er, you will have also noticed that I'm wearing a space
suit. So, I'm not from around here, and it's highly unlikely I will have come
alone. You see, you haven't killed us
because killing us would start a fight you didn't come here to have, and you're
not sure you can win.”
This quote really gets at the
centre of what the Mire represent. They aren’t an all-powerful warrior race,
they’re bullies who pick on people smaller than them. The moment they get the
sense they’ve picked a fight that they can’t win, they’re tempted to run away.
For all their posturing, they are no more courageous than Brave Sir Robin from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (“When
danger reared its ugly head he bravely ran away and fled”). This serves as set
up for the climax, where they’re tricked into believing a rubbish wooden prop
is a terrifying monster (Incidentally, I love the Doctor’s joyous “I Know!”
when Clara points out how rubbish the prop is). The second quote comes from the
Doctor, after the Mire have been beaten:
“The mighty armies of the Mire. Brutal, sadistic, undefeated. Even I believed the stories. […] An army like
yours, it lives or dies on its reputation, its story.”
The Doctor himself explicitly
acknowledges that the Mire’s claim to being a fierce undefeated warrior race
was something he believed until he met them. Then he realises that they’re only
undefeated because they never fought a fight they thought they couldn’t win.
They’re brutal cowards, and to beat them, all he has to do is prove that.
All of this sets up a joyous and
powerful resolution.
Odin and the Mire aren’t fierce,
and they aren’t brave. That’s the point. They’ve built up a reputation of being one of the fiercest
warrior races in the galaxy, but that’s a fiction, a story that they told. They’re
not brave or powerful, they’re the playground bullies, who pick on the kids who
are smaller and weaker than them, and run away the moment they think they’ve
picked a fight they might lose.
Now Ashildr, she’s brave, in the
real way. She’s a misfit in her village, the girl who girls called a boy and
the boys said was just a girl. The girl who lives in stories, who makes puppets
to calm herself when she’s scared for the people she loves. Because although
she’s a misfit, she’s loved by her village. So she loves them in return, wants
to defend their honour, and keep them safe. She defends them from a race far
more powerful with one of her stories.
A brave young girl defeats a
group of bullies who disguise their cowardice with hyper-masculine posturing
that inflates their reputation. And she does so by telling a story that comes
from a place that’s braver and truer than they could ever dream of being.
That’s not a plot hole, it’s the
essence of Doctor Who, and it’s utterly beautiful.
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