Mark Gatiss made his return with his second script of Series 7B. Was he able to carry over the success of his earlier story, Cold War, or would he give us another Night Terrors?
This episode served as the Doctor-lite episode of the series. It centered around the return of the Paternoster Gang: Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. Most people are calling this an attempt at a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series centered around the trio. If that series was much like this episode then I would watch it. Jenny got a much larger role to play than in any previous episode to date and she was fantastic. Loved seeing her being the character that the story focused on. Strax is a great character and very funny. If used in the correct way he could warm onto even the people who still don't like him. Madame Vastra was good, but I felt she was underused. Very much in the background, she was just there to help push the story along. Together they did a great job at advancing the story and making it engaging until the Doctor appeared. I hope this was in fact a backdoor pilot because I would watch more of this.
The guest stars in this story were the mother-daughter tandem of Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling who played an onscreen mother-daughter tandem. They both did an excellent job here. Stirling played a great version of the blind daughter who was in turn blindly following her mother. Rigg was exceptional as the villain of the story, Mrs. Gillyflower. She was very believable, but even more than that she was very sinister and played the creepy old lady that you know is up to something.
The Doctor does not show up until fifteen minutes into the episode. Once he is on screen Matt Smith does a good job of not overtaking the other actors on screen. This episode was not about the Doctor, it was about the ensemble cast. Clara doesn't appear until the twenty-seven minute mark. So it was a very Clara-lite episode, as she appeared late and also did not have that much to do.
Some quick notes: As I said before it was very Clara-lite. She really didn't have much to do except add in a couple of lines. I would've liked to see more of her especially since we are down to just two more episodes left in the season. Because of all of that we also didn't learn anything new about who Clara is, except that we still know that the Doctor hasn't found out either (or has he?). The prehistoric leech creature was bordering on the absurd for me. And finally I hated the ending. Not the ending of Mrs. Gillyflower, but the ending with the kids and Clara. It felt tacked on. It seemed really pointless and served only as a point to get the kids into the next episode. It didn't really need to be there.
I was sort of dreading this episode when I saw the next time trailer. I am not of a fan of most of what Mark Gatiss has written for Doctor Who. Cold War showed me something new and I actually was holding out hope for this episode, but once that trailer came on I felt like he went right back to that comfort zone and I was afraid that we would get another Night Terrors instead. I ended up quite pleased and enjoying this Gatiss story.
If this was supposed to be a horror episode with comedy mixed it, it failed. If it was a comedy with horror elements, then it greatly succeeded. Once I looked at it more as a comedy it made my enjoyment that much greater. This was a light fluffy story that was a nice change from the last couple weeks. I am now ready for the final two weeks of the season. 7.5 out of 10.
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