Doctor Who: “The Woman Who Lived” Review

By Scott Collura

Warning: Full spoilers below.

Continuing the Ashildr thread from last week’s “The Girl Who Died,” “The Woman Who Lived” dives deep into the questions posed at the end of that episode. Specifically, what would the ramifications be of the Doctor’s granting Maisie Williams’ character virtual immortality? And how would Ashildr’s new existence reflect upon the Doctor’s own life, who as we all know is almost ageless as well.

For one thing, Ashildr is no longer Ashildr. Not in name, anyway. She doesn’t even remember that name all these centuries since the Doctor saved her. It’s quite sad, really; she can barely recall the Viking village that she came from, which was so important to her and which she couldn’t live without back then. Her father is hardly a memory, that life all but gone. And that’s why she’s stopped taking names. Now she is just Me, alone and shut off from the rest of the world in order to guard against the pain of watching everyone around her, particularly those she loves, grow old and die. Her former names have passed on with those she knew.

Of course, this is the Doctor’s own dilemma, and it could be of particular importance this season regarding his relationship with Clara (more on that in a second). But unlike the Doctor, who seems to be able to remember much of what he has experienced in his thousands of years of life, Me has just the regular capacity for human memory despite her agelessness, which means she can’t retain most of what she’s lived. The people she loved, the children she’s had — and lost — the adventures she’s lived. She has her journals for when she needs a reminder, yes, but it’s not the same. “All these people here, they’re like smoke,” she says. “They blow away in the moment.” (Though, is it that she can’t retain those memories, or has chosen not to?)

Her recollections of some past incidents are funny; a stint as a medieval queen (mostly paperwork and backgammon), the Battle of Agincourt (dangerous even for her, sure, but when you have all the time in the world, you can become an expert at any skill — even archery), that time she was almost burned as a witch after saving a village from the plague… “The Black Death. I meant to warn you,” says the Doctor.

But as with last week’s episode, “The Woman Who Lived” balances the lightweight and humorous with some more heavy moments. The Doctor reads Me’s journals, only to find ripped out pages — and tear stains — which reflects the horror that he has inflicted upon her in his attempt to do a good thing. Me’s recollection of her past lives is heartbreaking. “I return to find an old man who smiles and thinks I am a dream,” she says of a former lover. Of her children, who she could not save, she recalls her own screams. “And yet still, I am not brave enough to die.”

What’s interesting about the importance placed on the loss of Me’s children here is that at one point it was largely thought among fans that Williams would be playing one of the Doctor’s own children, or grandchildren, who have been mentioned if not seen on modern Who. And while that did not come to pass, here we are all the same contemplating the notion of immortal parenthood and all of the pain that might bring. The Doctor sees himself in Me, sure, but he also sees in her the danger of cutting himself off from the world because of his long, long life.

This is why he can’t take Me with him, no matter how much she begs him. “We need the mayflies,” he tells her — the companions. They’re there to remind the Doctor about what really matters. Hopefully Ashildr, who seems to have taken back that name by the episode’s end, has learned that lesson too. The Sam Swift character, laughing and joking all the way to the hangman’s noose, seems like a great place to start. (But what happens when his newfound immortality starts to become a burden…?)

Which brings us back to Clara, who is conspicuous by her absence throughout most of this episode. Me mentions her early on, asking why the Doctor hasn’t made her immortal and just how many Clara’s he’s lost over the years. It recalls the great David Tennant episode “School Reunion,” when the Doctor’s old companion Sarah Jane Smith returned and we pondered the question of what exactly happens to a companion once the Doctor moves on. But there’s something more going on with Clara, it seems. And the Doctor knows it. Or has something already happened, and Clara (and we) just don’t know about it yet?

“I’ve missed you, Clara Oswald,” the Doctor says. “I’m not going anywhere,” she responds. But oh, that look on his face says otherwise…

Some notes:

• “You’ll have to remind me. What’s sorrow like?”
• So Ashildr has set herself up by the end of the episode to be an almost anti-Doctor, in a way, protecting the world from the Doctor himself. Hmmm.
• The subplot with Leandro — let’s call it Beauty and the Fire-Breathing Beast — was fine, and he had a cool make-up design, but the deeper Ashildr story is what makes this episode tick.
• What could be worse than losing your children? Perhaps we’ll never find out, for while I hope/expect to see Williams again at some point on Doctor Who, I think this tiny mystery helps deepen and color the character far better than a simple explanation of those missing journal pages ever could.
• A leper colony? At least the Doctor has kept an eye on Ashildr, kind of sort of.
• Captain Jack Harkness namedrop! Then Twelve must remember Rose as well, right? Because sometimes I wonder…
• “This is banter. I’m against banter.”
• I hate to even ask, but why didn’t Ashildr just use the chip on someone dear to her in the past 800 years?
• Next week: Osgood!