The Doctor Who episode “The Crimson Horror” just finished airing in the U.K. It was a trip back in time to meet the Doctor’s old friends Strax, Vastra, and Jenny. (Spoilers)
The episode opens with Edmond having fallen victim to the Crimson Horror. Mrs. Gillyflower reports to his wife that her husband is dead. The case is then brought to Madame Vastra and company by their partner. Vastra takes the case after seeing a mysterious octogram that reveals the image of the Doctor. The group then heads north to investigate Mrs. Sweetwater. They encounter Mrs. Gillyflower (Dame Diana Rigg) in a sort of religious revival meeting. Featured is the daughter of Mrs. Gillyflower, Ada (Rachael Sterling), who has lost her eyesight supposedly due to her abusive father. Mrs. Gillyflower offers up her mill as a kind of holy and safe place for workers to escape the horrors of the working class life.
Jenny joins up with the workers to investigate first hand in the Sweetwater Mill. Jenny lines up with other potential workers hoping to make the cut of the chosen. After a distraction, she enters a locked room and discovers loud clanking coming from huge gramophone-like devices. She spies workers carrying red liquid in glass containers. As Jenny continues to prowl around, she comes upon a room where a person with reddened hands is locked up. What she finds is that this person is actually the Doctor who is a victim of the Crimson Horror. She rescues him, but there is no immediate sign of Clara. The Doctor indicates a room and soon has his sonic and clothes, he then seemingly cures himself.
The Doctor tells Jenny his story. It seems he intended to land in another location, in this case London, and instead ended up decidedly north at the height of the industrial revolution. As usual, the TARDIS seems to have brought him where he needed to be. As he and Clara, in period dress, exit the TARDIS, the Doctor reminisces about past companion Tegan and uses the iconic line that he used to say to her, “Brave Heart,” to buck Clara up when screams are heard. They see a Crimson Horror victim and hear about the strange happenings from Edmond. They visit under the Smith guise to investigate and end up as victims themselves. Ada keeps the Doctor as a pet, calling him her monster because the conversion didn’t fully take place and he is now imperfect like her.
Meanwhile, Strax and Vastra learn what they can on the outside. The Crimson Horror is actually a prehistoric poison that Vastra is familiar with from her home planet. A parasite brought it there and it nearly wiped them out. Strax and Vastra then rescue the Doctor and Jenny, who are outnumbered, in the nick of time. Eventually they split up and the Doctor discovers Clara, who he and Jenny rescue. They also run into Ada, who doesn’t quite tell all her mother’s secrets, but the Doctor realizes that Ada has lived a very sad life and isn’t what she seems. In short order they encounter Mrs. Gillyflower, who reveals the plan in full: how she is a human host looking to take over the world with a new order perfection. Though they nearly get her, she escapes.
They pursue Mrs Gillyflower to a giant chimney that isn’t emitting smoke, and the Doctor realizes that it must be a type of disguised rocket launch intended to blast the area with venom. In a showdown where they again have help from Vastra and Strax, the rocket is rendered useless and Gillyflower and her host are killed.
In the end, Ada is seemingly going to stay with Jenny, Vastra, and Stax and the Doctor doesn’t explain the Clara mystery to any of them.
Clara, now back at her house, finds photos of her adventures on her computer. Apparently the kids she takes care of found them and put together that she is time traveling with her boyfriend. They demand to be taken on an adventure or they will tell their dad.
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