The Girl Who Died
In the episode, the alien time traveller the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companion Clara (Jenna Coleman) have 24 hours to train a group of weak Viking villagers for a war against aliens called the Mire shortly after the Mire slaughtered all of the village's warriors and a woman called Ashildr (Maisie Williams) subsequently declared war.
The episode was watched by 6.56 million viewers and received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised the humour, the performances and the resolution to the Doctor’s face.
The men are killed and drained of their adrenaline and testosterone, while Clara and Ashildr meet Odin, the leader of the Mire species that pride themselves on their merciless conquests.
Odin vows to attack again, but the Doctor threatens to send video footage of the rout captured by Clara's phone to the universe unless they leave Earth.
As they leave, the Doctor tells Clara he fears he gave Ashildr a fate worse than death as the chip will never fail, effectively making her immortal and alone.
[1] David Tennant and Catherine Tate appear in flashbacks as the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble, respectively, in scenes from "The Fires of Pompeii" (2008) in which Peter Capaldi also starred.
A flashback from "Deep Breath" (2014), the eighth series' opening episode, also appears as the Doctor finally understands why he chose his current face.
[4] At the end of the episode, the Doctor reflects on the potential consequences of his decision to save Ashildr, and possibly making her immortal, by saying "time will tell, it always does".
[1] Odin's face appearing in the sky to talk to his disciples directly references a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which God does the same thing.
[2] Clara suggests, and the Doctor agrees, that The Benny Hill Show's theme song Yakety Sax be used as the soundtrack for the video of Odin and the other Mire retreating from the dragon puppet.
The site's consensus reads "With a stellar guest-star performance by Maisie Williams, "The Girl Who Died" sets thrillingly high stakes, while still maintaining the playful tone we've come to expect from Peter Capaldi's incarnation of Doctor Who".
[21] Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded the episode a perfect five star rating, claiming that "Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat invest a traditional formula with a twist of unpredictability and immortality".
[19] Catherine Gee of The Daily Telegraph also enjoyed the episode, calling it "fast paced" and claiming that it "set up all the right ingredients for something big next week".
He called the episode "fast-paced, with sharp, funny dialogue and some great clowning from Peter Capaldi" and further praising Williams as "nicely ethereal in the part, without ever overplaying the character's enigmatic nature".
He closed his review by saying "while Doctor Who shouldn't be like this every week, the show's boundless variety has always been its biggest selling point, and it's refreshing to see 'The Girl Who Died' break the mould and dare to be entirely unpredictable and different".
