The Woman Who Lived
Alone and on the trail of an alien artefact, the Twelfth Doctor interrupts a highwayman known as "the Knightmare" carrying out a highway robbery of Lucie Fanshawe in 1651 England.
Me and the Doctor steal the artefact from Lucie's house, flee by climbing out of the chimney and escape an ambush by a rival highwayman, Sam Swift.
The next morning, the Doctor meets Me's ally Leandro, a leonine alien stranded on Earth who uses the artefact to open portals into space.
Me, rediscovering her conscience and humanity after seeing the crowds slaughtered, uses the second Mire medical chip given to her by the Doctor[N 1] to save Swift's life and close the portal.
The site's consensus reads: "The Woman Who Lived" concludes a Doctor Who story for the ages, with a performance by Maisie Williams that is both fun and thought-provoking".
With an aged, well-read, worldly wise pair to play with, scriptwriter Catherine Tregenna was able to give the dialogue a literary feel.
"[20] Writing for IGN, Scott Collura gave the episode a 9.2–"Excellent" rating, praising the conclusion of the Me arc and dropping hints for the second half of the season.
[21] Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times also awarded the episode four stars out of five, calling it "a dark and beautiful study of immortality and short lives".
He especially acclaimed the episode's visual style, saying "The first 19 minutes takes place in the dead of night, the only available light coming from candles or the Moon.
He also stated that "The philosophical interludes between the Time Lord and Ashildr are what make this sing" and praised Williams' performance as "superb".
He especially praised Maisie Williams's performance, declaring "Her work in last week’s The Girl Who Died was very good, bringing nuance and humanity to what in lesser hands might just feel like just another random historical character with hints of deeper mystery.
[18] Pearson Education published a novelisation of this episode by Chris Rice[22] for students of English language reading on 26 July 2018.
