Review - Doctor Who: "The Woman Who Lived"

On this week's episode of Doctor Who, The Doctor becomes a wanted man and there's a fire breathing lion-man.
"The Woman Who Lived" continues the Ashildr plot-line from the previous week's episode and while last week's episode was mostly a lighthearted affair, things get a lot more darker in this episode.

After the Doctor 'cursed' her with immortality, the Doctor bumps into Ashildr while he is trying to find an alien object in 1600's England and we see how much she has changed, at this point in time she has lived over 800 years, she keeps diary entries about her life because she cannot remember everything in her life because she has a normal human's memory, the saddest thing is she doesn't remember her original life, when she was Ashildr and lived in her viking clan, she now goes by 'Me' because every other name get forgotten with the loved ones she has lost. Her life is so traumatic at parts, with her losing her children to the great plague, which she keeps in the diary to remind herself not to have children and there are pages ripped out which are too traumatic to relive, which is insane, when she kept the pages about her children dying.
I love the theme of immortality in shows and the fact that she cannot remember all of her life is such a unique idea that i haven't heard before and really adds to the despair of being immortal.

Leandro and Ashildr in "The Woman Who Lived"

It's very surprising seeing how much Ashildr has changed through the years, she really isn't "The Girl Who Died" anymore she is "The Woman Who Lived" all thanks to Maisie Williams performance. The character of Ashildr is fascinating and i hope she becomes a regular on 'Who', with the character looking after people that The Doctor has met over the years, she will have an effect on this series.

The villain this week, Leandro, was fine, he wasn't fleshed out very well and was basically just a plot device to show that Ashildr still cares about people, but his character design was awesome and he could breathe fire!

It was also interesting seeing a Clara-less Doctor, Clara wasn't in the episode until the last scene, which left the companion duty filled with Ashildr, which worked very well, the theme throughout this episode was that people come and go for the Doctor and Ashildr and it seems like The Doctor is just waiting for Clara to go, which is heartbreaking.

"The Woman Who Lived" is one of the best 'Who' episodes that Capaldi has done yet, thanks to his brilliant chemistry with Maisie Williams' character and the personal storyline they chose to tell.

9.3/10
What did you think of "The Woman Who Lived"?
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