{"id":5617,"date":"2016-06-02T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5617"},"modified":"2016-05-20T15:24:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T22:24:01","slug":"mark-watches-doctor-who-s09e06-the-woman-who-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/06\/mark-watches-doctor-who-s09e06-the-woman-who-lived\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S09E06 – The Woman Who Lived"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixth episode of the ninth series of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, I am so thrilled by series nine of this show. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>.<\/p>\n

There are themes within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Woman Who Lives\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen before on\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, but there is an intensity here \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as well as a willingness to go to some dark places \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that makes this story incredibly powerful. Of course, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore how talented Capaldi and Williams are, and Williams really does steal the show here. How were we allowed to watch this? Do y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all realize what a gift this is?<\/p>\n

Me<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much fascinating detail work done with Me, and I think we should start that discussion by acknowledging the brilliance of Me\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name. After living for EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS, Me gives herself a name that can last through the ages. Individual names \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like Ashildur \u00e2\u20ac\u201c became meaningless to her because the people who knew her by those names died. Everything that we learn about Me contributes to the portrait of loneliness painted by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Woman Who Lived.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She keeps meticulous journals, organized by year, that allow her to compensate for a mind that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t built to be immortal. HER MIND CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T REMEMBER 800 YEARS, WHY DOES THIS ONE DETAIL DESTROY ME.<\/p>\n

So how\u00c2\u00a0has<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Me lived in the 800 years since the Doctor gave her immortality? We are shown the adventures, the times she did something beautiful and good for other people, the times she was taken advantage of and nearly killed, and we see the worst moment: Me losing her three children to the Black Death. It gave rise to another way to live. She no longer has children. And the list goes on and on. No attachments. Move from person to person, only using them for whatever they can offer her. Forget about doing what is right or just or fair. Do whatever you can to get from one moment to the next, from one adventure to another, from one locale to the one that follows it, to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starting to sound familiar, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n

Thus, Catherine Tregenna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script holds up an uncomfortable mirror to the Doctor, but it also makes him think about how responsible he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been for\u00c2\u00a0creating<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Me. He gave that young girl named Ashildur immortality, knowing how painful and lonely and scary the experience of long life is, and he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prepare her for it. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do anything that might have helped her adapt to it, aside from giving her a second Mire medical chip. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much consolation, is it? Without any guidance, Me tried to do her best, and she tried to do right by the world, but she became bitter. Lonely. Tired. Selfish. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to suggest that her choices aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t her own or that the Doctor is responsible for what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. But whether he intended to or not, the Doctor abandoned Me for\u00c2\u00a0eight hundred years<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So it made sense to me that Me wanted to travel with the Doctor, and it made sense to me that she made a deal with Leandro to leave. After 800 years on Earth, she felt\u00c2\u00a0trapped<\/i>. If the Doctor wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take her away, how else would she escape? The scary part is that she was so determined to get what she wanted that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even consider that Leandro would betray her, despite that it seemed pretty obvious that he would. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what desperation will do to a person, you know?<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunate that Me has a change of heart\u00c2\u00a0after<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the artifact nearly kills Swift and EVERYONE IN THE LINE OF FIRE. But as she watches fireballs plunge down to Earth, she realizes she cares. She cares about these people who are like dust and who only live a fraction of the life she will live and she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but want to do everything she can to protect them and IS THIS STARTING TO FEEL FAMILIAR, TOO? Oh my god, I love that Me gets her own story and it\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0reflects heavily on who the Doctor is, too.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever see Me again on this show, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy that the option is still there. Beyond that, the idea of Me is brilliant, too, because now there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone on Earth who will take care of those the Doctor leaves behind. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so eerie that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the background of Clara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s photo. Is she watching over Clara?\u00c2\u00a0Why<\/i>?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Woman Who Lived\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Death Note<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/em>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"