After a brief prologue where The Doctor prevents a war and rescues Clara, who was drifting in space, the Tardis lands on Earth and our protagonists are swiftly captured by a group of Vikings! Back in their village he tries to persuade them that he is Odin but his pitiful attempts can't compete with the 'real' Odin whose face appears in the sky before he selects the chosen few to go to Valhalla. Clara and Viking girl Ashildr are among the chosen and they soon learn the true fate of the chosen
the warriors are killed and their adrenaline and testosterone extracted to be consumed by 'The Mire', the aliens pretending to be gods. Clara and Ashildr were taken because they were holding the remains of The Doctor's sonic sunglasses which made them curious. Clara tries to act brave but when Ashildr follows suit and challenges The Mire she may have made a mistake; the challenge is accepted and their leader states that they will destroy the village in one day. Clara and Ashildr are returned to the village where The Doctor starts training the remaining men while coming up with a plan to defeat The Mire.
After a pretty dark story last time it was time for an episode with a few more laughs; some such as The Doctor pretending to be Odin are genuinely funny while the use a the 'Benny Hill theme' at one point was a little embarrassing at least for me. The story itself was pretty good; The Mire made good adversaries and the Vikings were rather fun largely because the brave warriors had been eliminated leaving a handful of farmers. The cast do a good job; most notably Maisie Williams, who is best known for playing Arya Stark in the 'Game of Thrones'; here she plays Ashildr, a rather similar character. For the most part this is a self-contained story; The Mire are defeated ten minutes before the episode ends. This last ten minutes sets things up for another worry for The Doctor; when Ashildr dies he brings her back to life permanently. This raises the possibility of her becoming a recurring character something that could be interesting if handled well. While I enjoyed the episode there were a few flaws; most were easy to ignore but the use of electric eels made no sense at all! The ending wasn't quite the cliff-hanger found at the mid-point of the previous two part stories but it still left me looking forward to the next episode.
After a pretty dark story last time it was time for an episode with a few more laughs; some such as The Doctor pretending to be Odin are genuinely funny while the use a the 'Benny Hill theme' at one point was a little embarrassing at least for me. The story itself was pretty good; The Mire made good adversaries and the Vikings were rather fun largely because the brave warriors had been eliminated leaving a handful of farmers. The cast do a good job; most notably Maisie Williams, who is best known for playing Arya Stark in the 'Game of Thrones'; here she plays Ashildr, a rather similar character. For the most part this is a self-contained story; The Mire are defeated ten minutes before the episode ends. This last ten minutes sets things up for another worry for The Doctor; when Ashildr dies he brings her back to life permanently. This raises the possibility of her becoming a recurring character something that could be interesting if handled well. While I enjoyed the episode there were a few flaws; most were easy to ignore but the use of electric eels made no sense at all! The ending wasn't quite the cliff-hanger found at the mid-point of the previous two part stories but it still left me looking forward to the next episode.