‘Oh Clara Oswald, what have I made of you.’ The big selling point of this was Maisie Williams appearance as the titular Ashildr, at the height of enthusiasm for her performance as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones. Hence, we get her playing another medieval character who’s impetuously brave, outspoken and cunning, rejecting the traditional female role in her society. It’s like JNT casting Ever Decreasing Circles’ Richard Briers as a rule-obsessed busybody. As stunt casting it makes some sense, as the audience is supposed to instantly like Ashildr as much as Clara and the Doctor do – and the script tries to make it clear from the moment the Doctor has a ‘premonition’ about her that she is something special and important, all in service of that final, uncharacteristic twist.

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‘You can’t just go back and cut off tragedy at the root.’ This takes some leaves from the Moffat approach to two-parters, like a second half that introduces a new setting. But mostly, this is more of the same – running away from ambling monsters. It just so happens this time as well as ghosts there’s a man in a massive monster suit (with Darth Maul’s voice) with the same unfortunate gynaecological resemblance as a Vervoid.

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‘There’s a whole dimension in here, but there’s only room for one me.’ The first two-parter not written by Moffat since 2011’s Flesh episodes. I’d almost forgotten what these felt like. This one particularly feels like a throwback to Series Two, like a sort of amalgamation of The Satan Pit’s haunted Sanctuary Base under siege by something evil with the mystery spaceship and ghosts from Army of Ghosts. It’s pleasingly retro, and even if the episode ends up sedately paced and unlikely to top any season polls, it sets up some good mysteries around the ghosts, what happened to the flooded Scottish village, and how they’re going to get out of that cliffhanger.

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‘Have I not suffered enough?’ On the plus side, this leans more heavily into the idea of the Doctor abandoning Young Davros on the battlefield only to regret the decision and seek to make amends, trying to ease Davros’ passing and show him one last sunrise. On the downside… pretty much the rest of it.

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‘If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?’ Moffat takes one of the famous morality conundrums from Genesis of the Daleks and turns it into the Genesis of Davros, with the Doctor wrestling with the very real possibility that he can kill the man who created the Daleks and thus make good his failure all those years ago. The challenge being, in so doing he has to walk away from a child asking for help – to walk away from the name of the Doctor.

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‘You’re a dream who’s trying to save us?’ The Doctor and Clara meet their second legendary character this year – in another soft reset for what’s gone before. Last Christmas is the debut of Doctor 12.2, complete with new hoodie and jumper outfit that is going to be the norm from now on. I wish he had been written and performed like this from the outset: grouchy not misanthropic; given the chance, as keen to take the reins of Santa’s sleigh as any of his predecessors; apologising to Clara for his mistakes; being the Doctor. Capaldi’s performance evolves to match this – his spikiness now reflected in his movements, like that distinctive run (as unique as Pertwee’s arms-tightly-in, or Troughton’s bandy-legged scamper).

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‘I am an idiot, with a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning.’ The 12^th Doctor finally rediscovers what it is to be the Doctor after Matt Smith memorably ended his time as a blood-drenched tyrant at the head of an army, issuing orders for the extermination of millions to the horror of Clara and his former friends. Except, oh, that never happened barring a possible future which was cancelled when a Clara fragment pushed the Great Intelligence in front of Bessie. Which means this whole series has been based on the Doctor recoiling from something that never was (or at least, was never shown): effect without cause. And if the Doctor really is still running from Trenzalore, maybe someone should have mentioned it to the audience.

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‘Don’t cremate me.’ It’s another one of what a wise man once called Moffat’s three-room stories, as the Doctor and Clara visit the 3W facility searching for the late Danny Pink while the dear departed himself adjusts to life in the Nethersphere. We finally learn the secret of Missy: a regenerated Master harvesting the minds of the dead into a Time Lord Matrix to download them into upgraded Cyberman bodies. And we’re told the dead remain conscious all the way through this, and faced with the horrifying prospect of experiencing their own cremations are offered the choice of deleting their feelings.

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‘The tree won’t hurt you.’ As we head towards the end of Capaldi’s first series, we get a slight return of the Matt Smith fairytale, and particularly The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardobe, with a magic forest full of living lights, and a young girl pointing the way to the solution. I’ve seen this story heavily criticised for embracing fantasy rather than science fiction, but this doesn’t overly bother me. Seeing the 12^th Doctor surrounded by children is great (‘Has he even been CRB checked?’), and the little scream he gives when Ruby declares Maebh is going to die is perfect. I’ve also seen this criticised for its attitude to medicating children with health conditions, which is harder to defend.

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‘So that’s what I sound like.’ The simmering story arc of Series Eight starts to come clearly into view, as Clara takes the lead in what’s practically a “Doctor lite” episode. With Capaldi stuck on the TARDIS set like Tom Baker in Part Three of Logopolis, Coleman gets to take charge, posing as a Doctor, mustering the survivors of the Flatland invaders and turning the aliens’ powers against them – all while fending off her boyfriend’s concerned/controlling (YMMV) phone calls. After passing the “terrible choice” test in Kill the Moon, she’s now auditioning for the main role. The Doctor seems to have mixed feelings: she makes a mighty fine Doctor, but goodness has nothing to do with it. Missy seems happier with the outcome.

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