After warning us to “sleep no more,” Doctor Who follows up by admonishing us to “Face the Raven.” While I appreciate the literary allusions, they need to actually mean something besides giving Peter Capaldi an excuse to recite some poetry. He does it well. It just needs to connect.
The bigger news this week is the return of Maisie Williams. As has been hinted for a while, her character Ashildr aka “Lady Me” has a larger role to play in the 12th Doctor’s arc, and hopefully in the overall mythos as well. It won’t be practical for Williams to go on playing it onscreen for years, but she’s definitely a great boon for novels, comics, and audio dramas.
It looks like The Mire is coming back for vengeance, and I do love the idea of a hidden street of wonders in London — sort of a Doctor Who version of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Or Stardust. Or I’m sure plenty of literary antecedents in British and American fantasy. Let’s see what the strictly science fiction version looks like. It’s also good to see Rigsy back — I enjoy a modern Doctor’s run most when there are recurring (not regular) characters as well. Only Clara so far has (sadly) overstayed her welcome, and I say that thinking that Jenna Coleman is great. Clara just should have left last season when they had two different somewhat organic and bittersweet exit doors.
