Yes, intellectually you can rationalize that she would change so much over 800 years that she would act like a completely different person. But it’s not satisfying from a story perspective. The Ashildr we met in Viking times was a dreamer and a storyteller, and she was deeply invested in her family and her village. The Ashildr we meet 800 years later is a reclusive sociopath who robs people for the lulz. There doesn’t seem to be anything to connect the two.
Contrast that with how Donna’s story played out. When Donna absorbed some of Ten’s energy and became Doctor Donna it was clear that it was still Donna in there, just a drastically changed and expanded version of herself. And so the Doctor Donna story was thrilling and moving because we could feel the tension between her old and new incarnations.
Last night’s episode could have been like that. But to make it work, we should have been given glimpses of the old Ashildr lurking inside the cruel sociopath. That would have been sad and chilling and maybe even hopeful. (How will the Doctor undo the damage he’s done?) Sadly, Moffet often treats his characters like cogs in a big plot machine, and so often misses the big emotional pay off.
I think we did, though. Ashildr talked about how she was cold and distant and didn’t care for anybody, but she still kept on the faithful old retainer. And I don’t think she was cruel: she’d rob people for kicks and burgle for thrills, but she’d hide rather than just kill the sleeping man impeding her escape, and she spared Sam Swift when he was at her mercy. She wasn’t as lost as she thought she was, and so her change of heart at the end wasn’t just pulled out of nowhere.
And don’t forget that her parallels with the Doctor were made explicit with her house: she lived in a place entirely too big for her with a single companion, except that he would age and die while she lived on. The only difference was that she was trapped in a single time and place, and so as she said to the Doctor, like him she sought adventure where she could find it.
Ooh, I hadn’t spotted that, but good call on the similarity between Ashildr’s house and the TARDIS. I very much liked that she was bitter and angry, and I very much liked the whole idea of the Doctor seeing what happens to the people he encounters after he saves the day and flies off. I do hope Ashildr will show up occasionally in future episodes, rather the way Mickey did.
And I’m glad I wasn’t the only person to catch the anachronism of being offered a cocktail in the 17th century. (Although, nitpick - the first recorded use of cocktail is in the 18th century, in New York, so only 100 years too early.)
There was some excellent double-edged dialogue between them at her house, when the Doctor commented that it was a too big for Ashildr to live by herself: the whole conversation really brought home that she was his Earth-bound parallel, who had buried or seen die everyone she’d ever been close to, while she just lived on in a big empty space with her memories. And I love that she was wholly aware of it, and used it to sass him. I liked this Ashildr; I like the ones like Rory and Donna who will call the Doctor on his behaviour.
Being raped? Tortured for witchcraft (or heresy)? Being enslaved? She told the Doctor that she left the pages about her babies in to remind her why she would never have children again. That doesn’t suggest that what she tore out is worse, just that she doesn’t want to ever forget that particular torment. The others she might be perfectly happy to forget.
I’d like to see Ashildr show up again; she’s probably my favorite GOT actor. But I’m worried about Sam Swift showing up time and time again. The Doctor said the gizmo embedded in him ran out of juice (or to that effect) but then said he lied, so she had to watch him, right? So will Sam show up again? With Maisie each time? I hope he’s done for…
Yes. Although never having been all that fond of Jack Harkness, when the Doctor said that he had once travelled with another immortal, I assumed at first that he was talking about Romana.
Time Lords, while incredibly long-lived, are not immortal. Each regeneration is a death, and when the regenerations run out, unless s/he steals a body or benefits from a clerical error, they die for good
Can a Time Lord die of old age, though? If not, since those immortalized by the repair chip can still die due to accident/violence, a Time Lord would be more immortal than them, getting at least a couple of do-overs; however, they’re less immortal than Captain Jack, who seems to be able to come back from basically anything.
On Gallifrey, a Time Lord does not find him/her self in life threatening situations as often as the Doctor does. And if centuries go by between regenerations, it may seem like forever.
eta - In Troughton’s time, the idea of only twelve regenerations hadn’t yet become canon
It wasn’t worse than losing her babies, she said she kept those to remind herself never to have babies again. Losing her babies was so much worse that she forced herself to remember it so she would never go through it again.
Going by the picture, he seems to be just a face, not even a head. (Potayto, potahto…)
Back to the episode: I thought it was so-so. I know why they put “Me” in the school picture, but I thought it would have been more fun if, as a twist, the Doctor had seen not her, but Missy in the background.
