Friend or foe? Alien or immortal? Game of Throne's Maisie Williams had the charisma to be the Doctor’s new companion or his next enemy in Doctor Who, by Jim Shelley

‘Do you know her?’ Clara Oswald asked.

The Doctor said he didn’t but we sure as hell did.

It was Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones in Doctor Who – a verifiable TV event, a geeks’ paradise although whether it was a meeting of minds or a case of opposites attract only they could say.

In music, pairings like this – duets or supergroups - always seem like a good idea/nirvana but in practice are invariably rubbish.

Crossing over: Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams made her debut in Saturday's Doctor Who

Crossing over: Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams made her debut in Saturday's Doctor Who

So the appearance of the young star who plays Arya Stark in possibly the only series on TV whose fans are more obsessed than GoT represented high stakes for followers of both shows.

It could have been a recipe for disaster and would have been if the script by Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat had carried on making knowing jokes about who she was.

Happily, it transpired Williams was perfectly cast and more than held her own in her scenes with the Doctor.

Related? Maisie's resemblance to Jenna Coleman's Clare was striking - so much so that the Stark girl might be even more appealing as the Time Lord’s ‘companion’: the perfect replacement when Coleman leaves

Related? Maisie's resemblance to Jenna Coleman's Clare was striking - so much so that the Stark girl might be even more appealing as the Time Lord’s ‘companion’: the perfect replacement when Coleman leaves

In fact there was a danger she would upstage poor Jenna Coleman as Clara – so much so it struck you that the 18 year-old Stark girl might be even more appealing as the Time Lord’s ‘companion’: the perfect replacement when Coleman leaves.

With those big brown eyes she could have been not just Coleman’s heir but her younger sister.

Her storyline was in two parts with this episode ‘The Girl Who Died’ followed next week by ‘The Woman Who Lived.’

Predictably Moffat was savvy enough not to take any chances and to play to both parties’ strengths, meeting both shows in the middle with a plot that saw some classic Doctor Who sci-fi monsters ‘The Mire’ (space warriors from the future) colliding with the type of folklore fantasy Williams is so familiar with (playing a Vikings’ village girl called Ashildr).

Two parter: Maisie joins Jenna and Peter Capaldi for two episodes, ‘The Girl Who Died’ followed next week by ‘The Woman Who Lived'

Two parter: Maisie joins Jenna and Peter Capaldi for two episodes, ‘The Girl Who Died’ followed next week by ‘The Woman Who Lived'

‘No, no, no. Not Vikings !’ cried the Doctor. ‘I’m not in the mood for Vikings.’

Williams could have been forgiven for thinking the same thing. She could have brought her own brown leather jerkin and sword from Game Of Thrones’ costume department.

The Doctor said he had never seen her Ashildr before but – aside from the title – it was immediately obviously something was awry.

‘Why are you staring?’ Clara asked.

‘Too much Time Travelling,’ the Doctor fumbled. ‘People talk about premonition as if it’s strange. It’s not. It’s just remembering in the wrong direction.’

Familiar territory: Maisie could have brought her own brown leather jerkin and sword from Game Of Thrones’ costume department

Familiar territory: Maisie could have brought her own brown leather jerkin and sword from Game Of Thrones’ costume department

Even as a humble Viking villager Maisie Williams had a definite presence: a youthful androgynous vulnerability fired with a steely courage that belied her age.

‘I’ve always been different,’ Ashildr told the Doctor at one point. ‘All my life I’ve known that. The girls all thought I was a boy. The boys all thought I was a girl. My head is always full of stories.’

This was when the plot – and the villagers’ lives – had unravelled.

You could write a thesis or at least a blog about any given episode of Doctor Who but in short The Mire’s leader ‘Odin’ (a rather disappointing character with the look of Roy Wood from Wizard about him) had snatched the village’s strongest men up into his spaceship and atomised them into smoothies for their adrenalin and testosterone.

 Back in time: The plot saw The Mire’s leader ‘Odin’ snatch the village’s strongest men up into his spaceship and atomise them into smoothies for their adrenalin and testosterone

 Back in time: The plot saw The Mire’s leader ‘Odin’ snatch the village’s strongest men up into his spaceship and atomise them into smoothies for their adrenalin and testosterone

‘Mash up Vikings to make warrior juice?’ Nice !’ complained Clara, not noticeably upset that Ashildr’s people were in fact, dead.

Ashildr vowed revenge and challenged him and his men (armed cement-headed Easter Island statues) to a showdown.

‘Shall we say this time tomorrow?’ Odin accepted.

‘Why are you doing this?’ protested Clara.

‘Why else? The joy of war... What is a god but the cattle’s name for ‘farmer’? What is ‘heaven’ but the gilded door of the abattoir?’

Back in the village, The Doctor (Peter Capaldi at his most enjoyably capricious and his Catweazly) was not optimistic.

Gripping: The plot saw some classic Doctor Who sci-fi monsters ‘The Mire’ (space warriors from the future) colliding with the type of folklore fantasy Williams is so familiar with (playing a Vikings’ village girl)

Gripping: The plot saw some classic Doctor Who sci-fi monsters ‘The Mire’ (space warriors from the future) colliding with the type of folklore fantasy Williams is so familiar with (playing a Vikings’ village girl)

‘I looked them up in my diary. The Mire are one of the deadliest warrior races in the galaxy.’

His solution was ‘to run.’

He would not intervene, even if he knew how to – because of the need to adhere to the Time Travellers’ principle to ‘tread softly.’

‘It’s OK to make ripples but not tidal waves (in time, space and history). Suppose I save the village and defeat the Mire, earth becomes a target of strategic value. The earth is safe. Humanity is not in danger. It’s just one village...They’ll die fighting with honour. To a Viking that’s all the difference in the world. A good death is the most anyone can hope for. Unless you happen to be immortal...’

This turned out to be the theme. Of course he didn’t stick to his advice or his intentions. The combination of Clara Oswald and Ashildr was enough to see to that – along with the sound of a baby crying.

Adventure: ‘The Girl Who Died’ was (for the most part) more of a high-spirited adventure than some of the recent morose scare-fests that the title implied

Adventure: ‘The Girl Who Died’ was (for the most part) more of a high-spirited adventure than some of the recent morose scare-fests that the title implied

His ability to ‘speak baby’ gave him an idea how to stop the Mire. (It’s a long story – as Doctor Who plots invariably are.)

‘The Girl Who Died’ was (for the most part) more of a high-spirited adventure than some of the recent morose scare-fests that the title implied.

The darker side may come next week.

Capaldi showed his comic capabilities assembling a Vikings’ ‘Dad’s Army’ from the farmers and fishermen at his disposal, giving them nicknames like ‘Lofty’, ‘Noggin The Nog’, ‘Chuckles’, ‘Heidi’ and the bearded ‘ZZ Top.’

Complex: The episode involved a combination of a Mire’s helmet, a Viking ship, Ashildr’s mind for story-telling, and some electric eels (don’t ask)

Complex: The episode involved a combination of a Mire’s helmet, a Viking ship, Ashildr’s mind for story-telling, and some electric eels (don’t ask)

Quite how they defeated the Mire wasn’t entirely clear – not unless you were a teenager or a child.

It involved a combination of a Mire’s helmet, a Viking ship, Ashildr’s mind for story-telling, and some electric eels (don’t ask).

‘That’s the trouble with viewing reality through technology! It’s all too easy to feed in a new reality. You see you’ve just seen the world through the eyes of a storyteller !’ the Doctor mocked Odin, by way of ‘explanation.’

Back in time: The plot saw The Mire’s leader ‘Odin’ snatch the village’s strongest men up into his spaceship and atomise them into smoothies for their adrenalin and testosterone

Back in time: The plot saw The Mire’s leader ‘Odin’ snatch the village’s strongest men up into his spaceship and atomise them into smoothies for their adrenalin and testosterone

‘I know I’m strange, everyone knows I’m strange,’ Ashildr had told him. ‘But here I’m loved. You tell me to run to save my life. I tell you that leaving this place would be death itself.’

In fact, the Doctor’s plan, as the title suggested, nearly did kill her.

‘I’m so sick of losing,’ he cried to Clara, descending as he tends to these days into self pity when he thought he had killed her. ‘I’m sick of losing people.’

He foresaw the day (not that long away apparently) when he would lose her too (‘with your kindness and your anger’) and he would do ‘what I always do. I’ll get in my box and I’ll run. In case all the pain ever catches up.’

At death's door: The Doctor’s plan, as the title suggested, nearly did kill Maisie's character Ashildr

At death's door: The Doctor’s plan, as the title suggested, nearly did kill Maisie's character Ashildr

‘There’s nothing you can do,’ she consoled him.

‘There’s nothing I CAN’T do. But I’m not supposed to. Ripples and tidal waves...’

This was the Time Lord’s dilemma: not intervening in history.

This was one occasion where he refused though, declaring ‘I’m the Doctor and I save people’ and inserting one of the Mire’s microchips into her forehead, explaining: ‘it’s repairing her.’

He left her a second chip – not for her but for her own companion.

It seemed as if the Doctor had saved Ashildr but in fact he had taken away her ability to die, made her become if not a Time Lord (‘a dr’ is in the anagram of her name), immortal and partly alien.

Immortal: It seemed as if the Doctor had saved Ashildr but in fact he had taken away her ability to die

Immortal: It seemed as if the Doctor had saved Ashildr but in fact he had taken away her ability to die

‘Immortality is not living forever. That’s not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying. She might meet someone she can’t bear to lose. That happens I believe.’

Back in the TARDIS, he was less sentimental and less happy about the ending he had given her, acknowledging: ‘I was angry, emotional. It’s possible I’ve made a terrible mistake. Maybe even a tidal wave. Time will tell. It always does.’

Part One of the story ended with Ashildr revived and Maisie Williams standing with a light storm spinning all around her, empowered, and perfectly poised between innocence and something altogether darker.

‘She isn’t human anymore. A little piece of alien is inside her,’ the Doctor had said.

Whether he meant 'like him' or 'like so many of his enemies', we will find out next week.

It's part of her appeal in both Doctor Who and Game of Thrones that where Williams is concerned, anything is possible.

What has he done? Back in the TARDIS, he was less sentimental and less happy about the ending he had given her, acknowledging: ‘I was angry, emotional. It’s possible I’ve made a terrible mistake.'

What has he done? Back in the TARDIS, he was less sentimental and less happy about the ending he had given her, acknowledging: ‘I was angry, emotional. It’s possible I’ve made a terrible mistake.'

 

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