Finally! After two episodes of rapidly diminishing quality, things pick up tremendously in "The Crimson Horror" by Mark Gatiss. As a writer for Doctor Who, he has been a bit hit and miss, but this is a big hit in my eyes, making it two in a row for him this season.
The Crimson Horror begins as a Doctor-lite episode but ends as "The Doctor & His Gang" again, with Jenny Flint, Strax and Madam Vastra all making very welcome returns. While it is certainly true that Strax has become entirely a comic relief character, I don't imagine anyone is too upset since the Sontarans are hardly the most beloved classic Doctor Who monster.
So, we've got mysterious deaths in Victorian... Yorkshire, ahem. Vastra & Co. doing the investigations, strangely red-skinned corpses, a factory that isn't actually making anything and the Doctor is nowhere to be seen except as an image captured in the eyes of a murder victim.
Yeah, this is a fun one!
While I do think some of the comedy is a bit broad, that is hardly a big issue. We do get a few Avengers homage moments, no doubt inspired by the (also inspired) casting of Diana Rigg as our puritanical villainess Mrs. Gillyflower. She has a cruel and dysfunctional relationship with her daughter and a cult of wannabe doomsday dodgers to back her up, plus the unseen-until-the-climax Mr. Sweet, who is interesting to say the least.
More than anything, this is a well-constructed episode. The storytelling as fast as ever, but once again Gatiss proves he can tell a complete story in 45 minutes. The plot is good, the secondary characters work and the wrap up doesn't rely on sprinkling fairy dust or cheap sentiment. The episode is sprinkled with references to the classic series and more recent episodes (yes, the mystery of Clara is still going on), of which this is the 100th!!
Which is all to say that "The Crimson Horror" is a refreshing change after a fortnight of pretty bad stories. Hopefully this is the first of three astonishingly good episodes to cap off what has been a hit and miss season. This is a good period mystery, much better than the Christmas Special which it has obvious links with.
Next time... We finally, finally, fin-bloody-lly get some Cybermen that don't look rubbish. In an episode written by Neil Gaiman. My inner geek is so very hopeful!