The Crimson Horror (TV story)

The Crimson Horror
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Featuring:	Jenny, Vastra, Strax
Main enemy:	Winifred Gillyflower Mister Sweet
Main setting:	Yorkshire, 1893
Key crew
Writer:	Mark Gatiss
Director:	Saul Metzstein
Producer:	Marcus Wilson
Release details
Story number:	236
Premiere broadcast:	4 May 2013
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x45 minute episode
Production code:	3.12
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
Production order
← Previous	The Snowmen
Next →	Cold War

The Crimson Horror was the eleventh regular episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It featured the return of Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax, who were last seen in The Snowmen. The episode marked the 100th episode of the revived series of Doctor Who, started in 2005.

Synopsis

A new project - Sweetville - has been opened, but only the perfect humans are allowed to live there. While Jenny, Vastra and Strax are trying to find out what is behind the project, Winifred Gillyflower, the project manager, is promoting the project. But who is the real manager? And who is the mysterious Mister Sweet?

Plot

Madame Vastra and her partner Jenny investigate 'The Crimson Horror' as another victim has been taken and in the victims eye is an image of the Doctor. Strax hears about this and takes charge with Vastra and Jenny. Jenny joins Sweetville to investigate it and finds the Doctor chained up and has caught the 'Crimson Horror'. The Doctor heals himself but is almost caught by Ada, Mrs. Gillyflower's blind daughter. After Jenny takes down many of Gillyflower's servants, Madame Vastra says that the red goop is the poison of the red leech, a parasite the Silurians considered a major threat several million years ago. Clara is soon found in a small room and is being told of what just happened and saying that Madame Vastra is a lizard. The Doctor and Clara confront Mrs. Gillyflower while Ada was peeping in, then Mrs. Gillyflower threatens to kill Ada. She takes Ada to the rocket where the Doctor and Clara follow. Meanwhile Strax was outside getting help from a boy named Thomas. Strax threatened to shoot Mrs. Gillyflower and she gets knocked down the stairs and the rocket in the sky explodes without the poison in it because Jenny and Vastra took it out. Ada says she'll never forgive her mother and then kills the parasite. The Doctor takes Clara back to London but she sees that there are pictures of her throughout time and her friends tell her that if she doesn't take them timetravelling with her they tell their dad that their nanny's a timetraveller.

Cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• Clara Oswald - Jenna-Louise Coleman
• Jenny Flint - Catrin Stewart
• Vastra - Neve McIntosh
• Strax - Dan Starkey
• Winifred Gillyflower - Diana Rigg
• Ada Gillyflower - Rachael Stirling
• Angie Maitland - Eve De Leon Allen
• Artie Maitland - Kassius Carey Johnson
• Edmund & Thursday - Brendan Patricks
• Amos - Graham Turner
• Effie - Olivia Vinall
• Abigail - Michelle Tate
• Urchin Boy - Jack Oliver Hudson

References

Cultural references from the real world

• Thomas Thomas, who uses the language of a modern GPS, is an obvious reference to the popular real-world GPS service, TomTom.
• Sweetville is based on the real-world model village of Saltaire, Yorkshire, founded in 1851 by wool industrialist Titus Salt. Titus also had a daughter called Ada, after whom a street in the village is named. Sweetville's name may also reflect the model village of Bournville whose name was later used for a brand of sweet, a chocolate bar.
• "The Repulsive Case of the Red Leech" is an unrecorded Sherlock Holmes adventure, mentioned in The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.
• Upon returning from her adventure, Clara picks up a toy robot from the Transformers line, specifically a Galvatron action figure.
• Several real world foods available in the 19th century are mentioned, including: Amontillado, Pontefract cakes, tea and seed cakes.
• The episode contains the DWU's first surviving glimpse of a guinea, since The Highlanders is lost.
• Real northern locations are mentioned, including Bradford and Buckden Pike.

Story notes

• This story marks the first time in the revived series that a companion's associates have successfully deduced the person's time-travelling affairs with the Doctor's on their own, along with the Doctor's ability to time-travel, without questioning the Doctor directly or getting a firsthand experience of the TARDIS. Artie and Angie Maitland discovered pictures of Clara's travels from TV: Cold War, TV: Hide, and a picture of Clara during her Victorian life (TV: The Snowmen) on the Internet, which exposed her secret.
• Likewise to the above, Clara sees herself in a past life for the first time by looking at the Victorian era photo of herself in London (TV: The Snowmen), cluing her in that she really has lived more than one life, which the Doctor confronted her over in their last adventure, TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.
• This story marked the 100th Doctor Who episode since the programme's revival in 2005.

Ratings

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Filming locations

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Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• Vastra's veil is far more transparent than it was apparently meant to be, and it can be pretty silly to see the appearance of her unveiled face be played as a complete surprise. Though one could argue that her having a type of skin condition has spread and it does at least cover the scale bit, not the green skin.

Continuity

• The Doctor mentioned failing to get Tegan Jovanka back to Heathrow Airport. (TV: The Visitation, AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors, et al.)
• The Doctor uses his fifth incarnation's often-used phrase "Brave Heart..." to Clara.
• The Doctor does a Northern accent again, joined by Clara this time. He briefly put on a Northern accent in TV: The Rebel Flesh.
• Pictures on Angie's laptop are from TV: Cold War, Hide, and The Snowmen.
• The Doctor is once again aided by Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Snowmen)
• Strax chants the Sontaran battle cry, "Sontar-ha!" when he attacks the brainwashed humans surrounding the Doctor and Jenny. (TV: Sontaran Stratagem /The Poison Sky)

Home video releases

DVD releases

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Blu-ray releases

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External links

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