Doctor Who "The Crimson Horror": A Unique Way of Storytelling

What an interesting episode of Doctor Who The Crimson Horror was. I love it when shows do something like this and pull away from their central characters and let the side characters move the story along. Thus the return of Madam Vastra, Jenny, and Strax as the work to solve the mystery of the crimson horror. A mystery that leads to a place called Sweetsville. Don't worry though, it does take a while but the Doctor and Clara do appear during The Crimson Horror and help solve the mystery. There is also a lot of fainting if you know what I mean.

So The Crimson Horror begins with a man going to investigate something and then women arrive telling her that her husband is dead. So the husband's brother begins to investigate to mysterious nature of his brother's death and this brings him to Madam Vastra, telling her about the case. He shows them photos of his dead brother's eye, and they notice the Doctor's image captured on them. So Jenny decides to infiltrate Sweetville in order to figure out whats going on and to find the Doctor. After attending some weird meeting, Jenny is in and begins looking for a way in. So while waiting in line she pays a girl to faint so Jenny could go through a door unseen. Through her findings Jenny discovers that the factory is not what it seems, but something else entirely.

The Crimson Horror was an interesting episode of Doctor Who as the path story wasn't straight forward and brought back fan favorites Madam Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. I like it when shows change things up during an episode to keep it fresh and for about half the episode there was no sign of the doctor. Jenny doesn't have the knowledge the Doctor has but has different skills herself. So it was up to her to find the Doctor and solve the mystery. When she does find the Doctor, we were quite surprised to see the state he was in. This is credit to Matt Smith and how he acted out the state the Doctor was in. It really was creepy and disturbing. The flashback on how Clara and the Doctor was pretty cool too as it didn't waste time telling this elaborate tale but instead to the point and letting the audience know this was the past. Speaking of the past, don't you love how Jenny and Madam Vastra remembered Clara from The Snowman? I love when a show remembers things and brings them up. My favorite line of the night has to go to Strax who insults the horse by saying "Horse. You have failed in your mission".

Now what exactly was "Meh" about The Crimson Horror? Well for those of you who live to see Matt Smith for the whole hour, you were out of luck as he did show up about half way though. Not to mention Clara got even less time as she came in about 10 minutes into the episode. I guess this also applies if you don't like Madam Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. I think big let down of the night was the identity of Mr. Sweets. I was so expecting something other than a SPOILER on SPOILER.

I think The Crimson Horror was the first episode the Doctor didn't have a motive for bringing Clara somewhere to figure her out. The Doctor still hasn't figured Clara out either. So when Jenny asks if the Doctor is ever going to explain who Clara is, he simply answers with a "no". He hasn't even figured it out himself. The ending of the episode was interesting though and will play out next week for sure.

Did you like The Crimson Horror? What did you think of the scene where Jenny discovers the Doctor?