The Doctor and Clara find themselves within a little village of Vikings, which is being attacked by an alien stating that he is Odin, something the Doctor did at the very same time, who seems to be stealing the strongest of soldiers that he can use to power himself. With the weakest of the Vikings left behind, the Doctor finds a way to turn them into strong warriors within a week, or else they will feel the wrath of this fake Odin. At the very same time, the Doctor comes to a realization that his current reincarnation might mean more than he first thought it would. Will it be enough to save the village?

Odin demands thee to have watched the episode before thee lay thy eyes upon this spoiler-filled review. Oh, you know what I can’t do this, here is your spoiler warning!

I will start off with my personal favorite scene, as the Doctor actually comes to realize that the way he looks like right now actually has a much deeper meaning than most incarnations before. While turning into David Tennant or Matt Smith he became a new person, whose face he used as a representation of his current emotional state or just his mind trying its hardest to run away from the dark past that he has left behind, but now in a much older body, Moffat actually ties in the connection to Peter Capaldi’s first appearance in the show, as he played Caecillius in the episode “The Fires of Pompeii” and believed this action is something that will cement itself into the path that he chose to take even if it carries some consequences with it. I really liked this explanation of why he has the face he has now and it is also well tied into the overall arch in this episode.

Something that confused me about these Vikings is the fact that they were the most British Vikings I have ever seen, which is not a bad thing, but I just think it is kind of funny. Still, it was great to see Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams in this show, who plays a young girl named Ashildr. She had the largest arc in this episode with her becoming a sacrifice to save her village, which was quite depressing to see, but I do find it bizarre that he has technology that can make someone immortal, which I personally felt like it came out of nowhere and as much as her life was important to him, I never fully understood his decision. In the end though, it could be that her becoming immortal was the Doctor being stuck to the laws of Space and Time even though he was trying to overcome them in the end.

In general, it was a fun episode and the villain for the episode was a lot of fun, as he wasn’t too serious even though I wished that him acting as Odin would have given us a bit more than a short floating hologram. The alien designs were quite interesting and I think Clara is having more “fun” this season. After everything that has happened, she certainly takes many risks and represents more of Matt Smith’s Doctor, which is a nice contrast to the current version, who has also grown quite a lot since the last season. Only thing with Clara is that I wished her existence as “The Impossible Girl” was still around, as now she has just become the bubbly sidekick who helps people understand  who the Doctor is.

What did you think of the episode? Leave a comment below!