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Matt Smith
The Crimson Horror
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Synopsis


The Crimson Horror
The Crimson Horror
 Something ghastly is afoot in Sweetville, a factory community in Victorian Yorkshire, as bodies are found with their skin a waxy, glowing red - the Crimson Horror!

 What has happened to The Doctor, who's nowhere to be found? How did his image come to be preserved on a dead man's eye? And what, dear reader, is your story?

 Will you be found wanting when the End of Days is come? When judgement rains down upon us all? Or will you be preserved against the coming Apocalypse?



General Information

Season: Thirty Three (New Series 7)
Production Code: 7-12
Story Number: 237 (New Series: 81)
Episode Number:796 (New Series: 100)
Number of Episodes: 1
Percentage of Episodes Held:100%
Production Dates: July 2012
Broadcast Date: 04 May 2013
Colour Status: HD Colour
Studio: BBC Wales (Roath Lock Studios, Cardiff)
Location: Bute Town (Caerphilly)
Writer:Mark Gatiss
Director:Saul Metzstein
Producer:Marcus Wilson
Executive Producers:Caroline Skinner and Steven Moffat
Assistant Director:Danielle Richards
Script Producer:Denise Paul
Script Supervisor:Steve Walker
Script Editor:John Phillips (Assistant)
Editor:Matthew Cannings
Production Executive:Julie Scott
Production Managers:Claire Hildred and Phillipa Cole
Production Assistants:Rachel Vipond and Samantha Price
Post Production Supervisor:Nerys Davies
Production Designer:Michael Pickwoad
Director of Photography:Stephan Pehrsson
Casting Director:Andy Pryor CDG
Line Producer:Diana Barton
Costume Designer:Howard Burden
Make-Up Designer:Barbara Southcott
Cameramen:Evelina Norgren (Assistant), Meg De Koning (Assistant), Sam Smithard (Assistant) and Joe Russell (Operator)
Visual Effects:The Mill
Special Effects:Real SFX
Prosthetics:Millennium FX
Stunt Co-ordinator:Crispin Layfield
Stunt Performers:Daniel Euston and Stephanie Carey
Incidental Music:Murray Gold
Special Sounds (SFX Editor):Paul Jefferies
Sound Recordist:Deian Llyr Humphreys
Music Orchestrated By:Ben Foster
Music Conducted By:Ben Foster
Music Performed By:The BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Music Recorded By:Gerry O'Riordan
Music Mixed By:Jake Jackson
Title Sequence:Frame Store
Title Music:Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Arranged by Murray Gold
Number of Doctors: 1
The Doctor: Matt Smith (The Eleventh Doctor)
Number of Companions: 1The Companion: Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara Oswald) Number of Acquaintances: 3The Acquaintances: Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny Flint) and Dan Starkey (Strax) Guest Cast: Dame Diana Rigg (Mrs Gillyflower) Additional Cast: Rachael Stirling (Ada), Eve de Leon Allen (Angie), Kassius Carey Johnson (Artie), Brendan Patricks (Edmund & Mr Thursday), Graham Turner (Amos), Olivia Vinall (Effie), Michelle Tate (Abigail), Jack Oliver Hudson (Urchin Boy)Setting: Yorkshire (1893) Villains:Mr Sweet and Mrs Gillyflower

The Episodes

No. Episodes Broadcast
(UK)
Duration Viewers
(Millions)
In Archive
796The Crimson Horror04 May 201344'44"6.5Yes

Total Duration 45 Minutes


Audience Appreciation

Average Viewers (Millions) 6.5
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2013)78.80%  (Position = 3 out of 9)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2014)74.64% Lower (Position = 83 out of 241)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2023) Position = 18 out of 39


Archives


 This story exists and is held in the BBC's Film and Videotape Library.



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Notes


"The Crimson Horror" is the 100th broadcast episode (not including the mini-episodes) since Doctor Who was revived in 2005.

This story is considered to be a Doctor-lite story. It sees the return of Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax from "A Good Man Goes to War" and "The Snowmen". Executive producer Steven Moffat told Radio Times that the story would be from their point of view, for the audience ‘to see them tackle a case of their own, and stumble across The Doctor's path, quite accidentally’. Steven Moffat had planned to write this story himself, but he realised he would not be able to and so called on Mark Gatiss to write it instead.

Mark Gatiss previously wrote "The Unquiet Dead", "The Idiot's Lantern", "Victory of The Daleks", "Night Terrors" and "Cold War".

This story has been directed by Saul Metzstein who directed "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", "A Town Called Mercy", and "The Snowmen".

Dame Diana Rigg plays Mrs Gillyflower and her real-life daughter, Rachael Stirling, plays her onscreen daughter, Ada. It has been revealed that this story was ‘specially written’ for them both and is the first time the two have appeared together in a television production. Mark Gatiss had previously worked on a play with Rachael Stirling, who mentioned that she and Diana Rigg had never appeared in something together, and Mark Gatiss therefore offered to ‘tailor’ them into this story, for which he had already devised the basic premise. Rachael Stirling has stated that Mark Gatiss had written ‘an on-screen relationship between Ma and I that is truly delicious. We have never before worked together because the offers have not been tempting, but when such a funny and original script comes through you know the time has come’. Mark Gatiss also stated that he wanted to write ‘a properly northern Who’ and revealed that Diana Rigg was able to use her native Doncaster accent for the first time.

Diana Rigg has an enviable career as an actress. Best known for playing the dynamic Mrs Emma Peel in the quintessential 60s series, The Avengers, she starred opposite George Lazenby in his only outing as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service - in which she played Bond's love interest, Tracy. Other roles have included Lady Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper, Lady Dedlock in Bleak House, Helena in Mother Love, Mrs Bradley in The Mrs Bradley Mysteries and the 2007 stage adaption of Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother, which also starred Mark Gatiss.

Rachael Stirling also enjoys a successful acting career. She starred as Nan in the BBC adaptation of Tipping the Velvet, with other television appearances in Hotel Babylon, Boy Meets Girl and Women in Love. Her film work includes roles in The Young Victoria, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Snow White and the Huntsman. She also guest-starred opposite Tom Baker and Louise Jameson in the Big Finish Productions' Fourth Doctor audio drama "Trail of the White Worm" that was also released in May 2013.

Diana Rigg is credited as ‘Dame Diana Rigg’, the first time such an honour has been included in a Doctor Who screen credit (by contrast, Sir Michael Gambon was not identified as such in the 2010 Christmas Special "A Christmas Carol").

This story is largely set in Yorkshire - the northern county where Diana Rigg was born. As with the first story written by Mark Gatiss, the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "The Unquiet Dead", the majority of the action takes place during the Victorian era, although in this story the TARDIS lands in 1893, about 25 years later than in "The Unquiet Dead".

The read through for this story took place in Cardiff on Thursday 28th June 2012. Filming began the following week on Monday 2nd July with Bute Town, in Rhymney near Cardiff, standing in for this story's Yorkshire setting, with further scenes being recorded in the BBC's Roath Lock Studios.

The apparently prim and perfect Sweetville were actually shot not far from the BBC’s Cardiff studios in Wales. Production Designer Michael Pickwoad said the street ‘had to look as though it was very prim and proper and almost too perfect… because something dreadfully wrong is going on inside!’. Sweetville is based on the real-world model village of Saltaire in Yorkshire that was 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 chocolate bar.

At one point, during a meal with Ada, Mrs Gillyflower is seen tossing salt to one side, apparently ‘to keep the devil at bay’. This refers to a superstition that suggests throwing a pinch of salt over your shoulder brings good luck as it is said to be flung into the face of the devil. In the 1977 Fourth Doctor story "Image of the Fendahl" The Doctor notes that salt is deadly to the ancient and evil Fendahleen. He conjectures that this use of salt (against the Fendahleen) may be the origin of the salt-throwing superstition.

In the flashback sequence, The Doctor is heard to say ‘Do you know the old Romany superstition, Clara? That the eye of a dead person retains an image of the last thing it sees…’. This is similar to a version that the Fourth Doctor tells the crew of Nerva Beacon just before he connects his mind to the retina of the dead Wirrn in the 1975 story "The Ark in Space".

When they arrive The Doctor mentions that the TARDIS used to be worse about landing at its intended destination, saying that he ‘once spent a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport’ - a reference to his fifth incarnation's companion Tegan Jovanka. She called herself a ‘mouth on legs’ and continually hassled the Fifth Doctor, hectoring him to take her to Heathrow Airport as she wanted to be an air-hostess. She joined the Fourth Doctor by accident in the 1981 story "Logopolis" and eventually made it to the airport in the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Time-Flight". Tegan has been referred to previously in the revived era in both the 2007 Children in Need special scene "Time Crash" and The Sarah Jane Adventures story "Death of The Doctor".

Another reference to Tegan is made when The Doctor tells Clara ‘Brave heart, Clara!’. The Fifth Doctor often encouraged Tegan with the words, ‘Brave heart, Tegan!’.

A ‘penny dreadful’ was a type of British fiction publication that emerged in the nineteenth century, typically featuring lurid and improbable stories. Due to increased mechanisation within the publishing industry of that era, each edition cost only one penny - an affordable sum that added to their widespread appeal.

In the line ‘…this shining city on the ’ill!’ Mrs Gillyflower is misquoting John Winthrop (c. 1587-1649), a British Puritan who settled in New England in the 17th Century. In 1630 he delivered a sermon that contained the words ‘…we shall be as a City upon a Hill’ in reference to the founding of America. Many US politicians have quoted the line with several of them - most notably Ronald Reagan in his farewell speech of 1989 - adding the adjective ‘shining’.

Mrs Gillyflower is heard to say ‘Pretty maids all in a row’. She is quoting the old nursery rhyme that begins, ‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?’.

The Urchin Boy, who gives assistance to Strax, is called Thomas Thomas. He is heard using the language of a modern GPS and is an obvious reference to the popular TomTom real-world GPS service.

Strax chants the Sontaran battle cry, ‘Sontar-ha!’ when he attacks the brainwashed humans surrounding The Doctor and Jenny (see "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky").

Strax refers to Jenny as a ‘fleshy boy’, showing he still has issues with differentiating genders (see "The Snowmen").

Jenny is seen wearing her leather suit again as she did in "The Snowmen".

Madame Vastra's client continually faints when exposed to any unexpected or shocking events. This is a satire of how women were culturally perceived to act in the Victorian era.

Real northern locations are mentioned, including Bradford and Buckden Pike.

The Doctor does a northern accent again, joined by Clara this time. He briefly put on a northern accent in the 2011 story "The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People". The Ninth Doctor also naturally spoke with a northern accent.

The Doctor again uses the pseudonym ‘Doctor Smith’ in this story. He has given this alias many times in the past and in the 2010 story "The Vampires of Venice", when we glimpse his library card, we see this ID has an image of the First Doctor and identifies him as ‘Dr. J. Smith’.

The monster in this story bares a slight resemblance to the ‘Goa'uld’ from Stargate SG-1. They are quite defenceless when by themselves however when combined with a human are a lot more powerful.

‘The Repulsive Case of the Red Leech’ is an unrecorded Sherlock Holmes adventure, mentioned in "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez".

Several foods that were available in the 19th century are mentioned, including: Amontillado, Pontefract cakes, tea and seed cakes.

Although Madame Vastra and Jenny both question The Doctor concerning how Clara is alive, he refuses to explain anything to them, nor is she ever present for these questions. Thus despite having met, Madame Vastra and Jenny do not know that this is a different person and not the same one revived in some manner, and Clara gains no knowledge of her past life from the pair.

Upon returning from her adventure, Clara picks up a toy robot from the Transformers line, specifically a Galvatron action figure.

This story marks the first time, since the show was revived in 2005, that a companion's associates have successfully deduced the person's time-travelling affairs with The Doctor 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. This occurs when, upon arriving home, Clara discovers that her young charges, Artie and Angie Maitland, have discovered historical photographs of her on the Internet which exposed her secret. The photos show Clara in 1974 with Alec and Emma ("Hide") and in 1983 with The Doctor, Captain Zhukov and Professor Grisenko ("Cold War" - another story written by Mark Gatiss). There is also a 1892 photo of Clara Oswald ("The Snowmen") whom they assume is also their Clara. Artie and Angie are also the first people in the revived series to blackmail a companion in order to time-travel with The Doctor.

Apparently seeing herself in Victorian London (which she does not recall) gives Clara the thought that she really has lived more than one life, which The Doctor confronted her over in their last adventure "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS".

This story contains a number of errors. Namely: Madame Vastra's veil is far more transparent than it was apparently meant to be, especially given the reactions to the revelation of her non-human appearance; We hear the crowd at the meeting singing the poem (sometimes referred to as a hymn) Jerusalem. Although William Blake wrote the poem around 1804, Hubert Parry's melody was not composed until 1916, 23 years after this story was set; Immediately after Winifred forces Ada through the door and slams it, (at the scene change), you can clearly hear the director yell ‘And Cut!’.



First and Last

The Firsts:

 The first Doctor Who story where a cast member has received an onscreen credit that includes an honour.

 The first time, since the show was revived in 2005, that a companion's associates have successfully deduced the person's time-travelling affairs with The Doctor on their own.


The Lasts (Subject to Future Stories):

 The Mill's last involvement in the show providing the visual effects.


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The Plot

WARNING: May Contain SpoilersHide Text
The Crimson Horror

The Perfect Couple
The Perfect Couple

The year is 1893 and Silurian Madame Vastra, her human partner Jenny Flint and their Sontaran butler Strax investigate "The Crimson Horror" - a mysterious cause of death in which victims are found with red skin. Because superstition states that the retina retains the image last seen by the person they are shocked to find that the latest victim, just before he died, had seen The Doctor.

They travel to Yorkshire where Jenny goes undercover, as a convert, to investigate Sweetville, an idyllic community led by Mrs Gillyflower and her never-seen ‘silent partner’ Mr Sweet. Jenny witnesses Mrs Gillyflower preaching about the coming apocalypse to encourage the chosen few to come to Sweetville to help them survive. Mrs Gillyflower even uses her blind daughter Ada, who it seems had been beaten by her late husband, as an example of their doomed society.

Jenny manages to infiltrate a sealed area of Sweetville and discovers The Doctor, chained up in a cell, and exhibiting red skin and a stiff stature. She deduces that he has undergone some form of process that has badly affected him. She also realises that The Doctor wants her to guide him somewhere.

Mrs Gillyflower
Mrs Gillyflower

Helped by Jenny, The Doctor enters a chamber to reverse the what has been done to The Doctor. On exiting, and apparently back to normal, The Doctor explains to Jenny that he and Clara Oswald had arrived in Sweetville and discovered the mystery of "The Crimson Horror".

They had met with Mrs Gillyflower to join the Sweetville community so as to investigate what has been happening there. But they soon find themselves preserved, by being dunked into a large vat of red liquid. The process however, did not work on The Doctor, because he is not human. Mrs Gillyflower however disposes of such ‘rejects’. But Ada saves The Doctor, who she affectionately calls ‘My Monster’, and has been looking after him as she has become infatuated with him.

A Very Nasty Death
A Very Nasty Death

After being rescued by Jenny, The Doctor and Jenny, go off in search of Clara, who has also been preserved (this though confuses Jenny as she last saw Clara killed by the ice maiden months earlier (see "The Snowmen"). The preservation process on Clara is also successfully reversed. They are then joined by Madame Vastra and Srax after Madame Vastra recognises that the substance, the people running Sweetville are using to create "The Crimson Horror", is the venom of a prehistoric parasite that the Silurians considered a major threat 65 million years ago.

On learning this The Doctor and Clara confront Mrs. Gillyflower, who explains her plan and reveals that Mr Sweet is in fact a red leech, who has attached himself to her chest so forming a symbiotic relationship with Mrs Gillyflower. Their plan is to launch a rocket into the skies over England so as to spread the leech's poison over much of the planet.

The Doctor berates Mrs Gillyflower for experimenting on Ada to get the preservation formula right. Ada, overhearing this, angrily advances toward her mother giving Clara time to smash the rocket's controls. However, Mrs Gillyflower holds a gun to Ada's head and retreats into the rocket silo, which has been disguised as a chimney, to activate a secondary launch control.

Jenny
Jenny

Mrs Gillyflower launches the rocket, but learns moments later Madame Vastra and Jenny reveal themselves with a vat of poison. Enraged, that they have ruined her plans by removing the poison payload, Mrs Gillyflower tries to shoot The Doctor - narrowly missing Ada. Strax, having climbed the chimney from the outside, returns fire, causing Mrs Gillyflower to tumble over the staircase and fall to the bottom of the silo. As Mrs Gillyflower dies, proud of her daughter's hatred towards her, Mr Sweet abandons Mrs Gillyflower. Ada then shares final words with her mother, saying that she'll never forgive her mother, before killing the parasite with her cane.

The Doctor and Clara say goodbye; Ada saying that she is looking forward to finding new opportunities in life. Madame Vastra and Jenny ask about Clara, as they had previously met a Victorian version of her in "The Snowmen", in which she died. The Doctor however refuses to explain.

The Doctor then drops Clara off in modern-day London and when she enters her home she finds that Angie and Artie, the two children she helps care for, have discovered photos, on the Internet, of her and The Doctor in different points of time. These include when she was aboard a Soviet nuclear submarine in 1983 ("Cold War") and Caliburn House - the manor house, that she visited with The Doctor, in 1974 ("Hide").

There is also a photo, that Clara does not recognise, that is apparently of herself in Victorian London. Angie and Artie assert that Clara must be a time traveller and they threaten to tell their father if she does not take them on a trip in the time machine.

 
Madame Vastra and Strax
Madame Vastra and Strax
Ada's Monster
Ada's Monster
Jenny Rescues The Doctor
Jenny Rescues The Doctor
Ada
Ada
 
Strax to the Rescue
Strax to the Rescue
Mr Sweet
Mr Sweet
Clara and The Doctor
Clara and The Doctor
You're a Time Traveller!
You're a Time Traveller!




Quote of the Story


 'The gaudy flesh-pots and gin-palaces of Bradford! Bradford, that Babylon for the Moderns, with its crystal light and its glitter, all aswarm with the wretched ruins of humanity. Men and women crushed by the devil's juggernaut, sinking ever further into a great wen of depravity and ordure! And moral turpitude can destroy the most delicate of lives. Believe me, I know.'

Miss Gillyflower



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Release Information

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)Code NumberCover ArtRemarks
Video
DVD
Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2 Box SetMay 2013BBCDVD 3802Photo-montageDVD boxed set containing all 8 stories and the 2012 Christmas Special
Video
Blu-Ray
Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2 Box SetMay 2013BBCBD 0232Photo-montageBlu-Ray boxed set containing all 8 stories and the 2012 Christmas Special
Audio
CD
Original Television Soundtrack - Series 7September 2013Photo-montageMusic by Murray Gold
Video
DVD
The Complete Seventh Series Box SetOctober 2013BBCDVD 3838Photo-montageDVD boxed set containing 15 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Seventh Series Box SetOctober 2013BBCBD 0241Photo-montageBlu-Ray boxed set containing 15 stories
Video
DVD
The Complete Seventh Series Box Set (Limited Edition)October 2013BBCDVD 3878Photo-montageLimited Edition DVD boxed set containing 13 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Seventh Series Box Set (Limited Edition)October 2013BBCBD 0251Photo-montageLimited Edition Blu-Ray boxed set containing 13 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Series 1-7 Box Set (Limited Edition)December 2013BBCBD 0242Photo-montageLimited Edition Blu-Ray boxed set containing all Series 1-7 stories at full 1080p high definition
Video
DVD
The Complete Seventh Series (2014 Re-release)August 2014BBCDVD 3971Photo-montageBoxed set containing all 15 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Seventh Series Box Set (Limited Edition Steelbook)December 2020BBCBD 0517Photo-montageLimited Edition Blu-Ray Steelbook boxed set containing 15 stories


In Print

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)PublisherAuthorCover ArtRemarks
Novel
Novel
The Crimson HorrorMarch 2021BBC BooksMark GatissTarget Collection. ISBN: 978-1-78594-504-5
CD
CD
The Crimson HorrorMarch 2021BBC AudioMark GatissAudio version of the Target Novel read by Catrin Stewart
Doctor Who Magazine - PreviewIssue 460 (Released: June 2013)
Doctor Who Magazine - ReviewIssue 461 (Released: July 2013)

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Photo Gallery


The Doctor and Companion/Acquaintances

 
Matt Smith
The Eleventh Doctor

   

Neve McIntosh
Madame Vastra
Catrin Stewart
Jenny Flint
Dan Starkey
Strax
   
Jenna-Louise Coleman
Clara Oswald





On Release

DVD Part 2 Box Set
DVD Part 2 Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Blu-Ray Part 2 Box Set
Blu-Ray Part 2 Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Original Television Soundtrack Cover
Original Television Soundtrack Cover

BBC
AUDIO
Complete Series DVD Box Set
Complete Series DVD Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
   
Complete Series Blu-Ray Box Set
Complete Series Blu-Ray Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series Ltd Edition DVD Box Set
Complete Series Ltd Edition DVD Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series Ltd Edition Blu-Ray Box Set
Complete Series Ltd Edition Blu-Ray Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series 1-7 Ltd Edition Blu-Ray Box Set
Complete Series 1-7 Ltd Edition Blu-Ray Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
   
Complete Series DVD Box Set<BR>(2014 Re-release)
Complete Series DVD Box Set
(2014 Re-release)

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series Blu-Ray Limited Edition Steelbook Box Set
Complete Series Blu-Ray Limited Edition Steelbook Box Set

BBC
VIDEO



In Print

BBC Books Target Collection Cover
BBC Books Target Collection Cover

BBC
NOVEL
 
BBC Books Target Collection Audio CD Cover
BBC Books Target Collection Audio CD Cover

BBC
CD
   


Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine - Preview: Issue 460
Doctor Who Magazine - Preview: Issue 460

Marvel Comics
 
Doctor Who Magazine - Review: Issue 461
Doctor Who Magazine - Review: Issue 461

Marvel Comics
   

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