Doctor Who: The Witchfinders (2018) - Review

Just give Alan Cumming his BAFTA now. I mean, no wonder he spent most of the episode outside - there probably wasn't much scenery left to chew after his first scene!

I was initially very apprehensive about 'The Witchfinders'. The trailer made it look very confined with an emphasis on a very human threat, and very much exactly what the series has been delivering most weeks since 7th October. I wanted monsters, dammit! Proper scary monsters! The early reviews weren't too favourable either, questioning the episode's tonal decisions, which didn't encourage me very much either.

Teaches me to judge a book by its cover. 'The Witchfinders' is my favourite episode of Series 11 so far, so much so that I just had to re-watch it this morning to double-check - and yeah, it's pretty darn good. There was action! Suspense! Drama! Horror! Scary monsters! Hammy dialogue! Oh, and Jodie Whittaker mastering her way through the whole thing like a pro. I think this might be her best performance yet, and the most 13th Doctor-centric episode we've seen all series. Whilst I'm glad the gender-change hasn't been a big focus this series, I was waiting for it to actually come up in the story, and in 'The Witchfinders', Joy Wilkinson has a blast. It's not bashing you over the head, but the story leaves the Doctor at an almost constant disadvantage because of her gender - which is actually a new kind of conflict for the Doctor to face in the show. Of course the Doctor would seem like a witch - it's an obvious story to tell, but to not tell it would probably be much worse.

Wilkinson's episode also managed to create an interesting antagonist in Becka Savage, a woman so determined to not be a witch that she led whole witch-hunts to avoid suspicion on herself. Quite often irony makes a very strong villain, and the gradual reveal of her true nature was very well done - just seeing the traces of mud falling from her eye... The mud zombies themselves, despite being frankly ridiculous, were actually very scary-looking and intimidating, with the visual of Becka's victims rising from the grave to find her being particularly striking. I'll admit that the Morax weren't particularly great aliens by the end, and perhaps with an extra fifteen minutes the story couldn't actually gone somewhere with them, but the build-up was well-handled and the resolution felt like a satisfying end to the set-up throughout the episode. The mention of the tree, the glitch as Becka touched it, the constant uncertainty in Becka throughout the episode; on a second viewing, this episode really stood-up well as a mystery.

I also felt that Joy Wilkinson's script handled the witch-hunt element very well. Sure, lots was omitted or altered somewhat to keep it PG, but it constantly affirmed the tragedy, and the paranoia of the period, embodied in James I. Sallie Apprahamian's direction gave the episode an eerie look and feel, even if the dutch-angles were a little OTT at points. Ultimately though, despite a very strong supporting cast, Alan Cumming walked away with the episode (still digesting most of the scenery as he did). His performance was brilliantly hammy and silly, and was such a ridiculous pantomime character that I couldn't take my eyes off him. Even the way he asks Ryan to "be his protector" at the end was bizarre. Even with that though, Wilkinson gave James I development, a character arc, and an interesting back-story. He might be a bit of a clown, but there's an inherent tragedy to him. Sure, it gives the episode a bizarre tonal-clash, but I personally found that 'The Witchfinders' blended tragedy and comedy very well together, making it a much easier watch than the likes of 'Rosa' and 'Demons of the Punjab' - albeit for understandable reasons. It looked great, it sounded great and I enjoyed it both times I watched it.