The Crimson Horror
(with thanks to Matthew Kilburn)
(with thanks to Matthew Kilburn)
 |
| Hooters! And Honkers! |
Central Premise Recycled From: The
Avengers (no, not the movie
about the superheroes, the TV
series about a team of posh
British investigators, one in
a catsuit, who infiltrate
communities of crackpots determined to rule the world).
Moffat
Autorecycling: This isn't a
Doctor Who story, it's a Madame Vastra Investigates story which
guest-stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman among
all the Hooters and Honkers.
If this were the Davies Era, they'd have their own spinoff by now.
There be Moppets, and a quick reference to Clara's Victorian alter-ego.
Recycling
Other People: “The Ark in
Space” (the eye retaining the image of the last thing it sees);
“Ghost Light”; “Invasion
of the Dinosaurs” (Utopian villain who is selecting the brightest
and best to take to a new Golden Age on Earth); “Talons of Weng
Chiang” (anybody surprised?); Frankenstein
and its various
sequels/remakes; comedy
coroners feature in a lot of Britsploitation horror films, such as
The Blood Beast Terror and Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde;
The Road to Wellville; Carry On Screaming; Tipping
the Velvet (Rachel Stirling in a story of aristocratic lesbians and
their working-class lovers); Bram
Stoker's Dracula (ironic use of period colour film effects); The Man Who Was
Thursday; Total Recall (Mr Sweet's symbiotic relationship with Mrs
Gillyflower); The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town (Mr Tuesday's fainting fits). “Rose”
(time traveler is busted through compilation of badly-photoshopped
historical photos).
Evil
Household Objects: Salt-shakers.
Doctor
Who!: Nope.
Outfits!:
The Doctor goes
the full Victorian.
Small
Child!: Victorian urchin,
plus the return of the
Maitlands.
Murray
Gold's Top Ten: Tinkly-piano
comedy Victorian music as the investigators go North.
Clara
Dies Due To: Not exactly, but
she does get put in suspended animation by Mrs Gillyflower.
Clara's
Job of the Week: Waxwork.
“Run,
you clever boy, and remember”: Nope.
Topical
Reference to Puzzle Future Generations:
Thomas Thomas, the giver of
accurate directions (assuming future generations forget the TomTom
satnav brand). Pausing the
recording to view the handbills on the walls yields a lot of
entertaining in-jokes for fans of Doctor Who and/or Hammer Horror: a
circus featuring “Talking dogs, performing rats and DASTARDLY
DONNA”, while another promises “Scarred Sam's weird and wonderful
Human Waxwork”.
Continuity
Frakup of the Week: OK, this
is actually just a rant about the repeated gag of Thursday
fainting every time he sees Strax. Considering the lack of plastic
surgery and other modern medical techniques available in the
Victorian era, there would have been enough strange facial dysmorphia
about that Strax would not stand out as particularly hideous, so
the fainting just looks silly. Rant
part II: who the hell puts a secondary firing mechanism in the tower
that's holding the rocket? Triggering it ought to burn up anyone in
the tower at the time, events of the story to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Nostalgia
UK: Sixties horror films and
mystery series.
Item
Most Likely to Wind Up as a Toy: Still
rooting for a dress-up Madame Vastra and
catsuit-wearing Action Jenny,
though Mr Sweet, in the form
of a stick-on cosplay item or a Pez dispenser, is also crying out to
take physical form.
