The Doctor and Clara make a pit stop in Viking territory where they are met with swords and not so friendly warriors. Believing that they are trespassers, the Vikings take the Doctor and Clara back to their village. There the Doctor pretends to be the all-powerful Odin thinking that these people are simple minded and will be fooled by his deception. Unfortunately it falls flat due to an unexpected arrival that claims to be the real Viking God. The visitor in the sky invites the villager’s top ten warriors to dine with them in Valhalla. Immediately the Doctor can see right through the false Odin and try to convince the villagers that they are not who they say they are. One by one the warriors of the village are transported to the ship in the sky. Clara decides to help save the warriors by getting transported with them. She gets a little assistance from one of the villagers, Ashildr. They are beamed into a holding cell where one of the Vikings foolishly charge the door but get vaporized. Their room closes in as the walls push them forward to get vaporized. Clara and Ashildr survive the massacre, but the leader of the alien Vikings start asking questions about who she is. She tries her best to avoid any bloodshed between the villagers and the alien Vikings. She successfully makes progress until Ashildr steps in and declares that her brother warriors will not back down from a battle and will stand toe to toe with any one of their strongest warriors any day. The false God Odin gladly accepts the challenge and gives the village one day to prepare themselves for battle. Clara and Ashildr beam back down to town. The Doctor is overjoyed that Clara is alive and elated that she single handedly prevent a bloody massacre. He goes on and tells her that these alien Vikings are called the Mire, a very deadly alien warrior race that searches the galaxy looking for a fight. Sadly Clara had to give him the bad news. His joy turned into defeat and gloom. Clara uses her positive attitude to try to get the Doctor to form a plan and save these people. Unfortunately, the Doctor believes that running and hide is the best solution, that it would be a slaughter if they fight. They are made up of fisherman and farmers, not soldiers. Clara refuses to give up, but he tells her that if they get out of this alive, these people will be marked for more military alien encounters throughout the galaxy, it will never end.
He changes his mind when he hears a voice coming from a baby. Yes, he can speak baby. The infant’s words resonate through him about how innocent and beautiful life is. Reluctantly the Doctor sees the only way to save this village is to teach them how to fight. It is hilarious watching him train these hopeless villagers, but I have to admit they have heart and determination. Just like the Doctor, he ignores his trainees wishes and personally dubs them absurd and insulting names because he doesn’t have time to learn about them. Names like Chuckles, Lofty, ZZTOP, and Heidi are some of the idiotic names he’s chosen for them. This is another example of the Doctor’s winning personality and failed attempt to connect with other people. To make matters worse, they are horrible to train and the Doctor sees no way out of this mess. Clara tries to snap him out of his funk. She sternly tells him to stop being a soldier and start being the Doctor. She mentions that his solutions and answers always to come at the last minute, and that this time he needs to find a solution right now and not later. Using his superior and vast intellect he comes up with a way to defeat the Mire with little bloodshed. It would require one of Ashildr’s puppet machines and lots of electric eels. They were able to defeat the Mire using electricity and magnets from the eels. Sadly the victory came with a price. Ashildr was killed trying to power up her puppet machine and her heart gave out. The Doctor is grief stricken and is furious that his plan was not death proof. But something was eating at him. He remembers the time when he completed his regeneration he wondered why the TARDIS picked this particular face. He suddenly remembered he had it before when the tenth Doctor visited Pompeii. He saved a couple people that were meant to die. Even though his time travel journey is filled with rules and do’ and don’ts, he is the Doctor and he can do anything. Using the Mire’s medical healing patch, he saves Ashildr from death, but it came with a price…..immortality. He is concerned if he had made a terrible mistake, but all he wanted to do is save just one person and not to follow the rules.
The Doctor is starting to feel his mortality. A looming question hangs on his mind….how long does he have? He begins to get this unsettling feeling that something in the distance is waiting for him or for someone he holds very close to his heart. The decision that he made with Ashildr will be his thorn in his side for a very long time, but right now he trying to enjoy his time with his assistant, Clara.
