After the polarizing Sleep No More, everyone was highly anticipating Episode 10: Face the Raven (what a cool title). I, after seeing the second trailer for the episode, was highly looking forward to this episode, when it finally aired, I didn't know what to think.
First things first, Rigsy's back. Rigsy's was one of the best things about last years brilliant Flatline, and he's back, but sadly, his character's been toned down quite considerably, to the point of just being a dull, hollow character who serves simply as a plot device for the story to get itself going with.
Talking about that plot, why is it so rubbish? Rigsy's wakes up with a number tattoo on his neck and no memory of the day before. The tattoo seems to be counting down and the Doctor realizes he's going to die when the number reaches zero, so the Doctor, Clara and Rigsy decide to spend the next 10 minutes blindly looking for a hidden street, known as a trap street.
After wasting ten minutes of the episode's time, they find a trap street which is full of aliens and, get this, Ashildr, played by Maisie Williams. Bringing Ashildr into the episode is a cool idea, but a completely unnecessary one none the less. Her character could've been played by any character who claims to have come from the Doctor's past and it would have had the same effect.
Ashildr tells the Doctor that Rigsy is believed to have killed someone in the street and the number is a death sentence, when the number runs out, he will be killed by the Raven. The Doctor and Clara set about trying to prove Rigsy's innocence when Clara gets the "brilliant" idea of taking the death sentence for herself. Then after another 10 minutes of time wasting, talking to creatures and asking an alien that can see into the future, things finally, finally get interesting.
Ashildr reveals that she knew Rigsy was an associate of the Doctor, so put the death sentence on him as a way of luring the Doctor to the street, to, um, yeah. When Clara reveals she has the death sentence, Ashildr regretfully informs Clara that there is nothing she can do to save her because... Clara accepting this tells the Doctor not to take his anger at her death out on anyone, but just to accept it.
Clara steps outside and is killed by the Raven in a rather poetic death scene. The Doctor delivers one last threat to Ashildr, and teleports using the bracelet Ashildr gave him earlier.
Face the Raven doesn't get interesting for a good 20 minutes, and spends a lot of it's time just meddling about with nothing really happening, watching it a second time is draining, because you're constantly waiting for something interesting to happen. The only thing that makes it interesting the first time is the tension of the countdown and knowing that when it hits zero, our beloved companion is going to die, a second time, that tension is no longer there, and everything moves as slow as mud.
The scene with Clara hanging out of the TARDIS having the time of her life is a similar scene to Day of the Doctor, but Rigsy's about to die, this scene really takes away from the tension of the plot.
The trap street is just pants, why couldn't we have a street like the Rings of Akhaten, with all alien stalls and a real personality, this is just a typical Victorian village, and it's boring.
On the up side, with exception to explaining the plot, the writing is rather solid, and the direction is good, despite some boring set design, the acting is one of the best things about this episode though, everyone gives a great performance and Clara's death scene is played to perfection by everyone.
Face the Raven may be one of the lowest scoring of the season, but I feel there's enough to avoid it going beyond the 7/10 mark. It's dull, but it's well done, if there'd been a bit more... well, more to it, then it would be better, but Face the Raven doesn't keep me interested for long.
For those who have called this one of the best episode's and one of Clara's best episodes, that's fine, just remember to take the 35 minutes before Clara's death into account as well, otherwise, you're opinion means squat.