Written by: Steven Moffat
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Airdate: 23 August 2014
Since this is my first time reviewing the show, I figured I'm going to start with a little introduction. I started watching Doctor Who almost exactly 3 years ago. I've seen only the first episode of the Classic Series (An Unearthly Child) and the entire New One, starting from Rose and The Ninth Doctor. My favorite incarnation of the Doctor happens to be Ten, played by the brilliant David Tennant, but I'm also a fan of Nine and Eleven. I believe there's something great about each of them which is probably why I'm really optimistic about the new Doctor and excited about this new season. Speaking of...
We're starting the episode with a dinosaur in the middle of Victorian London when the Paternoster Gang (Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny and Strax) arrive at the scene after being called for help by the local police. They get there just in time to see a dinosaur spitting out the TARDIS. The gang gives the police a way to keep the dinosaur in The River Thames and then approaches the TARDIS. That's when they meet the newly-regenerated and clearly confused Doctor talking to the dinosaur and forgetting names and faces of his companion Clara and the rest. Things turn out to be too much for his current state and he collapses.
The rest of the episode follows the Doctor's struggle to adjust to his new look and personality, Clara's doubts about her friend being gone after the regeneration and the Gang's fight with the episode's villain, a cyborg, trying to reach the "promised land" and using parts replacements to prolong his life on the SS Marie Antoinette, the sister ship to the SS Madame de Pompadour (which I have to say is a nice reference to one of my favorite episodes, The Girl in the Fireplace).
Starting from the Doctor, at first he's clearly confused and overwhelmed with all the memories and physical changes but he still manages to form a connection to the dinosaur (the Doctor speaks dinosaur), even in his sleep, letting us know what the trapped animal feels and showing us her (!) perspective. And the words... "The wind bites now and the world is grey... and I am alone here. Can't see me. Can't... see me. Doesn't see me." Like with the Doctor. He awakens, hearing the dinosaur's painful death after being attacked and set on fire (spontaneously combusts in front of thousands of people). And once he realize he crime has been comitted, the Doctor starts his work, leaving Clara and the rest behind. He ends up in the alley, really cold and trying to understand where his faces come from, since the one he has now seems very familiar. He complains quite a lot to the scared homeless man and continues to follow the mystery case of the multiple spontaneous combustion.
When you stopped seeing it"
As for Clara, it's certainly a very Clara-centric episode. She can't quite see the Doctor in his new body. His very new, yet old, appearance, along with his changed behavior and clearly confused mind make her question if he's really the same man she cares about and she travelled with for a while now. She has quite a confrontation with Madame Vastra, who accuses her of judging people based on their looks and missing her friend's much younger and flirty self. After it becomes clear it's not a case the two decide to work together in order to bring the Doctor, "lost in the ruin of himself", back home. Once the Time Lord disappears Clara shares a couple of funny scenes with the always entertaining Strax before meeting again with the Doctor after finding a message in the newspaper for the Impossible Girl.
The Doctor and his companion finally have a chance for an honest conversation which almost ends up in a big argument before they realize the disturbing nature of the restaurant they're in. Where the dead bodies can mechanically move and fake eating dinner, without words or breath. From there, it doesn't take them long to figure out the fact that the restaurant is really just a cover for a "sort of automated organ collection station for the unwary diner". And they happen to be the next position on the menu. They manage to free themselves from the restraints and find the cyborg in charge (recharging and asleep) who is starting to become more and more human after years of adding human parts to his original self. Moments later the robot awakes and Clara's caught while the Doctor apparently chooses to hide and once again, leave her behind, this time with the deadly robots after her. Even though Clara tries to hold her breath and not let anyone know she's a living human, eventually she collapses after quite a terrifying walk among the dead people turned cyborgs.
Then comes one of my favorite moments in the episode, with a beautiful performance by Jenna Coleman: Clara's confrontation with the cyborg. Despite being absolutely frightened and not being able to hide her tears, she stands bravely against him, resisting his threats and protecting the Doctor, still believing in him, despite the fact that it seems like he's abandoned her. Fortunately, the truth is that, at his core, the Doctor is still the Doctor we all know and love and he obviously comes back for her, just when she needs him to. What's more, it's clear that he was staying close to her in the disguise and listening to the entire conversation. When the situation quickly gets even more dangerous, Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax come to the rescue. And while the Doctor goes after the cyborg in his escape capsule, the rest stays behind to fight the robots. When they start to lose Clara suggest they all hold their breath and fool the enemies to stand down. Luckily, they're able to hang in there long enough for the droids to deactivate after the cyborg's (the control node's) death.
As for his death... The cyborg, in his hot-air balloon made of human skin, lifting the restaurant into the sky, and the Doctor who's inside with him, have a long talk about there being no "promised land", what it means to be human, using parts replacement as a way to prolong a life and whether the cyborg is even still his original robotic self. Finally, the Doctor offers him a choice to end his own life or being killed by him. And we're left not knowing which way he chose.
Once the fight is over, the Doctor disappears in the TARDIS, once again leaving Clara with the Paternoster Gang. Though at first she believes she's gonna have to stay and join the detectives in their everyday work, she changes back her clothes to her modern ones and after hearing the TARDIS says goodbye and enters the newly redecorated control room. Despite their last events Clara admits she's not sure she knows the Doctor anymore and wants to come back home.
Clara almost parts ways with the Doctor but then she receives a surprising phone call from...Eleven. It's him already feeling the regeneration and he's asking his friend to stay with him and help him after he changes, convincing her it's still going to be him and he needs her. And that's enough. Finally Clara looks at Twelve and sees him, sees the Doctor, the one she just talked to, different, yes, but strangely familiar. "Thank you. For phoning." And the hug says it all. They're ready. First coffee, then, the next adventure!
Whovian notes and questions:
2. Were you surprised by Clara's reaction to the Doctor's change? How do you think their friendship is going to change? Or how do you hope it will?
3. "There's a woman out there who's very keen that we stay together." Any theories?
4. What did you think about the epilogue? In the so-called paradise with Missy? Honestly, confusing for me. New season-long mystery or something else?
5. "Please tell me I didn't get old. Anything but old. I was young. Oh...is he grey?" Still not ginger! Poor Doctor. Never works.
6. My favorite scene was the phone call. Then the Clara & the Cyborg confrontation. Also how funny were those bits with Clara and Strax? Loved all the gifs I've seen online. Any favorites in the episode for you? MVP, scenes, quotes?
Thanks for reading. Would love to hear your thoughts. And till the next week!
Sigh. I'm not sure why I was expecting a decent episode. Clara's continued presence seriously affects the show. Coleman was meh for me, and her story had some seriously terrible moments. Capaldi, on the other hand, was superb. He was fantastic in Torchwood: Children of Earth and fantastic here. The writing still wasn't perfect with The Doctor, but it was far better than any other we got in the episode and Capaldi performed it brilliantly.
ReplyDeleteAs for the person who wants them to stay together and the epilogue - it's obviously gonna become a season-long arc. To which I sigh. Moffat isn't gonna resolve it properly so what's the point?
Anyway, nice review Justyna.
I think it's far too early to judge Capaldi. He was barely in the episode, and when he was he wasn't really the doctor as he was being all crazy and stuff. The episode itself was a borefest though. It was by far the weakest regeneration episode.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice review. I will take all the Clara and Strax I can get - I am not a fan of physical comedy, prefer witty dialogue, but I laughed out loud when Strax threw the newspaper and knocked Clara over. (Hope that wasn't a subconscious wish fulfilled on my part). I like Capaldi very much but think his delivery on some of the funny lines was a little too low key. Plotting was not as sharp as usual but willing to overlook that because I am so thrilled to have Doctor Who back and feel the kinks may because of the newness.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the Gang were necessary in this episode? Im not sure I think they were.
They were really there to provide exposition to Clara about the Doctor and his background.
Strax has basically reduced his warrior race the Sontarans to a ... humorous joke. Does anyone expect them to now be a threat when they turn up?
Capaldi was excellent. Im loving the somewhat darker tone of the show but its still being hamstrung by these 1 hour episodes.
Great review.
ReplyDeleteI shared your positive response to Capaldi, and I'd never heard of him before he was announced in this role. I've watched many a youtube clip since then, though, trying to get a feel for his style. Everything I saw -- and now that includes Deep Breath too -- convinced me he'd be fantastic. To quote a friend of mine, just after the episode aired: "I have a feeling his Doctor is going to be something special."
Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteBoth shows I've seen with Capaldi (The Musketeers & The Hour) I watched after the news that he's gonna be our new Doctor, trying to get to know him better. And since I was really impressed with him, I think it made waiting for him much easier. Really excited to see more of Twelve :)
Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that after all the seasons we can give the show a moment to find its new ground. It was a good episode, could be better, but the performances were great if you ask me. Maybe not a lot of chances for Capaldi to really show us his many acting skills, but still, he worked well with what he had.
Clara and Strax were surprisingly hilarious, a comedic relief of the episode and they worked quite well together. And the moment with the newspaper is probably one of the most popular gifs from the premiere. Would be glad to see more scenes between the two.
Thanks for reading Bradley.
ReplyDeleteAs for Clara, she's not my favorite companion or the most dynamic character on the show but I really enjoyed her scenes with Vastra and the cyborg and thought that Jenna Coleman did a great job in them both. As for Capaldi, he's a fantastic actor and worked really well with all he had, but it feels like there's a scene missing in the premiere. Like with Ten and Eleven, in their first episodes, they had those great speeches, confrontations, where they really introduce themselves as the Doctor and it was always this first defining moments for them in my opinion. I didn't see Twelve having a similar chance. So there's that. Between those three introduction episodes this one's sadly my least favorite. It was okay, sure, but not great. Hoping for more action and more emotional scenes with the Doctor and Clara.
As for the epilogue, it's hard to say at this point I guess.
Thank you for reading!
ReplyDeleteAnd definitely agree with it being my least favorite introduction episode. It was okay for me, but sadly not as great as it could be. Not a lot of action and I would prefer to see more of the Doctor's interactions with Clara and the Gang. And it ended up being a surprisingly very Clara-centric episode.
Not a lot to say about Twelve at this point but I think that Capaldi worked well with what he had to do in the premiere. Time will tell, I guess.
Thank you for reading.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing the review I realized there wasn't really a lot to say about the Gang. They were really just there to give Clara someone to talk to when she struggled with the Doctor's change and maybe for a comedic relief (Strax). I would be interested in an episode where the Sontarans are the bad guys again, I wonder how it would work now. They don't seem really scary at this point.
And agreed, Capaldi was great. Can't wait to meet Twelve better.
Having grown up on the original series, this episode was absolutely dripping with references to classic scenes and dialogue - two quick examples, "one of us is lying about his programming" is reminiscent of the two robots in The Pyramids Of Mars, one of which is programmed to lie and the other to tell the truth; and, the actor who played the tramp was the real-life husband of the actress who played the quintessential companion Sarah Jane, and also appeared in a return-of-a-villain-previously-thought-defeated story. The classic Doctor is finally back! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Always happy to learn new things about the series!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your questions:
ReplyDelete1) I've been following Capaldi's career for a while now especially loved him as Malcolm Tucker and also his quiet and heartbreaking role in The Hour. Already I love 12, he is mad, dangerous and broke my heart a little. Perfect combination
2) I was a little surprised about Clara's reaction because of all the newer companions I figured she would have coped better, after all she met both 10 and The War Doctor as well as travelling through the Doctor's timeline and seeing the others. She knows he can be both old and young. I guess it was the way he regenerated that shocked her and how he acted. When she finally got a proper goodbye to 11 she managed to accept 12 for who he was.
3) I think the woman could be an older Clara or
4) Linked in with 3 I wonder if Missy is in fact the Master. Missy = Mistress = Master! And is also the woman who is determined to keep them together for her own devious ways?
5) One day the Doctor will be ginger one day when he isn't expecting it. At least he got to be Scottish a nice way to remember his beloved Pond
6) My favorite moments were the Doctor talking to the dinosaur, Clara and the Doctor in the restaurant and the phone call and then awkward hug.
Thanks for the review!
Thanks for reading! And the comment ;)
ReplyDelete1. I need to re-watch some episodes of the Hour, especially the last one. I still remember the scene when he finally broke down. It was heartbreaking but so wonderfully acted.
2. Yeah, that was my first thought as well! I was really surprised how she couldn't accept his change at first and she knew so many of the previous Doctors. I think that maybe she just really needed this goodbye. It was a bit sudden.
3. Interesting theory. Could get on board with that.
4. Oh, yeah. I would love to see the Master again. Sounds like it could be a great story.
5. It was a lovely surprise, him being Scottish. I love the look Matt had at this exact moment. Like: come, on. Still not ginger! ;)
6. I almost forgot about the Doctor and the dinosaur. I really enjoyed this quiet moment when he was asleep but started translating anyway. So beautifully sad.
And then there's the catchphrases: "Here we go again", spoken by the Brigadier when the Jon Pertweee Doctor (to whose costume Capaldi's bears a striking similarity) regenerated into Tom Baker, also spoken in the black-and-white era by the companion Zoe; and Patrick Troughton's Doctor saying "You've redecorated, I don't like it" to the Brigadier in The Five Doctors. :)
ReplyDeleteThose are great. Thank you!
ReplyDelete