Peter Capaldi reminds me a lot of Craig Ferguson.
That was the first thing I noticed about him and I don't even know why. Something about his face and his expressions remind me of the (also) Scottish comedian and host of the Late Late Show a lot. Or perhaps it is because Ferguson is a huge fan of Doctor Who.
So, the show returned after an excruciating hiatus that lasted well-over a year, with the exception of the two specials that run on November and December 2013. Picking up almost immediately after the events of the last Christmas Special "The Time of the Doctor", the episode opens with a Tyrannosaurus Rex appearing all of a sudden in 19th Century London, where the Silurian Vastra, her wife Jenny and the Sontaran Strax operate as detectives by night, while serving as a microcosm of diversity and uncommon family structure by day.
Shortly after its arrival, the dinosaur spits out the familiar blue police box. From within it emerge the newly-regenerated, confused Doctor and a very scared, equally confused and even slightly pissed off Clara.
From there on the plot transforms into something entirely different, shifting away from the spectacle of the awesome beast to the creepy undertones of an organ-harvesting story, courtesy of the Clockwork Robots from the magnificent episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", back during the Tennant run.
"Deep Breath" is, at first, a hard episode to follow. Even though it tries to ease in the viewer in its first half, Series 8 seems adamant about making changes to the show. For those that started following the show after the 2005 relaunch, "Doctor Who" has been consistent in a few things in terms of presentation, visuals and pacing. The Series 8 opener is almost entirely antithetical, but ultimately it works.
When Moffat took over the show in Series 5, he knew there would have to be changes, which is why he did the pseudo-reboot with Matt Smith. It was his first time as the showrunner, he had to leave his own mark and do the show the way he thought it best. Now such a reboot is not necessary; the 12th Doctor is about growing up, being comfortable with yourself and the situations that arise, about putting all you've learned through the years to good use.
As such, "Deep Breath" spends surprisingly little time with the Doctor himself. Matt Smith not only gave us a fantastic show of the Doctor redefining himself back in "The Eleventh Hour", but it was also tied with the life of Amelia Pond. Peter Capaldi doesn't get to grow up alongside Clara; he instead becomes an enstranged friend that seeks acceptance from a person he cares about, but who can't see past his appearance.
The Doctor's post-regeneration show is a Clara show. She fills two purposes:
a) as a character, who herself seeks redefinition now that her gimmick is played out
b) as a stand-in for the audience and particularly fans that have false preconceptions about what the show should be, that are and have been very vocal against any kind of change and who believe that the Doctor is just one face.
This last part seems very important to Moffat; he has gone on record saying that there is one Doctor with many faces, that accepting one Doctor over another is doing disservice to this great, long-running series. It's a good point and it probably hits close to home as it's a perfect mirror to the work writers, producers and actors do in such shows.
Clara spends most of her time being loyal to the Doctor, but at the same time being scared of him changing so drastically. She really can't see beyond the new face, the new voice and, in fact, she takes more than a few jabs at his grey hair; an echo of far too many fans taking an issue with the Doctor not being a young stud anymore.
But the most interesting thing is that Clara is perfect to get that point across, because of her plot-line in Series 7. She's the Impossible Girl, she's the woman that took a dive in the Doctor's timeline and saw him: all of them. From Hartnell to Tennant and Hurt, she knew them all; but she only travelled with Smith.
Now there's this new guy she doesn't know. She sees change and can't see past it. She's the ultimate anchor for the audience, both old and new and she has to learn to see beneath the face; the face that the Doctor wears as a mask.
This doesn't mean the Doctor doesn't go through his own ordeal. He still seeks redefinition, but it's one of introspection rather than exploration. All the Doctors after Hurt reflected the character's guilt over the destruction of the Time Lords. It's why they were young, why the Doctor was trying to belong, without a home to call his own and with the unbearable burden of genocide on his shoulders.
In the wake of the events of 50th Anniversary Special, that burden is gone. He no longer needs to fit in, he is allowed to grow up and face the world head-on. There is a great deal made in the episode between the Doctor trying to be too human since the relaunch and how he has to fully accept that he's not one. He's not young, he's over 2000 years old. He's not a child-- though there's still no point in being a grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. He's not Clara's boyfriend and it's his fault she may had thought him as such. He trusts not only Clara, but the audience as well to change in front of them into someone older, someone grey and someone who is different.
He finds common ground with both proposed antagonists in the episode. The dinosaur is accidentally zapped in London and it misses the trees, the green ground and the atmosphere of its time. The leader of the Clockwork Robots is also trying to get home, back in the 51st Century, by withstanding the passing of time. Likewise, the Doctor is trying to get back home, "the long way round".
Interestingly, he also serves as the link between the old and the new. In a surprisingly subtle and yet brilliant move, Moffat opens the episode with a dinosaur, perfectly in line with the spectacle we've come to expect from the series so far, then proceeds to burn the beast alive and lead into an organ-harvesting robot antagonist, that hints to the new series' different, darker, quieter and more self-aware direction.
The episode is slow and has a lot of dialogue. Most of it is introspective, including the final showdown between the Doctor and the leader of the Robots, who find common ground in the idea that when you change too much, perhaps you lose who you really are.
Still, "Deep Breath" comes with memorable scenes, a good deal of which need to be credited to both cast and the great direction from Ben Wheatly. The teaser is typically amusing when the confused Doctor runs through the names of the Seven Dwarves to remember the nickname he's given Strax.
There is some great interaction between Vastra and Jenny as a couple, while Strax easily steals the limelight in every scene he's present. The sequence of Clara trying to escape the alien ship, while holding her breath, is very well-acted and one of the most tense scenes in the show's modern incarnation.
I have to fully admit that "Deep Breath" took me a couple of viewings to get into. The change from what we've identified as New Who up until now is jarring at first. I have been slowly watching Classic Who (up to Tom Baker now) and loving it for the most part, but Matt Smith defined the Doctor for me.
I didn't dislike Capaldi, which is why I've barely mentioned him. He's not just a distinguished actor on his own right, he's already a fantastic Doctor as well. It's the tone and especially the pacing that made "Deep Breath" hard for me to fully wrap my head around at first. But once I got past that, I started seeing the patterns, the connections, the subtext of the plot. I started picking up on the many references to past Doctor Who, both classic and new. Most importantly, I saw that "Deep Breath" moved a lot like Classic Who and that Capaldi, if we can see past his grey head like Clara eventually did, has a few moments that he acts almost exactly like Smith's Doctor.
Change is in this show's very make-up. That's a good thing; you can have a favourite actor that portrays the Doctor and you can have a favourite era of Doctor Who, but it's not like asking who your favourite Superman is. The Doctor is one and the same and has been since 1963. Personally I'm intrigued to see where the show goes from here and I'm looking forward to whatever's in store for Series 8.
That was the first thing I noticed about him and I don't even know why. Something about his face and his expressions remind me of the (also) Scottish comedian and host of the Late Late Show a lot. Or perhaps it is because Ferguson is a huge fan of Doctor Who.
So, the show returned after an excruciating hiatus that lasted well-over a year, with the exception of the two specials that run on November and December 2013. Picking up almost immediately after the events of the last Christmas Special "The Time of the Doctor", the episode opens with a Tyrannosaurus Rex appearing all of a sudden in 19th Century London, where the Silurian Vastra, her wife Jenny and the Sontaran Strax operate as detectives by night, while serving as a microcosm of diversity and uncommon family structure by day.
Shortly after its arrival, the dinosaur spits out the familiar blue police box. From within it emerge the newly-regenerated, confused Doctor and a very scared, equally confused and even slightly pissed off Clara.
From there on the plot transforms into something entirely different, shifting away from the spectacle of the awesome beast to the creepy undertones of an organ-harvesting story, courtesy of the Clockwork Robots from the magnificent episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", back during the Tennant run.
"Deep Breath" is, at first, a hard episode to follow. Even though it tries to ease in the viewer in its first half, Series 8 seems adamant about making changes to the show. For those that started following the show after the 2005 relaunch, "Doctor Who" has been consistent in a few things in terms of presentation, visuals and pacing. The Series 8 opener is almost entirely antithetical, but ultimately it works.
When Moffat took over the show in Series 5, he knew there would have to be changes, which is why he did the pseudo-reboot with Matt Smith. It was his first time as the showrunner, he had to leave his own mark and do the show the way he thought it best. Now such a reboot is not necessary; the 12th Doctor is about growing up, being comfortable with yourself and the situations that arise, about putting all you've learned through the years to good use.
As such, "Deep Breath" spends surprisingly little time with the Doctor himself. Matt Smith not only gave us a fantastic show of the Doctor redefining himself back in "The Eleventh Hour", but it was also tied with the life of Amelia Pond. Peter Capaldi doesn't get to grow up alongside Clara; he instead becomes an enstranged friend that seeks acceptance from a person he cares about, but who can't see past his appearance.
The Doctor's post-regeneration show is a Clara show. She fills two purposes:
a) as a character, who herself seeks redefinition now that her gimmick is played out
b) as a stand-in for the audience and particularly fans that have false preconceptions about what the show should be, that are and have been very vocal against any kind of change and who believe that the Doctor is just one face.
This last part seems very important to Moffat; he has gone on record saying that there is one Doctor with many faces, that accepting one Doctor over another is doing disservice to this great, long-running series. It's a good point and it probably hits close to home as it's a perfect mirror to the work writers, producers and actors do in such shows.
Clara spends most of her time being loyal to the Doctor, but at the same time being scared of him changing so drastically. She really can't see beyond the new face, the new voice and, in fact, she takes more than a few jabs at his grey hair; an echo of far too many fans taking an issue with the Doctor not being a young stud anymore.
But the most interesting thing is that Clara is perfect to get that point across, because of her plot-line in Series 7. She's the Impossible Girl, she's the woman that took a dive in the Doctor's timeline and saw him: all of them. From Hartnell to Tennant and Hurt, she knew them all; but she only travelled with Smith.
Now there's this new guy she doesn't know. She sees change and can't see past it. She's the ultimate anchor for the audience, both old and new and she has to learn to see beneath the face; the face that the Doctor wears as a mask.
This doesn't mean the Doctor doesn't go through his own ordeal. He still seeks redefinition, but it's one of introspection rather than exploration. All the Doctors after Hurt reflected the character's guilt over the destruction of the Time Lords. It's why they were young, why the Doctor was trying to belong, without a home to call his own and with the unbearable burden of genocide on his shoulders.
In the wake of the events of 50th Anniversary Special, that burden is gone. He no longer needs to fit in, he is allowed to grow up and face the world head-on. There is a great deal made in the episode between the Doctor trying to be too human since the relaunch and how he has to fully accept that he's not one. He's not young, he's over 2000 years old. He's not a child-- though there's still no point in being a grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. He's not Clara's boyfriend and it's his fault she may had thought him as such. He trusts not only Clara, but the audience as well to change in front of them into someone older, someone grey and someone who is different.
He finds common ground with both proposed antagonists in the episode. The dinosaur is accidentally zapped in London and it misses the trees, the green ground and the atmosphere of its time. The leader of the Clockwork Robots is also trying to get home, back in the 51st Century, by withstanding the passing of time. Likewise, the Doctor is trying to get back home, "the long way round".
Interestingly, he also serves as the link between the old and the new. In a surprisingly subtle and yet brilliant move, Moffat opens the episode with a dinosaur, perfectly in line with the spectacle we've come to expect from the series so far, then proceeds to burn the beast alive and lead into an organ-harvesting robot antagonist, that hints to the new series' different, darker, quieter and more self-aware direction.
The episode is slow and has a lot of dialogue. Most of it is introspective, including the final showdown between the Doctor and the leader of the Robots, who find common ground in the idea that when you change too much, perhaps you lose who you really are.
Still, "Deep Breath" comes with memorable scenes, a good deal of which need to be credited to both cast and the great direction from Ben Wheatly. The teaser is typically amusing when the confused Doctor runs through the names of the Seven Dwarves to remember the nickname he's given Strax.
There is some great interaction between Vastra and Jenny as a couple, while Strax easily steals the limelight in every scene he's present. The sequence of Clara trying to escape the alien ship, while holding her breath, is very well-acted and one of the most tense scenes in the show's modern incarnation.
I have to fully admit that "Deep Breath" took me a couple of viewings to get into. The change from what we've identified as New Who up until now is jarring at first. I have been slowly watching Classic Who (up to Tom Baker now) and loving it for the most part, but Matt Smith defined the Doctor for me.
I didn't dislike Capaldi, which is why I've barely mentioned him. He's not just a distinguished actor on his own right, he's already a fantastic Doctor as well. It's the tone and especially the pacing that made "Deep Breath" hard for me to fully wrap my head around at first. But once I got past that, I started seeing the patterns, the connections, the subtext of the plot. I started picking up on the many references to past Doctor Who, both classic and new. Most importantly, I saw that "Deep Breath" moved a lot like Classic Who and that Capaldi, if we can see past his grey head like Clara eventually did, has a few moments that he acts almost exactly like Smith's Doctor.
Change is in this show's very make-up. That's a good thing; you can have a favourite actor that portrays the Doctor and you can have a favourite era of Doctor Who, but it's not like asking who your favourite Superman is. The Doctor is one and the same and has been since 1963. Personally I'm intrigued to see where the show goes from here and I'm looking forward to whatever's in store for Series 8.
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