Doctor Who- Series 8 premiered tonight... FINALLY. Its been a long time since we last saw the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) regenerate into Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor. With a brand new cycle of regenerations, I assume we have A LOT of the Doctor to look forward to. Here's a breakdown of the episode.. laden with spoilers
PETER CAPALDI
HE'S HERE. Capaldi has finally arrived as the 11th, 12th or 13th doctor. however you want to look at it.. Some Whovians will argue and argue. Lets just call it 12. Being the oldest Doctor to ever grace BBC it's a HUGE change from the last 3 Doctors that revived the series (Chrissy Eccelston, Davey Tennant and Matty Smith). Fresh off his recent generation, we get our first glimpse as he exits the the TARDIS after being puked out by a giant T-Rex in Victorian London. Greeted by Drax, the Doctor takes a few tries to grasp who is knocking on the TARDIS door. Once he fully emerges we get what most expected......the Doctor struggling with his new body, fuzzy memories and fresh new brain cells. He has trouble remembering Clara and what is going on until finally passing out. We can see a little Matt Smith bleeding through in his personality just as the 9th bled through into Tennant's Doctor, and the 10th leaked a bit into Smith's regeneration. This is all acting and each Doctor has done a great job impersonating their predecessor. As the episode progresses, Capaldi slowly climbs deeper into madness before revealing who were here to see... the 12th Doctor. His repertoire with an old alley scruffian is fun yet scary as the Doctor demands his give him his clothes. It's one of the first times I've seen a dark angry violent side to the Doctor which we can only assume was due to the regeneration as the Doctor struggles to dig for clues in this back alley. This leads to an eventual meet up with Clara for the first "real" time since his regeneration. Clara being confused, meets the Doctor for a mysterious lunch where they try to come to grips with each other. Unbeknownst to them, this lunch as a set up and sends them directly into the fire, the dwelling of some familiar clockwork cyborgs. The Doctor steps up gaining more and more confidence in his new self, until one scene where he seemingly leaves Clara to die at the hands of the enemy.
This new Doctor is IMMENSELY different from previous incarnations. Gone is the boyish whimsical Doctor in place of a vicious, almost mad Doctor who at times seems to show fear, which is far different from what were used to. Capaldi is a change, I'll say that, but it seems like a good one. We wouldn't want the same Doctor year after year in a new body now would we
Clara
I'll admit that I was not a fan of Clara in the beginning of her companion stint during Series 7. Only because I didn't want to see Amy Pond go. It was a very hard break up and I still suffer from post Pond depression to this day, but Clara eventually grew on me. She smart, shes cute, shes witty and shes exciting. All the same traits Amy Pond brought but in a different package. In 'Deep Breath' I can only get the feeling that Clara plays the part of 'the audience' coming to grip with a very different Doctor. Each line, each scene feels like it was written "solely" to help ween the viewers into Capaldi knowing that its a big change. Throughout the episode Clara blurts out everything I'm thinking in regards to Capaldi.. "I don't know this man"... "why is he so old?".. "Is he the same Doctor?".. "Should I stay?". each question is addressed with ease as to relax the viewer into sticking around for the ride with Capaldi at the helm and i must admit it works brilliantly as the first episode. We even get a phone call from the past. Smith's 11th Doctor calls Clara from the Battle for the town of Chrismas on Trenzalore, knowing hes calling her in the future, knowing shes struggling to trust a new Doctor, asking her to help him. Hes the same man underneath his old skin and needs Clara's help. He urges her to trust him, confide in him, and continue on with the adventures, even though Capaldi is a drastic change. I loved this relationship and story line and felt it was amazing. While the episode wasn't a "best of" as Smith's debut episode was, it was still highly entertaining and extremely well written.
Paternoster Gang
Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax, known as the Paternoster Gang, are a trio of recurring characters in Doctor Who, portrayed by Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart and Dan Starkey.
The three characters first appear in the sixth series episode "A Good Man Goes to War". Madame Vastra (a Silurian) and Jenny Flint (a human) are a married couple. Strax, a Sontaran, is serving as their butler/nurse. They are all originally recruited by the Eleventh Doctor to help him to save Amy Pond in series 7, but despite the success of the rescue, Strax apparently dies in the battle. He is, however, shown to be awakened by Vastra and Flint a couple of days later in the webisode "The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later" and then became their butler in the 19th century.
They appear in Deep Breath and I believe they serve as a little bit of a "familiar face" to ease us into the new Doctor. Drax seems to have replaced the witty comic relief usually set by the Doctor, seeing as Capaldi isn't yet known for any comic relief. While Vastra and Jenny serve as the voice of reason. Their inclusion helps veteran Whovians in the transition, while newbies may be scratching their head as to who they are. Either way they add a bit of comedy, excitement and mainly insight into the episode. while they could have been left out, I think Moffat chose top include them, like i said, to serve as a familiar face.
The TARDIS
"Hey everyone.... check out my brand new TARDIS". The TARDIS is back and its been remodeled (Inside). Why do we never see get remodeled? It always just remodels itself. Oh well. It does look great as usual. A slight change from the 11th Doctor's whip, the new TARDIS has a bit of retro and classic architecture to it. It feels very "Capaldi-y". while its not a huge change from the TARDIS redesign in 2012/2013, they did add some cool new things... like BOOKSHELVES. It seems to fit as Capaldi seems to be more of the "studious nature". it also seems to have a lot of new Dalek inspired architecture which is A OKAY with me. check out this video published by BBC on the new ride.