TV Time: Doctor Who Recaps: Series 8 Episode 1, Deep Breath (TVPG - BBCAmerica - 1 hr, 19 mins)

SPOILER ALERT


Alo Party Peoples.

Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Ben Wheatley

I realize that I need a better long term solution for slow release weeks than either taking stuff off of my DVD shelf or looking at premium on demand cable offerings (although that second one isn't bad), so I'd like to introduce the revival of something I had tried before. The new season of Doctor Who has just started, and for twelve weeks I will have something new to talk about regardless of what films have come out.

It is no secret that I wasn't impressed by the 50th anniversary episode Day of the Doctor, and I was in the minority there. I've already expressed my issues with it, so-so acting, excessive fanservice, too much focus on NuWho for what was supposed to be a celebration of the entire series, a climax and resolution that, in my opinion, undermined the title character's arc, and an odd lack of effort for something that the BBC was hyping up so much. If you want an actual celebration of fifty years of Doctor Who, I would recommend the docudrama about the franchise's beginnings that came out a day before the anniversary, An Adventure in Space and Time.

The subsequent Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor, was a fortunate improvement. It was a much better sendoff for Matt Smith's Doctor, and it had a sort of charm to it, even if it didn't quite fix the excessive fanservice problem of Day. In that episode, Smith's Doctor was granted a new set of extra lives by the Time Lords (more or less his old bosses) and subsequently became Scottish actor Peter Capaldi, who forgot how to fly his time machine to the horror of his passenger Clara.

We open, with a dinosaur tromping around Victorian London as Vastra, Jenny, and Strax (short version, the lesbian lizard woman from the age of dinosaurs, her human wife, and their alien butler, they're private investigators for some reason and writer/show-runner Steven Moffat loves shoehorning them into stories) watch. It coughs up the TARDIS (his time machine) and they head out to investigate. They come across a rambling Doctor and a horrified Clara. Twelve rambles at them for a while, faints, and then a not terrible but not especially good new intro sequence plays (that's the best version I could find). If I'm getting any vibe from this episode, it's that Twelve will be the Crazy Doctor, I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, Capaldi fills that role exceptionally well. On the other hand, this Doctor scares me, and Clara.

From left to right, Christopher Eccleston (41 at casting),
David Tennant (34 at casting),
 and Matt Smith. (28 at casting, youngest Doctor ever)
 Notice anything about them? Here's a hint.
Peter Capaldi, at 56, is the oldest Doctor ever.

Anyways, after Twelve is crazy some more, Vastra gets him to sleep via an out of place cartoon-ish sound effect and psychic lizard powers that she suddenly has, and starts talking with Clara about why her friend suddenly has a new face. (short version, when the Doctor gets close to dying, he can renew his body but he loses his old identity in the process) Vastra then reprimands Clara for supposedly judging this new Doctor because he looks old. I can't help but think the intent here was to reprimand fans that had done that when Peter Capaldi's casting was announced, which I can get behind - what with Christopher Eccleston being my favorite Doctor - but I have two problems with this. 1) Most of those fans have probably only ever seen either David Tennant and/or Matt Smith in the part, not unlike Clara, and 2) I don't blame those fans or Clara for prejudging Capaldi/Twelve when the first thing this Doctor ever said to them/her was going on about his new kidneys, and informing them/her that he forgot how to fly his his time machine.

Later that night, the Doctor bolts awake, draws a bunch of stuff on the floor, runs across the rooftops of London to find the dinosaur, starts promising said dinosaur that he will bring it home, and it then bursts into flames before his eyes. Clara and the Paternoster Gang (fan lingo, how I will refer to Jenny, Vastra, and Strax collectively from this point forward) head to the corpse of the dinosaur looking for the Doctor. They find him and he's crazy at them some more while pointing to a man across the river Thames, which he then leaps into and swims away. (This character really is as crazy as my description makes him out to be) This man then reveals himself to be a cyborg and steals a passerby's eyes in plain view of all. Yes, it's night when this happens, but that won't hide the screaming. Cut to commercial.

The next day, Twelve starts digging through trash in the streets, monologues to a homeless man about his new face and the nature of regeneration, and presumably steals his coat. It turns out he was looking for newsprint and finds an article on spontaneous combustion, which serves as our transition to Vastra and Jenny discussing that topic while Jenny poses gratuitously for a portrait in what can only be described as pandering fan-service. There isn't even a story reason for this since Vastra wasn't painting her, she was working on a collage of newsprint about spontaneous combustion and a map pointing to a restaurant. Clara then walks in with a newspaper where the words "Impossible Girl" (something the old Doctor used to call her for reasons too convoluted to get into here, short answer, time travel) are opposite an advertisement for that same restaurant. Cut to commercial.

Later, presumably that afternoon, Clara heads to this restaurant and finds Twelve waiting for her. Now she's certain that he used his time machine to leave those words in the paper for her to find. They have some well acted banter, Doc calls Clara a needy and says she has a massive ego (dear god, this Doctor is a real jerk) and they notice something about the other customers at the restaurant. None of them have been breathing, they seem to run on clockwork. Then, like clockwork, a waiter arrives as they were about to leave and starts listing various useful organs. (this was reminding me of a vastly better Series 2 episode, The Girl in the Fireplace, that will be important later) It turns out they are the menu, and their booth restrains them before dropping them down into the basement where they will presumably be eaten. (You know, for kids!) Cut to commercial.


When we return, the Doctor and Clara have arrived in a chamber that appears to be the lair of the cyborg from earlier. Twelve pulls out the magic wand sonic screwdriver, and frees them. Twelve claims he's seen stuff like this before, and they start talking about the cyborg. Twelve notices that his hands do not match, and this leads him to say that it must be a "reverse cyborg", i.e. a machine giving itself organic implants rather than the other way around. Props for creativity there. Then the clockwork men start moving and our heroes decide to start running. Unfortunately, the door drops and traps Clara inside. The Doctor tells her to take the deep breath of the title to hide herself from the gear people. Even though he has the sonic screwdriver with him, which is more or less a magic wand by now, and he runs off. (Seriously, Twelve is a real jerk)

We now follow Clara as she walks awkwardly through the derelict vessel while holding her breath. Occasionally, the camera switches into first person from her perspective, and for some reason red flashes start appearing on the sides of the screen. At first I thought this was a transmission error, then I thought it was probably an attempt to visually depict oxygen deprivation. Eventually, she has to breathe and the gear people recapture her. Making this scene, sort of pointless. Cut to commercial.

When we return, Clara is being questioned by the Reverse Cyborg about where Twelve is, and she asks why they killed the dinosaur. Despite it insisting that they will not answer questions, it eventually says they did it for a part of the beast's optic nerve. Which means they've been on Earth long enough for them to know that a dinosaur would contain something useful to them. Remember when I mentioned a Series 2 episode earlier, that's coming into play now. That episode, The Girl in the Fireplace, involved a derelict starship which had a rather extreme self repair system run by clockwork robots. In the words of Tennant's Doctor in that episode "nobody ever told it the crew were off limits", these gear people are from the same fleet.

This makes no sense. In Fireplace, there was a reason for them to dismantle the crew, the ship was in deep space and stuck at sub-light speeds with very little chance of rescue, that ship was in a desperate situation and that called for desperate measures. The ship in today's topic on the other hand, is on a planet in an area with the capacity for mass production of various things. There is no reason for them to immediately resort to dismantling humans. Then again, maybe after apparently being on Earth since the age of dinosaurs, they're used to dismantling living creatures by now, I don't know.

Anyways. It then mentions a "promised land" that they have been trying to repair their ship to reach. Then Twelve pulls off a face he stole from one of the gear people for a disguise (they didn't hear him breathing?), and calls Clara a control freak for no apparent reason. Then the Paternoster Gang drop into the room in an unintentionally comic fashion for a brawl, and then, (what is it with this climax's pacing?), the restaurant, rises into the sky via, a hot air balloon made from human skin. (You know, for kids!) I, don't know if that's brilliant in an insane way, or just uncharacteristically morbid.

We need to wrap this up, so I'm just going to skim over the resolution. Clara and the Paternoster Gang hold their breath for a long time, Twelve is crazy at the Reverse Cyborg and claims that he is looking for a promised land as well (short version, lost home planet), he uses the argument that it has replaced every part of itself by now and is thus dead, and convinces it to commit suicide by jumping down and impaling itself on the roof of a church. (Again, Twelve is a real jerk) Clara is understandably horrified by this Doctor, she gets a phone call from the old Doctor telling her that Twelve needs her, she takes this at face value, and flies away with a madman. The End.

Pictured, the Sixth Doctor about to strangle his companion

What can I say about this episode that I didn't already say. I could list some good points. For one, Peter Capaldi is fantastic as the new Doctor, he's written to be a real prick, but he embodies that meanness well. If I have to compare him to any of the previous Doctors, I would choose Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor. The one that was a complete jerk to his companion, possibly had severe bipolar disorder, strangled his companion in a fit of post regenerative rage, and came across as a madman with a magic box. (and all in his debut story) Don't mis-interpret me, Deep Breath not as bad an episode as The Twin Dilemma was, and Twelve gets physical with Clara, but he is verbally abusive to an extent.

That isn't meant as an insult to either one of them, but like Baker, Capaldi is a fanatastic actor that has to work with a bad script. One that has a glaring plot hole and where the new lead character comes off as a terrible person. I'm not left with good impressions for the season to come.


Have a nice day.

Greg.B