Doctor Who Reactions: "Deep Breath" (SPOILERS)

1)Barry Letts' ghost must smile at how much better the show does dinosaurs these days.

 

2)"You know that I speak dinosaur."

 

3)The dinosaur coughing up the TARDIS was amusing.

 

4)"Everyone - take five." 

 

5)"Well then - here we go again."  a callback to the Pertwee/T. Baker regeneration.

 

6)The new opening is OK.

 

7)The scene with the Doctor speaking for the dinosaur was touching.

 

8)I liked the snippiness between Clara and Vastra.

 

9)Capaldi's a bit wackier in  this than I thought he'd be, but then, you can't really judge a new Doctor by his first story.

 

10)Much as I enjoy Strax as a character, I'd like to see tehm do a story with the Sontarans as a serious threat, sometime.

 

11)"Conk-Singleton forgery case" - a Sherlock Holmes reference.

 

12)"By now, he's almost certainly had his throat cut out by the violent poor."  "The Violent Poor" would be a good band name.

 

13)"I've seen that face before."   A reference to Capaldi's previous appearance in the show.

 

14)"I've gone Scottish." Well, you've been Scottish before.

 

15)"What devilry is this, sir?" "I don't know, but I probably blame the English."

 

16)"Oh, the symbolism." A penis joke.

 

17)"Droids harvesting spare parts."  A callback to "The Girl in the Fireplace".

 

18)"Rubbish robots from the dawn of time."

 

19)"I do not expect to reach the Promised Land".  Foreshadowing?

 

20)"You've redecorated."  "Yes". "I don't like it."  And the memory of the  Bristol Boys lives on...

 

21)"Clara, I'm not your boyfriend."

 

22)I didn't expect the bit with Smith at the end.  I'm glad my previous selves aren't in a position to call me.

 

23)So, who's the woman at the end? Another personification of the TARDIS?

 

24)The Daleks again already?

 

Overall:  Not bad. It leaves me guardedly optimistic. Still not sure what Capaldi is going to be like, but I certainly think he's got potential.  Certainly has me eager to see where they go from here.

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  • I need to watch this again to catch all the lines I missed, but overall I'm like you -- guardedly optimistic, with the understanding that a first episode does not a Doctor make (for both in-story and "meta" reasons).

    The dinosaur did look great -- except that he was more than 20 times the size of a true T-Rex.  (Height of the Big Ben clock tower: 315 feet.  Height of a T-Rex: 15-20 feet.  Height of tallest dinosaur currently known (a sauropod recently discovered in Argentina): about 65 feet.)  I'm just going to chalk this super-sized dino up to some "aliens on Earth in the Cretaceous performing experiments on dinos" story that we didn't actually see (and that Twelve didn't touch down long enough to get involved in).

    I think the "I know this face" bit was more than just a wink at Capaldi's previous appearance.  The line about not knowing how he chooses his faces suggests an in-story subtext that's edging up toward one of those "but how do you explain Maxil" theories.  I think Moffat is intentionally suggesting there's a link between the Doctor's new face, his new mission or attitude, and some conscious or sub-conscious connection to that guy in Pompeii.  I like that -- but I hope the show doesn't "go there" and spell it out.  Just hint and move on.

    "Attack eyebrows" was fantastic!  I expected the line about the Scottish complaining about everything to get me an elbow in the ribs and an arched eyebrow (primed for attack?) from The Lovely and Talented.  Either she wasn't listening, or decided to be gracious.

    As for the After Show, as a long-time fan of Alton Brown I was suprised to discover that he's one of us.  Also, after a minute or two I realized that since I've actually met Alton Brown, I can now Kevin Bacon my way to a connection with every living actor to have played the Doctor.  So, you know, there's that.

  • We get it already! You two are married!

  • The new theme arrangement reminded me of the theme during the McCoy years. That's not a good thing.

  • You mean married folk don't remind each other of the fact 20 times a day?  Have I been doing it wrong all these years?

  • Moe Howard: "I'm a census taker. Are you married or happy?"

  • I thought it was OK.  I suppose the fact that it is starting over, means that Moffatt hasn't built up any layers of f*nw*nk and long storylines dedicated to telling us how awesome the main character of his show is.  So that's a plus.

    Capaldi is wonderful.  As a Celt, I'm glad to see the Doctor now taking on certain aspects of one.  Also, did anyone else notice that Clara's costume looks very Scottish for some reason?  White ruffly shirt, trim black top and tartan skirt?    Still, Moffatt is very ambivalent about his Scottishness.  I'd rather his approach was more post-colonial, rather than just colonial, with the little jabs at the Scottish stereotypes.  It's rather embarassing to see him repeatedly debasing his own background in order to curry favour with the dominant Imperial culture!  :-)

    Also, when people thought of Capaldi as the Doctor, they were thinking of the rather vigourous and lively fellow on "The Thick of It", whereas he is a little older here (that show debuted 10 years ago). He's more haggard and drawn than I was expecting.  Just showing his age.  I read that he's the same age as Hartnell when he began.  Our culture worships youth, so this is interesting.

    As for the story itself, I was expecting more for 75 mins of TV.  I didn't think the dumb clockwork robots were going to be the A plot, but they were.

  • You put me in mind of a DVD extra in which Sylvester McCoy gently chided David Tennant for not using his Scottish accent in the show. To be fair, I've no idea how much say Tennant had over that.
  • You also put me in mind of a review I read that said "Capaldi 1 - Writer 0".

    As for Capaldi being older, I've read that Moffat didn't want to go younger. It is nice to see a Doctor closer to my own age.

    I also feel that I'm not going to get all of Capaldi's dialogue until I see it with subtitles on the DVD.
  • If the Doctor got any younger, they'd have to put the show on Nickelodeon!

  • I liked more about it than I disliked. I’m going to give Capaldi’s Doctor (are we to refer to him as the 12th ot the 13th?) the benefit of the doubt in light of Bob’s assessment that “you can’t really judge a new Doctor by his first story.” Otherwise, I might have marked him down for apparently leaving Clara in the lurch as he did. I mean, really! He could have at least said “Remember to hold your breath” or something! Then again, the Doctor is an alien and does havea different set of values. And metatexually the title of the episode is “Deep Breath.”

    Regarding the reference to his face, I was going to make the same point Darin did but he beat me to it.

    I hope the woman at the end wasn’t another personification of the TARDIS. I that would be too obvious (in the sense that it’s the first think that comes to mind). I suspect it will be tied into the identity of whoever placed the add and gave Clara that help desk number, so… season finale?

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