Directed by Ben
Wheatley
Written by Steven Moffat
Written by Steven Moffat
Broadcast 23rd
August 2014
“We will reach the promise land.”
After
a 7 ½ month wait Doctor Who has returned and more importantly we are finally
treated to Peter Capaldi’s first episode as The Doctor. Deep Breath has materialized. Excitement fills the air worldwide, as thousands of fans are gathering
around to get their first glimpse of the new Doctor. So was I as I eagerly waited for August 23rd.
I was really anxious to see Peter Capaldi take center stage and to see his
first proper story Deep Breath and here is what I thought of the debut of Series
8 and the Capaldi era.
First
impressions are always important more so in Doctor Who when a new Doctor takes
over. More important than when a new
creative team is running the show as the lead actor is integral to the show’s
success. If the lead actor is not good
or favourable with the fans the show will struggle. Even if the scripts are magnificent a poor
Doctor will sink the ship. After
watching Deep Breath twice we do not have to worry about Peter Capaldi being a
bad Doctor. No we have nothing to worry
about here. While watching Deep Breath
it seemed to me as if Peter Capaldi was born to play The Doctor. You don’t get the feeling of an actor going
through the motions or acting as well as he can because it is his job. There
have been a few of those more recently. Christopher Eccleston.
Now you get an actor who seems passionate about being The Doctor and taking care with the way his Doctor is portrayed. But it’s only been one episode so far, so how can you tell just by watching his debut story? Well go back and watch Robot and the way Tom Baker approached the part in his debut story and you get the same feeling with Peter Capaldi that was there when Tom Baker took over in 1975. So far I am really enjoying what I have seen from Peter Capaldi and I am really excited to see more of his performances during Series 8 as I believe they will be superb.
Now you get an actor who seems passionate about being The Doctor and taking care with the way his Doctor is portrayed. But it’s only been one episode so far, so how can you tell just by watching his debut story? Well go back and watch Robot and the way Tom Baker approached the part in his debut story and you get the same feeling with Peter Capaldi that was there when Tom Baker took over in 1975. So far I am really enjoying what I have seen from Peter Capaldi and I am really excited to see more of his performances during Series 8 as I believe they will be superb.
With
a new Doctor comes changes. One of the
most noticeable ones is with the theme tune and opening credits. The opening credits were pretty spectacular
as it was a steam punk style with cogs from a clock floating around and then
you see the Roman numerals that adorn a clock face. Now this is quite the change as most
opening credits are the time vortex or space.
I really like them as they are different and they tried to do something
different rather than do the same old same old.
Now the theme music was more subdued and laid back. That will take some time to get used to as it
wasn't in the style of the 'in your face' type of theme. But on hearing it a couple times now it is
starting to grow on me. I give them
credit for going in a different direction with the theme and opening, as it does
spruce up the place a bit.
So
what about the story as a whole? Well in
my opinion it was kind of lacking in a story.
There were some fun moments and
some good serious moments but it just seemed like that, moments. Once we got past the whole Doctor in his post
regeneration wackiness and the T- Rex in the Thames the story did seem to get
interesting somewhat. To me Deep Breath
was mediocre and not very strong. The 11th
Hour was a far superior début story as it was clever and gave The Doctor
something to deduce and find a way to save the day. With Deep Breath it just seemed to be 'oh by
the way here are some robots go and stop them'.
It was good to see similar robots from 'The Girl In The Fireplace' and to
harken on that theme again. Trouble was
it was done a lot better in 'The Girl In The Fireplace.'
I do have to say the robots were freaky as you could see in the main robot’s head, the gears moving inside and the eye moving and seeing it connected to the robot part. If anything for a mediocre story Deep Breath did have some scary moments which is a good thing to get the kids behind the sofa.
I do have to say the robots were freaky as you could see in the main robot’s head, the gears moving inside and the eye moving and seeing it connected to the robot part. If anything for a mediocre story Deep Breath did have some scary moments which is a good thing to get the kids behind the sofa.
I
did like all the scenes inside the restaurant and below in the spaceship as
they were well done and Clara was handled really well as she stood up to the
robot and dared it to kill her. That was
a pretty good character builder as we get to learn more about Clara and what
type of a person she is. One that has
learned from her past mistakes and one that will not be pushed around any more. What did confuse me a bit about Clara is her
reaction to The Doctor’s regeneration.
In 'The Name of The Doctor' she goes through his time stream and saves his
life, meeting up with all the different versions of The Doctor. So why suddenly is she all confused about The
Doctor she is with now. If there was one companion who should know about the
different Doctor’s it would be Clara. If
anything her leeriness about the new Doctor did give us a pretty cool cameo by
the 11th Doctor calling Clara from Trenzalore before he regenerates
telling her to help the new guy and to trust
him. That was pretty cool and
something else they never did before.
Deep
Breath also gives us some insight into what to expect for the rest of the
series as there is a woman claiming to be The Doctor’s girlfriend. The mysterious Missy who is in a place she
calls Heaven that might just be the woman who gave Clara the phone number to call
The Doctor. A mystery has unfolded and
it will be fun to see how it works itself out as the series progresses. Deep Breath may not have been the greatest
story Steven Moffat has written and it is not the worst, but it is what it is - an
average story. It had some good moments
with The Doctor confronting the robots and some decent action sequences. It also gave us some comedy moments some of
which were overdone with Strax which have become predictable and not as funny
any more. With that aside Deep Breath is not my favorite
début story and it is by far not my least favorite. If anything we had a great
performance by Peter Capaldi that shed any fear that he might not be a great
Doctor.
Grade
C +
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