Brief: Doctor Who: 'Deep Breath' (Series 8, Episode 1, 2014)

SERIES: Doctor Who
EPISODE: Deep Breath (Series 8, Episode 1)
REGULAR CAST: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara)
SCREENWRITER: Steven Moffat
DIRECTOR: Ben Wheatley
TX: 23/08/2014, 19:50, BBC1*

*also presented in cinemas

In Brief:
This is the second (albeit feature-length) "episode" of Doctor Who to be featured in the cinema (and the fourth Doctor Who theatrical presentation if you count the two 1960s Dalek movies adapted from their first two serials) and it's perhaps the best that Doctor Who has looked on the big screen since the trailer for 2007's Voyage Of The Damned (which accompanied the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass).

The production team have more-or-less delivered on the promise in slowing down** with this new Doctor Who that actually manages to feel new, rather than a continuation (some of last year's efforts may now seem dated in comparison).  There is still some phasing out to do (Murray Gold has, with some exceptions, managed to calm down in his scoring), such as some choice slapstick (a scene in which Sontaran butler Strax performs an examination of Clara that, unless it hints at something yet to come later on in the series, should have been left on the cutting room floor.  One pretty good gag though, is based around the revealing of a map.  They have also touched on previous more possibly romantic tensions between the Doctor and Clara, such as with the new, much older looking man declaring "I'm not your boyfriend."

**although in this case, that may have been due to the extended running time and it will be interesting to see how the pacing goes in the remaining 45 minute installments.

A sequel-ish to 2006's The Girl In The Fireplace and featuring cyborgs with human faces (whom may reminded old-schooled fans of 1976's The Android Invasion) that harvest human body parts (perhaps not an intentional callback to the Aunt and Uncle in Neil Gaiman's The Doctor's Wife), this is perhaps the grimmest episode since, say The Unquiet Dead (also a Victorian-set episode) and the climax isn't too far off from Mark Gatiss' The Crimson Horror meeting Russell T Davies' The Next Doctor, with a hot air balloon made from human skin launching out of a Victorian restaurant.  It is also a debut episode for a Doctor that doesn't dwell too much on post-regeneration trauma - Capaldi's Doctor has a fuzzy memory rather than outright amnesia, for instance).  There are hints laid out for the series ahead (the apparent existence of 'Heaven' in the Whoniverse, one where cyborgs go when they die, even if by 'suicide') and mysteries brought up that reference (or at least hint at) previous episodes - who was the woman in the shop that gave Clara the Doctor's number last year in The Bells Of St. John? Why does the Doctor now look like Capaldi's Roman character from the David Tennant story The Fires Of Pompeii?  And will the answer also explain by the Sixth Doctor looked like the Time Lord security commander Maxil (c.f. The Arc Of Infinity, 1983).

This is, as far as I can tell, the first debut episode in which the new Doctor's features knowingly become a plot point.  With perhaps the exception of Troughton, each 'new' Doctor's face didn't seem noticeably aged (due in part to the actors they cast).  Jon Pertwee's case is understandable as his face was perhaps selected for him by the Time Lords (his response was, after all, "Oh no! That's not me at all!").  It is interesting to note that the latest regeneration was technically bestowed upon the 'last' Doctor (Matt Smith, who makes a lovely cameo in what will most likely be his last appearance in the series for at least another nine years) by the Time Lords and perhaps there is some vague literary connection.  Would it be too much to theorize that he is being punished for his absence in Torchwood's Children Of Earth (perhaps due to running from death after his actions in The Waters Of Mars) by taking on the face of Capaldi's character Frobisher (who, perhaps coincidentally, shares the same name as the comic strip companion, a shape-shifting penguin), who ends up killing himself and his family?

And in most cases, with a new Doctor, comes a new title sequence and theme arrangement.  The visuals in this intro were based off the work of a fan (must have been a Blue Peter competition I missed) and the latest theme tune is more stripped down than previous efforts by Murray Gold.  The oo-ee-oo (not, oo-ah-oo as in some arrangements) now has a more shrieking, alien-y sound to it.  The visual elements focus on the theme of travelling through time (a counterbalance to Sid Sutton's early-to-mid 1980's flights through space).  This is also the first series since 1989 to present the end credits in a "slideshow" format rather than by scrolling.

When I rewatch this one, I'd look to look more at Capaldi's performance, particularly towards the end.  His confrontation with the "half-face man" is quite Bond-like and him and Coleman seem to make an interesting odd couple (not in the same way that Tennant and Catherine Tate were).  His Doctor admits to not being the "hugging" type (the scene, by the way, calls back to Eccleston's first "date" with Rose in The End Of The World) and I like how awkward it seems at first.  There is something of Troughton about the area around his now-famous eyes and for the first time since Eccleston (or John Hurt if you want to be picky) here is a more grown up Doctor, and one that one can look up to at that, and isn't simply your "space pal".