Doctor Who is back! Deep Breath - Review
Rated "S" for Spoilers....Read at your own Risk!
After eight months of waiting, the eight season starts now with a new face. Many people loved Matt Smith's Doctor and it was hard to say him good-bye but there was a high excitement of the new Doctor's casting. Peter Capaldi (a long time fan of the series and an Academy Awards winner) was announced last year, we saw him in "The Day of the Doctor" for a couple of seconds showing his fiery eyes.
After the events of "The Time of the Doctor", a dinosaur suddenly appears outside the Houses of Parliament. As they observe, the dinosaur spits out the TARDIS onto the banks of the Thames. They are surprised when the newly-regenerated Doctor emerges, closely followed by a confused Clara Oswald. The Doctor deliriously begins speaking to the dinosaur, and struggles to remember who the people around him are before collapsing.
Their friends take him and Clara back to their residence to help him recover. The Doctor awakens and hears the dinosaur's pleas for help and realises he was partially at fault for bringing the dinosaur to this present by operating the TARDIS after it had swallowed the time machine. After witnessing the dinosaur burst into flames, he heads down to the river followed closely by his companions. The Doctor, angry and seeking answers, discovers that this is not the first case of spontaneous combustion in London recently, and after spotting a seemingly unfazed man across the river, he jumps into the Thames to begin investigating.
The next morning, the Doctor is roaming the back streets for answers, and questions how his body chooses a new face when regenerating. He trades his gold watch for a homeless man's coat and finds something in a discarded newspaper. Back at Vastra's house, Clara reads the same newspaper and discovers a message, reading "The Impossible Girl", pointing her towards a
restaurant across London. Clara believes the Doctor left this for her, and heads there. The Doctor joins her shortly afterward, but reveals he didn't leave the message. Before they have time to contemplate who did, they realise that the restaurant is full of robots that prevent their escape. They become entrapped in their seats and are lowered into a lair, where they find the man they saw at the river sitting in a chair among several other idle human-like automatons. The Doctor frees them with the sonic screwdriver, and they investigate the man. The Doctor surmises the man is a long-lived cyborg, but in the unusual sense that it is a robot trying to make itself human by replacing its parts with biological ones taken from the victims of spontaneous combustion, including the dinosaur. The cyborg insists it is trying to find "the promised land" and justifying its need to extend its life via parts replacement.
The cyborg and other robots begin to wake up. The Doctor manages to escape and appears to leave Clara to die. Clara recalls the Doctor's earlier advice about holding her breath to hide her humanity from the robots, but she soon is captured and taken to the cyborg. He questions her on the Doctor's whereabouts, only for the Doctor to reappear, having disguised himself as one of the humanoid robots. The Paternoster Gang arrive soon after, and join in alongside Clara to fight off the robots while the Doctor chases down the cyborg back to the restaurant. The cyborg releases a hot-air balloon made of human skin, lifting the restaurant into the London sky with it and the Doctor inside.
The Doctor interrogates the cyborg, who reveals it and parts of the restaurant are from the SS Marie Antoinette, the sister ship to the SS Madame de Pompadour ("The Girl in the Fireplace"). The Doctor, still recovering from his regeneration, does not recall this earlier adventure, but recognises that the cyborg has made itself more human than machine with its goal to find the promised land. The Doctor warns the cyborg that it will either have to kill itself, or he will kill it to protect the humans in London below. Moments later, the cyborg has fallen from the balloon and is impaled on the spire of Big Ben.
After regrouping, Clara finds the Doctor and the TARDIS have vanished. Vastra assures her that the Doctor will return, pointing out that Clara as the person that knows the Doctor the best is already prepared to leave. The Doctor and the TARDIS soon reappear, and prepares to take Clara home after she tells him that she does not know who he is any longer. The TARDIS lands in contemporary Glasgow, when Clara's mobile phone goes off. She takes the call outside and finds it is the Eleventh Doctor, calling her during his last moments before regenerating while on the planet Trenzalore. He tells her that the new Doctor needs her more than ever, and she agrees to help him adjust to his new body. The Twelfth Doctor, remembering the conversation, asks her whether she will help him, and she agrees to go with him for coffee.
This first episode was so highly anticipated that it has been released in cinemas all over the world, the new Doctor is great but the plot of this first chapter may be a little weak...
The plot about the robots is simple but we don't care about them and their plan while watching the episode, we care about the twelfth (or thirteen) Doctor. He looks older and different but you can clearly see some of the things that makes him the same man we know.
He's delirious, darker, more mysterious than ever and, for the first time, very unpredictable. I said to myself "What the heck?" when I watched she scene when he leaves Clara all alone and for her death, really unexpected and you clearly don't know what to think about what he's going to do next. That's something this show needed. Looks like this series is going to have less action scenes and longer dialogues, something that made me remember to the David Tennant Era.
The thing I liked most was Peter Capaldi's performance, it couldn't have been better, I really can't wait to see the rest of the series and what's in store for this amazing actor. Something else I liked were the so many references about things that happened him in past episodes (and regenerations) like remembering his face from Fires of Pompeii, the easter egg about "The Girl in the Fireplace" or the comment about "missing Amy".
The rest of the cast does a great job as always, Jenna Coleman returns as his companion Clara and she cannot be more lost than ever, she doesn't know or trust the Doctor as she used to be and still thinks that new face is not the Doctor she "loved"...that's something new about this series, it seems like the flirting between the companion and the Doctos has ended, at last!
· The Best: Peter Capaldi's amazing performance as the new Doctor - The big changes - The mysterious girl with an umbrella - Jenna Coleman's performance - The entertaining dialogue and many catchfrases from the new Doctor - The Dinosaur!
· The Worst: The plot is not interesting at all but it's a nice start for the new Doctor!
I'm not going to review every episode like this, I will do it like in the past season, a final review with all episodes...so we'll have to wait until November....
After eight months of waiting, the eight season starts now with a new face. Many people loved Matt Smith's Doctor and it was hard to say him good-bye but there was a high excitement of the new Doctor's casting. Peter Capaldi (a long time fan of the series and an Academy Awards winner) was announced last year, we saw him in "The Day of the Doctor" for a couple of seconds showing his fiery eyes.
After the events of "The Time of the Doctor", a dinosaur suddenly appears outside the Houses of Parliament. As they observe, the dinosaur spits out the TARDIS onto the banks of the Thames. They are surprised when the newly-regenerated Doctor emerges, closely followed by a confused Clara Oswald. The Doctor deliriously begins speaking to the dinosaur, and struggles to remember who the people around him are before collapsing.
Their friends take him and Clara back to their residence to help him recover. The Doctor awakens and hears the dinosaur's pleas for help and realises he was partially at fault for bringing the dinosaur to this present by operating the TARDIS after it had swallowed the time machine. After witnessing the dinosaur burst into flames, he heads down to the river followed closely by his companions. The Doctor, angry and seeking answers, discovers that this is not the first case of spontaneous combustion in London recently, and after spotting a seemingly unfazed man across the river, he jumps into the Thames to begin investigating.
The next morning, the Doctor is roaming the back streets for answers, and questions how his body chooses a new face when regenerating. He trades his gold watch for a homeless man's coat and finds something in a discarded newspaper. Back at Vastra's house, Clara reads the same newspaper and discovers a message, reading "The Impossible Girl", pointing her towards a
 |
| Tennant has been my favourite Doctor, that may change this season... |
The cyborg and other robots begin to wake up. The Doctor manages to escape and appears to leave Clara to die. Clara recalls the Doctor's earlier advice about holding her breath to hide her humanity from the robots, but she soon is captured and taken to the cyborg. He questions her on the Doctor's whereabouts, only for the Doctor to reappear, having disguised himself as one of the humanoid robots. The Paternoster Gang arrive soon after, and join in alongside Clara to fight off the robots while the Doctor chases down the cyborg back to the restaurant. The cyborg releases a hot-air balloon made of human skin, lifting the restaurant into the London sky with it and the Doctor inside.
The Doctor interrogates the cyborg, who reveals it and parts of the restaurant are from the SS Marie Antoinette, the sister ship to the SS Madame de Pompadour ("The Girl in the Fireplace"). The Doctor, still recovering from his regeneration, does not recall this earlier adventure, but recognises that the cyborg has made itself more human than machine with its goal to find the promised land. The Doctor warns the cyborg that it will either have to kill itself, or he will kill it to protect the humans in London below. Moments later, the cyborg has fallen from the balloon and is impaled on the spire of Big Ben.
After regrouping, Clara finds the Doctor and the TARDIS have vanished. Vastra assures her that the Doctor will return, pointing out that Clara as the person that knows the Doctor the best is already prepared to leave. The Doctor and the TARDIS soon reappear, and prepares to take Clara home after she tells him that she does not know who he is any longer. The TARDIS lands in contemporary Glasgow, when Clara's mobile phone goes off. She takes the call outside and finds it is the Eleventh Doctor, calling her during his last moments before regenerating while on the planet Trenzalore. He tells her that the new Doctor needs her more than ever, and she agrees to help him adjust to his new body. The Twelfth Doctor, remembering the conversation, asks her whether she will help him, and she agrees to go with him for coffee.
This first episode was so highly anticipated that it has been released in cinemas all over the world, the new Doctor is great but the plot of this first chapter may be a little weak...
The plot about the robots is simple but we don't care about them and their plan while watching the episode, we care about the twelfth (or thirteen) Doctor. He looks older and different but you can clearly see some of the things that makes him the same man we know.
He's delirious, darker, more mysterious than ever and, for the first time, very unpredictable. I said to myself "What the heck?" when I watched she scene when he leaves Clara all alone and for her death, really unexpected and you clearly don't know what to think about what he's going to do next. That's something this show needed. Looks like this series is going to have less action scenes and longer dialogues, something that made me remember to the David Tennant Era.
The thing I liked most was Peter Capaldi's performance, it couldn't have been better, I really can't wait to see the rest of the series and what's in store for this amazing actor. Something else I liked were the so many references about things that happened him in past episodes (and regenerations) like remembering his face from Fires of Pompeii, the easter egg about "The Girl in the Fireplace" or the comment about "missing Amy".
The rest of the cast does a great job as always, Jenna Coleman returns as his companion Clara and she cannot be more lost than ever, she doesn't know or trust the Doctor as she used to be and still thinks that new face is not the Doctor she "loved"...that's something new about this series, it seems like the flirting between the companion and the Doctos has ended, at last!
· The Best: Peter Capaldi's amazing performance as the new Doctor - The big changes - The mysterious girl with an umbrella - Jenna Coleman's performance - The entertaining dialogue and many catchfrases from the new Doctor - The Dinosaur!
· The Worst: The plot is not interesting at all but it's a nice start for the new Doctor!
8.6
"Peter Capaldi's new Doctor is a fresh new start for this series, smarter and unpredictable are the keys that will keep me waiting for the next episode, he may end becoming my favourite Doctor!"