One more, into the breach: there’s a new Doctor out there and everything’s gone topsy turvy! There’s a dinosaur in the middle of the Thames! What? There’s a weird robot person walking around London accepting gifts in the form of body parts he forcefully takes from people! What?? Madame Vastra and the gang are back! Ok, well that’s quite normal.
As the latest Doctor regeneration kicks off, we’re thrown into the story in media res. The Doctor, rather batty and not all there, struggles to reclaim his identity in a new body while a killer is on the loose in the heart of London. We are acclimated once again with Moffat’s greatest side characters Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax (who really at this point deserve their own show), and once again Clara the Impossible Girl is placed in the center of it all with a new heart and a new mission statement pushing her in path with the Doctor. Or so we have to assume, anyway.
As it goes, “Deep Breath” is a bit of an odd episode. After the stunning finale that killed off Matt Smith as the Doctor, the main thesis of this episode seems to be revolved around the idea of mourning and loss, of being unable how to move on and how to process grief. While we’ve seen a few regenerations in this current run of the show (let alone overall), Clara is not accustomed to the change thrust upon her, and unlike Rose she doesn’t seem to be coping with it very well. So much of the episode plays around this new and uneven relationship between the Doctor and Clara, that by the end even with the fair amount of closure we’re given things still seem slightly off — like pieces in a puzzle are being put against together in an uneven fashion, forced to fit where they aren’t supposed to.
Granted, this is obviously the point. When Moffat relaunched the show after Davies left it was obviously skewed towards a different generation of Who watchers, something that would essentially skew younger. With Capaldi taking the reigns over and everyone making mention of how old the Doctor is throughout this episode, the general message being delivered is that we’re going to dial it back and do something more akin to the older days of Doctor Who — which is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also like driving 80 mph on a highway and then deciding out of the blue, hey, maybe let’s go 20 mph?
Of course, that Ben Wheatley directed it is a bit of a shock. The episode features some of the tension and terror that he has managed to infuse into his more recent films, and as always the show does manage to straddle that line between sci-fi and horror very well. But outside of that, none of Wheatley is otherwise present in the episode; you could’ve ostensibly slapped any name on the credits and it probably wouldn’t have been entirely noticeable, especially with a budget so low that it relies on green screen and bad CGI for the first half of the episode (if anyone could’ve brought some nice grim realism to the episode, it’s Wheatley — what happened there?).
This isn’t to say that Wheatley didn’t do a good job, as first episodes of this ilk are often very difficult and I think he made the new ideals of the show just affable enough — but in terms of Wheatley’s general body of work, it doesn’t live up to to much of the hype that comes along with putting the guy behind Sightseers and Kill List on your program. That probably has more to do with Moffat than Wheatley, though.
And speaking of, Moffat’s writing on the episode is fairly decent. I’d say that it was par for course but that’s probably putting it lightly. When Moffat took over for Davies and the reign of Eleven began, there came with it a remarkable change in tone from what Davies had done; Moffat put such a massive emphasis on being clever and hip and fun and fast paced that the character work that really made Davies’ run on the show so noticeable was quickly thrown out the window. But with “Deep Breath,” it’s actually clear that Moffat is trying to push himself; the oh-so-clever nods and easter eggs are all there (Vastra’s “the game is on” being the most obvious one), but the general tone and the way that Twelve is written does represent a clear intent for something different.
Continued belowHopefully that pans out. The first episode as it is was not something to really get too excited over. It was a decent episode, though it lacked some of the intensity or even downright severity that we saw in “New Earth” or “The Eleventh Hour.” You’d think that the opportunity to really solidify Twelve and Capaldi’s new reign would be taken advantage of, but this episode seems more like a regular episode of the show rather than one to make big, definitive statements about the character. Some of it is thrown in at the end, and there’s certainly a tease for an over-arcing series, but the villain of the week is a bit run of the mill to be too noteworthy. Moffat has a way of turning things around, and we may get there eventually, but as of right now the first episode just … happens, for better or worse.
(Though, I will note: I am absolutely serious that Moffat needs to spin-off Vastra, Jenny and Strax into their own show already. If anything in this episode felt normal — inherently as a transition between the past and present — it’s this trio.)
Now for the main course: after one outing I’m not really sold on Capaldi as the Doctor, personally. I think Capaldi is a fantastic actor and, if the mission statement of this new series is the Doctor crossing out the red in his ledger with Clara? I’m all in. It’s a great premise. But around the edges of Twelve there is something dark lurking, something uncomfortable that lives in the shadows and is waiting to strike. (That he’s “not a hugger” perhaps seems the most telling moment, honestly; being uncomfortable with affection when the Doctor cares for all seems the most uncharacteristic moment of all.) Perhaps I’m too used to the idea that the Doctor is a healer, a sort of proto-Superman character who does his best to help everyone. Sure he’s old, and sure he’s seen a lot, but one of the things that makes the Doctor a great idea is that he’s the greatest ideal; he had one bad outing that was write out of the history books until we learned about the War Doctor but now he does everything to move past that.
Yet with one episode, we’re left questioning that. Twelve seems intent on always asking questions, and throughout the episode he consistently tells the characters they’re asking the wrong questions. With that in mind, there’s a pivotal moment of the episode where the Doctor performs an action off-screen and we’re left to wonder: what happened? What did he do? In that moment there’s plenty of reason to now doubt that the Doctor regenerated as the hero we’re supposed to believe in, and that Clara herself seems put-off by the Doctor throughout the episode up through the end seems rather telling. So who is the new Doctor? And why should we believe in him?
Capaldi is a great and talented actor that has proven himself time and time again on other programs, so I have no doubt that what he will do in his run as the Doctor will be interesting. But, after one episode it’s not entirely easy to discern everything about the new Doctor, which seems problematic given what history has taught us. So I’ll say this: when the other Doctors debuted, they left an instant impression and mission statement, and that’s the biggest thing lacking about the latest regeneration. We’ll see how time plays on that.
Jenna Coleman’s reprise of Clara is a very welcome bit, though. Clara seems to have been affected by the shift more than anyone, but that Coleman offers some balance between how Clara used to be (lots of excitement and optimism) to who she is now (the veteran, cautious and a bit frightened) is done impeccably well. To say that the episode leans on Clara for the most part is an understatement, as it’s through her eyes more than usual that we see the events play out. The Doctor’s companions have a unique position within this show that is unlike most other programs, and Coleman has eased into this role very well. While there are very few elements of the naive Impossible Girl present here, Clara and Coleman both show that their time adventuring with the Doctor on this show has been a huge learning experience, both in terms of what the character is now capable of doing and what Coleman brings to the role herself. If anyone can truly help the Twelfth Doctor, it’s going to be Clara — and I can only hope that Coleman brings out the best in Capaldi in the same way that Gillan brought out the best in Smith. It’s a brave new world for both.
Continued below
Most of this sounds like I’m a downer on the show, and that’s not the intent. As someone who has been a big fan of the changes that came along with both reboots of Doctor Who, I’m honestly happy to go along for the ride. Part of this may come from a transitional shock, in the same way that seeing “The Eleventh Hour” was not in sync at all with the show mantra present before. Saying that this new direction is good or bad already seems kind of pointless, as this kind of show always plays the long game, and has for eight seasons now. But that this episode didn’t really wow in any way does seem curious, as you’d think that Moffat would really want the show to pull out all the stops when introducing the new Doctor.
Which is my way of saying: your mileage will probably vary. But as someone who has watched Doctor Who for far too long at this point, this is perhaps the first time where I wasn’t instantly head over heels for the new man in the box — and honestly, even after writing this review, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Here’s hoping the next eleven episodes will help clarify things a bit more.
